CURIOUS MYTHS OF THE
MIDDLE AGES
CURIOUS MYTHS OF
THE MIDDLE AGES
i '^P BY
S. BARING-GOULD, MA.
AUTHOR OF "ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF," ETC.
RIVINGTONS
WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON
fm-tJ, antf
1877
[New Edition.']
65
Contents
PAGE
I. THE WANDERING JEW I
II. PRESTER JOHN 32
III. THE DIVINING ROD 55
IV. THE SEVEN SLEEPERS OF EPHESUS . . 93
V. WILLIAM TELL 113
VI. THE DOG GELLERT 134
VII. TAILED MEN 145
VIII. ANTICHRIST AND POPE JOAN . . . . l6l
t IX. THE MAN IN THE MOON . . . . IpO
X. THE MOUNTAIN OF VENUS . . . .209
XI. S. PATRICK'S PURGATORY . . . .230
XII. THE TERRESTRIALJPARADISE . . . . 250 /
XIII. S. GEORGE . 266
XIV. S. URSULA AND THE ELEVEN THOUSAND VIRGINS 317
XV. THE LEGEND OF THE CROSS . . . -341
XVI. SCHAMIR 386
XVII. THE PIPER OF HAMELN 417
XVIII. BISHOP HATTO 447
Contents.
XIX. MELUSINA . .
XX. THE FORTUNATE ISLES .
XXI. SWAN-MAIDENS
XXII. THE KNIGHT OF THE SWAN .
XXIII. THE SANGREAL
XXIV. THEOPHILUS
APPENDIX A. THE WANDERING JEW
E. MOUNTAIN OF VENUS
C. PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSSES
D. SHIPPING THE DEAD
E. FATALITY OF NUMBERS
MEDIEVAL MYTHS
\\ 7 HO that has looked on Gustave Dore's
* * marvellous illustrations to this wild legend,
can forget the impression they made upon his
imagination ?
I do not refer to the first illustration as striking,
where the Jewish shoemaker is refusing to suffer the
cross-laden Saviour to rest a moment on his door-
step, and is receiving with scornful lip the judg-
ment to wander restless till the Second Coming of
that same Redeemer. But I refer rather to the
second, which represents the Jew, after the lapse of
ages, bowed beneath the burden of the curse, worn
with unrelieved toil, wearied with ceaseless travel-
ling, trudging onward at the last lights of evening,
when a rayless night of unabating rain is creeping
B
te Wandering Jew
on, along a sloppy path between dripping bush<
and suddenly he comes over against a way-sid<
crucifix, on which the white glare of departing day-
light falls, to throw it into ghastly relief against the
pitch-black rain clouds. For a moment we see the
working of the miserable shoemaker's mind. We
feel that he is recalling the tragedy of the first
Good Friday, and his head hangs heavier on his
breast, as he recalls the part he had taken in that
awful catastrophe.
Or, is that other illustration more remarkable,
where the wanderer is amongst the Alps, at tl
brink of a hideous chasm ; and seeing in the coi
torted pine-branches the ever-haunting scene
the Via dolorosa, he is lured to cast himself into
that black gulf in quest of rest,- when an angel
flashes out of the gloom with the sword of flame
turning every way, keeping him back from what
would be to him a Paradise indeed, the repose
Death ?
Or that last scene, when the trumpet sounds
and earth is shivering to its foundations, the fire
is bubbling forth through the rents in its surface,
and the dead are coming together flesh to flesh,
and bone to bone, and muscle to muscle then
the weary man sits down and casts off his shoes !
The Wandering Jeiv '6
Strange sights are around him, he sees them not ;
strange sounds assail his ears, he hears but one
the trumpet-note which gives the signal for him to
stay his wanderings and rest his weary feet.
It is possible to linger over those noble woodcuts,
and learn from them something new each time that
we study them ; they are picture-poems full of
latent depths of thought. And now let us to the
history of this most thrilling of all Mediaeval
myths.
The words of the Gospel contain the germs out
of which the story has developed. " Verily I say
unto you, There be some standing here, which shall
not taste of death till they see the Son of Man
coming in His kingdom V' are our Lord's words,
which I can hardly think apply to the destruction
of Jerusalem, as commentators explain it to escape
the difficulty. That some should live to see Jeru-
salem destroyed was not very surprising, and
hardly needed the emphatic Verily which Christ
only used when speaking something of peculiarly
solemn or mysterious import.
Besides, S. Luke's account manifestly refers the
coming in the kingdom to the Judgment, for the
1 Matt. xvi. 28. Mark i;:. i.
4 The Wandering Jew
saying stands as follows : " Whosoever shall
ashamed of Me, and of My words, of him shall tl
Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come ii
His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy
angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be som<
standing here, which shall not taste of death till
they see the kingdom of God V
There can, I think, be no doubt in the mind of
an unprejudiced person, that the words of our Lord
do imply that some one or more of those then
living should not die till He came again. I do not
mean to insist 'on the literal signification, but I
plead that it is compatible with our Lord's power
to have fulfilled His words to the letter. That the
circumstance is unrecorded in the Gospels is no
evidence that it did not take place, for we are
expressly told, " Many other signs truly did Jesus
in the presence of His disciples, which are not
written in this book 3 ;" and again, "There are also
many other things which Jesus did, the which, if
they should be written every one, I suppose that
even the world itself could not contain the books
that should be written V
We may remember also that mysterious wit-
Luke ix. 26, 2-*.
John xx. 30. 4 John xxi. 25.
Tke Wandering Jew 5
nesses are to appear in the last eventful days of
the world's history, and bear testimony to the
Gospel truth before the antichristian world. One
of these has been often conjectured to be S. John
the Evangelist, of whom Christ said to Peter, " If I
will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? "
and the other has been variously conjectured to be
Elias, or Enoch, or our Jew.
The historical evidence on which the tale rests
is, however, too slender, for us to admit for it more
than the barest claim to be more than myth. The
names and the circumstances connected with the
Jew and his doom vary in every account, and the
only point upon which all coincide is that such an
individual exists in an undying condition, wander-
ing over the face of the earth, seeking rest and
finding none.
The earliest extant mention of the Wandering
Jew, is to be found in the book of the chronicles of
the Abbey of S. Albans, which was copied and
continued by Matthew Paris. He records that in
the year 1228, "a certain Archbishop of Armenia
Major came on a pilgrimage to England to see
the relics of the saints, and visit the sacred places
in the kingdom, as he had done in others ; he
also produced letters of recommendation from
6 The Wandering Jew
his Holiness the Pope, to the religious men and
prelates of the churches, in which they were en-
joined to receive and entertain him with due rever-
ence and honour. On his arrival, he went to S.
Albans, where he was received with all respect by
the abbot and monks; at this place, being fatigued
with his journey, he remained some days to rest
himself and his followers, and a conversation was
commenced between him and the inhabitants of
the convent, by means of their interpreters, during
which he made many inquiries concerning the
religion and religious observances of this country,
and related many strange things concerning Eastern
countries. In the course of conversation he was
asked whether he had ever seen or heard any
thing of Joseph, a man of whom there was much
talk in the world, who, when our Lord suffered,
was piesent and spoke to Him, and who is still
alive, in evidence of the Christian faith ; in reply
to which, a knight in his retinue, who was his
interpreter, replied, speaking in French, ' My lord
well knows that man, and a little before he took
his way to the western countries, the said Joseph
ate at the table of my lord the Archbishop in
Armenia, and he had often seen and held converse
with him.' He was then asked about what had
The Wandering Jew 7
passed between Christ and the same Joseph, to
which he replied, 'At the time of the suffering of
Jesus Christ, He was seized by the Jews, and led
into the hall of judgment before Pilate, the gover-
nor, that He might be judged by him on the
accusation of the Jews ; and Pilate, rinding no
cause for adjudging Him to death, said to them,
'Take Him and judge Him according to your
law;' the shouts of the Jews, however, increasing,
he, at their request, released unto them Barabbas,
and delivered Jesus to them to be crucified. When,
therefore, the Jews were dragging Jesus forth, and
had reached the door, Cartaphilus, a porter of the
hall, in Pilate's service, as Jesus was going out of
the door, impiously struck Him on the back with
his hand, and said in mockery, ' Go quicker, Jesus,
go quicker; why do you loiter?' and Jesus, looking
back on him with a severe countenance, said to
him, ' I am going, and you will wait till I return/
And according as our Lord said, this Cartaphilus
is still awaiting His return. At the time of our
Lord's suffering he was thirty years old, and when
he attains the age of a hundred years, he always
returns to the same age as he was when our Lord
suffered. After Christ's death, when the Catholic
faith gained ground, this Cartaphilus was baptized
8 The Wandering Jew
by Ananias (who also baptized the Apostle Paul),
and was called Joseph. He often dwells in both
divisions of Armenia, and other Eastern coun-
tries, passing his time amidst the bishops and
other prelates of the Church ; he is a man of holy
conversation, and religious ; a man of few words,
and circumspect in his behaviour ; for he does
not speak at all unless when questioned by the
bishops and religious men ; and then he tells of the
events of old times, and of the events which occurn
at the suffering and resurrection of our Lord, ai
of the witnesses of the resurrection, namely, th<
who rose with Christ, and went into the holy ci1
and appeared unto men. He also tells of the crec
of the Apostles, and of their separation
preaching. And all this he relates without smilii
or levity of conversation, as one who is well prac
tised in sorrow and the fear of God, always lookh
forward with fear to the coming of Jesus Chri<
lest at the Last Judgment he should find Him
anger whom, when on His way to death, he
provoked to just vengeance. Numbers came
him from different parts of the world, enjoying
society and conversation ; and to them, if they ai
men of authority, he explains all doubts on tl
matters on which he is questioned. He refuses
The Wandering Jew 9
gifts that are offered to him, being content with
slight food and clothing. He places his hope of
salvation on the fact that he sinned through igno-
rance, for the Lord when suffering prayed for His
enemies in these words, ' Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do.' "
Much about the same date Philip Mouskes,
afterwards Bishop of Tournay, wrote his rhymed
chronicle (i 242), which contains a similar account of
the Jew, derived from the same Armenian prelate :
" Adonques vint un arceveskes
De 93, mer, plains de bonnes teques
Par samblant, et fut d'Armenie,"
and this man having visited the shrine of "St.
Tumas de Kantorbire," and then having paid his
devotions at " Monsigour St. Jake," he went on to
Cologne to see the heads of the three kings. The
version told in the Netherlands much resembled
that related at S. Albans, only that the Jew,
seeing the people dragging Christ to His death,
exclaims :
" Atendes moi ! g'i vois,
S'iert mis le faus profete en crois."
Then
" Le vrais Uieux se regarda,
Et li a dit qu'e n'i tarda,
Icist ne t'atenderont pas,
Mais saces, tu m'atenderas."
10 The Wandering Jew
We hear no more of the Wandering Jew till the
sixteenth century, when we hear first of him in a
casual manner, as assisting a weaver, Kokot, at the
royal palace in Bohemia (1505), to find a treasure
which had been secreted by the great-grandfather
cf Kokot, sixty years before, at which time the Jew
was present. He then had the appearance of being
a man of seventy years 6 .
Curiously enough, we next hear of him in the
East, where he is confounded with the prophet
Elijah. Early in the century he appeared to
Fadhilah, under peculiar circumstances.
After the Arabs had captured the city of Elvan,
Fadhilah, at the head of three hundred horsemen,
pitched his tents, late in the evening, between two
mountains. Fadhilah having begun his evening
prayer with a loud voice, heard the words " Allah
akbar " (God is great) repeated distinctly, and each
word of his prayer was followed in a similar
manner. Fadhilah not believing this to be the
result of an echo, was much astonished, and cried
out, " O thou ! whether thou art of the angel ranks,
or whether thou art of some other order of spirits, it
is well, the power of God be with thee ; but if thou
* Gubitz, Gesellsch. 1845, No. 18
The Wandering Jew 11
art a man, then let mine eyes light upon thee,
that I may rejoice in thy presence and society."
Scarcely had he spoken these words, before an
aged man with bald head stood before him, hold-
ing a staff in his hand, and much resembling a
dervish in appearance. After having courteously
saluted him, Fadhilah asked the old man who he
was. Thereupon the stranger answered, "Bassi
Hadhret Issa, I am here by command of the Lord
Jesus, who has left me in this world, that I may
live therein until He comes a second time to earth.
I wait for this Lord who is the Fountain of
Happiness, and in obedience to His command I
dwell behind yon mountain." When Fadhilah
heard these words, he asked when the Lord Jesus
would appear, and the old man replied that His
appearing would be at the end of the world, at the
Last Judgment. But this only increased Fadhilah's
curiosity, so that he inquired the signs of the
approach of the end of all things, whereupon Zerib
Bar Elia gave him an account of general, social,
and moral dissolution, which would be the climax
of this world's history c .
In 1547 he was seen in Europe, if we are to
believe the following narration :
6 Herbelot, Bibl. Orient, iii. p. 607.
12 The Wandering Jew
" Paul von Eitzen, doctor of the Holy Scriptures,
and Bishop of Schleswig \ related as true for some
years past, that when he was young, having studied
at Wittemberg, he returned home to his parents in
Hamburg in the winter of the year 1547, and that
on the following Sunday, in church, he observed a
tall man with his hair hanging over his shoulders,
standing barefoot during the sermon, over against
the pulpit, listening with deepest attention to the
discourse, and, whenever the name of Jesus was
mentioned, bowing himself profoundly and humbly,
with sighs and beating of the breast. He had no
other clothing in the bitter cold of the winter,
except a pair of hose which were in tatters aboul
his feet, and a coat with a girdle which reached t(
his feet ; and his general appearance was that of
a man of fifty years. And many people, some of
high degree and title, have seen this same man in
England, France, Italy, Hungary, Persia, Spain,
Poland, Moscow, Lapland, Sweden, Denmark,
Scotland, and other places.
" Every one wondered over the man. Now after
7 Paul v. Eitzen was born Jan. 25th, 1522, at Hamburg ;
in 1562 he was appointed chief preacher for Schleswig, and
died Feb. 25th, 1598. (Greve, Memor. P. ab. Eitzen.
Hamb. 1744.)
The Wandering Jew 13
the sermon, the said Doctor inquired diligently
where the stranger was to be found, and when he
had sought him out, he inquired of him privately
whence he came, and how long that winter he had
been in the place. Thereupon he replied modestly,
that he was a Jew by birth, a native of Jerusalem,
by name Ahasverus, by trade a shoemaker ; he had
been present at the crucifixion of Christ, and had
lived ever since, travelling through various lands
and cities, the which he substantiated by accounts
he gave ; he related also the circumstances of
Christ's transference from Pilate to Herod, and the
final crucifixion, together with other details not
recorded in the Evangelists and historians ; he gave
accounts of the changes of government in many
countries, especially of the East, through several
centuries, and moreover he detailed the labours and
deaths of the holy Apostles of Christ most cir-
cumstantially.
" Now when Doctor Paul v. Eitzen heard this
with profound astonishment, on account of its
incredible novelty, he inquired further, in order
that he might obtain more accurate information.
Then the man answered, that he had lived in
Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion of Christ,
whom he had regarded as a deceiver of the people
14 The Wandering Jew
and a heretic ; he had seen Him with his own eyes,
and had done his best, along with others, to bring
this deceiver, as he regarded Him, to justice, and to
have Him put out of the way. When the sentence
had been pronounced by Pilate, Christ was about
to be dragged past his house ; then he ran home,
and called together his household to have a look at
Christ, and see what sort of a person He was.
" This having been done, he had his little child
on his arm, and was standing in his doorway t
have a sight of the Lord Jesus Christ.
" As, then, Christ was led by, bowed under the
weight of the heavy cross, He tried to rest a little,
and stood still a moment ; but the shoemaker, i
zeal and rage, and for the sake of obtaining credi
among the other Jews, drove the Lord Christ for-
ward, and told Him to hasten on His way. Jesus
obeying, looked at him, and said, ' I shall stand
and rest, but thou shalt go till the last day.' At
these words the man set down the child ; and
unable to remain where he was, he followed Christ,
and saw how cruelly He was crucified, how He
suffered, how He died. As soon as this had
taken place, it came upon him suddenly that he
could no more return to Jerusalem, nor see again
his wife and child, but must go forth into foreign
:
;
The Wandering Jew ] 5
lands, one after another, like a mournful pilgrim.
Now, when, years after, he returned to Jerusalem,
he found it ruined and utterly razed, so that not
one stone was left standing on another ; and he
could not recognize former localities.
" He believes that it is God's purpose in thus
driving him about in miserable life, and preserving
him undying, to present him before the Jews at the
end, as a living token, so that the godless and un-
believing may remember the death of Christ, and
be turned to repentance. For his part he would
well rejoice were God in heaven to release him from
this vale of tears. After this conversation, Doctor
Paul v. Eitzen, along with the rector of the school
of Hamburg, who was well read in history, and a
traveller, questioned him about events which had
taken place in the East since the death of Christ,
and he was able to give them much information on
many ancient matters; so that it was impossible not
to be convinced of the truth of his story, and to see
that what seems impossible with men is, after all,
possible with God.
" Since the Jew has had his life extended, he has
become silent and reserved, and only answers direct
questions. When invited to become any one's
guest, he eats little, and drinks in great moderation;
16 The Wandering Jew
then hurries on, never remaining long in one place.
When at Hamburg, Dantzig, and elsewhere money
has been offered him, he never took more than
two skillings (^d.), and at once distributed it to
the poor, as token that he needed no money, for
God would provide for him, as he rued the sins
he had committed in ignorance.
" During the period of his stay in Hamburg and
Dantzig he was never seen to laugh. In whatever
land he travelled he spoke its language, and when
he spoke Saxon, it was like a native Saxon. Many
people came from different places to Hamburg and
Dantzig in order to see and hear this man, and
were convinced that the providence of God was
exercised in this individual in a very remarkable
manner. He gladly listened to God's word, or
heard it spoken of always with great gravity and
compunction, and he ever reverenced with sighs the
pronunciation of the name of God, or of Jesus
Christ, and could not endure to hear curses, but
whenever he heard any one swear by God's death
or pains, he waxed indignant, and exclaimed, with
vehemence and with sighs, 'Wretched man and
miserable creature, thus to misuse the name of
thy Lord and God, and His bitter sufferings and
passion. Hadst thou seen, as I have, how heavy
Jhe Wandering Jew 17
and bitter were the pangs and wounds of thy Lord,
endured for thee and for me, thou wouldest rather
undergo great pain thyself than thus take His
sacred name in vain !'
" Such is the account given to me by Doctor Paul
von Eitzen, with many circumstantial proofs, and
corroborated by certain of my own old acquaint-
ances who saw this same individual with their own
eyes in Hamburg.
" In the year 1575, the Secretary Christopher
Krause, and Master Jacob von Holstein, legates to
the Court of Spain, and afterwards sent into the
Netherlands to pay the soldiers serving his Majesty
in that country, related on their return home to
Schleswig, and confirmed with solemn oaths, that
they had come across the same mysterious indi-
vidual at Madrid in Spain, in appearance, manner
of life, habits, clothing, just the same as he had
appeared in Hamburg. They said that they had
spoken with him, and that many people of all
classes had conversed with him, and found him to
speak good Spanish. In the year 1599, in Decem-
ber, a reliable person wrote from Brunswick to
Strasburg that the same mentioned strange person
had been seen alive at Vienna in Austria, and that
he had started for Poland and Dantzig; and that he
C
IS The Wandering Jew
purposed going on to Moscow. This Ahasve
was at Lubeck in 1601, also about the same date in
Revel in Livonia, and in Cracow in Poland. In
Moscow he was seen of many and spoken to
many.
"What thoughtful God-fearing persons are
think of the said person, is at their option. God's
works are wondrous and past finding out, and are
manifested day by day, only to be revealed in full
at the last great day of account.
"Dated, Revel, August ist, 1613.
" D. W.
"D.
" Chrysostomus Dudulceus,
"Westphalus."
in
;
ire
'
The statement that the Wandering Jew appeared
in Lubeck in 1601, does not tally with the more
precise chronicle of Henricus Bangert, which gives :
" Die 14 Januarii Anno MDCIIL, adnotatum reli-
quit Lubecae fuisse Judaeum ilium immortalem, qui
se Christi crucifixioni interfuisse affirmavit 8 ."
In 1604, he seems to have appeared in Paris.
Rudolph Botoreus says under this date : " I fear
8 Henr. Bangert, Comment, de Ortu, Vita, et Excessu
Coleri.
The Wandering Jew 19
lest I be accused of giving ear to old wives' fables,
if I insert in these pages what is reported all over
Europe of the Jew, coeval with the Saviour Christ ;
however, nothing is more common, and our popular
histories have not scrupled to assert it. Following
the lead of those who wrote our annals, I may say
that he who appeared not in one century only, in
Spain, Italy, and Germany, was also in this year
seen and recognized as the same individual who
had appeared in Hamburg, anno MDLXVI. The
common people, bold in spreading reports, relate
many things of him ; and this I allude to, lest any
thing should be left unsaid 9 ."
J. C. Bulenger puts the date of the Hamburg
visit earlier. " It was reported at this time that a
Jew of the time of Christ was wandering without
food and drink, having for a thousand and odd years
been a vagabond and outcast, condemned by God
to rove, because he, of that generation of vipers,
was the first to cry out for the crucifixion of Christ
and the release of Barabbas ; and also because
soon after, when Christ, panting under the burden
of the rood, sought to rest before his workshop (he
was a cobbler), the fellow ordered Him off with
* R. Botoreus, Comm. Histor. lii. p. 305.
c a
20
The Wandering Jew
acerbity. Thereupon Christ replied : ' Beca
thou grudgest Me such a moment of rest, I s
enter into My rest, but thou shalt wander restle
At once frantic and agitated he fled through t
whole earth, and on the same account to this da
he journeys through the world. It was this person
who was seen in Hamburg in MDLXIV. Credat
Judasus Apella ! / did not see him or hear any
thing authentic concerning him at that time wh
I was in Paris V
A curious little book 2 written against the quackery
of Paracelsus, by Leonard Doldius, a Niirnberg
physician, and translated into Latin and augmented
by Andreas Libavius, doctor and physician of
Rotenburg, alludes to the same story, and gives
the Jew a new name nowhere else met with.
After having referred to a report that Paracelsus
was not dead, but was seated alive, asleep or
napping, in his sepulchre at Strasburg, preserved
from death by some of his specifics, Libavius
declares that he would sooner believe in the old
man the Jew, Ahasverus, wandering over the world,
called by some Buttadaeus, and otherwise, again, by
others.
1 J. C. Bulenger, Historia sui Temporis, p. 357.
2 Praxis Alchymise. Francfurti, MDCIV. 8vo.
The Wandering Jew 21
He is said to have appeared in Naumburg, but
the date is not given ; he was noticed in church,
listening to the sermon. After the service he was
questioned, and he related his story. On this
occasion he received presents from the burghers 3 .
In 1633 he was again in Hamburg 4 . In the year
1640, two citizens, living in the Gerberstrasse, in
Brussels, were walking in the Sonian wood, when
they encountered an aged man, whose clothes were
in tatters and of an antiquated appearance. They
invited him to go with them to a house of refresh-
ment, and he went with them, but would not seat
himself, remaining on foot to drink. When he
came before the doors with the two burghers, he
told them a great deal, but they were mostly stories
of events which had happened many hundred years
before. Hence the burghers gathered that their
companion was Isaac Laquedem, the Jew who had
refused to permit our Blessed Lord to rest for a
moment at his doorstep, and they left him full of
terror. In 1642, he is reported to have visited
Leipzig. According to Peck's " History of Stam-
ford," Upon Whitsunday, in the year of our Lord
1658, "about six of the clock, just after evensong,"
3 Mitternacht, Diss. in Johann. xxi. 19.
4 Mitternacht, ut supra.
22 The Wandering Jew
one Samuel Wallis, of Stamford, who had been
long wasted with a lingering consumption, was
sitting by the fire, reading in that delectable bool
called "Abraham's Suit for Sodom." He heard
knock at the door ; and, as his nurse was absent,
he crawled to open it himself. What he saw there,
Samuel shall say in his own style : " I beheld
proper, tall, grave old man. Thus he said : ' Friem
I pray thee, give an old pilgrim a cup of sm;
beere !' And I said, ' Sir, I pray you, come in ai
welcome.' And he said, ' I am no Sir, therefoi
call me not Sir ; but come in I must, for I cann<
pass by thy doore.'
" After finishing the beer : ' Friend,' he saic
' thou art not well.' I said, ' No, truly Sir, I have
not been well this many yeares.' He said, 'What
is thy disease?' I said, 'A deep consumption,
Sir ; our doctors say, past cure : for, truly, I am a
very poor man, and not able to follow doctors'
councell.' ' Then,' said he, ' I will tell thee what
thou shalt do ; and, by the help and power of
Almighty God above, thou shalt be well. To-
morrow, when thou risest up, go into thy garden,
and get there two leaves of red sage, and one of
bloodworte, and put them into a cup of thy small
beere. Drink as often as need require, and when
The Wandering Jew 23
the cup is empty fill it again, and put in fresh
leaves every fourth day, and thou shalt see, through
our Lord's great goodness and mercy, before twelve
days shall be past, thy disease shall be cured and
thy body altered.'"
After this simple prescription, Wallis pressed
him to eat : " But he said, ' No, friend, I will not
eat ; the Lord Jesus is sufficient for me. Very
seldom doe I drinke any beere neither, but that
which comes from the rocke. ' So, friend, the Lord
God be with thee.'"
So saying, he departed, and was never more
heard -of; but the patient got well within the
given time, and for many a long day there was
war hot and fierce among the divines of Stamford,
as to whether the stranger was an angel or a devil.
His dress has been minutely described by honest
Sam. His coat was purple, and buttoned down
to the waist ; " his britches of the same couler, all
new to see to ; " his stockings were very white,
but whether linen or jersey, deponent knoweth
not ; his beard and head were white, and he had
a white stick in his hand. The day was rainy
from morning to night, "but he had not one spot
of dirt upon his cloathes."
Aubrey gives an almost exactly similar relation,
24 The Wandering Jew
the scene of which he places in the Staffordshii
Moorlands. He there appears in a "purple s]
gown," and prescribes balm-leaves 5 .
On the 22nd July, 1721, he appeared at the gate
of the city of Munich 6 . About the end of tl
seventeenth century, or the beginning of the
eighteenth, an impostor calling himself tl
Wandering Jew, attracted attention in England
and was listened to by the ignorant, and despise
by the educated. H<2 however managed to thru<
himself into the notice of the nobility, who, half ii
jest, half in curiosity, questioned him, and paid hii
as they might a juggler. He declared that he hac
been an officer of the Sanhedrim, and that he ha<
struck Christ as He left the judgment-hall of Pilat(
He remembered all the Apostles, and described
their personal appearance, their clothes, and their
peculiarities. He spoke many languages, claimed
the power of healing the sick, and asserted that he
had travelled nearly all over the world. Those who
heard him were perplexed by his familiarity with
foreign tongues and places. Oxford and Cambridge
sent professors to question him, and to discover the
5 Notes and Queries, vol. xii. No. 322.
fi Hormayr, Taschenbuch, 1834, p. 216.
The Wandering Jew 25
imposition, if any. An English nooleman con-
versed with him in Arabic. The mysterious
stranger told his questioner in that language that
historical works were not to be relied upon. And
on being asked his opinion of Mahomet, he replied
that he had been acquainted with the father of the
prophet, and that he dwelt at Ormuz. As for
Mahomet, he believed him to have been a man of
intelligence ; once when he -heard the prophet deny
that Christ was crucified, he answered abruptly by
telling him he was a witness to the truth of
that event. He related also that he was in
Rome when Nero set it on fire ; he had
known Saladin, Tamerlane, Bajazeth, Eterlane,
and could give minute details of the history of
the Crusades 7 .
Whether this Wandering Jew was found out in
London or not, we cannot tell, but he shortly after
appeared in Denmark, thence travelled into Sweden,
and vanished.
Some impostors assuming to be the mysterious
Jew, or lunatics actually believing themselves
to be him, appeared in England in 1818, 1824,
1830*.
7 Calmet, Dictionn. de la Bible, t. ii. p. 472.
3 Athenaeum, Nov. 3, 1866, p. 561.
26 The Wandering Jew
Such are the principal notices of the Wandering
Jew which have appeared. It will be seen at once
how wanting they are in all substantial evidence
which could make us regard the story in any other
light than myth.
But no myth is wholly without foundation, and
there must be some substantial verity upon which
this vast superstructure of legend has been raised.
What that is I am unable to discover.
It has been suggested by some that the Jew
Ahasverus is an impersonification of that race
which wanders, Cain-like, over the earth with the
brand of a brother's blood upon it, and one which
is not to pass away till all be fulfilled, not to be
reconciled to its angered God, till the times of the
Gentiles are accomplished. And yet, probable as
this supposition may seem at first sight, it is not
to be harmonized with some of the leading features
of the story. The shoemaker becomes a penitent,
and earnest Christian, whilst the Jewish nation has
still the veil upon its heart ; the wretched wanderer
eschews money, and the avarice of the Israelite is
proverbial.^
According to local legend, he is identified with
the Gipsies, or rather that strange people are sup-
posed to be living under a curse somewhat similar
The Wandering Jew 27
to that inflicted on Ahasverus, because they refused
shelter to the Virgin and Child on their flight into
Egypt 9 . Another tradition connects the Jew with
the wild huntsman, and there is a forest at Bretten
in Swabia, which he is said to haunt. Popular
superstition attributes to him there a purse con-
taining a groschen, which, as often as it is expended,
returns to the spender 1 .
In the Harz one form of the Wild Huntsman
myth is to this effect, that he was a Jew who had
refused to suffer our Blessed Lord to drink out of
a river, or out of a horse-trough, but had contemp-
tuously pointed out to Him the hoof-print of a
horse, in which a little water had collected, and
had bid Him quench His thirst thence 2 .
As the Wild Huntsman is the impersonification
of the storm, it is curious to find in parts of France
that the sudden roar of a gale at night is attributed
by the vulgar to the passing of the Everlasting
Jew.
A Swiss story is, that he was seen one day stand-
ing upon the Matterberg, which is below the
Matterhorn, contemplating the scene with mingled
9 Aventinus, Bayr. Chronik, viii.
1 Meier, Schwabischen Sagen, i. 116.
3 Kuhn u. Schwarz, Nordd. Sagen, p. 409.
28 The Wandering Jew
sorrow and wonder. Once before he stood on that
spot, and then it was the site of a flourishing city,
now it is covered with gentian and wild pinks.
Once again will he revisit the hill, and that will be
on the eve of Judgment.
Perhaps, of all the myths which originated in the
Middle Ages, none is more striking than that we
have been considering ; indeed there is something
so calculated to arrest the attention and to excite
the imagination in the outline of the story, that it
is remarkable that we should find an interval of
three centuries elapse between its first introduction
into Europe by Matthew Paris and Philip Mouskes,
and its general acceptance in the sixteenth century.
As a myth, its roots lie in that great mystery of
human life which is an enigma never solved, and
ever originating speculation.
What was life ? was it of necessity limited to
fourscore years, or could it be extended indefinitely?
were questions curious minds never wearied of
asking. And so the mythology of the past teemed
with legends of favoured or accursed mortals, who
had reached beyond the term of days set to most
men. Some had discovered the water of life, the
fountain of perpetual youth, and were ever renew-
ing their strength. Others had dared the power of
The Wandering Jew 29
God, and were therefore sentenced to feel the
weight of His displeasure, without tasting the
repose of death.
John the Divine slept at Ephesus, untouched by
corruption, with the ground heaving over his breast
as he breathed, waiting the summons to come forth
and witness against Antichrist. The seven sleepers
reposed in a cave, and centuries glided by like a
watch in the night. The monk of Hildesheim,
doubting how with God a thousand years could be
as yesterday, listened to the melody of a bird in
the green wood during three minutes, and found
that in three minutes three hundred years had
flown. Joseph of Arimathcea, in the blessed city
of Sarras, draws perpetual life from the Saint
Graal ; Merlin sleeps and sighs in an old tree, spell-
bound of Vivien. Charlemagne and Barbarossa wait,
crowned and armed, in the heart of the mountain,
till the time comes for the release of Fatherland
from despotism. And, on the other hand, the curse
of a deathless life has passed on the Wild Hunts-
man, because he desired to chase the red-deer for
evermore ; on the Captain of the Phantom Ship,
because he vowed he would double the Cape
whether God willed it or not ; on the Man in the
Moon, because he gathered sticks during the
!
80 The Wandering Jew
Sabbath rest ; on the dancers of Kolbeck, because
they desired to spend eternity in their mad gam-
bols.
I began this article intending to conclude it with
a bibliographical account of the tracts, letters,
essays, and books, written upon the Wandering
Jew ; but I relinquish my intention at the sight of
the multitude of works which have issued from the
press upon the subject; and this I do with less
compunction as the bibliographer may at little
trouble and expense satisfy himself, by perusing
the lists given by Grasse in his essay on the myth,
and those to be found in " Notice historique et
bibliographique sur les Juifs-errants : par G. B."
(Gustave Brunet), Paris, Techener, 1845 ; also in
the article by M. Mangin, in " Causeries et Medita-
tions historiques et litteraires," Paris, Duprat, 1843 ;
and, lastly, in the essay by Jacob le Bibliophile
(M. Lacroix) in his " Curiosites de 1'Histoire des
Croyances populaires," Paris, Delahays, 1859.
Of the romances of Eugene Sue and Dr. Croly,
founded upon the legend, the less said the better.
The original legend is so noble in its severe sim-
plicity, that none but a master mind could develope
it with any chance of success. Nor have the
poetical attempts upon the story fared better.
The Wandering Jew 31
It was reserved for the pencil of Gustave Dore to
treat it with the originality it merited, and in a
series of woodcuts to produce at once a poem, a
romance, and a chef-d'oeuvre of art.
Armo of the See of Chichester
ABOUT the middle of the twelfth century,
rumour circulated through Europe that there
reigned in Asia a powerful Christian Emperor, Pres-
byter Johannes. In a bloody fight he had broken
the power of the Mussulmans, and was ready to come
to the assistance of the Crusaders. Great was the
exultation in Europe, for of late the news from
the East had been gloomy and depressing, the
power of the infidel had increased, overwhelming
masses of men had been brought into the field
against the chivalry of Christendom, and it was felt
that the cross must yield before the odious crescent.
Prester John 33
The news of the success of the Priest-King
opened a door of hope to the desponding Christian
world. Pope Alexander III. determined at once
to effect a union with this mysterious personage,
and on the syth of September, 1177, wrote him a
letter, which he entrusted to his physician, Philip,
to deliver in person.
Philip started on his embassy, but never returned.
The conquests of Tschengis-Khan again attracted
the eyes of Christian Europe to the East. The
Mongol hordes were rushing in upon the West with
devastating ferocity ; Russia, Poland, Hungary, and
the Eastern provinces of Germany, had succumbed,
or suffered grievously ; and the fears of other
nations were roused lest they too should taste the
misery of a Mongolian invasion. It was Gog and
Magog come to slaughter, and the times of Anti-
christ were dawning. But the battle of Liegnitz
stayed them in their onward career, and Europe
was saved.
Pope Innocent IV. determined to convert these
wild hordes of barbarians, and subject them to the
cross of Christ ; he therefore sent among them a
number of Dominican and Franciscan missioners,
and embassies of peace passed between the Pope,
the King of France, and the Mogul Khan.
D
34 Prester John
The result of these communications with the
East was that the travellers learned how false were
the prevalent notions of a mighty Christian empire
existing in central Asia. Vulgar superstition or
conviction is not, however, to be upset by evidence,
and the locality of the monarchy was merely trans-
ferred by the people to Africa, and they fixed upon
Abyssinia, with a show of truth, as the seat of the
famous Priest-King. However, still some doubted.
John de Plano-Carpini and Marco Polo, though
they acknowledged the existence of a Christian
monarch in Abyssinia, yet stoutly maintained as
well that the Prester John of popular belief reigned
in splendour somewhere in the dim Orient.
But before proceeding with the history of this
strange fable, it will be well to extract the different
accounts given of the Priest-King and his realm by
early writers ; and we shall then be better able
to judge of the influence the myth obtained in
Europe.
Otto of Freisingen is the first author to mention
the monarchy of Prester John, with whom we are
acquainted. Otto wrote a chronicle up to the date
1156, and he relates that in 1145 the Catholic
Bishop of Cabala visited Europe to lay certain
complaints before the Pope. He mentioned the fall
Prester John 85
of Edessa, and also "he stated that a few years
ago a certain King and Priest called John, who
lives on the further side of Persia and Armenia in
the remote East, and who, with all his people, were
Christians, though belonging to the Nestorian
Church, had overcome the royal brothers Samiardi,
kings of the Medes and Persians, and had captured
Ecbatana, their capital and residence. The said
kings had met with their Persian, Median, and
Assyrian troops, and had fought for three consecu-
tive days, each side having determined to 'die
rather than take to flight. Prester John, for so
they are wont to call him, at length routed the
Persians, and after a bloody battle, remained
victorious. After which victory the said John was
hastening to the assistance of the Church at
Jerusalem, but his host, on reaching the Tigris,
was hindered from passing through a deficiency in
boats, and he directed his march North, since he
had heard that the river was there covered with ice.
In that place he had waited many years, expecting
severe cold, but the winters having proved unpro-
pitious, and the severity of the climate having
carried off many soldiers, he had been forced to
retreat to his own land. This king belongs to the
family of the Magi, mentioned in the Gospel, and
D 2
36 Prestcr John
he rules over the very people formerly governed by
the Magi ; moreover, his fame and his wealth is so
great, that he uses an emerald sceptre only.
"Excited by the example of his ancestors, who
came to worship Christ in His cradle, he had pro-
posed to go to Jerusalem, but had been impeded
by the above-mentioned causes V
At the same time the story crops up in otl
quarters, so that we cannot look upon Otto as tl
inventor of the myth. The celebrated Maimoni*
alludes to it in a passage quoted by Joshua Lori
a Jewish physician to Benedict XIII. Maimoni<
lived from 1135 to 1204. The passage is as follow
" It is evident both from the letters of Rambai
(Maimonides), whose memory be blessed, and from
the narration of merchants who have visited the
ends of the earth, that at this time the root of our
faith is to be found in the lands of Babel and
Teman, where long ago Jerusalem was an exile ;
not reckoning those who live in the land of Paras 2
and Madai 3 , of the exiles of Schomrom, the number
of which people is as the sand : of these some are
still under the yoke of Paras, who is called the
Great-Chief Sultan by the Arabs ; others live in a
1 Otto, Ep. Frising., lib. vii. c. 33.
9 Persia. 3 Media.
Pr ester Jo Jin 37
place under the yoke of a strange people
governed by a Christian chief, Preste-Cuan by
name. With him they have made a compact, and
he with them ; and this is a matter concerning
which there can be no manner of doubt."
Benjamin of Tudela, another Jew, travelled in
the East between the years 1159 1173, the last
being the date of his death. He wrote an account
of his travels, and gives in it some information
with regard to a mythical Jew king, who reigned
in the utmost splendour over a realm inhabited by
Jews alone, situate somewhere in the midst of a
desert of vast extent. About this period there
appeared a document which produced intense
excitement throughout Europe a letter, yes ! a
letter from the mysterious personage himself to
Manuel Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople
(1143 1 1 80). The exact date of this extra-
ordinary epistle cannot be fixed with any certainty,
but it certainly appeared before 1241, the date of
the conclusion of the chronicle of Albericus Trium
Fontium. This Albericus relates that in the year
1165 "Presbyter Joannes, the Indian king, sent
his wonderful letter to various Christian princes,
and especially to Manuel of Constantinople, and
Frederic the Roman Emperor." Similar letters were
38 P rester John
sent to Alexander III., to Louis VII. of France, and
to the King of Portugal, which are alluded to in
chronicles and romances, and which were indec
turned into rhyme and sung all over Europe
minstrels and trouveres. The letter is as follows :-
"John, Priest by the Almighty power of
and the Might of our Lord Jesus Christ, King
Kings, and Lord of Lords, to his friend Emanu<
Prince of Constantinople, greeting, wishing hii
health, prosperity, and the continuance of Divine
favour.
" Our Majesty has been informed that you hold
our Excellency in love, and that the report of our
greatness has reached you. Moreover we have
heard through our treasurer that you have been
pleased to send to us some objects of art and
interest, that our Exaltedness might be gratified
thereby.
" Being human, I receive it in good part, and we
have ordered our treasurer to send you some of our
articles in return.
"Now we desire to be made certain that you
hold the right faith, and in all things cleave to
Jesus Christ, our Lord, for we have heard that your
court regard you as a god, though we know that
you are mortal, and subject to human infirmities.
Prcster John 39
Should you desire to learn the greatness
and excellency of our Exaltedness and of the land
subject to our sceptre, then hear and believe : I,
Presbyter Johannes, the Lord of Lords, surpass all
under heaven in virtue, in riches, and in power ;
seventy-two kings pay us tribute, ... In the three
Indies our Magnificence rules, and our land extends
beyond India, where rests the body of the holy
Apostle Thomas ; it reaches towards the sunrise
over the wastes, and it trends towards deserted
Babylon near the tower of Babel. Seventy-two
provinces, of which only a few are Christian, serve us.
Each has its own king, but all are tributary to us.
" Our land is the home of elephants, dromedaries,
camels, crocodiles, meta-collinarum, cametennus,
tensevetes, wild asses, white and red lions, white
bears, white merles, crickets, griffins, tigers, lamias,
hyaenas, wild horses, wild oxen and wild men, men
with horns, one-eyed, men with eyes before and
behind, centaurs, fauns, satyrs, pygmies, forty-ell
high giants, Cyclopses, and similar women ; it is the
home, too, of the phcenix, and of nearly all living
animals. We have some people subject to us who
feed on the flesh of men and of prematurely born
animals, and who never fear death. When any of
these people die, their friends and relations eat him
40 P restcr John
ravenously, for they regard it as a main duty to
munch human flesh. Their names are Gog and
Magog, Anie, Agit, Azenach, Fommeperi, Befari,
Conei-Samante, Agrimandri, Vintefolei, Casbei,
Alanei. These and similar nations were shut in
behind lofty mountains by Alexander the Great,
towards the North. We lead them at our pleasure
against our foes, and neither man nor beast is left
undevoured, if our Majesty gives the requisite per-
mission. And when all our foes are eaten, then we
return with our hosts home again. These accursed
fifteen nations will burst forth from the four quarters
of the earth at the end of the world, in the
times of Antichrist, and overrun all the abodes of
the Saints as well as the great city Rome, which,
by the way, we are prepared to give to our son who
will be born, along with all Italy, Germany, the twc
Gauls, Britain and Scotland. We shall also give hii
Spain and all the land as far as the icy sea. Th<
nations to which I have alluded, according to th(
words of the prophet, shall not stand in the judg-
ment, on account of their offensive practices, but
will be consumed to ashes by a fire which will fall
on them from heaven.
" Our land streams with honey, and is overflow-
ing with milk. In one region grows no poisonous
P restcr John 41
herb, nor does a querulous frog ever quack in it, no
scorpion exists, nor does the serpent glide amongst
the grass, nor can any poisonous animals exist in
it, or injure any one.
"Among the heathen, flows through a certain
province the river Indus ; encircling Paradise, it
spreads its arms in manifold windings through the
entire province. Here are found the emeralds,
sapphires, carbuncles, topazes, chrysolites, onyxes,
beryls, sardius, and other costly stones. Here
grows the plant Assidos, which, when worn by any
one, protects him from the evil spirit, forcing it to
state its business and name ; consequently the foul
spirits keep out of the way there. In a certain
land subject to us, all kinds of pepper is gathered,
and is exchanged for corn and bread, leather and
cloth. ... At the foot of Mount Olympus bubbles
up a spring which changes its flavour hour by hour,
night and day, and the spring is scarcely three days'
journey from Paradise, out of which Adam was
driven. If any one has tasted thrice of the
fountain, from that day he will feel no fatigue, but
will as long as he lives be as a man of thirty years.
Here are found the small stones called Nudiosi,
which, if borne about the body, prevent the sight
from waxing feeble, and restore it where it is lost.
42 Prester John
The more the stone is looked at, the keener
becomes the sight. In our territory is a certain
waterless sea, consisting of tumbling billows of sand
never at rest. None have crossed this sea ; it lacks
water altogether, yet fish are cast up upon the
beach of various kinds, very tasty, and the like are
nowhere else to be seen. Three days' journey from
this sea are mountains from which rolls down a
stony, waterless river, which opens into the sandy
sea. As soon as the stream reaches the sea, its
stones vanish in it and are never seen again. As
long as the river is in motion, it cannot be crossed ;
only four days a week is it possible to traverse it.
Between the sandy sea and the said mountains, in
a certain plain is a fountain of singular virtue,
which purges Christians and would-be Christians
from all transgressions. The water stands four
inches high in a hollow stone shaped like a mussel-
shell. Two saintly old men watch by it, and ask
the comers whether they are Christians, or are
about to become Christians, then whether they
desire healing with all their hearts. If they have
answered well, they are bidden to lay aside their
clothes, and to step into the mussel. If what they
said be true, then the water begins to rise and gush
over their heads ; thrice does the water thus lift
Prestcr John 43
itself, and every one who has entered the mussel
leaves it cured of every complaint.
"Near the wilderness trickles between barren
mountains a subterranean rill, which can only by
chance be reached, for only occasionally the earth
gapes, and he who would descend must do it with
precipitation, ere the earth closes again. All that
is gathered under the ground there is gem and
precious stone. The brook pours into another river,
and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood obtain
thence abundance of precious stones. Yet they
never venture to sell them without having first
offered them to us for our private use : should we
decline them, they are at liberty to dispose of
them to strangers. Boys there are trained to
remain three or four days under water, diving
after the stones.
"Beyond the stone river are the ten tribes of the
Jews, which, though subject to their own kings, are,
for all that, our slaves and tributary to our Majesty.
In one of our lands, hight Zone, are worms called
in our tongue Salamanders. These worms can
only live in fire, and they build cocoons like silk-
worms, which are unwound by the ladies of our
palace, and spun into cloth and dresses, which are
worn by our Exaltedness. These dresses in order
44 Prester John
to be cleaned and washed are cast into flames. . . .
When we go to war, we have fourteen golden and
bejewelled crosses borne before us instead of
banners ; each of these crosses is followed by 10,000
horsemen, and 100,000 foot soldiers fully armed,
without reckoning those in charge of the luggage
and provision.
"When we ride abroad plainly, we have a
wooden, unadorned cross, without gold or gem
about it, borne before us, in order that we may
roeditate on the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus
Christ ; also a golden bowl filled with earth, to
remind us of that whence we sprung, and that to
which we must return ; but besides these there is
borne a silver bowl full of gold, as a token to all
that we are the Lord of Lords.
"All riches, such as are upon the world, our
Magnificence possesses in superabundance. With
us no one lies, for he who speaks a lie is thence-
forth regarded as dead ; he is no more thought of,
or honoured by us. No vice is tolerated by us.
Every year we undertake a pilgrimage, with retinue
of war, to the body of the holy prophet Daniel,
which is near the desolated site of Babylon. In our
realm fishes are caught, the blood of which dyes
purple. The Amazons and the Brahmins are sub-
Prester John 45
ject to us. The palace in which our Supereminency
resides, is built after the pattern of the castle built
by the Apostle Thomas for the Indian king Gundo-
forus. Ceilings, joists, and architrave are of
Sethym wood, the roof of ebony, which can never
catch fire. Over the gable of the palace are, at the
extremities, two golden apples, in each of which are
two carbuncles, so that the gold may shine by day,
and the carbuncles by night. The greater gates of
the palace are of sardius, with the horn of the
horned snake inwrought, so that no one can bring
poison within.
" The other portals are of ebony. The windows
are of crystal ; the tables are partly of gold, partly
of amethyst, and the columns supporting the tables
are partly of ivory, partly of amethyst. The court
in which we watch the jousting is floored with onyx
in order to increase the courage of the combatants.
In the palace, at night, nothing is burned for light
but wicks supplied with balsam. . . . Before our
palace stands a mirror, the ascent to which consists
of five and twenty steps of porphyry, and serpen-
tine." After a description of the gems adorning this
mirror, which is guarded night and day by three
thousand armed men. he exolains its use : " We
46 Prester John
look therein and behold all that is taking place
in every province and region subject to our sceptre.
" Seven kings wait upon us monthly, in turn, with
sixty-two dukes, two hundred and fifty-six counts
and marquises : and twelve archbishops sit at table
with us on our right, and twenty bishops on the
left, besides the patriarch of S. Thomas, the
Sarmatian Protopope, and the Archpope of Susa.
... Our lord high steward is a primate and king,
our cup-bearer is an archbishop and king, our
chamberlain a bishop and king, our marshal a king
and abbot."
I may be spared further extracts from this extra-
ordinary letter, which proceeds to describe the
church in which Prester John worships, by
enumerating the precious stones of which it is
constructed, and their special virtues.
Whether this letter was in circulation before Pope
Alexander wrote his, it is not easy to decide.
Alexander does not allude to it, but speaks of the
reports which have reached him of the piety and
the magnificence of the Priest -King. At the same
time, there runs a tone of bitterness through the
letter, as though the Pope had been galled at the
pretensions of this mysterious personage, and per-
Prester John 47
haps winced under the prospect of the man-eaters
overrunning Italy, as suggested by John the Priest.
The papal epistle is an assertion of the claims of
the See of Rome to universal dominion, and it
assures the Eastern Prince-Pope that his Christian
professions are worthless, unless he submits to the
successor of Peter. " Not every one that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord," &c., quotes the Pope, and
then explains that the will of God is that every
monarch and prelate should eat humble pie to the
Sovereign Pontiff.
Sir John Maundevil gives the origin of the
priestly title of the Eastern despot, in his curious
book of travels.
" So it befelle, that this emperour cam, with a
Cristene knyght with him, into a chirche in Egypt :
and it was Saterday in Wyttson woke. And the
bishop made orders. And he beheld and listened
the servyse fulle tentyfly : and he asked the Cristene
knyght, what men of degree thei scholden ben, that
the prelate had before him. And the knyght an-
swerede and seyde, that thei scholde ben prestes.
And then the emperour seyde, that he wolde no
longer ben clept kyng ne emperour, but preest :
and that he wolde have the name of the first preest,
that wente out of the chirche ; and his name was
48 Prestcr John
John. And so evere more sittiens, he is clept
Prestre John."
It is probable that the foundation of the whole
Prester-John myth lay in the report which
reached Europe of the wonderful successes of
Nestorianism in the East, and there seems reason
to believe that the famous letter given above was
a Nestorian fabrication. It certainly looks un-
European ; the gorgeous imagery is thoroughly
Eastern, and the disparaging tone in which Rome
is spoken of could hardly have been the expression
of Western feelings. The letter has the object in
view of exalting the East in religion and arts to an
undue eminence at the expense of the West, and
it manifests some ignorance of European geography,
when it speaks of the land extending from Spain
to the Polar Sea. Moreover, the sites of the patri-
archates, and the dignity conferred on that of S.
Thomas are indications of a Nestorian bias.
A brief glance at the history of this heretical
Church may be of value here, as showing that there
really was a foundation for the wild legends con-
cerning a Christian empire in the East, so prevalent
in Europe. Nestorius, a priest of Antioch and
disciple of S. Chrysostom, was elevated by tl
emperor to the patriarchate of Constantinople, ai
Prester John 49
in the year 428 began to propagate his heresy,
denying the hypostatic union. The Council of
Ephesus denounced him, and, in spite of the
emperor and court, Nestorius was anathematized
and driven into exile. His sect spread through
the East, and became a flourishing Church. It
reached to China, where the emperor was all but
converted ; its missionaries traversed the frozen
tundras of Siberia, preaching their maimed Gospel
to the wild hordes which haunted those dreary
wastes ; it faced Buddhism and wrestled with it for
the religious supremacy in Thibet ; it established
churches in Persia and in Bokhara ; it penetrated
India ; it formed colonies in Ceylon, in Siam, and
in Sumatra ; so that the Catholicos or Pope of
Bagdad exercised sway more extensive than that
ever obtained by the successor of S. Peter. The
number of Christians belonging to that communion
probably exceeded that of the members of the
true Catholic Church in East and West. But the
Nestorian Church was not founded on the Rock,
it rested on Nestorius, and when the rain descended,
and the winds blew, and the floods came, and beat
upon that house, it fell, leaving scarce a fragment
behind.
Rubruquis the Franciscan, who in 1253 was sent
E
50 Prester John
on a mission into Tartary, was the first to let in
a little light on the fable. He writes, " The Catai
dwelt beyond certain mountains across which I
wandered, and in a plain in the midst of the moun-
tains lived once an important Nestorian shepherd,
who ruled over the Nestorian people, called Nay-
man. When Coir-Khan died, the Nestorian people
raised this man to be king, and called him King
Johannes, and related of him ten times as much as
the truth. The Nestorians thereabouts have this
way with them, that about nothing they make a
great fuss, and thus they have got it noised abroad
that Sartach, Mangu-Khan, and Ken-Khan were
Christians, simply because they treated Christians
well, and showed them more honour than other
people. Yet, in fact, they were not Christians at
all. And in like manner the story got about that
there was a great King John. However, I traversed
his pastures, and no one knew any thing about him,
except a few Nestorians. In his pastures lives
Ken-Khan, at whose court was Brother Andrew,
whom I met on my way back. This Johannes had
a brother, a famous shepherd, named Unc, who
lived three weeks' journey beyond the mountains
of Caracatais."
This Unk-Khan was a real individual ; he lost
Prester John 51
his life in the year 1203. Kuschhik, prince of
the Nayman, and follower of Kor-Khan, fell in
1218. *
Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller (1254 1324),
identifies Unk-Khan with Prester John ; he says,
" I will now tell you of the deeds of the Tartars,
how they gained the mastery, and spread over the
whole earth. The Tartars dwelt between Georgia
and Bargu, where there is a vast plain and level
country, on which are neither cities nor forts, but
capital pasturage and water. They had no chief
of their own, but paid to Prester Johannes tribute.
Of the greatness of this Prester Johannes, who was
properly called Un-Khan, the whole world spake ;
the Tartars gave him one of every ten head of
cattle. When Prester John noticed that they were
increasing, he feared them, and planned how he
could injure them. He determined therefore to
scatter them, and he sent barons to do this. But
the Tartars guessed what Prester John purposed
.... and they went away into the wide wastes
of the North, where they might be beyond his
reach." He then goes on to relate how Tschengis-
(Jenghiz-)Khan became the head of the Tartars,
and how he fought against Prester John, and, after
a desperate fight, overcame and slew him.
E 2
52 Prester John
The Syriac Chronicle of the Jacobite Primate,
Gregory Bar-Hebrseus (born 1226, died 1286), also
identifies Unk-Khan with Prester John. " In the
year of the Greeks 1514, of the Arabs 599 (A.D.
1202), when Unk-Khan, who is the Christian King
John, ruled over a stock of the barbarian Hunns,
called Kergis, Tschengys-Khan served him with
great zeal. When John observed the superiority
and serviceableness of the other, he envied him,
and plotted to seize and murder him. But two
sons of Unk-Khan, having heard this, told it to
Tschengys, whereupon he and his comrades fled
by night and secreted themselves. Next morning
Unk-Khan took possession of the Tartar tents,
but found them empty. Then the party of
Tschengys fell upon him, and they met by the
spring called Balschunah, and the side of
Tschengys won the day ; and the followers of
Unk-Khan were compelled to yield. They met
again several times, till Unk-Khan was utterly
discomfited and was slain himself, and his wives,
sons, and daughters carried into captivity. Yet
we must consider that John, king of the Kergis,
was not cast down for nought, nay rather, because
he had turned his heart from the fear of Christ
his Lord, who had exalted him, and had taken a
Pr ester Jo /in 53
wife of the Zinish nation, called Quarakhata.
Because he forsook the religion of his ancestors
and followed strange gods, therefore God took the
government from him, and gave it to one better
than he, and whose heart was right before God."
Some of the early travellers, such as John de
Plano-Carpini and Marco Polo, in disabusing the
popular mind of the belief in Prester John as a
mighty Asiatic Christian monarch, unintentionally
turned the popular faith in that individual into
a new direction. They spoke of the black people
of Abascia in Ethiopia, which, by the way, they
called Middle India, as a great people subject to
a Christian monarch.
Marco Polo says that the true monarch of
Abyssinia is Christ ; but that it is governed by
six kings, three of whom are Christians and three
Saracens, and that they are in league with the
Soudan of Aden.
Bishop Jordanus, in his description of the world,
accordingly sets down Abyssinia as the kingdom
of Prester John ; and such was the popular im-
pression, which was confirmed by the appearance
at intervals of ambassadors at European courts
from the King of Abyssinia. The discovery of
the Cape of Good Hope was due partly to a desire
54 Prester John
manifested in Portugal to open communications
with this monarch 4 , and King John II. sent two
men learned in Oriental languages through Egypt
to the court of Abyssinia. The might and domi-
nion of this prince, who had replaced the Tartar
chief in the popular creed as Prester John, was
of course greatly exaggerated, and was supposed
to extend across Arabia and Asia to the wall of
China. The spread of geographical knowledge
has contracted the area of his dominions, and a
critical acquaintance with history has exploded
the myth which invested Unk-Khan the nomad
chief with all the attributes of a demigod, uniting
in one the utmost pretensions of a Pope and the
proudest claims of a monarch.
4 Ludolfi, Hist. -/Ethiopica, lib. ii. cap. i, 2. Petrus, Petri
filius Lusitaniae princeps, M. Pauli Veneti librum (qui de
Indorum rebus multa : speciatim vero de Presbytero Johanne
aliqua magnifice scripsit) Venetiis secum in patriam detu-
lerat, qui (Chronologicis Lusitanorum testantibus) prsecipuam
Johanni Regi ansam dedit Indicag navigationis, quam Hen-
ricus Johannis I. filius, patruus ejus, tentaverat, prose-
quendse, &c.
Btbmtng
FROM the remotest period a rod has been
regarded as the symbol of power and autho-
rity, and Holy Scripture employs it in the popular
sense. Thus David speaks of " Thy rod and Thy
staff comforting me;" and Moses works his miracles
before Pharaoh with the rod as emblem of Divine
commission. It was his rod which became a serpent,
which turned the water of Egypt into blood, which
opened the waves of the Red Sea and restored
them to their former level, which " smote the rock
of stone so that the water gushed out abundantly."
The rod of Aaron acted an oracular part in the
contest with the princes ; laid up before the ark,
it budded and brought forth almonds. In this in-
stance we have it no longer as a symbol of autho-
rity, but as a means of divining the will of God,
And as such it became liable to abuse ; thus Hosea
56 The Divining Rod
rebukes the chosen people for practising similar
divinations. "My people ask counsel at their
stocks, and their staff declareth unto them 1 ."
Long before this, Jacob had made a different use
of rods, employing them as a charm to make
his father-in-law's sheep bear pied and spotted
lambs.
We find rabdomancy a popular form of divina-
tion among the Greeks, and also among the
Romans. Cicero in his "De Orficiis" alludes to
it. " If all that is needful for our nourishment and
support arrives to us by means of some divine rod,
as people say, then each of us, free from all care
and trouble, may give himself up to the exclusive
pursuit of study and science 2 ."
Probably it is to this rod that Ennius alludes in
the passage quoted in the first book of his " De
Divinatione," wherein he laughs at those who
for a drachma will teach the art of discovering
treasures.
According to Vetranius Maurus, Varro left a
satire on the " Virgula divina," which has not been
preserved. Tacitus tells us that the Germans
practised some sort of divination by means of rods.
1 Hos. iv. 12. 2 De Officiis. lib. i. cap. 44.
The D ivin ing Red 57
" For the purpose their method is simple. They
cut a rod off some fruit-tree into bits, and after
having distinguished them by various marks, they
cast them into a white cloth. . . . Then the priest
thrice draws each piece, and explains the oracle
according to the marks 3 ." Ammianus Marcellinus
says that the Alains employed an osier rod 4 .
The fourteenth law of the Prisons ordered that
the discovery of murders should be made by means
of divining rods used in Church. These rods
should be laid before the altar, and on the sacred
relics, after which God was to be supplicated to
indicate the culprit. This was called the Lot of
rods, or Tan-teen, the Rod of Rods.
But the middle ages was the date of the full
development of the superstition, and the divining
rod was believed to have efficacy in discovering
hidden treasures, veins of precious metal, springs of
water, thefts, and murders. The first notice of its
general use among late writers is in the " Testa-
mentum Novum," lib. i. cap. 25, of Basil Valentine,
a Benedictine monk of the fifteenth century. Basil
speaks of the general faith in and adoption of this
valuable instrument for the discovery of metals,
8 Tacitus, German., cap. x. 4 Ammian. Marcel, xxxi. 2.
58 The Divining Rod
which is carried by workmen in mines, either in
their belts or in their caps. He says that there are
seven names by which this rod is known, and to its
excellencies under each title he devotes a chapter
of his book. The names are : Divine Rod, Shining
Rod, Leaping Rod, Transcendent Rod, Trembling
Rod, Dipping Rod, Superior Rod. In his admirable
treatise on metals, Agricola speaks of the rod in
terms of disparagement ; he considers its use as a
relic of ancient magical forms, and he says that it
is only irreligious workmen who employ it in their
search after metals. Goclenius, however, in his
treatise on the virtue of plants, stoutly does battle
for the properties of the hazel rod. Whereupon
Roberti, a Flemish Jesuit, falls upon him tooth and
nail, disputes his facts, overwhelms him with abuse,
and gibbets him for popular ridicule. Andreas
Libavius, a writer I have already quoted in my
article on the Wandering Jew, undertook a series
of experiments upon the hazel divining rod, and
concluded that there was truth in the popular
belief. The Jesuit Kircher also " experimentalized
several times on wooden rods which were declared
to be sympathetic with regard to certain metals, by
placing them on delicate pivots in equilibrium, but
they never turned on the approach of metal." (De
The Divining Rod 59
Arte Magnetica.) However, a similar course of
experiments over water led him to attribute to the
rod the power of indicating subterranean springs
and watercourses ; " I would not affirm it," he says,
"unless I had established the fact by my own
experience."
Dechales, another Jesuit, author of a treatise on
natural springs, and of a huge tome entitled
'Mundus Mathematicus," declared in the latter
work, that no means of discovering sources is equal
to the divining rod ; and he quotes a friend of his
who, with a hazel rod in his hand, could discover
springs with the utmost precision and facility, and
could trace on the surface of the ground the course
of a subterranean conduit. Another writer, Saint-
Romain, in his " Science degagee des Chimeres de
1'Ecole," exclaims ; " Is it not astonishing to see a
rod which is held firmly in the hands, bow itself
and turn visibly in the direction of water or metal,
with more or less promptitude, according as the
metal or the water are near or remote from the
surface!"
In 1659 tne J esu it Gaspard Schott writes that
the rod is used in every town of Germany, and that
he had frequent opportunity of seeing it used in
the discovery of hidden treasures. " I searched
60 The Divining Rod
with the greatest care," he adds, " into the question
whether the hazel rod had any sympathy with gold
and silver, and whether any natural property set it
in motion. In like manner I tried whether a ring
of metal, held suspended by a thread in the midst
of a tumbler, and which strikes the hours, is moved
by any similar force. I ascertained that these
effects could only have arisen from the deception of
those holding the rod or the pendulum, or, may be,
from some diabolic impulsion, or, more likely still,
because imagination sets the hand in motion."
The Sieur le Royer, a lawyer of Rouen, in 1674,
published his " Traite du Baton universel," in w r hich
he gives an account of a trial made with the rod in
the presence of Father Jean Frangois, who had
ridiculed the operation in his treatise on the
science of waters, published at Rennes in 1655,
and which succeeded in convincing the blasphe-
mer of the divine Rod. Le Royer denies to it the
power of picking out criminals, which had been
popularly attributed to it, and as had been un-
hesitatingly claimed for it by Debrio in his " Dis-
quisitio Magica."
And now I am brought to the extraordinary
story of Jacques Aymar, which attracted the at-
tention of Europe to the marvellous properties of
The Divining Rod 61
the divining rod. I shall give the history of .this
man in full, as such an account is rendered neces-
sary by the mutilated versions I have seen current
in English magazine articles, which follow the lead
of Mrs. Crowe, who narrates the earlier portion of
this impostor's career, but says nothing of his expose
and downfall.
On the 5th July, 1692, at about ten o'clock in
the evening, a wine-seller of Lyons and his wife
were assassinated in their cellar, and their money
carried off. On the morrow, the officers of justice
arrived, and examined the premises. Beside the
corpses, lay a large bottle wrapped in straw, and a
bloody hedging bill, which undoubtedly had been
the instrument used to accomplish the murder.
Not a trace of those who had committed the
horrible deed was to be found, and the magis-
trates were quite at fault as to the direction in
which they should turn for a clue to the murderer
or murderers.
At this juncture a neighbour reminded the
magistrates of an incident which had taken place
four years previous. It was this. In 1688 a theft
of clothes had been made in Grenoble. In the
parish of Crole lived a man named Jacques Aymar,
supposed to be endowed with the faculty of using
C2 The Divining Rod
the divining rod. This man was sent for. On
reaching the spot where the theft had been com-
mitted, his rod moved in his hand. He followed
the track indicated by the rod, and it con-
tinued to rotate between his fingers as long as
he followed a certain direction, but ceased to turn
if he diverged from it in the smallest degree.
Guided by his rod, Aymar went from street to
street, till he was brought to a standstill before the
prison gates. These could not be opened without
leave of the magistrate, who hastened to witness
the experiment. The gates were unlocked, and
Aymar, under the same guidance, directed his
steps towards four prisoners lately incarcerated.
He ordered the four to be stood in a line, and then
he placed his foot on that of the first. The rod
remained immovable. He passed to the second,
and the rod turned at once. Before the third
prisoner there were no signs, the fourth trembled,
and begged to be heard. He owned himself the
thief, along with the second, who also acknow-
ledged the theft, and mentioned the name of the
receiver of the stolen goods. This was a farmer in
the neighbourhood of Grenoble. The magistrate
and officers vjsited him and demanded the articles
he had obtained. The farmer denied all know-
The Divining Rod 63
ledge of the theft and all participation in the
booty. Aymar, however, by means of his rod,
discovered the secreted property, and restored it
to the persons from whom it had been stolen.
On another occasion Aymar had been in quest
of a spring of water, when he felt his rod turn
sharply in his hand. On digging at the spot,
expecting to discover an abundant source, the body
of a murdered woman was found in a barrel, with a
rope twisted round her neck. The poor creature
was recognized as a woman of the neigbourhood
who had vanished four months before. Aymar
went to the house which the victim had inhabited,
and presented his rod to each member of the
household. It turned upon the husband of the
deceased, who at once took to flight.
The magistrates of Lyons, at their wits' end how
to discover the perpetrators of the double murder
in the wine-shop, urged the Procureur du Roi to
make experiment of the powers of Jacques Aymar.
The fellow was sent for, and he boldly asserted his
capacity for detecting criminals, if he were first
brought to the spot of the murder, so as to be put
en rapport with the murderers.
He was at once conducted to the scene of the
outrage, with the rod in his hand. This remained
64 The Divining Rod
stationary as he traversed the cellar, till he reached
the spot where the body of the wine-seller had
lain ; then the stick became violently agitated, and
the man's pulse rose as though he were in an
access of fever. The same motions and symptoms
manifested themselves when he reached the place
where the second victim had lain.
Having thus received his impression^ Aymar left
the cellar, and, guided by his rod, or rather by an
internal instinct, he ascended into the shop, and
then stepping into the street, he followed from one
to another, like a hound upon the scent, the track
of the murderers. It conducted him into the court
of the archiepiscopal palace, across it, and down to
the gate of the Rhone. It was now evening, and
the city gates being all closed, the quest of blood
was relinquished for the night.
Next morning Aymar returned to the scent.
Accompanied by three officers, he left the gate
and descended the right bank of the Rhone. The
rod gave indications of there having been three
involved in the murder, and he pursued the traces
till two of them led to a gardener's cottage. Into
this he entered, and there he asserted with warmth,
against the asseverations of the proprietor to the
contrary, that the fugitives had entered his room,
The Divining Rod 65
had seated themselves at his table, and had drunk
wine out of one of the bottles which he indicated.
Aymar tested each of the household with his rod,
to see if they had been in contact with the mur-
derers. The rod moved over the two children
only, aged respectively ten and nine years. These
little things on being questioned, answered with
reluctance, that during their father's absence on
Sunday morning, against his express commands,
they had left the door open, and that two men,
whom they described, had come in suddenly upon
them, and had seated themselves and made free
with the wine in the bottle pointed out by the man
with the rod. This first verification of the talents
of Jacques Aymar convinced some of the sceptical,
but the Procurator General forbad the prosecution
of the experiment till the man had been further
tested.
As already stated, a hedging bill had been dis-
covered on the scene of the murder, smeared with
blood, and unquestionably the weapon with which
the crime had been committed. Three bills from
the same maker, and of precisely the same descrip-
tion, were obtained, and the four were taken into a
garden, and secretly buried at intervals. Aymar
was then brought, staff in hand, into the garden,
F
66 The Divining Rod
and conducted over the spots where lay the bills.
The rod began to vibrate as his feet stood upon
the place where was concealed the bill which had
been used by the assassins, but was motionless
elsewhere. Still unsatisfied, the four bills were
exhumed and concealed anew. The comptroller
of the province himself bandaged the sorcerer's
eyes and led him by the hand from place to place.
The divining rod showed no signs of movement till
it approached the blood-stained weapon, when it
began to oscillate.
The magistrates were now so far satisfied as to
agree that Jacques Aymar should be authorized
to follow the trail of the murderers, and have a
company of archers to follow him.
Guided by his rod, Aymar now recommenced
his pursuit. He continued tracing down the right
bank of the Rhone till he came to half a league
from the bridge of Lyons. Here the footprints of
three men were observed in the sand, as though
engaged in entering a boat A rowing boat was
obtained, and Aymar with his escort descended
the river ; he found some difficulty in following
the trail upon water, still he was able with a little
care to detect it It brought him under an arch of
the bridge of Vienne, which boats rarely passed
The Divining Rod 67
beneath. This proved that the fugitives were
without a guide. The way in which this curious
journey was made was singular. At intervals
Aymar was put ashore to test the banks with his
rod, and ascertain whether the murderers had
landed. He discovered the places where they had
slept, and indicated the chairs or benches on which
they had sat. In this manner, by slow degrees he
arrived at the military camp of Sablon, between
Vienne and Saint-Valier. There Aymar felt
violent agitation, his cheeks flushed, and his pulse
beat with rapidity. He penetrated the crowds of
soldiers, but did not venture to use his rod, lest the
men should take it ill, and fall upon him. He
could not do more without special authority, and
was constrained to return to Lyons. The magis-
trates then provided him with the requisite powers,
and he went back to the camp. Now he declared
that the murderers were not there. He recom-
menced his pursuit, and descended the Rhone
again as far as Beaucaire.
On entering the town he ascertained by means
of his rod that those whom he was pursuing had
parted company. He traversed several streets,
then crowded on account of the annual fair, and
was brought to a standstill before the prison
F 2
08 The Divining Rod
doors. One of the murderers was within, he
declared, he would track the others afterwards.
Having obtained permission to enter, he was
brought into the presence of fourteen or fifteen
prisoners. Amongst these was a hunchback who
had only an hour previously been incarcerated on
account of a theft he had committed at the fair,
Aymar applied his rod to each of the prisoners in
succession : it turned upon the hunchback. The
sorcerer ascertained that the other two had left the
town by a little path leading into the Nismes road.
Instead of following this track, he returned to
Lyons with the hunchback and the guard. At
Lyons a triumph awaited him. The hunchback
had hitherto protested his innocence, and declared
that he had never set foot in Lyons. But as he
was brought to that town by the way along which
Aymar had ascertained that he had left it, the
fellow was recognized at the different houses where
he had lodged the night, or stopped for food. At
the little town of Bagnols, he was confronted with
the host and hostess of a tavern where he and his
comrades had slept, and they swore to his identity,
and accurately described his companions : their
description tallied with that given by the children
of the gardener. The wretched man was so con-
The Divining Rod 69
founded by this recognition, that he avowed having
stayed there a few days before, along with two
Prove^als. These men, he said, were the crimi-
nals ; he had been their servant, and had only kept
guard in the upper room whilst they committed
the murders in the cellar.
On his arrival in Lyons he was committed to
prison, and his trial was decided on. At his first
interrogation he told his tale precisely as he had
related it before, with these additions, the mur-
derers spoke patois, and had purchased two bills.
At ten o'clock in the evening all three had entered
the wine-shop. The Provenpals had a large bottle
wrapped in straw, and they persua'ded the publican
and his wife to descend with them into the cellar
to fill it, whilst he, the hunchback, acted as watch
in the shop. The two men murdered the wine-
seller and his wife with their bills, and then
mounted to the shop, where they opened the coffer
and stole from it 130 crowns, eight Louis d'ors,
and a silver belt. The crime accomplished, they
took refuge in the court of a large house, this was
the archbishop's palace, indicated by Aymar, and
passed the night in it. Next day, early, they left
Lyons, and only stopped for a moment at a gar-
dener's cottage. Some way down the river, they
70 The Divining Rod
found a boat moored to the bank. This they
loosed from its mooring and entered. They came
ashore at the spot pointed out by the man with
the stick. They stayed some days in the camp at
Sablon, and then went on to Beaucaire.
Aymar was now sent in quest of the other
murderers. He resumed their trail at the gate of
Beaucaire, and that of one of them, after consider-
able detours, led him to the prison doors of
Beaucaire, and he asked to be allowed to search
among the prisoners for his man. This time he
was mistaken. The second fugitive was not within ;
but the gaoler affirmed that a man whom he de-
scribed, and his description tallied with the known
appearance of one of the Provenals, had called
at the gate shortly after the removal of the hunch-
back, to inquire after him, and on learning of his
removal to Lyons, had hurried off precipitately.
Aymar now followed his track from the prison, and
this brought him to that of the third criminal. He
pursued the double scent for some days. But
it became evident that the two culprits had been
alarmed at what had transpired in Beaucaire, and
were flying from France. Aymar traced them to
the frontier, and then returned to Lyons.
On the 30th of August, 1692, the poor hunch-
The D ivin ing Rod 71
back was, according to sentence, broken on the
wheel, in the Place des Terreaux. On his way to
execution he had to pass the wine-shop. There
the recorder publicly read his sentence, which had
been delivered by thirty judges. The criminal
knelt and asked pardon of the poor wretches in
whose murder he was involved, after which he
continued his course to the place fixed for his
execution.
It may be well here to give an account of the
authorities for this extraordinary story. There are
three circumstantial accounts, and numerous letters
written by the magistrate who sat during the trial,
and by an eye-witness of the whole transaction,
men honourable and disinterested, upon whose
veracity not a shadow of doubt was supposed to
rest by their contemporaries.
M. Chauvin, Doctor of Medicine, published a
Lettre a Mme. la Marquise de Senozan, sur les
moyens dont on sest servi pour decouvrir les complices
d'un assassinat commis a Lyon, le 5 Juillet, 1692,
Lyons, 1692. The proces-verbal of the Procureur
du Roi, M. de Vanini, is also extant, and published
in the Physique occulte of the Abbe de Valle-
mont.
Pierre Gamier, Doctor of Medicine of the
72 The Divining Rod
University of Montpelier, wrote a Dissertation
physique en forme de lettre, a M. de Seve, seigneur de
Flechercs, on Jacques Aymar, printed the same
year at Lyons, and republished in the Histoire
critique des pratiques super stitieuses, du Pere
Lebrun.
Doctor Chauvin was witness of nearly all the
circumstances related, as was also the Abbe
Lagarde, who has written a careful account of the
whole transaction as far as to the execution of the
hunchback.
Another eye-witness writes to the Abbe Bignon
a letter printed by Lebrun in his Histoire cri-
tique cited above. "The following circumstance
happened to me yesterday evening," he says ; " M.
le Procureur du Roi here, who, by the way, is one of
the wisest and cleverest men in the country, sent for
me at six o'clock, and had me conducted to the
scene of the murder. We found there M. Grimaut,
director of the customs, whom I knew to be a very
upright man, and a young attorney named Besson,
with whom I am not acquainted, but who M. le
Procureur du Roi told me had the power of using
the rod as well as M. Grimaut. We descended into
the cellar where the murder had been committed,
and where there were still traces of blood. Each
The Divining Rod 73
time that M. Grimaut and the attorney passed the
spot where the murder had been perpetrated, the
rods they held in their hands began to turn, but
ceased when they stepped beyond the spot. We
tried experiments for more than an hour, as also
with the bill, which M. le Procureur had brought
along with him, and they were satisfactory. I ob-
served several curious facts in the attorney. The
rod in his hands was more violently moved than
in those of M. Grimaut, and when I placed one of
my fingers in each of his hands, whilst the rod
turned, I felt the most extraordinary throbbings of
the arteries in his palms. His pulse was at fever-
heat. He sweated profusely, and at intervals he
was compelled to go into the court to obtain fresh
air."
The Sieur Pauthot, Dean of the College of
Medicine at Lyons, gave his observations to the
public as well Some of them are as follows : " We
began at the cellar in which the murder had been
committed ; into this the man with the rod
(Aymar) shrank from entering, because he felt
violent agitations which overcame him when he
used the stick over the place where the corpses of
those who had been assassinated had lain. On
entering the cellar, the rod was put in my hands,
74 The Divining Rod
and arranged by the master as most suitable foy
operation ; I passed and repassea over tne spot
where the bodies had been found, but it remained
immovable, and I felt no agitation. A lady of rank
and merit, who was with us, took the rod after me :
she felt it begin to move, and was internally
agitated. Then the owner of the rod resumed it.
and, passing over the same places, the stick rotated
with such violence that it seemed easier to break
than to stop it. The peasant then quitted our
company to faint away, as was his wont after
similar experiments. I followed him. He turned
very pale and broke into a profuse perspiration,
whilst for a quarter of an hour his pulse was
violently troubled ; indeed the faintness was so
considerable, that they were obliged to dash water
in his face and give him water to drink in order to
bring him round." He then describes experiments
made over the bloody bill and others similar, which
succeeded in the hands of Aymar and the lady,
but failed when he attempted them himself. Pierre
Garnier, physician of the medical college of Mont-
pelier, appointed to that of Lyons, has also
written an account of what he saw, as mentioned
above. He gives a curious proof of Aymar's
powers.
The Divining Rod 75
r ' M. le Lieutenant-General having been robbed
by one of his lackeys, seven or eight months ago,
and having lost by him twenty-five crowns which
had been taken out of one of the cabinets behind
his library, sent for Aymar, and asked him to
discover the circumstances. Aymar went several
times round the chamber, rod in hand, placing one
foot on the chairs, on the various articles of furni-
ture, and on two bureaux which are in the apart-
ment, each of which contains several drawers. He
fixed on the very bureau and the identical drawer
out of which the money had been stolen. M. le
Lieutenant-General bade him follow the track of
the robber. He did so. With his rod he went out
on a new terrace, upon which the cabinet opens,
thence back into the cabinet and up to the fire, then
into the library, and from thence he went direct up-
stairs to the lackeys' sleeping apartment, when the
rod guided him to one of the beds, and turned
over one side of the bed, remaining motionless over
the other. The lackeys then present cried out
that the thief had slept on the side indicated by the
rod, the bed having been shared with another foot-
man, who occupied the further side." Garnier gives
a lengthy account of various experiments he made
along with the Lieutenant-General, the uncle of the
76 The Divining Rod
same, the Abbe de S. Remain, and M. de Puget, to
detect whether there was imposture in the man.
But all their attempts failed to discover a trace of
deception. He gives a report of verbal examina-
tion of Aymar which is interesting. The man
always replied with candour.
The report of the extraordinary discovery of
murder made by the divining rod at Lyons at-
tracted the attention of Paris, and Aymar was
ordered up to the capital. There, however, his
powers left him. The Prince de Conde submitted
him to various tests, and he broke down under
every one. Five holes were dug in the garden.
In one was secreted gold, in another silver, in
a third silver and gold, in the fourth copper, and in
the fifth stones. The rod made no signs in presence
of the metals, and at last actually began to move
over the buried pebbles. He was sent to Chantilly
to discover the perpetrators of a theft of trout made
in the ponds of the park. He went round the
water, rod in hand, and it turned at spots where he
said the fish had been drawn out. Then, following
the track of the thief, it led him to the cottage of
one of the keepers, but did not move over any
of the individuals then in the house. The keeper
himself was absent, but arrived late at night, and
The D ivin ing Rod 77
on hearing what was said, he roused Aymar from
his bed, insisting on having his innocence vindi-
cated. The divining rod, however, pronounced
him guilty, and the poor fellow took to his
heels, much upon the principle recommended by
Montesquieu a while after. Said he, " If you are
accused of having stolen the towers of Notre-Dame,
bolt at once."
A peasant, taken at haphazard from the street,
was brought to the sorcerer as one suspected. The
rod turned slightly, and Aymar declared that the
man did not steal the fish, but ate of them. A
boy was then introduced, who was said to be the
keeper's son. The rod rotated violently at once.
This was the finishing stroke, and Aymar was sent
away by the Prince in disgrace. It now transpired
that the theft of fish had taken place seven years
before, and the lad was no relation of the keeper,
but a country boy who had only been in Chantilly
eight or ten months. M. Goyonnot, Recorder of
the King's Council, broke a window in his house,
and sent for the diviner, to whom he related a story
of his having been robbed of valuables during the
night. Aymar indicated the broken window as the
means whereby the thief had entered the house,
and pointed out the window by which he had left
78 The Divining Rod
it with the booty. As no such robbery had been
committed, Aymar was turned out of the house as
an impostor. A few similar cases brought him
into such disrepute that he was obliged to leave
Paris, and return to Grenoble.
Some years after, he was made use of by the
Marechal Montrevel, in his cruel pursuit of tl
Camisards.
Was Aymar an impostor from first to last,
did his powers fail him in Paris ? and was it 01
then that he had recourse to fraud ?
Much may be said in favour of either supposi-
tion. His expose at Paris tells heavily against him,
but need not be regarded as conclusive evidence of
imposture throughout his career. If he really di
possess the powers he claimed, it is not to be su]
posed that these existed in full vigour under
conditions ; and Paris is a place most unsuitable fc
testing them, built on artificial soil, and full of di<
turbing influences of every description. It
been remarked with others who used the rod, that
their powers languished under excitement, and that
the faculties had to be in repose, the attention
to be concentrated on the subject of inquiry, or
the action nervous, magnetic, or electrical, or what
you will was impeded.
The Divining Rod 79
Now Paris, visited for the first time by a poor
peasant, its saloons open to him, dazzling him with
their splendour, and the novelty of finding himself
in the midst of princes, dukes, marquises, and their
families, not only may have agitated the country-
man to such an extent as to deprive him of his
peculiar faculty, but may have led him into simu-
lating what he felt had departed from him, at the
moment when he was under the eyes of the
grandees of the Court. We have analogous cases
in Bleton and Angelique Cottin. The former was a
hydroscope, who fell into convulsions whenever he
passed over running water. This peculiarity was no-
ticed in him when a child of seven years old. When
brought to Paris, he failed signally to detect the
presence of water conveyed underground by pipes
and conduits, but he pretended to feel the influence
of water where there certainly was none. Angelique
Cottin was a poor girl, highly charged with elec-
tricity. Any one touching her received a violent
shock ; one medical gentleman, having seated her
on his knee, was knocked clean out of his chair by
the electric fluid, which thus exhibited its sense of
propriety. But the electric condition of Angelique
became feebler as she approached Paris, and failed
her altogether in the capital.
80 The Divining Rod
I believe that the imagination is the principal
motive force in those who use the divining rod ;
but whether it is so solely, I am unable to decide.
The powers of nature are so mysterious and in-
scrutable that we must be cautious in limiting them,
under abnormal conditions, to the ordinary laws of
experience.
The manner in which the rod was used by certain
persons renders self-deception possible. The rod if
generally of hazel, and is forked like a Y ; the for*
fingers are placed against the diverging arms of th<
rod, and the elbows are brought back against th<
side ; thus the implement is held in front of the
operator, delicately balanced before the pit of the
stomach at a distance of about eight inches. Now, il
the pressure of the balls of the digits be in the least
relaxed, the stalk of the rod will naturally fall. It
has been assumed by some, that a restoration of the
pressure will bring the stem up again, pointing
towards the operator, and a little further pressure
will elevate it into a perpendicular position. A
relaxation of force will again lower it, and thus
the rotation observed in the rod be maintained. I
confess myself unable to accomplish this. The
lowering of the leg of the rod is easy enough, but
no efforts of mine to produce a revolution on its
The Divin ing Rod 81
axis have as yet succeeded. The muscles which
would contract the fingers upon the arms of the
stick, pass over the shoulder ; and it is worthy of
remark that one of the medical men who witnessed
the experiments made on Bleton the hydroscope,
expressly alludes to a slight rising of the shoulders
during the rotation of the divining rod.
But the manner of using the rod was by no
means identical in all cases. If, in all cases, it had
simply been balanced between the fingers, some
probability might be given to the suggestion above
made, that the rotation was always effected by the
involuntary action of the muscles.
The usual manner of holding the rod, however,
precluded such a possibility. The most ordinary
use consisted in taking a forked stick in such a
manner that the palms were turned upwards, and
the fingers closed upon the branching arms of tfre
rod. Some required the normal position of the
rod to be horizontal, others elevated the point,
others again depressed it.
G
82 The Divining Rod
If the implement were straight, it was held in a
similar manner, but the hands were brought some-
what together, so as to produce a slight arc in the
rod. Some who practised rabdomancy sustain*
this species of rod between their thumbs ai
forefingers, or else the thumb and forefing(
were closed, and the rod rested on their points,
again it reposed on the flat of the hand, or on tl
back, the hand being held vertically and the n
held in equilibrium.
A third species of divining rod consisted in
straight staff cut in two : one extremity of the 01
half was hollowed out, the other half was sharpen<
at the end, and this end was inserted in the hollc
and the pointed stick rotated in the cavity.
The way in which Bleton used his rod is thi
minutely described : " He does not grasp it, n<
warm it in his hands, and he does not regard wil
preference a hazel branch lately cut and full of s;
He places horizontally between his forefingers
rod of any kind given to him, or picked up in tl
road, of any sort of wood except elder, fresh or dry,
not always forked, but sometimes merely bent. If
it is straight, it rises slightly at the extremities by
little jerks, but does not turn. If bent, it revolves
on its axis with more or less rapidity, in more or
L
POSITIONS OF THE HANDS.
From "Lettres qui decouvrent 1'Illusion des Philosophes sur la Baguette.
Paris, 1693.
The Divining Rod 85
less time, according to the quantity and current of
the water. I counted from thirty to thirty-five
revolutions in a minute, and afterwards as many as
eighty. A curious phenomenon is, that Bleton is
able to make the rod turn between another person's
fingers, even without seeing it or touching it, by
approaching his body towards it when his feet
stand over a subterranean watercourse. It is true,
however, that the motion is much less strong and
less continuous in other fingers than his own. If
Bleton stood on his head, and placed the rod be-
tween his feet, though he felt strongly the pecu-
liar sensations produced in him by flowing water,
yet the rod remained stationary. If he were insu-
lated on glass, silk, or wax, the sensations were less
vivid, and the rotation of the stick ceased."
But this experiment failed in Paris under cir-
cumstances which either proved that Bleton's
imagination produced the movement, or that his
integrity was questionable. It is quite possible
that in many instances the action of the muscles
is purely involuntary, and is attributable to the
imagination, so that the operator deceives himself
as well as others.
This is probably the explanation of the story of
Mdlle. Olivet, a young lady of tender conscience,
86 The Divining Rod
who was a skilful performer with the divining rod,
but shrank from putting her powers in operation,
lest she should be indulging in unlawful acts. She
consulted the Pere Lebrun, author of a work
already referred to in this paper, and he advised
her to ask God to withdraw the power from her, if
the exercise of it was harmful to her spiritual con-
dition. She entered into retreat for two days, and
prayed with fervour. Then she made her commi
nion, asking God what had been recommended
her, at the moment when she received the H<
In the afternoon of the same day she made expei
ment with her rod, and found that it would
longer operate. The girl had strong faith in
before a faith coupled with fear, and as long
that faith was strong in her, the rod moved : n<
she believed that the faculty was taken from hei
and the power ceased with the loss of her faith.
If the divining rod is put in motion by any oth<
force except the involuntary action of the muscles,
we must confine its powers to the property of indi-
cating the presence of flowing water. There are
numerous instances of hydroscopes thus detecting
the existence of a spring or of a subterranean
watercourse ; the most remarkably-endowed indi-
viduals of this description are Jean-Jacques Pa-
The Divining Rod 87
rangue, born near Marseilles in 1760, who expe-
rienced a horror when near water which no one
else perceived. He was endowed with the faculty
of seeing water through the ground, says 1'Abbe
Sauri, who gives his history. Jenny Leslie, a
Scotch girl, about the same date claimed similar
powers. In 1790 Pennet, a native of Dauphine,
attracted attention in Italy, but when carefully
tested by scientific men in Padua, his attempts to
discover buried metals failed ; at Florence he was
detected in an endeavour to find out, by night,
what had been secreted to test his powers on the
morrow. Vincent Amoretti was an Italian, who
underwent peculiar sensations when brought in
proximity to water, coal, and salt ; he was skilful
in the use of the rod, but made no public exhibi-
tion of his powers.
The rod is still employed, I have heard it as-
serted, by Cornish miners, but I have never been
able to ascertain that such is really the case. The
mining captains whom I have questioned, invari-
ably repudiated all knowledge of its use.
In Wiltshire, however, it is still employed for
the purpose of detecting water. In the 22nd
volume of the Quarterly Review (p. 273, note) will
be found a very strongly-attested case, commu-
88
The Divining Rod
tiicated to the writer of an article on " Popul;
Mythology," by a friend in Norfolk. A certai
Lady N is there stated to have convinced
Hutton of her possession of this mysterious gii
and to have by means of it indicated to him tl
existence of a spring of water in one of his fiek
adjoining the Woolwich College, which, in coi
sequence of this discovery, he was enabled to s(
to the College at a higher price. This power of h<
Lady N repeatedly exhibited before credil
witnesses, and the Quarterly Reviewer of that d;
(18^0) held the fact incontrovertible. De Quina
in two passages 5 , affirms that he has frequent
seen the process applied with success, and decl;
that, whatever science or scepticism may say, m<
of the tea-kettles in the Vale of Wrington, Noi
Somersetshire, are filled by rabdomancy. In
ill-watered province this would make its professoi
an important class, though, as De Quincey
the affinity of their local appellation "jowsei
with the slang verb " to chouse," would argue soi
suspicion of the soundness of their pretensions,
the last number of the " Monthly Packet " (Marcl
1867), a curious story is told how the guests at ai
1 De Quincey's Collected Works, i. p. 84 ; in. p. 222.
The Divining Rod SS
old Kentish house beset a fellow-guest, said to
possess this power, with questions how they were
to hold the two forks of the hazel wand. He pro-
ceeded to show them with the double stalk of a
couple of twin cherries, the party being at dessert,
when, lo ! to the astonishment of himself and his
questioners, the united portion curled quite over
his hand. The master of the house alone knew
that under his dining-room floor existed a strong
spring of water 6 .
The following extract from a letter I have just
received will show that it is still in vogue on the
Continent :
" I believe the use of the divining rod for dis-
covering springs of water has by no means been
confined to Mediaeval times, for I was personally
acquainted with a lady, now deceased, who has
successfully practised with it in this way. She was
a very clever and accomplished woman ; Scotch by
birth and education ; by no means credulous ;
possibly a little imaginative, for she wrote not
unsuccessfully ; and of a remarkably open and
straightforward disposition. Captain C , her
husband, had a large estate in Holstein, near
6 Quarterly Review, No. 244, p. 441.
30
The Divining Rod
Lubeck, supporting a considerable population, an<
whether for the wants of the people or for th
improvement of the land, it now and then ha]
pened that an additional well was needed.
" On one of these occasions a man was sent fdi
who made a regular profession of finding water b]
the divining rod ; there happened to be a lar<
party staying at the house, and the whole compan;
turned out to see the fun. The rod gave indi(
tions in the usual way, and water was ultimate!}
found at the spot. Mrs. C , utterly sceptical
took the rod into her own hands to make experi-
ment, believing that she would prove the man
impostor, and she said afterwards she was nev<
more frightened in her life than when it began
move, on her walking over the spring. Seven
other gentlemen and ladies tried it, but it was quil
inactive in their hands. * Well,' said the host
his wife, ' we shall have no occasion to send for th(
man again, as you are such an adept.'
" Some months after this, water was wanted ii
another part of the estate, and it occurred to Mn
C that she would use the rod again. Afte
some trials, it again gave decided indications, an
a well was begun and carried down a verv con-
siderable depth. At last she began to shrink fro
The Divining Rod 91
incurring more expense, but the labourers had
implicit faith, and begged to be allowed to per-
severe. Very soon the water burst up with such
force that the men escaped with difficulty ; and
this proved afterwards the most unfailing spring
for miles round.
" You will take the above for what it is worth ;
the facts I have given are undoubtedly true, what-
ever conclusions may be drawn from them. I do
not propose that you should print my narrative,
but I think in these cases personal testimony, even
indirect, is more useful in forming one's opinion
than a hundred old volumes. I did not hear it
from Mrs. C s own lips, but I was sufficiently
acquainted with her to form a very tolerable
estimate of her character, and my wife, who has
known her intimately from her own childhood, was
in her younger days often staying with her for
months together."
I remember having been much perplexed by
reading a series of experiments made with a pen-
dulous ring over metals, by a Mr. Mayo ; he ascer-
tained that it oscillated in various directions under
peculiar circumstances, when suspended by a thread
over the ball of the thumb. I instituted a series of
experiments, and was surprised to find the ring
92 The Divining Rod
vibrate in an unaccountable manner in opposite
directions over different metals. On consideratioi
I closed my eyes whilst the ring was oscillating
over gold, and on opening them I found that
had become stationary. I got a friend to chang<
the metals whilst I was blindfolded the ring n<
longer vibrated. I was thus enabled to judge oi
the involuntary action of muscles, quite sufficient
to have deceived an eminent medical man lik<
Mr. Mayo, and to have perplexed me till I suc-
ceeded in solving the mystery 7 .
7 A similar series of experiments was undertaken, as
learned afterwards, by M. Chevreuil in Paris, with simila/
results.
STfje Seben Sleepers of
of the most picturesque myths of ancient
days, is that which forms the subject of this
article. It is thus told by Jacques de Voragine in
his " Legenda Aurea :"
"The seven sleepers were natives of Ephesus.
The Emperor Decius, who persecuted the Chris-
tians, having come to Ephesus, ordered the erection
of temples in the city, that all might come and
sacrifice before him, and he commanded that the
Christians should be sought out and given their
choice, either to worship the idols, or to die. So
great was the consternation in the city, that the
friend denounced his friend, the father his son, and
the son his father.
"Now there were in Ephesus seven Christians,
Maximian, Malchus, Marcian, Dionysius, John,
Serapion, and Constantine by name. These re-
94 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesiis
fused to sacrifice to the idols, and remained i
their houses praying and fasting. They we
accused before Decius, and they confessed them
selves to be Christians. However, the empero
gave them a little time to consider what line they
would adopt. They took advantage of this
prieve to dispense their goods among the poor, an
then they retired, all seven, to Mount Celion, whe
they determined to conceal themselves.
" One of their number, Malchus, in the disgui
of a physician, went to the town to obtain victua
Decius, who had been absent from Ephesus for
little while, returned, and gave orders for the seven
to be sought. Malchus, having escaped from t
town, fled, full of fear, to his comrades, and to
them of the emperor's fury. They were much
alarmed ; and Malchus handed them the loaves
had bought, bidding them eat, that, fortified by t
food, they might have courage in the time of tri
They ate, and then, as they sat weeping and spea
ing to one another, by the will of God they f<
asleep.
" The Pagans sought every where, but could n
find them, and Decius was greatly irritated at their
escape. He had their parents brought before him,
and threatened them with death if they did not
5
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus 95
reveal the place of concealment ; but they could
only answer that the seven young men had distri-
buted their goods to the poor, and that they were
quite ignorant as to their whereabouts.
" Decius, thinking it possible that they might be
hiding in a cavern, blocked up the mouth with
stones, that they might perish of hunger.
" Three hundred and sixty years passed, and in
the thirtieth year of the reign of Theodosius, there
broke forth a heresy denying the resurrection of
the dead
" Now, it happened that an Ephesian was building
a stable on the side of Mount Celion, and finding a
pile of stones handy, he took them for his edifice,
and thus opened the mouth of the cave. Then the
seven sleepers awoke, and it was to them as if they
had slept but a single night. They began to ask
Malchus what decision Decius had given concerning
them.
" ' He is going to hunt us down, so as to force
us to sacrifice to the idols,' was his reply. ' God
knows,' replied Maximian, 'we shall never do
that.' Then exhorting his companions, he urged
Malchus to go back to the town to buy some more
bread, and at the same time to obtain fresh infor-
mation. Malchus took five coins and left the
i
96 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
cavern. On seeing the stones, he was filled with
astonishment ; however, he went on towards the
city ; but what was his bewilderment, on approach-
ing the gate, to see over it a cross ! He went to
another gate, and there he beheld the same sacred
sign ; and so he observed it over each gate of the
city. He believed that he was suffering from the
effects of a dream. Then he entered Ephes
rubbing his eyes, and he walked to a baker's sho
He heard people using our Lord's name, and
was the more perplexed. ' Yesterday, no one dared
pronounce the name of Jesus, and now it is on
every one's lips. Wonderful ! I can hardly believe
myself to be in Ephesus.' He asked a passer-by
the name of the city, and on being told it w;
Ephesus, he was thunderstruck. Now he entered
a baker's shop, and laid down his money. The
baker, examining the coin, inquired whether he had
found a treasure, and began to whisper to some
others in the shop. The youth, thinking that he
was discovered, and that they were about to con-
duct him to the emperor, implored them to let
him alone, offering to leave loaves and money if he
might only be suffered to escape. But the shop-
men, seizing him, said : ' Whoever you are, you
have found a treasure ; show us where it is, that we
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus 97
may share it with you, and then we will hide you.'
Malchus was too frightened to answer. So they
put a rope round his neck, and drew him
through the streets into the market-place. The
news soon spread that the young man had dis-
covered a great treasure, and there was presently a
vast crowd about him. He stoutly protested his
innocence. No one recognized him, and his eyes
ranging over the faces which surrounded him, could
not see one which he had known, or which was in
the slightest degree familiar to him.
" S. Martin, the bishop, and Antipater, the gover-
nor, having heard of the excitement, ordered the
young man to be brought before them, along with
the bakers.
" The bishop and the governor asked him where
he had found the treasure, and he replied that he
had found none, but that the few coins were from
his own purse. He was next asked whence he
came. He replied that he was a native of Ephesus,
'if this be Ephesus.'
" ' Send for your relations your parents, if they
live here,' ordered the governor.
" ( They live here certainly,' replied the youth ;
and he mentioned their names. No such names
were known in the town. Then the governor
H
98 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
exclaimed : ' How dare you say that this money
belonged to your parents when it dates back three
hundred and seventy-seven years \ and is as old as
the beginning of the reign of Decius, and it is
utterly unlike our modern coinage ? Do you think
to impose on the old men and sages of Ephesus ?
Believe me, I shall make you suffer the severities
of the law unless you show where you made
discovery.'
"'I implore you,' cried Malchus, 'in the nai
of God, answer me a few questions, and then I
answer yours ! Where is the Emperor Decius g(
to?'
" The bishop answered, ' My son, there is
emperor of that name ; he who was thus called
died long ago.'
" Malchus replied, 'All I hear perplexes me more
and more. Follow me, and I will show you my
comrades who fled with me into a cave of Mount
Celion, only yesterday, to escape the cruelty of
Decius. I will lead you to them.'
" The bishop turned to the governor. ' The hand
of God is here/ he said. Then they followed, and
a great crowd after them. And Malchus entered
first into the cavern to his companions, and the
1 This calculation is sadly inaccurate.
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus 91)
bishop after him. . . . And there they saw the
martyrs seated in the cave, with their faces fresh
and blooming as roses ; so all fell down and glori-
fied God. The bishop and the governor sent
notice to Theodosius, and he hurried to Ephesus.
All the inhabitants met him and conducted him to
the cavern. As soon as the saints beheld the
emperor, their faces shone like the sun, and the
emperor gave thanks unto God, and embraced
them, and said, 'I see you, as though I saw the
Saviour restoring Lazarus.' Maximian- replied,
' Believe us ! for the faith's sake, God has resusci-
tated us before the great resurrection day, in order
that you may believe firmly in the resurrection of
the dead. For as the child is in its mother's womb
living and not suffering, so have we lived without
suffering, fast asleep.' And having thus spoken,
they bowed their heads, and their souls returned to
their Maker. The emperor, rising, bent over them
and embraced them weeping. He gave orders for
golden reliquaries to be made, but that night they
appeared to him in a dream, and said that hitherto
they had slept in the earth, and that in the earth they
desired to sleep on till God should raise them again."
Such is the beautiful story. It seems to have
travelled to us from the East. Jacobus Sarugiensis
H 2
100 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
a Mesopotamian bishop, in the fifth or sixth cen-
tury, is said to have been the first to commit it to
writing. Gregory of Tours (De Glor. Mart. i. 9)
was perhaps the first to introduce it to Europe.
Dionysius of Antioch (ninth century) told the story
in Syrian, and Photius of Constantinople repro-
duced it, with the remark that Mahomet had
adopted it into the Koran. Metaphrastus alludes
to it as well ; in the tenth century Eutychius ii
serted it in his annals of Arabia ; it is found in
Coptic and the Maronite books, and several eai
historians, as Paulus Diaconus, Nicephorus,
have inserted it in their works.
William of Malmesbury tells us a strange stc
concerning these sleepers. He says, that Kii
Edward the Confessor sat, during the East
festival, wearing his royal crown at dinner, in
palace of Westminster, surrounded by his bishc
and nobles. During the banquet the king, inst<
of indulging in meat and drink, mused upon divine
things, and sat long immersed in thought. Sud-
denly, to the astonishment of all present, he burst
out laughing. After dinner, when he retired to his
bedchamber to divest himself of his robes, three of
his nobles, Earl Harold, who was afterwards king,
and an abbot and a bishop, followed him, and
The Seven Sleepers of Ep/iesus 101
asked the reason of his rare mirth. " I saw," said
the pious monarch, "things most wonderful to
behold, and therefore did I not laugh without a
reason." They entreated him to explain ; and
after musing for a while, he informed them that
the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, who had been
slumbering two hundred years in a cavern of
Mount Celion, lying always on their right sides,
had of a sudden, turned themselves over on their
left sides ; that by heavenly favour he had seen
them thus turn themselves, and at the sight he had
been constrained to laugh. And as Harold and
the abbot and bishop marvelled at his words, the
king related to them the story of the Seven
Sleepers, with the shape and proportion of their
several bodies, which wonderful things no man had
as yet committed to writing ; nay, he spake of the
Ephesian sleepers, as though he had always dwelt
with them. Earl Harold, on hearing this, got
ready a knight, a clerk and a monk, who were
forthwith sent to the emperor at Constantinople,
with letters and presents from King Edward. By
the emperor these , messengers were forwarded to
Ephesus with letters to the Bishop, commanding
him to admit the three Englishmen into the cavern
of the sleepers. And, lo ! it fell out even as the
102 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
king had seen in vision. For the Ephesians declared
that they knew from their forefathers that the
Seven had ever lain on their right sides ; but on
the entry of the Englishmen into the cave, they
were all found lying on their left sides. And this
was a warning of the miseries which were to befall
Christendom through the inroads of the Saracens,
Turks and Tartars For whenever sorrow threatei
the Sleepers turn on their sides.
A poem on the Seven Sleepers was compos
by a trouvere named Chardri, and is mention<
by M. Fr. Michel in his " Rapports au Ministre
1'Instruction Public ;" a German poem on the sai
subject, of the thirteenth century, in 935 verses,
been published by M. Karajan ; and the Spank
poet, Augustin Morreto, composed a drama on
entitled " Los Siete Durmientes," which is insert(
in the I9th volume of the rare work, "Comedi
Nuevas Escogidas de los Mejores Ingenios ;" 1
and not least, it has formed the subject of a poem
by the late Dr. Neale.
Mahomet has somewhat improved on the story.
He has made the Sleepers prophecy his coming,
and he has given them a dog named Kratim, or
Kratimer, which sleeps with them, and which is
endowed with the gift of prophecy.
The Seven Sleepers of Ephcsits 103
As a special favour this dog is to be one of the
ten animals to be admitted into his paradise, the
others being Jonah's whale, Solomon's ant, Ish-
mael's ram, Abraham's calf, the Queen of Sheba's
ass, the prophet Salech's camel, Moses' ox, Bellas'
cuckoo, and Mahomet's ass.
It was perhaps too much for the Seven Sleepers
to ask, that their bodies should be left to rest in
earth. In ages when saintly relics were valued
above gold and precious stones, their request was
sure to be shelved ; and so we find that their
remains were conveyed to Marseilles in a large
stone sarcophagus, which is still exhibited in S.
Victor's Church. In the Musaeum Victorium at
Rome is a curious and ancient representation of
them in a cement of sulphur and plaster. Their
names are engraved beside them, together with
certain attributes. Near Constantine and John are
two clubs, near Maximian a knotty club, near
Malchus and Martinian two axes, near Serapion a
burning torch, and near Danesius or Dionysius a
great nail, such as those spoken of by Horace
(Lib. i, Od. 3) and S. Paulinus (Nat. 9, or Carm. 24)
as having been used for torture.
In this group of figures, the seven are repre-
sented as young, without beards, and indeed in
-red
3
104 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
ancient martyrologies they are frequently call
boys.
It has been inferred from this curious plast
representation, that the seven may have suffered
under Decius, A.D. 250, and have been buried
the afore-mentioned cave ; whilst the discovery
translation of their relics under Theodosius, in 479,
may have given rise to the fable. And this I thi
probable enough. The story of long sleepers
the number seven connected with it is anci
enough, and dates from heathen mythology.
Like many another ancient myth, it was 1
hold of by Christian hands and baptized.
Pliny relates the story of Epimenides the e
poet, who, when tending his sheep one hot d
wearied and oppressed with slumber, retrea
into a cave, where he fell asleep. After fifty-se
years he awoke, and found every thing chan
His brother, whom he had left a stripling,
now a hoary man.
Epimenides was reckoned one of the seven sages
by those who exclude Periander. He flourished
in the time of Solon. After his death, at the age
of two hundred and eighty-nine, he was revered
as a God, and honoured especially by the At
nians,
The Seven Sleepers of Epliesits 105
This story is a version of the older legend of the
perpetual sleep of the shepherd Endymion, who
was thus preserved in unfading youth and beauty
by Jupiter.
According to an Arabic legend, S. George thrice
rose from his grave, and was thrice slain.
In Scandinavian mythology we have Siegfrid or
Sigurd thus resting, and awaiting his call to come
forth and fight. Charlemagne sleeps in the Oden-
berg in Hess, or in the Untersberg near Salzburg,
seated on his throne, with his crown on his head
and his sword at his side, waiting till the times of
Antichrist are fulfilled, when he will wake and
burst forth to avenge the blood of the saints.
Ogier the Dane, or Olger Dansk, will in like
manner shake off his slumber and come forth from
the dream-land of Avallon to avenge the right oh
that he had shown himself in the Schleswig-
Holstein war!
Well do I remember, as a child, contemplating
with wondering awe the great Kyffhauserberg in
Thuringia, for therein, I was told, slept Frederic
Barbarossa and his six knights. A shepherd once
penetrated into the heart of the mountain by a
cave, and discovered therein a hall where sat the
Emperor at a stone table, and his red beard had
106 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
grown through the slab. At the tread of the
shepherd, Frederic awoke from his slumber, and
asked, "Do the ravens still fly over the moun-
tains ?"
" Sire ! they do."
" Then we must sleep another hundred years."
But when his beard has wound itself thrice
round the table, then will the Emperor awake witl
his knights, and rush forth to release Germany froi
its bondage, and exalt it to the first place amon|
the kingdoms of Europe.
In Switzerland slumber three Tells at Riitl
near the Vierwaldstatter-see, waiting for the hou)
of their country's direst need. A shepherd crept
into the cave where they rest. The third Tell ros<
and asked the time. " Noon," replied the shephen
lad. "The time is not yet come," said Tell, an<
lay down again.
In Scotland, beneath the Eildon hills, sleej
Thomas of Erceldoune ; the murdered French wh<
fell in the Sicilian Vespers at Palermo, are ali
slumbering till the time is come when they may
wake to avenge themselves. When Constantinopl<
fell into the hands of the Turks, a priest was
celebrating the sacred mysteries at the great silver
altar of S. Sophia. The celebrant cried to God to
The Seven Sleepers of ' Ephesns 107
protect the sacred host from profanation. Then
the wall opened, and he entered, bearing the Blessed
Sacrament. It closed on him, and there he is
sleeping with his head bowed before the Body of
Our Lord, waiting till the Turk is cast out of
Constantinople, and S. Sophia is released from its
profanation. God speed the time !
In Bohemia sleep three miners deep in the heart
of the Kuttenberg. In North America, Ripp Van
Winkle passed twenty years slumbering in the
Katskill mountains. In Spain, Boabdil el Chico,
the last Arab king of Granada, is said to lie spell-
bound in the mountains close to the Alhambra.
In Arabia, the prophet Elijah waits till he is called
forth in the days of Antichrist. In Ireland, Brian
Boroimhe slumbers, waiting till a Fenian insurrec-
tion promising action and not talk summons him
to his country's aid. In Wales, the legend of
Arthur still dreaming through a long sleep in
Avillon, has not died out In Servia, Knez Lazar,
who fell in battle against the Turks in the fight of
Kossowa, in 1389, is expected to re-appear one day.
A similar hope of the return of James IV. lasted
for more than a hundred years after Flodden was
fought. In Portugal it is believed that Sebas-
tian, the chivalrous young monarch who did his
108 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
best to ruin his country by his rash invasion of .
Morocco, is sleeping somewhere, but he will wake
again to be his country's deliverer in the hour of
need. Olaf Tryggvason is waiting a similar occa-
sion in Norway. Even Napoleon Bonaparte is
believed among some of the French peasantry to
be sleeping on in a like manner.
S. Hippolytus relates that S. John the Divine is
slumbering at Ephesus, and Sir John Mandevill
relates the circumstances as follows : " Fro
Pathmos men gone unto Ephesim, a fair citee an
nyghe to the see. And there dyede Seynte Johne,
and was buryed behynde the highe Awtiere, in a
toumbe. And there is a faire chirche. For
Christene mene weren wont to holden that pla
alweyes. And in the tombe of Seynt John
noughte but manna, that is clept Aungeles met
For his body was translated into Paradys. An
Turkes holden now alle that place and t
citee and the Chirche. And all Asie the lesse
yclept Turkye. And ye shalle undrestond, tha
Seynt Johne bid make his grave there in his Lyf,
and leyd himself there-inne all quyk. And there-
fore somme men seyn, that he dyed noughte, but
that he resteth there till the Day of Doom. And
forsoothe there is a gret marveule : For men may
.le
:
le,
a
or
\
nd
lat
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus 109
see there the erthe of the tombe apertly many
tymes steren and moven, as there weren quykke
thinges undre." The connexion of this legend of
S. John with Ephesus may have had something to
do with turning the seven martyrs of that city into
seven sleepers.
The annals of Iceland relate that in 1403, a Finn
of the name of Fethmingr, living in Halogaland, in
the North of Norway, happening to enter a cave,
fell asleep, and woke not for three whole years,
lying with his bow and arrows at his side, un-
touched by bird or beast.
There certainly are authentic accounts of persons
having slept for an extraordinary length of time,
but I shall not mention any, as I believe the legend
we are considering, not to have been an exaggera-
tion of facts, but a Christianized myth of paganism.
The fact of the number seven being so prominent
in many of the tales, seems to lead to this con-
clusion. Barbarossa changes his position every
seven years. Charlemagne starts in his chair at
similar intervals. Olger Dansk stamps his iron
mace on the floor once every seven years. Olaf
Redbeard in Sweden uncloses his eyes at precisely
the same distances of time.
I believe that the mythological core of this
110 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
picturesque legend is the repose of the earth
through the seven winter months. In the North
Frederic and Charlemagne certainly replace Odin.
The German and Scandinavian still heathen
legends represent the heroes as about to issue
forth for the defence of Fatherland in the hour of
direst need. The converted and Christianized tale
brings the martyr youths forth in the hour when
heresy is afflicting the Church, that they m
destroy the heresy by their witness to the truth
the Resurrection.
If there is something majestic in the heath*
myth, there is singular grace and beauty in tl
Christian tale, teaching as it does such a glorioi
doctrine ; but it is surpassed in delicacy by tl
modern form which the same myth has a<
sumed a form which is a real transformation,
leaving the doctrine taught the same. It has
been made into a romance by Hoffman, and is
versified by Trinius. I may perhaps be allowed
to translate with some freedom the poem of the
latter :
In an ancient shaft of Falum,
Year by year a body lay,
God-preserved, as though a treasure,
Kept unto the waking day.
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus 111
Not the turmoil, nor the passions,
Of the busy world o'erhead,
Sounds of war, or peace rejoicings,
Could disturb the placid dead.
Once a youthful miner, whistling,
Hew'd the chamber, now his tomb,
Crash ! the rocky fragments tumbled,
Closed him in abysmal gloom.
Sixty years pass'd by, ere miners
Toiling, hundred fathoms deep,
Broke upon the shaft where rested
That poor miner in his sleep.
As the gold-grains lie untarnish'd
In the dingy soil and sand,
Till they gleam and flicker, stainless,
In the digger's sifting hand ;
As the gem in virgin brilliance
Rests, till usher'd into day ;
So uninjured, uncorrupted,
Fresh and fair the body lay.
And the miners bore it upward,
Laid it in the yellow sun,
Up, from out the neighb'ring houses,
Fast the curious peasants run.
"Who is he?" with eyes they question .
"Who is he 1" they ask aloud :
Hush ! a wizen'd hag comes hobbling,
Panting through the wond'ring crowd.
112 The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
Oh ! the cry half joy, half sorrow
As she flings her at his side,
" John ! the sweetheart of my girlhood.
Here am I, am I, thy bride.
" Time on thee has left no traces,
Death from wear has shielded thee ;
I am aged, worn, and wasted,
Oh ! what life has done to me ! "
Then, his smooth unfurrow'd forehead
Kiss'd that ancient withered crone ;
And the Death which had divided,
Now united them in one.
ft&illtam
T SUPPOSE that most people regard the story
1 of Tell and the apple as an historical event.;
and with corresponding interest, when they under-
take the regular Swiss round, visit the market-
place of Altorf, where is pointed out the site of the
lime-tree to which Tell's child was bound, and
contemplate the plaster statue which is asserted
to mark the spot where Tell stood to take aim.
Once, moreover, there stood another monument
erected near Lucerne in commemoration of this
event, a wooden obelisk, painted to look like
granite, surmounted by a rosy-cheeked apple
transfixed by a golden arrow. This gingerbread
memorial of bad taste has perished, struck by
lightning. We shall in the following pages de-
molish the very story which that erection was
intended to commemorate.
I
114 William Tell
It is one of the painful duties of the antiquarian
to dispel many a popular belief, and to probe the
groundlessness of many a historical statement.
The antiquarian is sometimes disposed to ask with
Pilate, " What is truth ? " when he finds historical
facts crumbling beneath his touch into mythological
fables ; and he soon learns to doubt and question
the most emphatic declarations of, and claims to,
reliability.
Sir Walter Raleigh, in his prison, was composii
the second volume of his history of the worl
Leaning on the sill of his window, he meditated
the duties of the historian to mankind, when su<
denly his attention was attracted by a disturbance
in the court-yard before his cell. He saw one man
strike another whom he supposed by his dress to
be an officer ; the latter at once drew his sword
and ran the former through the body. The
wounded man felled his adversary with a stick,
and then sank upon the pavement. At this junc-
ture the guard came up and carried off the officer
insensible, and then the corpse of the man who had
been run through.
Next day Raleigh was visited by an intimate
friend, to whom he related the circumstances of
the quarrel and its issue. To his astonishment,
William Tell 115
his friend unhesitatingly declared that the prisoner
had mistaken the whole series of incidents which
had passed before his eyes.
The supposed officer was not an officer at all,
but the servant of a foreign ambassador ; . it was he
who had dealt the first blow ; he had not drawn
his sword, but the other had snatched it from his
side, and had run him through the body before
any one could interfere ; whereupon a stranger
from among the crowd knocked the murderer down
with his stick, and some of the foreigners belonging
to the ambassador's retinue carried off the corpse.
The friend of Raleigh added that government haa
ordered the arrest and immediate trial of the mur-
derer, as the man assassinated was one of the
principal servants of the Spanish ambassador.
" Excuse me," said Raleigh, " but I cannot have
been deceived as you suppose, for I was eye-witness
to the events which took place under my own
window, and the man fell there on that spot
where you see a paving-stone standing up above
the rest."
" My dear Raleigh," replied his friend, " I was
sitting on that stone when the fray took place,
and I received this slight scratch on my cheek in
snatching the sword from the murderer, and upon
I 2
116 William Tell
my word of honour, you have been deceived upon
every particular."
Sir Walter, when alone, took up the second
volume of his history, which was in MS., and con-
templating it, thought "If I cannot believe my
own eyes, how can I be assured of the truth of a
tithe of the events which happened ages before I
was born ? " and he flung the manuscript into the
fire 1 .
Now I think that I can show that the story
William Tell and the apple is as fabulous as wl
shall I say ? many another historical event.
It is almost too well known to need repetition.
In the year 1307, Gessler, Vogt of the Empei
Albert of Hapsburg, set a hat on a pole, as symbol
of imperial power, and ordered every one who
passed by to do obeisance towards it. A moun-
taineer of the name of Tell boldly traversed the
space before it without saluting the abhorred
symbol. By Gessler's command he was at once
seized and brought before him. As Tell was
known to be an expert archer, he was ordered, by
1 This anecdote is taken from the Journal de Paris, May,
1787; which derived it from "Letters on Literature, by
Robert Heron" (i. e. John Pinkerton, F.A.S.), 1785. But
whence did Pinkerton obtain it ?
William Tell 117
way of punishment, to shoot an apple off the head
of his own son. Finding remonstrance vain, he
submitted. The apple was placed on the child's
head, Tell bent his bow, the arrow sped, and apple
and arrow fell together to the ground. But the
Vogt noticed that Tell, before shooting, had stuck
another arrow into his belt, and he inquired the
reason.
" It was for you," replied the sturdy archer.
" Had I shot my child, know that it would not
have missed your heart."
This event, observe, took place in the beginning
of the fourteenth century. But Saxo Gramma-
ticus, a Danish writer of the twelfth century, tells
the story of a hero of his own country, who lived
in the tenth century. He relates the incident in
horrible style as follows :
" Nor ought what follows to be enveloped in
silence. Toki, who had for some time been in the
king's service, had by his deeds, surpassing those of
his comrades, made enemies of his virtues. One
day, when he had drunk too much, he boasted to
those who sat at table with him, that his -skill in
archery was such, that with the first shot of an
arrow he could hit the smallest apple set on the
top of a stick at a considerable distance. His
118 William Tell
detractors, hearing this, lost no time in conveying
what he had said to the king (Harald Bluetooth).
But the wickedness of this monarch soon trans-
formed the confidence of the father to the jeopardy
of the son, for he ordered the dearest pledge of his
life to stand in place of the stick, from whom, if
the utterer of the boast did not at his first shot
strike down the apple, he should with his head pay
the penalty of having made an idle boast, The
command of the king urged the soldier to do this
which was so much more than he had undertak<
the detracting artifices of the others having tal
advantage of words spoken when he was hard]
sober. As soon as the boy was led forth, Toki
carefully admonished him to receive the whir of
the arrow as calmly as possible, with attentive
ears, and without moving his head, lest by a slight
motion of the body he should frustrate the expe-
rience of his well-tried skill. He also made him
stand with his back towards him, lest he should be
frightened at the sight of the arrow. Then he
drew three arrows from his quiver, and the very
first he shot struck the proposed mark. Toki
being asked by the king why he had taken so
many more arrows out of his quiver, when he
was to make but one trial with his bow ; ' That I
William Tell 119
might avenge on thee,' he replied, ' the error of
the first, by the points of the others, lest my inno-
cence might happen to be afflicted, and thy in-
justice go unpunished.'"
The same incident is told of Egil, brother of the
mythical Velundr, in the Saga of Thidrik.
In Norwegian history also it appears with varia-
tions again and again. It is told of King Olaf the
Saint (d. 1030), that, desiring the conversion of a
brave heathen named Eindridi, he competed with
him in various athletic sports ; he swam with him,
wrestled, and then shot with him. The king dared
Eindridi to strike a writing-tablet from off his son's
head with an arrow. Eindridi prepared to attempt
the difficult shot The king bade two men bind
the eyes of the child and hold the napkin, so that
he might not move when he heard the whistle of
the arrow. The king aimed first, and the arrow
grazed the lad's head. Eindridi then prepared to
shoot, but the mother of the boy interfered, and
persuaded the king to abandon this dangerous test
of skill. In this version also, Eindridi is prepared
to revenge himself on the king, should the child be
injured,
But a closer approximation still to the Tell myth
is found in. the life of Hemingr, another Norse
120 William Tell
archer who was challenged by King Harald,
Sigurd's son (d. 1066). The story is thus told :
" The island was densely overgrown with wood,
and the people went into the forest. The king
took a spear and set it with its point in the soil,
then he laid an arrow on the string and shot up
into the air. The arrow turned in the air and came
down upon the spear-shaft and stood up in it.
Hemingr took another arrow and shot up ; his
lost to sight for some while, but it came back
pierced the nick of the king's arrow Th<
the king took a knife and stuck it into an oak ;
next drew his bow and planted an arrow in
haft of the knife. Thereupon Hemingr took his
arrows. The king stood by him and said, ' They
are all inlaid with gold, you are a capital workman.'
Hemingr answered, ' They are not my manufacture,
but are presents.' He shot, and his arrow cleft
the haft, and the point entered the socket of the
blade.
" ' We must have a keener contest,' said the king,
taking an arrow and flushing with anger ; then he
laid the arrow on the string and drew his bow to
the farthest, so that the horns were nearly brought
to meet. Away flashed the arrow, and pierced a
tender twig. All said that this was a most asto-
William Tell 12]
nishing feat of dexterity. But Hemingr shot from
a greater distance, and split a hazel nut All were
astonished to see this. Then said the king, ' Take
a nut and set it on the head of your brother Bjorn,
and aim at it from precisely the same distance. If
you miss the mark, then your life goes.'
" Hemingr answered, f Sire, my life is at your
disposal, but I will not adventure that shot.' Then
out spake Bjorn, ' Shoot, brother, rather than die
yourself.' Hemingr said, ' Have you the pluck to
stand quite still without shrinking?' 'I will do
my best/ said Bjorn. 'Then let the king stand
by,' said Hemingr, 'and let him see whether I touch
the nut.'
" The king agreed, and bade Oddr Ufeig's son stand
by Bjorn, and see that the shot was fair. Hemingr
then went to the spot fixed for him by the king,
and signed himself with the cross, saying, ' God be
my witness that I had rather die myself than
injure my brother Bjorn ; let all the blame rest
on King Harald.'
" Then Hemingr flung his spear. The spear
went straight to the mark, and passed between the
nut and the crown of the lad, who was not in the
least injured. It flew further, and stopped not till
it fell.
122 William Tell
" Then the king came up and asked Oddr what
he thought about the shot."
Years after, this risk was revenged upon the
hard-hearted monarch. In the battle of Stamford-
bridge an arrow from a skilled archer penetrated th<
windpipe of the king, and it is supposed to have sped,
observes the Saga writer, from the bow of Hemingr,
then in the service of the English monarch.
The story is related somewhat differently in th<
Faroe Isles, and is told of Geyti, Aslak's son. Th<
same Harald asks his men if they know who is hi.'
match in strength. " Yes," they reply, " there is
peasant's son in the uplands, Geyti, son of Aslak,
who is the strongest of men." Forth goes the king,
and at last rides up to the house of Aslak. " An<
where is your youngest son ?"
" Alas ! alas ! he lies under the green sod
Kolrin kirkgarth." " Come, then, and show me
his corpse, old man, that I may judge whether h<
was as stout of limb as men say."
The father puts the king off with the excuse that
among so many dead it would be hard to find his
boy. So the king rides away over the heath. H<
meets a stately man returning from the chase, witl
a bow over his shoulder. "And who art thou,
friend?" "Geyti, Aslak's son." The dead man,
William Tell
in short, alive and well. The king tells him he has
heard of his prowess, and is come to match his
strength with him. So Geyti and the king try a
swimming-match.
The king swims well, but Geyti swims better,
and in the end gives the monarch such a ducking,
that he is borne to his house devoid of sense and
motion. Harald swallows his anger, as he had
swallowed the water, and bids Geyti shoot a hazel
nut from off his brother's head. Aslak's son con-
sents, and invites the king into the forest to witness
his dexterity.
" On the string the shaft he laid,
And God hath heard his prayer ;
He shot the little nut away,
Nor hurt the lad a hair."
Next day the king sends for the skilful bowman :
" List thee, Geyti, Aslak's son,
And truly tell to me,
Wherefore hadst thou arrows twain
In the wood yestreen with thee ?"
The bowman replies :
" Therefore had I arrows twain
Yestreen in the wood with me,
Had I but hurt my brother dear,
The other had pierced thee 2 ,"
3 Oxonian in Iceland, p. 15.
124 William Tell
A very similar tale is told also in the celebrated
Malleus Maleficarum of a man named Puncher,
with this difference, that a coin is placed on the
lad's head instead of an apple or a nut. The
person who had dared Puncher to the test of skill,
inquires the use of the second arrow in his belt, and
receives the usual answer, that if the first arrow
had missed the coin, the second would have trans-
fixed a certain heart which was destitute of natural
feeling.
We have, moreover, our English version of the
same story in the venerable ballad of William of
Cloudsley.
The Finn ethnologist Castren obtained the fol-
lowing tale in the Finnish village of Uhtuwa :
A fight took place between some freebooters and
the inhabitants of the village of Alajarwi. The
robbers plundered every house, and carried off
amongst their captives an old man. As they pro-
ceeded with their spoils along the strand of the
lake, a lad of twelve years old appeared from
among the reeds on the opposite bank, armed with
a bow, and amply provided with arrows ; he
threatened to shoot down the captors unless the
old man, his father, were restored to him. The
robbers mockingly replied, that the aged man
William Tell 125
would be given to him, if he could shoot an apple
off his head. The boy accepted the challenge, and
on successfully accomplishing it the surrender of
the venerable captive was made.
Farid-Uddin Attar was a Persian dealer in
perfumes, born in the year 1119. He one day was
so impressed with the sight of a dervish, that he
sold his possessions and followed righteousness.
He composed the poem Mantic Utta'ir, or the
language of birds. Observe, the Persian Attar
lived at the same time as the Danish Saxo, and
long before the birth of Tell. Curiously enough
we find a trace of the Tell myth in the pages of
his poem. According to him, however, the king
shoots the apple from the head of a beloved page,
and the lad dies from sheer fright, though the
arrow does not even graze his skin.
The coincidence of finding so many versions of
the same story scattered through countries as
remote as Persia and Iceland, Switzerland and
Denmark, proves I think that it can in no way be
regarded as history, but is rather one of the
numerous household myths common to the whole
stock of Aryan nations. Probably, some one more
acquainted with Sanskrit literature than myself,
and with better access to its unpublished stores of
William Tell
fable and legend, will some day light on an early
Indian tale corresponding to that so prevalent
among other branches of the same family. The
coincidence of the Tell myth being discovered
among the Finns is attributable to Russian or
Swedish influence. I do not regard it as a
primeval Turanian, but as an Aryan story, which,
like an erratic block, is found deposited on foreign
soil far from the mountain whence it was torn.
Mythologists will, I suppose, consider the myth
to represent the manifestation of some natural
phenomena, and the individuals of the story
to be impersonifications of natural forces. Most
primeval stories were thus constructed, and their
origin is traceable enough. In Thorn-rose, for
instance, who can fail to see the earth goddess re-
presented by the sleeping beauty in her long winter
slumber, only returning to life when kissed by the
golden-haired sun-god Phoebus or Baldur ? But the
Tell myth has not its signification thus painted on
the surface, and though it is possible that Gessler
or Harald may be the power of evil and darkness,
arid the bold archer the storm-cloud with his
arrow of lightning and his iris bow, bent against
the sun, which is resting like a coin or a golden
apple on the edge of the horizon, yet we have no
William Tell 127
guarantee that such an interpretation is not an
overstraining of a theory.
In these pages and elsewhere I have shown how
some of the ancient myths related by the whole
Aryan family of nations are reducible to allegori-
cal explanations of certain well-known natural
phenomena ; but I must protest against the manner
in which our German friends fasten rapaciously
upon every atom of history, sacred and profane,
and demonstrate all heroes to represent the sun,
all villains to be the demons of night or winter ; all
sticks and spears and arrows to be the lightning,
all cows and sheep and dragons and swans to be
clouds.
In a work on the superstition of Werewolves, I
have entered into this subject with some fulness,
and am quite prepared to admit the premises upon
which mythologists construct their theories ; at the
same time I am not disposed to run to the ex-
travagant lengths reached by some of the most
enthusiastic German scholars. A wholesome
warning to these gentlemen was given some years
ago by an ingenious French ecclesiastic, who wrote
the following argument to prove that Napoleon
Bonaparte was a mythological character. Arch-
bishop Whately's " Historic Doubts " was grounded
128 William Tell
on a totally different line of argument ; I subjoin
the other, as a curiosity and as a caution.
Napoleon is, says the writer, an impersoniflca-
tion of the sun.
1. Between the name Napoleon and Apollo,
or Apoleon, the god of the sun, there is but
a trifling difference ; indeed the seeming difference
is lessened, if we take the spelling of his name
from the column of the Place Vendome, when
it stands Neapoleo. But this syllable Ne prefix<
to the name of the sun-god is of importance ; lik<
the rest of the name it is of Greek origin, and is
vt) or vcu, a particle of affirmation, as though in-
dicating Napoleon as the very true Apollo, or
sun.
His other name, Bonaparte, makes this apparent
connexion between the French hero and the
luminary of -the firmament conclusively certain.
The day has its two parts, the good and luminous
portion, and that which is bad and dark. To the
sun belongs the good part, to the moon and stars
belongs the bad portion. It is therefore natural
that Apollo or Ne-Apoleon should receive the
surname of Bonaparte.
2. Apollo was born in Delos, a Mediterranean
island ; Napoleon in Corsica, an island in the same
William Tell
sea. According to Pausanias, Apollo was an
Egyptian deity ; and in the mythological history
of the fabulous Napoleon we find the hero in
Egypt, regarded by the inhabitants with venera-
tion, and receiving their homage.
3. The mother of Napoleon was said to be
Letitia, which signifies joy, and is an impersonifi-
cation of the dawn of light dispensing joy and
gladness to all creation. Letitia is no other than
the break of day, which in a manner brings the
sun into the world, and " with rosy fingers opes the
gates of Day." It is significant that the Greek
name for the mother of Apollo was Leto. From
this the Romans made the name Latona which
they gave to his mother. But Lceto is the unused
form of the verb lator, and signified to inspire joy ;
it is from this unused form that the substantive
Letitia is derived. The identity, then, of the mother
of Napoleon with the Greek Leto and the Latin
Latona, is established conclusively.
4. According to the popular story, this son of
Letitia had three sisters, and was it not the same
with the Greek deity, who had the three Graces ?
5. The modern Gallic Apollo had four brothers.
It is impossible not to discern here the anthropo-
morphosis of the four seasons. But, it will be
K
130 William Tell
objected, the seasons should be females. Here the
French language interposes ; for in French the
seasons are masculine, with the exception of autumn,
upon the gender of which grammarians are un-
decided, whilst Autumnus in Latin is not more
feminine than the other seasons. This difficulty is
therefore trifling, and what follows removes all
shadow of doubt.
Of the four brothers of Napoleon, three are
to have been kings, and these of course are, Sprii
reigning over the flowers, Summer reigning 01
the harvest, Autumn holding sway over the fruil
And as these three seasons owe all to the power
influence of the Sun, we are told in the popuk
myth that the three brothers of Napoleon dn
their authority from him, and received from him
their kingdoms. But if it be added that, of the
four brothers of Napoleon, one was not a king, that
was because he is the impersonification of Winter,
which has no reign over any thing. If however it
be asserted, in contradiction, that the winter has an
empire, he will be given the principality over snows
and frosts, which, in the dreary season of the year,
whiten the face of the earth. Well ! the fourth
brother of Napoleon is thus invested by popular
tradition, commonly called history, with a vain prin-
William Tell 131
cipality accorded to him in the decline of the power
of Napoleon. The principality was that of Canino,
a name derived from cani, or the whitened hairs
of a frozen old age, true emblem of winter. To
the eyes of poets, the forests covering the hills are
their hair, and when winter frosts them, they
represent the snowy locks of a decrepit nature in
the old age of the year :
" Cum gelidus crescit canis in montibus humor."
Consequently the Prince of Canino is an impersoni-
fication of winter ; winter whose reign begins
when the kingdoms of the three fine seasons are
passed from them, and when the sun is driven
from his power by the children of the North, as
the poets call the boreal winds. This is the origin
of the fabulous invasion of France by the allied
armies of the North. The story relates that these
invaders the northern gales banished the many-
coloured flag, and replaced it by a white standard.
This too is a graceful, but, at the same time, purely
fabulous account of the Northern winds driving all
the brilliant colours from the face of the soil, to
replace them by the snowy sheet.
6. Napoleon is said to have had two wives. It is
well known that the classic fable gave two also to
K 2
132 William Tell
Apollo. These two were the moon and the earth.
Plutarch asserts that the Greeks gave the moon to
Apollo for wife, whilst the Egyptians attributed to
him the earth. By the moon he had no posterity,
but by the other he had one son only, the little
Horus. This is an Egyptian allegory representing
the fruits of agriculture produced by the earth ferti-
lized by the Sun. The pretended son of the fabu-
lous Napoleon is said to have been born on the 2Otl
of March, the season of the spring equinox, wh<
agriculture is assuming its greatest period of activil
7, Napoleon is said to have released France from
the devastating scourge which terrorized over the
country, the hydra of the revolution, as it was
popularly called. Who cannot see in this a Gallic
version of the Greek legend of Apollo releasing
Hellas from the terrible Python ? The very name
revolution, derived from the Latin verb revolvo,
is indicative of the coils of a serpent like the
Python.
8. The famous hero of the I9th century had, it
is asserted, twelve Marshals at the head of his
armies, and four who were stationary and inactive.
The twelve first, as may be seen at once, are the
signs of the zodiac, marching under the orders of the
sun Napoleon, and each commanding a division of
William Tell 133
the innumerable host of stars, which are parted
into twelve portions, corresponding to the twelve
signs. As for the four stationary officers, im-
movable in the midst of general motion, they are
the cardinal points.
9. It is currently reported that the chief of these
brilliant armies, after having gloriously traversed
the Southern kingdoms, penetrated the North, and
was there unable to maintain his sway. This too
represents the course of the Sun, which assumes
its greatest power in the South, but after the spring
equinox seeks to reach the North, and after a
three months march towards the boreal regions, is
driven back upon his traces, following the sign of
Cancer, a sign given to represent the retrogression
of the sun in that portion of the sphere. It is on
this that the story of the march of Napoleon towards
Moscow, and his humbling retreat, is founded.
jo. Finally, the sun rises in the East and sets in
the Western sea. The poets picture him rising out
of the waters in the East, and setting in the ocean
after his twelve hours' reign in the sky. Such is the
history of Napoleon coming from his Mediterranean
isle, holding the reins of government for twelve
years, and finally disappearing in the mysterious
regions of the great Atlantic.
Bog (foellert
HAVING demolished the story of the famot
shot of William Tell, I proceed to tl
destruction of another article of popular belief.
Who that has visited Snowdon has not seen tl
grave of Llewellyn's faithful hound Gellert,
been told by the guide the touching story of tl
death of the noble animal ? How can we doubt the
facts, seeing that the place, Beth-Gellert, is named
after the dog, and that the grave is still visible ?
But unfortunately for the truth of the legend, its
pedigree can be traced with the utmost precision.
The story is as follows :
The Welsh Prince Llewellyn had a noble deer-
hound, Gellert, whom he trusted to watch the cradle
of his baby son whilst he himself was absent.
One day, on his return, to his intense horror, he
beheld the cradle empty and upset, the clothes
The Dog Gellert 135
dabbled with blood, and Gellert's mouth dripping
with gore. Concluding hastily that the hound had
proved unfaithful, had fallen on the child and
devoured it, in a paroxysm of rage the prince
drew his sword and slew the dog. Next instant
the cry of the babe from behind the cradle showed
him that the child was uninjured, and, on looking
further, Llewellyn discovered the body of a huge
wolf, which had entered the house to seize and
devour the child, but which had been kept off and
killed by the brave dog Gellert.
In his self-reproach and grief, the prince erected
a stately monument to Gellert, and called the
place where he was buried after the poor hound's
name.
Now, I find in Russia precisely the same story
told, with just the same appearance of truth, of a
Czar Piras. In Germany it appears with consider-
able variations. A man determines on slaying his
old dog Sultan, and consults with his wife how this
is to be effected. Sultan overhears the conversa-
tion, and complains bitterly to the wolf, who
suggests an ingenious plan by which the master
may be induced to spare his dog. Next day,
when the man is going to his work, the wolf
undertakes to carry off the child from its cradle
136 The Dog Gellert
Sultan is to attack him and rescue the infant. The
plan succeeds admirably, and the dog spends his
remaining years in comfort. (Grimm, K. M. 48.)
But there is a story in closer conformity to that
of Gellert among the French collections of fabliaux
made by Le Grand d'Aussy and Edelestand du
Meril. It became popular through the " Gesl
Romanorum," a collection of tales made by tl
monks for harmless reading, in the fourteent
century.
In the " Gesta " the tale is told as follows :-
" Folliculus, a knight, was fond of hunting ai
tournaments. He had an only son, for whoi
three nurses were provided. Next to this child,
loved his falcon and his greyhound. It happen*
one day that he was called to a tournament, whithe
his wife and domestics went also, leaving the chi]
in the cradle, the greyhound lying by him, and
falcon on his perch. A serpent that inhabited a
hole near the castle, taking advantage of the pro-
found silence that reigned, crept from his habita-
tion, and advanced towards the cradle to devour
the child. The falcon perceiving the danger, flut-
tered with his wings till he awoke the dog, who
instantly attacked the invader, and after a fierce
conflict, in which he was sorely wounded, killed
The Dog Gellert 137
him. He then lay down on the ground to lick and
heal his wounds. When the nurses returned, they
found the cradle overturned, the child thrown out,
and the ground covered with blood, as was also
the dog, who they immediately concluded had
killed the child.
" Terrified at the idea of meeting the anger of
the parents, they determined to escape ; but in
their flight fell in with their mistress, to whom they
were compelled to relate the supposed murder of
the child by the greyhound. The knight soon
arrived to hear the sad story, and, maddened with
fury, rushed forward to the spot. The poor wounded
and faithful animal made an effort to rise and wel-
come his master with his accustomed fondness, but
the enraged knight received him on the point of
his sword, and he fell lifeless to the ground. On
examination of the cradle, the infant was found alive,
and unhurt, with the dead serpent lying by him.
The knight now perceived what had happened,
lamented bitterly over his faithful dog, and blamed
himself for having too hastily depended on the
words of his wife. Abandoning the profession
>f arms, he broke his lance in pieces, and vowed a
>ilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he spent the
ist of his days in peace."
138 The Dog Gellert
The monkish hit at the wife is amusing, and
might have been supposed to have originated with
those determined misogynists, as the gallant Welsh-
men lay all the blame on the man. But the good
compilers of the "Gesta" wrote little of their own, ex-
cept moral applications of the tales they relate, and
the story of Folliculus and his dog, like many others
in their collection, is drawn from a foreign source.
It occurs in the Seven Wise Masters, and in th<
" Calumnia Novercalis " as well, so that it must
have been popular throughout Mediaeval Europe.
Now the tales of the Seven Wise Masters an
translations from a Hebrew work, the Kalilah and
Dimnah of Rabbi Joel, composed about A.D. 1350,
or from Symeon Seth's Greek Kylile and Dimne,
written in 1080. These Greek and Hebrew works
were derived from kindred sources. That of Rabbi
Joel was a translation from an Arabic version made
by Nasr- Allah in the twelfth century, whilst Simeon
Seth's was a translation of the Persian Kalilah and
Dimnah. But the Persian Kalilah and Dimnah
was not either an original work, it was in turn a
translation from the Sanskrit Pantschatantra, made
about A.D. 540.
In this ancient Indian book the story runs as
follows
The Dog Gdlert 139
A Brahmin named Devasaman had a wife, who
gave birth to a son, and also to an ichneumon.
She loved both her children dearly, giving them
alike the breast, and anointing them alike with
salves. But she feared the ichneumon might not
love his brother.
One day, having laid her boy in bed, she took
up the water jar, and said to her husband, " Hear
me, master ! I am going to the tank to fetch water.
Whilst I am absent watch the boy, lest he gets
injured by the ichneumon." After she had left the
house, the Brahmin went forth begging, leaving the
house empty. In crept a black snake, and at-
tempted to bite the child ; but the ichneumon
rushed at it, and tore it in pieces. Then proud of
its achievement, it sallied forth, all bloody, to meet
its mother. She, seeing the creature stained with
blood, concluded, with feminine precipitance, that it
had fallen on the baby and killed it, and she flung
her water jar at it and slew it. Only on her return
home did she ascertain her mistake.
The same story is also told in the Hitopadesa
(iv. 13), but the animal is an otter, not an ich-
neumon. In the Arabic version a weasel takes
the place of the ichneumon.
The Buddist missionaries carried the story into
140 The Dog Gellert
Mongolia, and in the Mongolian Uligerun, which
is a translation of the Tibetian Dsanghm, the
story reappears with the pole-cat as the brave an
suffering defender of the child.
Stanislaus Julien, the great Chinese scholar, h
discovered the same tale in the Chinese wor
entitled, "The Forest of Pearls from the Garden
of the Law." This work dates from 668 ; and i
it the creature is an ichneumon.
In the Persian Sindibad-nameh, is the same tal
but the faithful animal is a cat. In Sandabar an
Syntipas it has become a dog. Through th
influence of Sandabar on the Hebrew translatio
of the Kalilah and Dimnah, the ichneumon is als
replaced by a dog.
Such is the history of the Gellert legend ; it i
an introduction into Europe from India, every ste
of its transmission being clearly demonstrabl
From the Gesta Romanorum it passed into
popular tale throughout Europe, and in differen
countries it was, like the Tell myth, localized an
individualized. Many a Welsh story, such as tho
contained in the Mabinogion, are as easily trace
to an Eastern origin.
But every story has its root. The root of th
Gellert tale is this : A man forms an alliance
The Dog Gellert 141
friendship with a beast or bird. The dumb animal
renders him a signal service. He misunderstands
the act, and kills his preserver.
We have tracked this myth under the Gellert
form from India to Wales ; but under another
form it is the property of the whole Aryan family,
and forms a portion of the traditional lore of all
nations sprung from that stock.
Thence arose the classic fable of the peasant,
who, as he slept, was bitten by a fly. He awoke,
and in a rage killed the insect. When too late he
observed that the little creature had aroused him
that he might avoid a snake which lay coiled up
near his pillow.
In the Anvar-i-Suhaili is the following kindred
tale. A king had a falcon. One day, whilst
hunting, he filled a goblet with water dropping
from a rock. As he put the vessel to his lips, his
falcon dashed upon it, and upset it with its wings.
The king, in a fury, slew the bird, and then dis-
covered that the water dripped from the jaws of a
serpent of the most poisonous description.
This story, with some variations, occurs in ^Esop,
-/Elian, and Apthonius. In the Greek fable, a
peasant liberates an eagle from the clutches of a
dragon. The dragon spirts poison into the water
142 The Dog Gellert
which the peasant is about to drink, without
observing what the monster had done. The
grateful eagle upsets the goblet with his wings.
The story appears in Egypt under a whimsical
form. A Wali once smashed a pot full of herbs
which a cook had prepared. The exasperated
cook thrashed the well-intentioned but unfortunat
Wali within an inch of his life, and when
returned, exhausted with his efforts at belabourii
the man, to examine the broken pot, he discovei
amongst the herbs a poisonous snake.
How many brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, ai
cousins of all degrees a little story has ! And h<
few of the tales we listen to can lay any claim
originality ? There is scarcely a story which
hear, which I cannot connect with some family of
myths, and whose pedigree I cannot ascertain with
more or less precision. Shakespeare drew the
plots of his plays from Boccaccio or Straparola ;
but these Italians did not invent the tales they
lent to the English dramatist. King Lear does
not originate with Geoffry of Monmouth, but comes
from early Indian stores of fable, whence also are
derived the Merchant of Venice and the pound of
flesh, aye ! and the very incident of the three caskets.
But who would credit it, were it not proved by
The Dog Gellert 143
conclusive facts, that Johnny Sands is the inhe-
ritance of the whole Aryan family of nations, and
that Peeping Tom of Coventry peeped in India
and on the Tartar steppes ages before Lady
Godiva was born ?
If you listen to Traviata at the opera, you have
set before you a tale which has lasted for centuries,
and which was perhaps born in India.
If you read in classic fable of Orpheus charm-
ing woods and meadows, beasts and birds, with his
magic lyre, you remember to have seen the same
fable related in the Kalewala of the Finnish Wai-
nomainen, and in the Kaleopoeg of the Esthonian
Kalewa.
If you take up English history and read of
William the Conqueror slipping as he landed on
British soil, and kissing the earth, saying he had
come to greet and claim his own, you remember
that the same story is told of Napoleon in Egypt, of
King Olaf Harald's son in Norway, and in classic
history of Junius Brutus on his return from the oracle.
A little while ago I cut out of a Sussex news-
paper, a story purporting to be the relation of a
fact which had taken place at a fixed date in
Lewes. This was the story. A tyrannical husband
locked the door against his wife, who was out
The Dog Getter t
having tea with a neighbour, gossiping and scandal*
mongering ; when she applied for admittance, he
pretended not to know her. She threatened to
jump into the well unless he opened the door.
The man, not supposing that she would carry her
threat into execution, declined, alleging that he
was in bed, and the night was chilly ; besides
which he entirely disclaimed all acquaintance with
the lady who besought admittance.
The wife then flung a log into a well, am
secreted herself behind the door. The man hearing
the splash, fancied that his good lady was really
in the deeps, and forth he darted in his nocturnal
costume, which was of the lightest, to ascertain
whether his deliverance was complete. At once
the lady darted into the house, locked the door,
and on the husband pleading for admittance, she
declared most solemnly from the window that she
did not know him.
Now this story, I can positively assert, unless
the events of this world move in a circle, did not
happen in Lewes, or any other Sussex town.
It was told in the Gesta Romanorum six
hundred years ago, and it was told, may be, as
many hundred years before in India, for it is still
to be found in Sanskrit collections of tales.
Cailetr Mtn
T WELL remember having it impressed upon
-* me by a Devonshire nurse, as a little child,
that all Cornishmen were born with tails ; and it
was long before I could overcome the prejudice
thus early implanted in my breast against my
Cornubian neighbours. I looked upon those who
dwelt across the Tamar as " uncanny," as being
scarcely to be classed with Christian people, and
certainly not to be freely associated with by tail-
less Devonians. I think my eyes were first opened
to the fact that I had been deceived, by a worthy
bookseller of L , with whom I had contracted
a warm friendship, he having at sundry times con-
tributed pictures to my scrap-book. I remember
one day resolving to broach the delicate subject
L
146 Tailed Men
with my tailed friend, whom I liked, notwith-
standing his caudal appendage.
" Mr. X , is it true that you are a Cornish-
man ? "
" Yes, my little man ; born and bred in the
West country."
" I like you very much ; but have you rea
got a tail?"
When the bookseller had recovered from
astonishment which I had produced by my qu
tion, he stoutly repudiated the charge.
" But you are a Cornishman ?"
"To be sure I am."
" And all Cornishmen have tails."
I believe I satisfied my own mind that the g
man had sat his off, and my nurse assured me
such was the case with those of sedentary habits.
It is curious that Devonshire superstition sho
attribute the tail to Cornishmen, for it was asse
of certain men of Kent in olden times, and
referred to Divine vengeance upon them for havin
insulted S. Thomas a Becket, if we may believe
Polydore Vergil. " There were some," he says,
"to whom it seemed that the king's secret wish
was, that Thomas should be got rid of. He,
indeed, as one accounted to be an enemy of the
Tailed Men 147
king's person, was already regarded with so little
respect, nay, was treated with so much contempt,
that when he came to Strood, which village ii
situated on the Medway, the river that washes
Rochester, the inhabitants of the place, being eager
to show some mark of contumely to the prelate in
his disgrace, did not scruple to cut off the tail of
the horse on which he was riding ; but by this
profane and inhospitable act they covered them-
selves with eternal reproach, for it so happened
after this, by the will of God, that all the offspring
born from the men who had done this thing, were
born with tails like brute animals. But this mark
of infamy, which formerly was every where noto-
rious, has disappeared with the extinction of the
race whose fathers perpetrated this deed."
John Bale, the zealous reformer, and Bishop of
Ossory in Edward VI.'s time, refers to this story,
and also mentions a variation of the sce"ne and
cause of this ignoble punishment. He writes
quoting his authorities, " John Capgrave and Alex-
ander of Esseby sayth, that for castynge of fyshe
tayles at thys Augustyne, Dorsettshyre men had
tayles ever after. But Polydorus applieth it unto
Kentish men at Stroud, by Rochester, for cuttinge
of Thomas Becket's horse's tail. Thus hath
L 2
148 Tailed Men
England in all other land a perpetual infamy of
tayles by theye wrytten legendes of lyes, yet can
they not well tell where to bestowe them truely."
Bale, a fierce and unsparing reformer, and one who
stinted not hard words, applying to the inventors
of these legends an epithet more strong than
elegant, says, " In the legends of their sanctified
sorcerers they have diffamed the English posterity
with tails, as has been showed afore. That an
Englyshman now cannot travayle in another lai
by way of marchandyse or any other honest oc<
pyinge, but it is most contumeliously thrown
his tethe that all Englyshmen have tails,
uncomely note and report have the nation gott(
without recover, by these laisy and idle lubbers,
the monkes and the priestes, which could find no
matters to advance their canonized gains by, or
their saintes, as they call them, but manifest lies
and knaveries V
Andrew Marvel also makes mention of this
strange judgment in his Loyal Scot:
" But who considers right will find indeed,
'Tis Holy Island parts us, not the Tweed.
Nothing but clergy could us two seclude,
No Scotch was ever like a bishop's feud.
Actes of English Votaries.'
Tailed Men 149
All Litanys in this have wanted faith,
There's no Deliver us from a Bishop's wrath.
Never shall Calvin pardon'd be for sales,
Never for Burnet's sake, the Lauderdales ;
For Becket's sake, Kent always shall have tails."
Bailey in his Dictionary, under the head of
" Kentish longtails," endeavours to shift the charge
to Dorsetshire ; and Lambarde, in his " Perambula-
tion of Kent," is equally sensitive on the subject.
Vieyra, the famous Portuguese preacher, says that
Satan was tail-less till his fall, when that appendage
grew to him " as an outward and visible token that
he had lost the rank of an angel, and was fallen to
the level of a brute 2 ."
It may be remembered that Lord Monboddo, a
Scotch judge of last century, and a philosopher
of some repute, though of great eccentricity, stoutly
maintained the theory that man ought to have a
tail, that the tail is a desideratum, and that the
abrupt termination of the spine without caudal
elongation is a sad blemish in the organization of
man. The tail, the point in which man is inferior
to the brute, what a delicate index of the mind it
is ! how it expresses the passions of love and hate,
how nicely it gives token of the feelings of joy or
5 Quarterly Review, No. 244, p. 446.
150 Tailed Men
fear which animate the soul ! But Lord Mon-
boddo did not consider that what the tail is to the
brute, that the eye is to man ; the lack of one
member is supplied by the other. I can tell a
proud man by his eye just as truly as if he stalked
past one with erect tail, and anger is as plainly
depicted in the human eye as in the bottle-brush
tail of a cat. I know a sneak by his cowering
glance, though he has not a tail between his
and pleasure is evident in the laughing eye, withoi
there being any necessity for a wagging brush
express it.
Dr. Johnson paid a visit to the judge, ai
knocked on the head his theory, that men ought to
have tails, and actually were born with them
occasionally, for, said he, " Of a standing fact, sir,
there ought to be no controversy ; if there are mer.
with tails, catch a homo caudatus" And, " It is a
pity to see Lord Monboddo publish such notions
as he has done ; a man of sense, and of so much
elegant learning. There would be little in a
fool doing it ; we should only laugh ; but, when a
wise man does it, we are sorry. Other people have
strange notions, but they conceal them. If they
have tails, they hide them ; but Monboddo is as
jealous of his tail as a squirrel." And yet Johnson
Tailed Men 151
seems to have been tickled with the idea, and to
have been amused with the notion of an appendage
like a tail being regarded as the complement of
human perfection. It may be remembered how
Johnson made the acquaintance of the young
Laird of Col, during his Highland tour, and how
pleased he was with him. " Col," says he, " is a
noble animal. He is as complete an islander as the
mind can figure. He is a farmer, a sailor, a hunter,
a fisher : he will run you down a dog ; if any man
has a tail, it is Col. ' And notwithstanding all his
aversion to puns, the great Doctor was fain to yield
to human weakness on one occasion, under the
influence of the mirth which Monboddo's name
seems to have excited. Johnson writes to Mrs.
Thrale of a party he had met one night, which he
thus enumerates ; " There were Smelt, and the
Bishop of S. Asaph, who comes to every place ;
and Sir Joshua, and Lord Monboddo, and ladies
out of tale"
There is a Polish story of a witch who made
a girdle of human skin and laid it across the
threshold of a door where a marriage-feast was being
held. On the bridal pair stepping across the girdle
they were transformed into wolves. Three years
after the witch sought them out, and cast over
152 Tailed Men
them dresses of fur with the hair turned outward,
whereupon they recovered their human forms, but,
unfortunately, the dress cast over the bridegroom
was too scanty, and did not extend over his tail, so
that, when he was restored to his former condition,
he retained his lupine caudal appendage, and this
became hereditary in his family ; so that all Poles
with tails are lineal descendants of the ancestor to
whom this little misfortune happened. John Struys,
a Dutch traveller, who visited the isle of Formosa
in 1677, gives a curious story which is worth tran-
scribing.
" Before I visited this island," he writes, " I had
often heard tell that there were men who had long
tails like brute beasts ; but I had never been able
to believe it, and I regarded it as a thing so alien
to our nature, that I should now have difficulty in
accepting it, if my own senses had not removed
from me every pretence for doubting the fact, by
the following strange adventure : The inhabitants
of Formosa being used to see us, were in the habit
of receiving us on terms which left nothing to
apprehend on either side ; so that, although mere
foreigners, we always believed ourselves in safety,
and had grown familiar enough to ramble at large
without an escort, when grave experience taught us
Tailed Men 153
that, in so doing, we were hazarding too much. As
some of our party were one day taking a stroll, one
of them had occasion to withdraw about a stone's
throw from the rest, who being at the moment
engaged in an eager conversation, proceeded
without heeding the disappearance of their com-
panion. After a while, however, his absence was
observed, and the party paused, thinking he would
rejoin them. They waited some time, but at last,
tired of the delay, they returned in the direction of
the spot where they remembered to have seen him
last. Arriving there, they were horrified to find
his mangled body lying on the ground, though the
nature of the lacerations showed that he had not had
to suffer long ere death released him. Whilst some
remained to watch the dead body, others went off
in search of the murderer, and these had not gone
far, when they came upon a man of peculiar
appearance, who, finding himself enclosed by the
exploring party, so as to make escape from them
impossible, began to foam with rage, and by cries
and wild gesticulations to intimate that he would
make any one repent the attempt who should venture
to meddle with him. The fierceness of his despera-
tion for a time kept our people at bay, but as his fury
gradually subsided, they gathered more closely
Tailed Men
round him, and at length seized him. He then soon
made them understand that it was he who had
killed their comrade, but they could not learn from
him any cause for this conduct. As the crime was
so atrocious, and, if allowed to pass with impunity,
might entail even more serious consequences, it was
determined to burn the man. He was tied up to a
stake, where he was kept for some hours before the
time of execution arrived. It was then that I
beheld what I had never thought to see. He had a
tail more than a foot long, covered with red hair,
and very like that of a cow. When he saw the
surprise that this discovery created among the
European spectators, he informed us that his tail
was the effect of climate, for that all the inhabitants
of the southern side of the island, where they then
were, were provided with like appendages V
After Struys, Hornemann reported that, between
the Gulf of Benin and Abyssinia, were tailed an-
thropophagi, named by the natives Niam-niams ;
and in 1849, M. Descouret, on his return from
Mecca, affirmed that such was a common report,
and added that they had long arms, low and
narrow foreheads, long and erect ears, and slim
legs.
* " Voyages de Jean Struys," An. 1650.
Tailed Men 155
Mr. Harrison, in his " Highlands of Ethiopia,"
alludes to the common belief among the Abys-
sinians, in a pigmy race of this nature.
MM. Arnault and Vayssiere, travellers in the
same country, in 1850, brought the subject before
the Academy of Sciences.
In 1851: M. de Castelnau gave additional details
relative to an expedition against these tailed men.
" The Niam-niams," he says, " were sleeping in the
sun : the Haoussas approached, and, falling on
them, massacred them to the last man. They had
all of them tails forty centimetres long, and from
two to three in diameter. This organ is smooth.
Among the corpses were those of several women,
who were deformed in the same manner. In all
other particulars, the men were precisely like all
other negroes. They are of a deep black, their
teeth are polished, their bodies not tattooed. They
are armed with clubs and javelins ; in war they
utter piercing cries. They cultivate rice, maize,
and other grain. They are fine-looking men, and
their hair is not frizzled."
M. d'Abbadie, another Abyssinian traveller,
writing in 1852, gives the following account from
the lips of an Abyssinian priest. " At the distance
of fifteen days' journey south of Herrar, is a place
156 Tailed Men
where all the men have tails, the length of a palm,
covered with hair, and situated at the extremity of
the spine. The females of that country are very
beautiful and are tailless. I have seen some fifteen
of these people at Besberah, and I am positive that
the tail is natural."
It will be observed that there is a discrepancy
between the accounts of M. de Castelnau and
M. d'Abbadie. The former accords tails to the
ladies, whilst the latter denies them. According to
the former the tail is smooth, according to the
latter it is covered with hair.
Dr. Wolf has improved on this in his "Travels
and Adventures," Vol. II. 1861. "There are men
and women in Abyssinia with tails like dogs and
horses." "Wolf heard also from a great many
Abyssinians and Armenians (and Wolf is convinced
of the truth of it), that there are near Narea in
Abyssinia, people men and women with large
tails, with which they are able to knock down a
horse, and there are also such people near China."
And in a note, " In the College of Surgeons at
Dublin may still be seen a human skeleton, with a
tail seven inches long ! There are many known
instances of this elongation of the caudal vertebra,
as in the Poonangs in Borneo."
Tailed Men 157
But the most interesting and circumstantial
account of the Niam-niams is that given by
Dr. Hubsch, physician to the hospitals of Con-
stantinople. "It was in 1852," says he, "that I
saw for the first time a tailed negress. I was
struck with this phenomenon, and I questioned her
master, a slave dealer. I learned from him that
there exists a tribe called Niam-niam, occupying
the interior of Africa. All the members of this
tribe bear the caudal appendage, and, as Oriental
imagination is given to exaggeration, I was assured
that the tails sometimes attained the length of two
feet. That which I observed was smooth and
hairless. It was about two inches long, and ter-
minated in a point. This woman was as black as
ebony, her hair was frizzled, her teeth white, large,
and planted in sockets which inclined considerably
outward ; her four canine teeth were filed, her
eyes bloodshot. She ate meat raw, her clothes
fidgeted her, her intellect was on a par with that
of others of her condition.
" Her master had been unable, during six months,
to sell her, notwithstanding the low figure at which
he would have disposed of her ; the abhorrence
with which she was regarded was not attributed to
her tail, but to the partiality, which she was unable
158 Tailed Men
to conceal, for human flesh. Her tribe fed on
the flesh of the prisoners taken from the neigh-
bouring tribes, with whom they were constantly at
war.
"As soon as one of the tribe dies, his relations,
instead of burying him, cut him up and regale
themselves upon his remains ; consequently there
are no cemeteries in this land. They do not all of
them lead a wandering life, but many of them con-
struct hovels of the branches of trees. They make
for themselves weapons of war and of agriculture ;
they cultivate maize and wheat, and keep cattle.
The Niam-niams have a language of their own, of
an entirely primitive character, though containing
an infusion of Arabic words.
" They live in a state of complete nudity, and
seek only to satisfy their brute appetites. There is
among them an utter disregard for morality, incest
and adultery being commo,n. The strongest among
them becomes the chief of the tribe ; and it is he
who apportions the shares of the booty obtained in
war. It is hard to say whether they have any
religion ; but in 'all probability they have none,
as they readily adopt any one which they are
taught.
"It is difficult to tame them altogether; their
Tailed Men 159
instinct impelling them constantly to seek for
human flesh ; and instances are related of slave,
who have massacred and eaten the children con
fided to their charge.
" I have seen a man of the same race, who
had a tail an inch and a half long, covered
with a few hairs. He appeared to be thirty-
five years old ; he was robust, well built, of an
ebon blackness, and had the same peculiar forma-
tion of jaw noticed above, that is to say, the tooth
sockets were inclined outwards. Their four canine
teeth are filed down, to diminish their power of
mastication.
" I know also, at Constantinople, the son of a
physician, aged two years, who was born with a
tail an inch long ; he belonged to the white Cau-
casian race. One of his grandfathers possessed the
same appendage. This phenomenon is regarded
generally in the East as a sign of great brute
force."
About ten years ago, a newspaper paragraph
recorded the birth of a boy at Newcastle-on-Tyne,
provided with a tail about an inch and a quarter
long. It was asserted that the child when sucking
wagged this stump as token of pleasure.
According to a North-American Indian tradition
160 Tailed Men
all men were created originally with tails, tails
long-haired, sleek, and comely. These tails were
their delight, and they adorned them with paint,
beads and wampum. Then the world was at peace,
discord and wars were unknown. Men became
proud and forgot their Maker, and He found it
necessary to disturb their serenity by sending
them a scourge which might teach them humility,
and make them realize their dependence on the
Great Spirit. Then He amputated their tails, and
out of these dejecta membra fashioned women
who, say the Kikapoos, retain traces of their origin,
for we find them ever trailing after the men, frisky
and impulsive 4 .
Yet, notwithstanding all this testimony in favour
of tailed men and women, I profess myself dubious ;
and shall yield only when a homo caudatus has
been caught and shown to me.
4 Atherne Jones, Trad. N. American Indians, iii. 175.
anti
FROM the earliest ages of the Church, the
advent of the Man of Sin has been looked
forward to with terror, and the passages of Scrip-
ture relating to him have been studied with solemn
awe, lest that day of wrath should come upon the
Church unawares. As events in the world's history
took place which seemed to be indications of the
approach of Antichrist, a great horror fell upon
men's minds, and their imaginations conjured up
myths which flew from mouth to mouth, and which
were implicitly believed.
Before speaking of these strange tales which pro-
duced such an effect on the minds of men in the
Middle Ages, it will be well briefly to examine the
opinions of divines of the early ages on the pas-
sages of Scripture connected with the coming of
the last great persecutor of the Church. Antichrist
M
162 Antichrist and Pope Joan
was believed by most ancient writers to be destined
to arise out of the tribe of Dan, a belief founded
on the prediction of Jacob, " Dan shall be a serpent
by the way, an adder in the path " (conf. Jeremiah
viii. 1 6), and on the exclamation of the dying
patriarch, when looking on his son Dan, " I have
waited for Thy Salvation, O Lord," as though the
long-suffering of God had borne long with that
tribe, but in vain, and it was to be extinguished
without hope. This, indeed, is implied in tl
sealing of the servants of God in their foreheac
(Revelation vii.), when twelve thousand out
every tribe, except Dan, were seen by S. Johi
to receive the seal of adoption, whilst of the tribe
of Dan not one was sealed, as though it, to a man,
had apostatized.
Opinions as to the nature of Antichrist were
divided. Some held that he was to be a devil in
phantom body, and of this number was Hippolytus.
Others again believed that he would be an incarnate
demon, true man and true devil ; in fearful and
diabolical parody of the Incarnation of our Lord.
A third view was that he would be merely a des-
perately wicked man, acting upon diabolic inspira-
tions, just as the saints act upon divine inspirations.
S. John Damascene expressly asserts that he will
A ntichrist and Pope Joan 1 63
not be an incarnate demon, but a devilish man, for
he says, " Not as Christ assumed humanity, so will
the devil become human, but the Man will receive
all the inspiration of Satan, and will suffer the devil
to take up his abode within him." In this manner,
Antichrist could have many forerunners, and so S.
Jerome and S. Augustine saw an Antichrist in
Nero, not the Antichrist, but one of those of whom
the Apostle speaks " Even now are there many
Antichrists." Thus also every enemy of the
faith, such as Diocletian, Julian, and Mahomet,
has been regarded as a precursor of the Arch-
persecutor, who was expected to sum up in him-
self the cruelty of a Nero or Diocletian, the show
of virtue of a Julian, and the spiritual pride of a
Mahomet.
From infancy the evil one is to take possession
of Antichrist, and to train him for his office, instil-
ling into him cunning, cruelty, and pride. His
doctrine will be not downright infidelity, but a
" show of godliness," whilst " denying the power
thereof," i.e. the miraculous origin and divine
authority of Christianity. He will sow doubts of
our Lord's manifestation "in the flesh," he will
allow Christ to be an excellent Man, capable of
teaching the most exalted truths, and inculcating
M 2
164 A ntichrist and Pope Joan
the purest morality, yet Himself fallible and carried
away by fanaticism.
In the end, however, Antichrist will " exalt
himself to sit as God in the temple of God," and
become " the abomination of desolation standing
in the holy place." At the same time there is
to be an awful alliance struck Between himself,
the impersonification of the world-power, and th<
Church of God ; some high pontiff of which, or th<
episcopacy in general, will enter into league wil
the unbelieving State to oppress the very elect. 11
is a strange instance of religionary virulence whi<
makes some detect the Pope of Rome in th<
Man of Sin, the Harlot, the Beast, and th(
Priest going before it. The Man of Sin and th<
Beast are unmistakably identical, and refer t(
an Antichristian world-power; whilst the Harlot
and the Priest are symbols of an apostasy in the
Church. There is nothing Roman in this, but
something very much the opposite.
How the Abomination of Desolation can be con-
sidered as set up in a Church where every sanc-
tuary is adorned with all that can draw the heart
to the Crucified, and raise the thoughts to the
imposing ritual of heaven, is a puzzle to me. To
the man uninitiated in the law that Revelation is
Antichrist and Pope Joan 165
to be interpreted by contraries, it would seem more
like the Abomination of Desolation in the Holy
Place if he entered a Scotch Presbyterian, or a
Dutch Calvinist, place of worship. Rome does not
fight against the Daily Sacrifice, and endeavour to
abolish it ; that has been rather the labour of so-
called Church Reformers, who with the suppression
of the doctrine of Eucharistic Sacrifice and Sacra-
mental Adoration have well nigh obliterated all
notion of worship to be addressed to the God-Man.
Rome does not deny the power of the godliness of
which she makes show, but insists on that power
with no broken accents. It is rather in other com-
munities, where authority is flung aside, and any
man is permitted to believe or reject what he likes,
that we must look for the leaven of the Antichris-
tian spirit at work. However, this is not a ques-
tion into w r hich we care to enter, our province is
myth not theology.
In the time of Antichrist, we are told by ancient
Commentators, the Church will be divided : one
portion will hold to the world-power, the other will
seek out the old paths, and cling to the only true
Guide. The high places will be filled with un-
believers in the Incarnation, and the Church will
be in a condition of the utmost spiritual degrada-
166 A ntichrist and Pope Joan
tion, but enjoying the highest State patronage.
The religion in favour will be one of morality, but
not of dogma ; and the Man of Sin will be able to
promulgate his doctrine, according to S. Anselm,
through his great eloquence and wisdom, his vast
learning and mightiness in the Holy Scriptures,
which he will wrest to the overthrowing of dogma,
He will be liberal in bribes, for he will be of ui
bounded wealth ; he will be capable of performii
great "signs and wonders," so as "to deceive tl
very elect ;" and at the last, he will tear the moi
veil from his countenance, and a monster of impiety
and cruelty, he will inaugurate that awful persecu-
tion, which is to last for three years and a half, and
to excel in horror all the persecutions that have
gone before.
In that terrible season of confusion faith will be
all but extinguished. "When the Son of Man
cometh shall He find faith on the earth ?" asks our
Blessed Lord, as though expecting the answer, No ;
and then, says Marchantius, the vessel of the
Church will disappear in the foam of that boiling
deep of infidelity, and be hidden in the blackness
of that storm of destruction which sweeps over the
earth. The sun shall " be darkened, and the moon
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from
A ntichrist and Pope Joan 167
heaven ; " the sun of faith shall have gone out ; the
moon, the Church, shall not give her light, being
turned into blood, through stress of persecution ;
and the stars, the great ecclesiastical dignitaries,
shall fall into apostasy. But still the Church will
remain unwrecked, she will weather the storm ; still
will she come forth " beautiful as the moon, terrible
as an army with banners;" for after the lapse of
those three and a half years, Christ will descend to
avenge the blood of the saints, by destroying Anti-
christ and the world-power.
Such is a brief sketch of the Scriptural doctrine
of Antichrist as held by the Early and Mediaeval
Church. Let us now see to what Myths it gave
rise among the vulgar and the imaginative. Rabanus
Maurus, in his work on the life of Antichrist, gives
a full account of the miracles he will perform ; he
tells us that the Man-fiend will heal the sick, raise
the dead, restore sight to the blind, hearing to the
deaf, speech to the dumb ; he will raise storms and
calm them, will remove mountains, make trees
flourish or wither at a word. He will rebuild the
temple at Jerusalem, and make the Holy City the
great capital of the world. Popular opinion added
that his vast wealth would be obtained from hidden
treasures, which are now being concealed by the
168 Antichrist and Pope Joan
demons for his use Various possessed persons,
when interrogated, announced that such was the
case, and that the amount of buried gold was vast.
" In the year 1599," says Canon Moreau, a con-
temporary historian, "a rumour circulated with
prodigious rapidity through Europe, that Anti-
christ had been born at Babylon, and that already
the Jews of that part were hurrying to receive and
recognize him as their Messiah. The news ca
from Italy and Germany, and extended to Spai
England, and other Western kingdoms, troubli
many people, even the most discreet ; however
learned gave it no credence, saying that the sig
predicted in Scripture to precede that event were
not yet accomplished, and among other that the
Roman empire was not yet abolished. . . . Others
said that, as for the signs, the majority had already
appeared to the best of their knowledge, and with
regard to the rest, they might have taken place in
distant regions without their having been made
known to them ; that the Roman empire existed
but in name, and that the interpretation of the
passage on which its destruction was predicted,
might be incorrect : that for many centuries, the
most learned and pious had believed in the near
approach of Antichrist, some believing that he had
A n tichrist and Pope Joan 169
already come, on account of the persecutions which
had fallen on the Christians ; others on account of
fires, or eclipses, or earthquakes. . . . Every one
was in excitement ; some declared that the news
must be correct, others believed nothing about it,
and the agitation became so excessive, that Henry
IV., who was then on the throne, was compelled by
edict to forbid any mention of the subject."
The report spoken of by Moreau gained addi-
tional confirmation from the announcement made
by an exorcised demoniac, that in 1600, the Man of
Sin had been born in the neighbourhood of Paris
of a Jewess, named Blanchefleure, who had con-
ceived by Satan. The child had been baptized at
the Sabbath of Sorcerers ; and a witch, under tor-
ture, acknowledged that she had rocked the infant
Antichrist on her knees, and she averred that he
had claws on his feet, wore no shoes, and spoke all
languages.
In 1623 appeared the fallowing startling an-
nouncement, which obtained an immense circula-
tion among the lower orders : " We, brothers of the
Order of S. John of Jerusalem, in the isle of Malta,
have received letters from our spies, who are en-
gaged in our service in the country of Babylon,
now possessed by the Grand Turk ; by the which
170 A ntichrist and Pope Joan
letters we are advertised, that, on the ist of
May, in the year of our Lord 1623, a child
was born in the town of Bourydot, otherwise
called Calka, near Babylon, of the which child
the mother is a very aged woman of race un-
known, called Fort-Juda : of the father nothing
is known. The child is dusky, has pleasant mout
and eyes, teeth pointed like those of a cat, ea
large, stature by no means exceeding that of oth
children ; the said child, incontinent on his bi
walked and talked perfectly well. His speech i
comprehended by every one, admonishing th
people that he is the true Messiah, and the son
God, and that in him all must believe. Our spie
also swear and protest that they have seen the said
child with their own eyes ; and they add, that, o
the occasion of his nativity, there appeared mar-
vellous signs in heaven, for at full noon the sun lost
its brightness, and was for some time obscured."
This is followed by a list of other signs appear-
ing, the most remarkable being a swarm of flying
serpents, and a shower of precious stones.
According to Sebastian Michaeliz, in his history
of the possessed of Flanders, on the authority of
the exorcised demons, we learn that Antichrist is
to be a son of Beelzebub, who will accompany his
A n tichrist and Pope Joan 171
offspring under the' form of a bird, with four feet
and a bull's head ; that he will torture Christians
with the same tortures with which the lost souls are
racked ; that he will be able to fly, speak all lan-
guages, and will have any number of names.
We find that Antichrist is known to the Mussul-
mans as well as to Christians. Lane, in his edition
of the " Arabian Nights," gives some curious details
on Moslem ideas regarding him. According to
these, Antichrist will overrun the earth, mounted on
an ass, and followed by 40,000 Jews ; his empire
will last forty days, whereof the first day will be a
year long, the duration of the second will be a
month, that of the third a week, the others being of
their usual length. He will devastate the whole
world, leaving Mecca and Medina alone in security,
as these holy cities will be guarded by angelic
legions. Christ at last will descend to earth, and
in a great battle will destroy the Man-devil.
Several writers of different denominations, no
less superstitious than the common people, con-
nected the apparition of Antichrist with the fable
of Pope Joan, which obtained such general
credence at one time, but which modern criticism
has at length succeeded in excluding from his-
tory.
172 A ntickrist and Pope Joan
The earliest writer supposed to mention Pope
Joan is Anastasius the Librarian, a contemporary
(d. 886) ; next to him is Marianus Scotus, who in
his chronicle inserts the following passage: "A.D.
854, Lotharii 14, Joanna, a woman, succeeded Leo,
and reigned two years, five months, and four days.'
Marianus Scotus died A.D. 1086. The same stoi
is inserted in the valuable chronicle of Sigebert d<
Gemblours (d. 5th Oct. 1112): " It is reported that
this John was a female, and that she conceived
one of her servants. The Pope, becoming preg-
nant, gave birth to a child, wherefore some do n<
number her among the Pontiffs." Hence the stoi
spread among the mediaeval chroniclers, who we]
great plagiarists. Otto of Frisingen and Gotfrid oi
Viterbo mention the Lady-Pope in their histories
and Martin Polonus gives details as follows : " Afte
Leo IV. John Anglus, a native of Metz, reigned twc
years, five months, and four days. And the pontifi-
cate was vacant for a month. He died in Rome.
He is related to have been a female, and, when a
girl, to have accompanied her sweetheart in male
costume to Athens ; there she advanced in various
sciences, and none could be found to equal her.
So, after having studied for three years in Rome,
she had great masters for her pupils and hearers.
A ntichrist and Pope Joan 173
And when there arose a high opinion in the city of
her virtue and knowledge, she was unanimously
elected Pope. But during her papacy she became
in the family way by a familiar. Not knowing the
time of birth, as she was on her way from S.
Peter's to the Lateran she had a painful delivery,
between the Coliseum and S. Clement's Church,
in the street. Having died after, it is said that she
was buried on the spot, and therefore the Lord
Pope always turns aside from that way, and it is
supposed by some, out of detestation for what hap-
pened there. Nor on that account is she placed in
the catalogue of the Holy Pontiffs, not only or
account of her sex, but also because of the horrible-
ness of the circumstance."
Certainly a story at all scandalous crescit eundo.
William Ocham alludes to the story, Thomas
de Elmham (1422) quaintly observes, "A.D. 855.
Joannes. Iste non computatus. Fcemina fuit ;" and
John Huss, only too happy to believe it, provides the
lady with a name, and asserts that she was bap-
tized Agnes, or, as he will have it with a strong
aspirate, Hagnes. Others, however, insist upon her
name having been Gilberta, and some stout Ger-
mans, not relishing the notion of her being a
daughter of Fatherland, palm her off on England.
174 A ntichrist and Pope Joan
As soon as we arrive at Reformation times the
German and French Protestants fasten on the story
with the utmost avidity, and add sweet little
touches of their own, and draw conclusions galling
enough to the Roman See, illustrating their
accounts with wood engravings vigorous and
graphic, but hardly decent. One of these repre-
sents the event in a peculiarly startling manner.
The procession of bishops with the Host and taper
is sweeping along, when suddenly the cross-beare
before the triple-crowned and vested Pope starts
aside to witness the unexpected arrival. This
engraving, which it is quite impossible for me to
reproduce, is in a curious little book, entitled
" Puerperium Johannis Papae 8, 1530."
The following jingling record of the event is from
the Rhythmical Vitae Pontificum of Gulielmus
Jacobus of Egmonden, a work never printed. This
fragment is preserved in "Wolfni Lectionum Me-
morabilium centenarii, XVI. :"
11 Priusquam reconditur Sergius, vocatur
Ad summam, qui dicitur Johannes, huic addatur
Anglicus, Mogimtia iste procreatur.
Qui, ut dat sententia, fceminis aptatur
Sexu : quod sequent-ia monstrant, breviatur,
Haoc vox : nam prolixius chronica procedunt
Ista, de qua brevius dicta minus kedunt.
L.
:
s
Antichrist and Pope Joan 1 75
Huic erat amasius, lit scriptores credunt
Patria relinquitur Moguntia, Graecorum
Studiose petitur schola. Post doctorum
Hasc doctrix efficitur Romas legens : horum
Hasc auditu fungitur loquens. Hinc prostrato
Summo hsec eligitur : sexu exaltato
Quandoque negligitur. Fatur quod haec nato
Per servum conficitur. Tempore gignendi
Ad processum equus scanditur, vice flendi,
Papa cadit, panditur improbis ridendi
Norma, puer nascitur in vico dementis,
Colossceum jungitur. Corpus parentis
In eodem traditur sepulturae gentis,
Faturque scriptoribus, quod Papa prasfato,
Vico senioribus transiens amato
Congruo ductoribus sequitur negato
Loco, quo Ecclesia partu denigratur,
Ouamvis inter spacia Pontificum ponatur,
Propter sexum."
Stephen Blanch, in his " Urbis Romse Mirabilia,"
says that an angel of heaven appeared to Joan
before the event, and asked her to choose whether
she should prefer burning eternally in hell, or
having her confinement in public ; with sense which
does her credit, she chose the latter. The Protes-
tant writers were not satisfied that the father of
the unhappy baby should have been a servant :
some made him a Cardinal, and others the devil
himself. According to an eminent Dutch minister,
it is immaterial whether the child be fathered on
Satan or a monk : at all events, the former took a
176 Antichrist and Pope Joan
lively interest in the youthful Antichrist, and, on
the occasion of his birth, was seen and heard
fluttering overhead, crowing and chanting in an
unmusical voice the Sibyline verses announcing
the birth of the Arch-persecutor :
" Papa pater patrum, Papissae pandito partum
Et tibi tune eadem de corpora quando rec'edam ! "
which lines, as being perhaps the only ones known
to be of diabolic composition, are deserving of pre-
servation.
The Reformers, in order to reconcile dates, were
put to the somewhat perplexing necessity of
moving Pope Joan to their own times, or else of
giving to the youthful Antichrist an age of seven
hundred years.
It must be allowed that the accoucfiiement of a
Pope in full pontificals, during a solemn procession,
was a prodigy not likely to occur more than once
in the world's history, and was certain to be of
momentous import.
It will be seen by the curious woodcut repro-
duced as frontispiece from Baptista Mantuanus,
that he consigned Pope Joan to the jaws of hell,
notwithstanding her choice. The verses accom-
panying this picture are :
A ntichrist and Pope Joan 177
" Hie pendebat adhuc sexum mentita virile
Foemina, cui triplici Phrygiam diademate mitran
Extollebat apex : et pontificalis adulter."
It need hardly be stated that the whole story of i
Pope Joan is fabulous, and rests on not the slightest/
historical foundation. It was probably a Greek?
invention to throw discredit on the papal hierarchy,
first circulated more than two hundred years after
the date of the supposed Pope. Even Martin
Polonus (A.D. 1282), who is the first to give the
details, does so merely on popular report.
The great champions of the myth were the Pro-
testants of the sixteenth century, who were tho-
roughly unscrupulous in distorting history and
suppressing facts, so long as they could make a
point. A paper war was waged upon the subject,
and finally the whole story was proved conclusively
to be utterly destitute of historical truth. A
melancholy example of the blindness of party feel-
ing and prejudice is seen in Mosheim, who assumes
the truth of the ridiculous story, and gravely inserts
it in his " Ecclesiastical History." " Between Leo
IV., who died 855, and Benedict III., a woman, who
concealed her sex and assumed the name of John,
it is said, opened her way to the Pontifical throne
by her learning and genius, and governed the
N
178 A ntichrist and Pope Joan
Church for a time. She is commonly called the
Papess Joan. During the five subsequent centuries
the witnesses to this extraordinary event are without
number ; nor did any one, prior to the Reforma-
tion by Luther, regard the thing as either in-
credible or disgraceful to the Church." Such are
Mosheim's words, and I give them as a specimen
of the credit which is due to his opinion. The
" Ecclesiastical History " he wrote is full of perv
sions of the plainest facts, and that under
notice is but one out of many. " During the
centuries after her reign," he says, "the witnesses
to the story are innumerable." Now for two
centuries there is not an allusion to be found to
the events. The only passage which can be found
is a universally acknowledged interpolation of the
" Lives of the Popes," by Anastasius Bibliothe-
carius, and this interpolation is stated in the first
printed edition by Busaeus, Mogunt. 1602, to be
only found in two MS. copies.
Mosheim is false again in asserting that no one
prior to the Reformation regarded the thing as
either incredible or disgraceful. This is but of a
piece with his disregard for truth, whenever he can
hit the Catholic Church hard. Bart. Platina, in
his "Lives of the Popes," written before Luther
A n tichrist and Pope Joan 179
was born, after relating the story, says, "These
things which I relate are popular reports, but
derived from uncertain and obscure authors, which
I have therefore inserted briefly- and baldly, lest I
should seem to omit obstinately and pertinaciously
what most people assert." Thus the facts were
justly doubted by Platina on the legitimate grounds
that they rested on popular gossip, and not on
reliable history. Anastasius the Librarian, con-
temporary of the alleged circumstance, is the
first cited as evidence to there having been a
Papess. This testimony is however open to serious
objection. The MSS. of the works of Anastasius do
not uniformly contain the fable. Panvini, who wrote
additions to Platina, De vitis Romanorum Ponti-
ficum, assures us that "in old books of the lives
of the Popes, written by Damasus, by the
Librarian, and by Pandulph de Pisa, there is no
mention of this woman : only on the margin,
betwixt Leo IV. and Benedict III., this fable has
been found inserted by a later writer, in characters
altogether distinct from the text."
Blondel, the great Protestant writer, who ruined
the case of the Decretals, says that he examined a
MS. of Anastasius in the Royal Library at Paris,
and found the story of Pope Joan inserted in such
N 2
180 Antichrist and Pope Joan
a manner as to convince him that it was a late
interpolation. He says *, " Having read and re-
read it, I found that the elogium of the pretended
Papess is taken from the words of Martinus Polo-
nus, penitenciary to Innocent IV., and Arch-
bishop of Cosenza,an author four hundred years later
than Anastasius, and much more given to all these
kinds of fables." His reasons for so thinking ai
that the style is not that of the Librarian, bt
similar to that of Martin Polonus ; also that the ii
sertion interferes with the text of the chronicle,
bears evidence of clumsy piecing. " In the elogiui
of Leo IV. and Benedict III., as given to us in th<
manuscript of the Bibliotheque Royale, swelled with
the romanceof the Papess, the same expressions occur
as in the Mayence edition ; whence it follows that
(according to the intention of Anastasius, violated
by the rashness of those who have mingled with it
their idle dreams) it is absolutely impossible that
any one could have been Pope between Leo IV.
and Benedict III., for he says ; ' After the prelate
Leo was withdrawn from this world, at once (mox)
all the clergy, the nobles, and people of Rome
hastened to elect Benedict ; and at once (illico)
1 Familier eclaircissement de la question, &c. Amster-
dam, 1647-9.
Antichrist and Pope Joan 181
they sought him, praying in the Titular Church of
S. Callixtus, and having seated him on the ponti-
fical throne, and signed the decree of his election,
they sent him to the very-invincible Augusti Lo-
thair and Louis, and the first of these died on
29 September, 855, just seventy-four days after the
death of Pope Leo.' "
Bayle in his Dictionnaire historique et critique,
under the article Papesse Jeanne, says : " Is it not
true that if we found in a manuscript a statement
that the Emperor Ferdinand II. died in the year
1637, and that at once he was succeeded by
Ferdinand III., and that Charles VI. succeeded
Ferdinand II., and held the throne for two years,
after which Ferdinand III., was elected Emperor,
we should say that the same writer could not have
made both statements, and that we were neces-
sitated to attribute to copyists without judgment
the statements which do not correspond ? Would
not the man be a fool who related that Innocent X.
having died, he was promptly given as successor
Alexander VII., and that Innocent XL was Pope
immediately after Innocent X., and sat for two
years and more, and that Alexander VI I. succeeded
him ? Anastasius Bibliothecarius must have com-
mitted a like extravagance, if he was the author of
182 Antichrist and Pope Joan
what occurs in the MSS. of his work which mention
the Papess. We however conclude that the state-
ment concerning this woman was an insertion of a
later hand."
Sarran, a zealous and learned Protestant, formed
the same opinion of the Pope-Joan fable, and he
gives as his reason for believing it not to have
stood in the original copies of Anastasius, that it is
there inserted with the words, " It is said that," or
"we are assured that," expressions inconsistent
with the fact that Anastasius was a contemporary
resident in Rome 2 .
Marianus Scotus, the next authority cited for the
story of Pope Joan, died in 1086. He was a monk
of S. Martin of Cologne, then of Fulda, and lastly,
of S. Alban's, at Metz. How could he have
obtained reliable information, or seen documents
upon which to ground the assertion ? The words
in which the tale is alluded to in his Chronicle vary
in different MSS., in some the fact is asserted
plainly ; in others, it is founded on an ut asseritur;
and other MS. copies have not the passage in
them at all. This looks as though the Pope-Joan
passage were an interpolation. Next to Marianus
Scotus comes Sigebert de Gemblours, who died
2 Sarran, Epist. cii., Utrecht, 1697.
Antichrist and Pope Joan 183
ii 12. We have evidence conclusive that his
Chronicle has been tampered with in this particular.
The Gemblours MS., which was either written by
Sigebert himself, or was a copy made from his,
does not allude to Pope Joan. Several other early
copies have not the passage. Guillaume de
Nangiac, who wrote a Chronicle to the year 1302,
transcribed, and absorbed into his work, the more
ancient chronicle of Sigebert. The copy used by
Guillaume de Nangiac must have been without
the disputed paragraph, for it is not to be found in
his work. We are therefore reduced to Martin
Polonus (d. 1279), placing more than four centuries
between him and the event he records.
The historical discrepancies are sufficiently glaring
to make the story more than questionable.
Leo IV. died on the i;th July, 855 ; and Benedict
III. was consecrated on the ist September in
the same year ; so that it is impossible to insert
between their pontificates a reign of two years, five
months, and four days. It is, however, true that
there was an antipope elected upon the death of
Leo, at the instance of the Emperor Louis, but his
name was Anastasius. This man possessed himself
of the palace of the Popes, and obtained the incar-
ceration of Benedict. However, his supporters
184 Antichrist and Pope Joan
almost immediately deserted him, and Benedict
assumed the pontificate. The reign of Benedict
was only for two years and a half, so that
Anastasius cannot be the supposed Joan ; nor do
we hear of any charge brought against him to the
effect of his being a woman. But the stout parti-
sans of the Pope-Joan tale assert, on the authority
of the " Annales Augustani 3 ," and some other, bul
late authorities, that the female Pope was John VIII.,
who consecrated Louis II. of France, and Ethelwol
of England. Here again is confusion. Ethelwol
sent Alfred to Rome in 853, and the youth receiv<
regal unction from the hands of Leo IV. In
Ethelwolf visited Rome, it is true, but was not con-
secrated by the existing Pope, whilst Charles the
Bald was anointed by John VIII. in 875. John
VIII. was a Roman, son of Gundus, and an arch-
deacon of the Eternal City. He assumed the triple
crown in 872, and reigned till December i8th, 882.
John took an active part in the troubles of the
Church under the incursions of the Sarasins, and
325 letters of his are extant, addressed to the princes
and prelates of his day.
Any one desirous of pursuing this examination
3 These Annals were written in
Antichrist and Pope Joan 185
into the untenable nature of the story may find an
excellent summary of the arguments used on both
sides in Gieseler, "Lehrbuch," &c., Cunningham's
trans., vol. ii. pp. 20, 21, or in Bayle, " Dictionnaire,"
torn. iii. art. Papesse.
The arguments in favour of the myth may be
seen in Spanheim, "Exercit. de Papa Foemina."
Opp. torn. ii. p. 577, or in Lenfant, " Histoire de
la Papesse Jeanne," La Haye, 1736, 2 vols. I2mo.
The arguments on the other side may be had in
" Allatii Confutatio Fabulae de Johanna Papissa,"
Colon. 1645; m Le Quien, "Oriens Christianus," torn,
iii. p. 777 ; and in the pages of the Lutheran Hue-
mann, " Sylloge Diss. Sacras." torn. i. par. ii. p. 352 ;
and Blondel, "Familier eclaircissement de la
question, si une femme a ete assise au siege papal
de Rome." Amsterdam, 1647-9.
The final development of this extraordinary
story, under the delicate fingers of the German and
French Protestant controversialists, may not prove
uninteresting.
Joan was the daughter of an English missionary,
who left England to preach the Gospel to the
recently converted Saxons. She was born at
Engelheim, and according to different authors she
was christened Agnes, Gerberta, Joanna, Margaret,
186 Antichrist and Pope Joan
Isabel, Dorothy, or Jutt the last must have been a
nickname surely ! She early distinguished her-
self for genius and love of letters. A young monk
of Fulda having conceived for her a violent passion,
which she returned with ardour, she deserted her
parents, dressed herself in male attire, and in the
sacred precincts of Fulda divided her affections be-
cweenthe youthful monk and the musty books of the
monastic library. Not satisfied with the restraints
of conventual life, nor finding the library sufficiently
well provided with books of abstruse science, she
eloped with her young man, and after visiting
England, France, and Italy, she brought him to
Athens, where she addicted herself with unflagging
devotion to her literary pursuits. Wearied out by
his journey, the monk expired in the arms of the
blue-stocking who had influenced his life for evil,
and the young lady of so many aliases was for a
while inconsolable. She left Athens and repaired
to Rome. There she opened a school, and acquired
such a reputation for learning and feigned sanctity
that, on the death of Leo IV., she was unanimously
elected Pope. For two years and five months,
under the name of John VIIL, she filled the papal
chair with reputation, no one suspecting her sex.
But having taken a fancy to one of the cardinals,
Antichrist and Pope Joan 187
by him she became pregnant. At length arrived
the time of Rogation processions. Whilst passing
the street between the amphitheatre and S. Cle-
ment's, she was seized with violent pains, fell to the
ground amidst the crowd, and whilst her attendants
ministered to her, was delivered of a son. Some
say the child and mother died on the spot, some
that she survived but was incarcerated, some that
the child was spirited away to be the Antichrist of
the last days. A marble monument representing
the papess with her baby was erected on the spot,
which was declared to be accursed to all ages.
I have little doubt myself that Pope Joan is an
impersonification of the great whore of Revelation,
seated on the seven hills, and is the popular expres-
sion of the idea prevalent from the twelfth to the
sixteenth centuries, that the mystery of iniquity
was somehow working in the papal court. The
scandal of the Antipopes, the utter worldliness
and pride of others, the spiritual fornication with
the kings of the earth, along with the words of
Revelation prophesying the advent of an adulterous
woman who should rule over the imperial city, and
her connexion with Antichrist, crystallized into this
curious myth, much as the floating uncertainty as
to the signification of our Lord's words, " There be
188 Antichrist ana Pope Joan
some standing here which shall not taste of death
till they see the kingdom of God," condensed into
the myth of the Wandering Jew.
The literature connected with Antichrist is
voluminous. I need only specify some of the most
curious works which have appeared on the subject.
S. Hippolytus and Rabanus Maurus have been
already alluded to. Commodianus wrote " Carmen
Apologeticum adversus Gentes," which has beei
published by Dom Pitra in his " Spicilegium Sol<
mense," with an introduction containing Jewish an<
Christian traditions relating to Antichrist. " D<
Turpissima Conceptione, Nativitate, et aliis Pi
sagiis Diaboliciis illius Turpissimi Hominis Anti-
christi," is the title of a strange little volume pub-
lished by Lenoir in A.D. 1500, containing rude yet
characteristic woodcuts, representing the birth, life,
and death of the Man of Sin, each picture accom-
panied by French verses in explanation. An
equally remarkable illustrated work on Antichrist
is the famous " Liber de Antichristo," a blockbook
of an early date. It is in twenty-seven folios, and
is excessively rare. Dibdin has reproduced three
of the plates in his "Bibliotheca Spenseriana,"
and Falckenstein has given full details of the work
in his " Geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst."
A n tichrist and Pope Joan 189
There is an Easter miracle-play of the twelfth
century, still extant, the subject of which is the
" Life and Death of Antichrist." More curious still
is the " Farce de 1'Antechrist et de trois femmes," a
composition of the sixteenth century, when that
mysterious personage occupied all brains. The
farce consists in a scene at a fish-stall, with three
good ladies quarrelling over some fish. Antichrist
steps in for no particular reason that one can see
upsets fish and fish-women, sets them fighting,
and skips off the stage. The best book on Anti-
christ, and that most full of learning and judgment,
is Malvenda's great work in two folio volumes, " De
Antichristo, libri xii." Lyons, 1647.
For the fable of the Pope Joan, see J. Lenfant,
" Histoire de la Papesse Jeanne." La Haye, 1736,
2 vols. i2mo. "Allatii Confutatio Fabulse de
Johanna Papissa." Colon. 1645.
in
J$oon
From L. Riohter.
T~^VERY one knows that the moon is inhabitec
T * by a man with a bundle of sticks on his
back, who has been exiled thither for many centu-
ries, and who is so far off that he is beyond the
reach of Death.
He has once visited this earth, if the nursery
rhyme is to be credited, when it asserts that
" The Man in the Moon
Came down too soon,
And asked his way to Norwich ;"
but whether he ever reached that city, the same
authority does not state.
The Man in the Moon 191
The story as told by nurses is, that this man was
found by Moses gathering sticks on a Sabbath, and
that, for this crime, he was doomed to reside in the
moon till the end of all things ; and they refer to
Numbers xv. 32 36 :
"And while the children of Israel were in the
wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks
upon the sabbath day. And they that found him
gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and
Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they
put him in ward, because it was not declared what
should be done to him. And the Lord said unto
Moses, The man shall be surely put to death : all
the congregation shall stone him with stones with-
out the camp. And all the congregation brought
him without the camp, and stoned him with stones
till he died."
Of course, in the sacred writings there is no
allusion to the moon.
The German tale is as follows :
Ages ago there went one Sunday morning an
old man into the wood to hew sticks. He cut a
faggot and slung it on a stout staff, cast it over
his shoulder, and began to trudge home with his
burden. On his way he met a handsome man in
Sunday suit, walking towards the Church ; this
192 The Man in the Moon
man stopped and asked the faggot-bearer, "Do
you know that this is Sunday on earth, when all
must rest from their labours ?"
" Sunday on earth, or Monday in heaven, it is all
one to me !" laughed the wood-cutter.
" Then bear your bundle for ever," answered the
stranger ; " and as you value not Sunday on earth,
yours shall be a perpetual Moon-day in heaven ;
and you shall stand for eternity in the moon, a
warning to all Sabbath-breakers." Thereupon the
stranger vanished, and the man was caught up with
his stock and his faggot into the moon, where he
stands yet.
The superstition seems to be old in Germany, for
the full moon is spoken of as wadel, or wedel, a
faggot. Tobler relates the story thus : " An arma
ma ket alawel am Sonnti holz ufglesa. Do hedem
der Hebe Gott dwahl gloh, ob er lieber wott ider
sonn verbrenna oder im mo verfriira, do wilier lieber
inn mo ihi. Dromm siedma no jetz an ma im mo
inna, wenns wedel ist. Er hed a piischeli ufTem
rogga V That is to say, he was given the choice of
burning in the sun, or of freezing in the moon ; he
chose the latter ; and now at full moon he is to be
1 Tobler, Appenz. Sprachsbuch. 20.
The Man in the Moon 193
seen seated with his bundle of faggots on his
back.
In Schaumburg-lippe 2 , the story goes, that a
man and a woman stand in the moon, the man
because he strewed brambles and thorns on the
church path, so as to hinder people from attending
Mass on Sunday morning ; the woman because she
made butter on that day. The man carries his
bundle of thorns, the woman her butter-tub. A
similar tale is told in Swabia and in Marken.
Fischart 3 says that there "is to be seen in the
moon a mannikin who stole wood," and Praetorius,
in his description of the world 4 , that " superstitious
people assert that the black flecks in the moon are
a man who gathered wood on a Sabbath, and is
therefore turned into stone."
At the time when wishing was of avail, say the
North Frisians, a man, one Christmas eve, stole
cabbages from his neighbour's garden. When just
in the act of walking off with his load, he was
perceived by the people, who conjured him up
into the moon. There he stands in the full moon
to be seen by every body, bearing his load of
cabbages to all eternity. Every Christmas eve
2 Wolf, Zeitschrift fur Deut. Myth. i. 168.
3 Fischart, Garg. 130. 4 Praetorius, i. 447.
O
194 The Man in the Moon
he is said to turn round once. Others say
that he stole willow bows, which he must bear for
ever.
In Silt, the story goes that he was a sheep-stealer,
who enticed sheep to him with a bundle of cab-
bages, until, as an everlasting warning to others,
he was placed in the moon, where he constantly
holds in his hand a bundle of these vegetables.
The people of Rantum say that he is a giant
who at the time of the flow stands in a stooph
posture, because he is then taking up water, whicl
he pours out on the earth, and thereby causes high
tide ; but at the time of the ebb he stands erect,
and rests from his labour, when the water can sub-
side again 6 .
The Dutch household myth is, that the unhappy
man was caught stealing vegetables. Dante calls
him Cain :
"... Now doth Cain with fork of thorns confine,
On either hemisphere, touching the wave
Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight
The moon was round." Hell, cant. xx.
* Thorpe's " Mythology and Popular Traditions," voL iil
P- 57-
The Man in the Moon 1 95
And again,
"... Tell, I pray thee, whence the gloomy spots
Upon this body, which below on earth
Give rise to talk of Cain in fabling quaint ?"
Paradise, cant. ii.
Chaucer, in the " Testament of Cresside," adverts
to the man in the moon, and attributes to him the
same idea of theft. Of Lady Cynthia, or the moon,
he says :
" Her gite was gray and full of spottis blake,
And on her brest a chorle painted ful even,
Bering a bush of thornis on his backe,
Whiche for his theft might clime so ner the heaven."
Ritson, among his "Ancient Songs," gives one
extracted from a manuscript attributed by Mr.
Wright to the period of Edward I., on the Man in
the Moon ; but in very obscure language. The first
verse, altered into more modern orthography, runs
as follows :
" Man in the Moon stand and stit,
On his bot-fork his burden he beareth,
It is much wonder that he do na doun slit,
For doubt lest he fall he shudd'reth and shivereth.
*****
" When the frost freezes must chill he bide,
The thorns be keen his attire so teareth,
Nis no wight in the world there wot when he syt,
Ne bote it by the hedge what weeds he weareth."
O 2
196 The Man in the Moon
Alexander Necham, or Nequam, a writer of the
twelfth century, in commenting on the dispersed
shadows in the moon, thus alludes to the vulgar
belief: " Nonne novisti quid vulgus vocet rusticum
in luna portantem spinas ? Unde quidam vulgariter
loquens ait :
" Rusticus in Luna,
Ouem sarcina deprimit una
Monstrat per opinas
Nulli prodesse rapinas 6 ,"
which may be translated thus : " Do you know
what they call the rustic in the moon, who carries
the faggot of sticks ? So that one vulgarly speak-
ing says :
" See the rustic in the Moon,
How his bundle weighs him down ;
Thus his sticks the truth reveal
It never profits man to steal."
Shakspeare refers to the same individual in his
" Midsummer Night's Dream." Quince the car-
penter, giving directions for the performance of the
play of " Pyramus and Thisbe," orders : " One
must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern,
and say he comes in to disfigure, or to present, the
person of Moonshine." And the enacter of this
part says, "All I have to say is, to tell you that the
6 Alex. Neckam, Ue Naturis Rerum. Ed. Wright, p. xviii.
The Man in the Moon 197
lantern is the moon ; I the man in the moon ; this
thorn-bush my thorn-bush ; and this dog my dog."
Also " Tempest," Act 2, Scene 2 :
" Cal. Hast thou not dropt from heav'n ?
" Steph. Out o' th' moon, I do assure thee. I was the man
in th' moon when time was.
" Cal. I have seen thee in her; and I do adore thee. My
mistress show'd me thee, and thy dog, and thy bush."
The dog I have myself had pointed out to me by
an old Devonshire crone. If popular superstition
places a dog in the moon, it puts a' lamb in the
sun ; for in the same county it is said that those
who see the sun rise on Easter-day may behold in
the orb the lamb and flag.
I believe this idea of locating animals in the two
great luminaries of heaven to be very ancient, and
to be a relic of a primeval superstition of the Aryan
race.
There is an ancient pictorial representation of
our friend the Sabbath-breaker in Gyffyn Church,
near Conway. The roof of the chancel is divided
into compartments, in four of which are the Evan-
gelistic symbols, rudely, yet effectively painted.
Besides these symbols is delineated in each com-
partment an orb of heaven. The sun, the moon,
and two stars, are placed at the feet of the Angel,
198 The Man in the Moon
the Bull, the Lion, and the Eagle. The represen-
tation of the moon is as below ; in the disk is the
conventional man with his bundle of sticks, b\
without the dog. There is also a curious sec
appended to a deed preserved in the Record Office,
dated the 9th year of Edward the Third (1335),
bearing the man in the moon as its device. The
The Man in the Moon 199
deed is one of conveyance of a messuage, barn, and
four acres of ground, in the parish of Kingston-on-
Thames, from Walter de Grendesse, clerk, to Mar-
garet his mother. On the seal we see the man
carrying his sticks, and the moon surrounds him.
There are also a couple of stars added, perhaps to
show that he is in the sky. The legend on the seal
reads :
" Te Waltere docebo
cur spinas phebo
which may be translated, " I will teach thee, Walter,
why I carry thorns in the moon."
The carved wooden sign of the " Man in the
Moon," in Wych Street, Strand, a rare example of
the suspended signs now to be found built into the
wall, must not pass unnoticed. Other items con-
nected with lunar mythology must be only briefly
alluded to. According to the classic tale the
figure in the moon is probably Endymion, be-
loved of Selene, and held by her passionately to
her bosom. The Egyptian representations of the
moon with a figure in the disk, represent the
little Horus in the womb of his mother Isis.
Plutarch wrote a tract on the Face in the Moon.
200 The Man in the Moon
Clemens Alexandrinus tells us the face is that of a
Sibyl 7 .
The general superstition with regard to the spots
in the moon may briefly be summed up thus : A
man is located in the moon ; he is a thief or Sab-
bath-breaker ; he has a pole over his shoulder,
from which is suspended a bundle of sticks or
thorns. In some places a woman is believed to
accompany him, and she has a butter-tub with her ;
in other localities she is replaced by a dog.
The belief in the Moon-man seems to exi<
among the natives of British Columbia ; for I reac
in one of Mr. Duncan's letters to the Church Mis
sionary Society : " One very dark night I was tol<
that there was a moon to see on the beach. On
going to see, there was an illuminated disk, with
the figure of a man upon it. The water was then
very low, and one of the conjuring parties had lit
up this disk at the water's edge. They had made it
of wax with great exactness, and presently it was
at full. It was an imposing sight. Nothing could
be seen around it ; but the Indians suppose that
7 Clemens Alex. Strom. I.
8 Rebel, in his charming poem on the Man in the Moon
in " Allemanische Gedichte," makes him both thief and
Sabbath-breaker.
The Man in the Moon 201
the medicine party are then holding converse with
the man in the moon. . . . After a short time the
moon waned away, and the conjuring party returned
whooping to their house."
Now let us turn to Scandinavian mythology, and
see what we learn from that source.
Mani, the moon, stole two children from their
parents, and carried them up to heaven. Their
names were Hjuki and Bil. They had been draw-
ing water from the well Byrgir, in the bucket Scegr,
suspended from the pole Simul, which they bore
upon their shoulders. These children, pole, and
bucket, were placed in heaven, "where they could
be seen from earth." This refers undoubtedly to
the spots in the moon, and so the Swedish peasantry
explain these spots to this day, as representing a
boy and a girl bearing a pail of water between
them. Are we not reminded at once of our nursery
rhyme
" Jack and Jill went up a hill
To fetch a pail of water ;
Jack fell down, and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after?"
This verse, which to us seems at first sight non-
sense, I have no hesitation in saying has a high
antiquity, and refers to the Eddaic Hjuki and Bil.
202 The Man in the Moon
The names indicate as much. Hjuki, in Norse,
would be pronounced Juki, which would readily
become Jack ; and Bil, for the sake of euphony, and
in order to give a female name to one of the
children, would become Jill.
The fall of Jack, and the subsequent fall of Jill,
simply represent the vanishing of one moon-spot
after another, as the moon wanes.
But the old Norse myth had a deeper significa-
tion than merely an explanation of the moon-spots.
Hjuki is derived from the verb jakka, to heap or
pile together, to assemble and increase ; and Bil
from bila, to break up or dissolve. Hjuki and Bil,
therefore, signify nothing more than the waxing
and waning of the moon, and the water they are
represented as bearing signifies the fact that the
rainfall depends on the phases of the moon.
Waxing and waning were individualized, and the
meteorological fact of the connexion of the rain
with the moon was represented by the children as
water-bearers.
But though Jack and Jill became by degrees
dissevered in the popular mind from the moon, the
original myth went through a fresh phase, and
exists still under a new form. The Norse supersti-
tion attributed theft to the moon and the vulgar
The Man in the Me on 203
soon began to believe that the figure they saw in
the moon was the thief. The lunar specks certainly
may be made to resemble one figure, but only a
lively imagination can discern two. The girl soon
dropped out of popular mythology, the boy oldened
into a venerable man, he retained his pole, and the
bucket was transformed into the thing he had
stolen sticks or vegetables. The theft was in some
places exchanged for Sabbath-breaking, especially
among those in Protestant countries who were
acquainted with the Bible story of the stick-
gatherer.
The Indian superstition is worth examining, be-
cause of the connexion existing between Indian
and European mythology, on account of our be-
longing to the same Aryan stock.
According to a Buddhist legend, Sakyamunni
himself, in one of his earlier stages of existence,
was a hare, and lived in friendship with a fox and
an ape. In order to test the virtue of the Bod-
hisattwa, Indra came to the friends, in the form of
an old man asking for food. Hare, ape, and fox
went forth in quest of victuals for their guest. The
two latter returned from their foraging expedition
successful, but the hare had found nothing. Then,
rather than that he should treat the old man with
204 The Man in the Moon
inhospitality, the hare had a fire kindled, and cast
himself into the flames, that he might himself
become food for his guest. In reward for this act
of self-sacrifice, Indra carried the hare to heaven,
and placed him in the moon 9 .
Here we have an old man and a hare in con-
nexion with the lunar planet, just as in Shakspeare
we have a faggot-bearer and a dog.
The fable rests upon the name of the moon in
Sanskrit, 9apin, or " that marked with the hare ;"
but whether the belief in the spots taking the shape
of a hare gave the name 9a9in to the moon, or the
lunar name 9aQin originated the belief, it is im-
possible for us to say.
Grounded upon this myth is the curious story of
" The Hare and the Elephant," in the " Pantscha-
tantra," an ancient collection of Sanskrit fables. It
will be found as the first tale in the third book. I
have room only for an outline of the story.
THE CRAFTY HARE.
In a certain forest lived a mighty elephant, king
of a herd, Toothy by name. On a certain occasion
9 " Memoires . . . par Hjouen Thsang, traduits du Chinois
par Stanislas Julien," i. 375. Upham, " Sacred Books of
Ceylon," iii. 309.
The Man in the Moon 205
there was a long drought, so that pools, tanks,
swamps, and lakes were dried up. Then the ele-
phants sent out exploring parties in search of water.
A young one discovered an extensive lake sur-
rounded with trees, and teeming with water-fowl.
It went by the name of the Moon-lake. The
elephants, delighted at the prospect of having an
inexhaustible supply of water, marched off to the
spot, and found their most sanguine hopes realized.
Round about the lake, in the sandy soil, were
innumerable hare warrens, and as the herd of
elephants trampled on the ground, the hares were
severely injured, their homes broken down, their
heads, legs, and backs crushed beneath the pon-
derous feet of the monsters of the forest. As soon
as the herd had withdrawn, the hares assembled,
some halting, some dripping with blood, some
bearing the corpses of their cherished infants, some
with piteous tales of ruination in their houses, all
with tears streaming from their eyes, and wailing
forth, " Alas, we are lost ! The elephant-herd will
return, for there is no water elsewhere, and that will
be the death of all of us."
But the wise and prudent Longear volunteered
to drive the herd away, and he succeeded in this
manner : Longear went to the elephants, and
206 The Man in the Moon
having singled out their king, he addressed him as
follows :
" Ha, ha ! bad elephant ! what brings you with
such thoughtless frivolity to this strange lake ?
back with you at once !"
When the king of the elephants heard this, he
asked in astonishment, " Pray who are you ?"
" I," replied Longear, " I am Vidschajadatta by
name, the hare who resides in the Moon. Now am
I sent by his Excellency the Moon as an ambas-
sador to you. I speak to you in the name of the
Moon."
" Ahem ! Hare," said the elephant, somewhat
staggered, "and what message have you brought
me from his Excellency the Moon ?"
"You have this day injured several hares. Are
you not aware that they are the subjects of me ?
If you value your life, venture not near the lake
again. Break my command, and I shall withdraw
my beams from you at night, and your bodies will
be consumed with perpetual sun."
The elephant after a short meditation said,
" Friend ! it is true that I have acted against the
rights of the excellent Majesty of the Moon. I
should wish to make an apology ; how can I do
so?"
The Man in the Moon 207
The hare replied, " Come along with me, and I
will show you."
The elephant asked, "Where is his Excellency
at present ?"
The other replied, "He is now in the lake,
hearing the complaints of the maimed hares.'*
"If that be the case," said the elephant humbly,
" bring me to my lord, that I may tender him my
submission."
So the hare conducted the king of the elephants
to the edge of the lake, and showed him the re-
flexion of the moon in the water, saying, "There
stands our lord in the midst of the water, plunged
in meditation ; reverence him with devotion, and
then depart with speed."
Thereupon the elephant poked his proboscis into
the water, and muttered a fervent prayer. By so
doing he set the water in agitation, so that the
reflection of the moon was all of a quiver.
"Look!" exclaimed the hare, "his Majesty is
trembling with rage at you !"
" Why is his supreme Excellency enraged with
me ?" asked the elephant.
"Because you have set the water in motion.
Worship him, and then be off!"
The elephant let his ears droop, bowed his great
208
The Man in the Moon
head to the earth, and after having expressed in
suitable terms his regret for having annoyed the
Moon and the hare dwelling in it, he vowed never
to trouble the Moon-lake again. Then he departed,
and the hares have ever since lived there unmo-
lested.
Cfje jfEountatn of
T~) AGGED, bald, and desolate, as though a curse
-*-V rested upon it, rises the Horselberg* out of
the rich and populous land between Eisenach and
Gotha, looking, from a distance, like a huge stone
sarcophagus a sarcophagus in which rests in magi-
cal slumber, till the end of all things, a mysterious
world of wonders.
High up on the north-west flank of the mountain,
in a precipitous wall of rock, opens a cavern, called
the Horselloch, from the depths of which issues a
muffled roar of water, as though a subterraneous
stream were rushing over rapidly-whirling mill-
wheels. "When I have stood alone on the ridge
of the mountain," says Bechstein, "after having
sought the chasm in vain, I have heard a mighty
rush, like that of falling water, beneath my feet,
and after scrambling down the scarp, have found
P
210 The Mountain of Venus
myself how, I never knew in front of the cave."
(" Sagenschatz des Thiiringes-landes," 1835.)
In ancient days, according to the Thuringian
Chronicles, bitter cries and long-drawn moans
were heard issuing from this cavern ; and at night
wild shrieks, and the burst of diabolical laughter
would ring out from it over the vale, and fill the
inhabitants with terror. It was supposed that this
hole gave admittance to Purgatory ; and tl
popular but faulty derivation of Horsel was Hot
die Seele, Hark, the Souls !
But another popular belief respecting this mouj
tain was, that in it Venus, the pagan Goddess oi
Love, held her court in all the pomp and revelry of
heathendom ; and there were not a few who
declared that they had seen fair forms of female
beauty beckoning them from the mouth of the
chasm, and that they had heard dulcet strains of
music well up from the abyss above the thunder of
the falling, unseen torrent. Charmed by the music,
and allured by the spectral forms, various indivi-
duals had entered the cave, and none had returned
except the Tanhauser, of whom more anon. Still
does the Horselberg go by the name of the Venus-
berg, a name frequently used in the Middle Ages,
but without its locality being always defined.
The Mountain of Venus 211
" In 1398, at mid-day, there appeared suddenly
three great fires in the air, which presently ran
together into one globe of flame, parted again
and finally sank into the Horselberg," says the
Thiiringian Chronicle.
And now for the story of Tanhauser.
A French knight was riding over the beauteous
meadows in the Horsel vale on his way to Wart-
burg, where the Landgrave Hermann was holding
a gathering of minstrels, who were to contend in
song for a prize.
Tanhauser was a famous minnesinger, and all
his lays were of love and of women, for his heart
was full of passion, and that not of the purest and
noblest description.
It was towards dusk that he passed the cliff in
which is the Hb'rselloch, and as he rode by, he saw
a white glimmering figure of matchless beauty
standing before him, and beckoning him to her.
He knew her at once, by her attributes and by
her superhuman perfection, to be none other than
Venus. As she spake to him the sweetest strains
of music floated in the air, a soft roseate light
glowed around her, and nymphs of exquisite loveli-
ness scattered roses at her feet. A thrill of passion
ran through the veins of the minnesinger ; and,
P 2
212 The Mountain of Venus
leaving his horse, he followed the apparition. It
led him up the mountain to the cave, and as it
went flowers bloomed upon the soil, and a radiant
track was left for Tanhauser to follow. He entered
the cavern, and descended to the palace of Venus
in the heart of the mountain.
Seven years of revelry and debauch were passed,
and the minstrel's heart began to feel a strange
void. The beauty, the magnificence, the variety
of the scenes in the pagan goddess's home, and
its heathenish pleasures, palled upon him, and
yearned for the pure fresh breezes of earth, 01
look up at the dark night sky spangled with stai
one glimpse of simple mountain flowers, one tinkle
of sheep-bells. At the same time his conscience
began to reproach him, and he longed to make his
peace with God. In vain did he entreat Venus to
permit him to depart, and it was only when in the
bitterness of his grief he called upon the Virgin-
Mother, that a rift in the mountain-side appeared
to him, and he stood again above ground.
How sweet was the morning air, balmy with the
scent of hay, as it rolled up the mountain to him,
and fanned his haggard cheek ! How delightful to
him was the cushion of moss and scanty grass after
the downy couches of the palace of revelry below !
The Mountain of Vemis 213
He plucked the little heather-bells and held them
before him ; the tears rolled from his eyes, and
moistened his thin and wasted hands. He looked
up at the soft blue sky and the newly-risen sun,
and his heart overflowed. What were .the golden
jewel-incrusted, lamp-lit vaults beneath to that
pure dome of God's building !
The chime of a village church struck sweetly on
his ear, satiated with Bacchanalian songs ; and he
hurried down the mountain to the church which
called him. There he made his confession, but the
priest, horror-struck at his recital, dared not give
him absolution, but passed him on to another.
And so he went from one to another, till at last he
was referred to the Pope himself. To the Pope he
went. Urban IV. then occupied the chair of
S. Peter. To him Tanhauser related the sickening
story of his guilt, and prayed for absolution.
Urban was a hard and stern man, and shocked at
the immensity of the sin, he thrust the penitent
indignantly from him, exclaiming, " Guilt such as
thine can never, never be remitted. Sooner shall
this stafT in my hand grow green and blossom, than
that God should pardon thee !"
Then Tanhauser, full of despair, and with his
soul darkened, went away, and returned to the
214 The Mountain of Venus
only asylum open to him, the Venusberg. But lo !
three days after he had gone, Urban discovered
that his pastoral staff had put forth buds, and had
burst into flower. Then he sent messengers after
Tanhauser, and they reached the Horsel vale to
hear that a wayworn man, with haggard brow and
.bowed head, had just entered the Horselloch.
Since then the Tanhauser has not been seen 1 .
Such is the sad yet beautiful story of Tanhauser.
It is a very ancient myth Christianized, a wid<
spread tradition localized. Originally heathen,
has been transformed, and has acquired new beaul
by an infusion of Christianity. Scattered over
Europe, it exists in various forms, but in none so
graceful as that attached to the Horselberg. There
are, however, other Venusbergs in Germany : as,
for instance, in Swabia, near Waldsee ; another
near Ufhausen, at no great distance from Freiburg
(the same story is told of this Venusberg as of the
Horselberg) ; in Saxony there is a Venusberg not
far fram Wolkenstein. Paracelsus speaks of a
Venusberg in Italy, referring to that in which
^Eneas Sylvius (Ep. 16) says Venus or a Sibyl
1 Prcetorius, Blocksberg, Leipzig, 1668. Grimm, Deutsche
Sagen, Berlin, 1866, I. p. 214. Bechstein, Thuringische
Marchenschatz, 1835.
The Mountain of Venus 215
resides, occupying a cavern, and assuming once a
week the form of a serpent. Geiler v. Keysersperg,
a quaint old preacher of the fifteenth century,
speaks of the witches assembling on the Venus
berg, but does not say where it is.
The story, either in prose or verse, has often been
printed. Some of the earliest editions are the
following :
"Das Lied von dem Danhewser." Niirnberg,
without date; the same, Niirnberg, 1515. "Das
Lyedt v. d. Thanheuser." Leyptzk, 1520. "Das
Lied v. d. Danheiiser," reprinted by Bechstein,
1835. "Das Lied vom edlen Tanheuser, Mons
Veneris." Frankfort, 1614 ; Leipzig, 1668. "Twe
lede volgen Dat erste vam Danhiisser." Without
date. "Van heer Danielken." Tantwerpen, 1544.
A Danish version in "Nyerup, Danske Viser,"
No. VIII.
Let us now see some of the forms which this re-
markable myth assumed in other countries. Every
popular tale has its root, a root which may be
traced among different countries, and though the
accidents of the story may vary, yet the substance
remains unaltered. It has been said that the
common people never invent new story-radicals
any more than we invent new word-roots, and this
16 The Mountain of Venus
is perfectly true. The same story-root remains,
but it is varied according to the temperament of
the narrator or the exigencies of localization. The
story-root of the Venusberg is this :
The underground folk seek union with human
beings.
a. A man is enticed into their abode, where he
unites with a woman of trie underground
race.
/3. He desires to revisit the earth, and escapes.
7. He returns again to the region below.
Now there is scarcely a collection of folk-loi
which does not contain a story founded on this
root. It appears in every branch of the Aryan
family, and examples might be quoted from
Modern Greek, Albanian, Neapolitan, French,
German, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, Ice-
landic, Scotch, Welsh, and other collections of
popular tales. I have only space to mention
some.
There is a Norse Thattr of a certain Helgi
Thorir's son, which is, in its present form, a pro-
duction of the fourteenth century. Helgi and his
brother Thorstein went a cruise to Finnmark, or
Lapland. They reached a ness, and found the
land covered with forest. Helgi explored this
The Mountain of Venus 217
forest, and lighted suddenly on a party of red-
dressed women riding upon red horses. These
ladies were beautiful and of Troll race. One
surpassed the others in beauty, and she was their
mistress. They erected a tent and prepared a
feast. Helgi observed that all their vessels were
of silver and gold. The lady, who named herself
Ingibjorg, advanced towards the Norseman, and
invited him to live with her. He feasted and lived
with the Trolls for three days, and then returned
to his ship, bringing with him two chests of silver
and gold, which Ingibjorg had given him. He
had been forbidden to mention where he had been
and with whom, so he told no one whence he had
obtained the chests. The ships sailed, and he
returned home.
One winter's night Helgi was fetched away from
home, in the midst of a furious storm, by two
mysterious horsemen, and no one was able to
ascertain for many years what had become of him,
till the prayers of the king, Olaf, obtained his
release, and then he was restored to his father and
brother, but he was thenceforth blind. All the time
of his absence he had been with the red-vested
lady in her mysterious abode of Glcesisvellir.
The Scotch story of Thomas of Ercildoune is the
218 The Mountain of Venus
same story. Thomas met with a strange lady, of
elfin race, beneath Eildon Tree, who led him into
the underground land, where he remained with her
for seven years. He then returned to earth, still,
however, remaining bound to come to his royal
mistress whenever she should summon him. Ac-
cordingly, while Thomas was making merry with
his friends in the Tower of Ercildoune, a person
came running in, and told, with marks of fear and
astonishment, that a hart and a hind had left the
neighbouring forest, and were parading the street
of the village. Thomas instantly arose, left his
house, and followed the animals into the forest,
from which he never returned. According to
popular belief, he still " drees his weird " in Fairy
Land, and is one day expected to revisit earth.
(Scott, " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.") Com-
pare with this the ancient ballad of Tamlane.
Debes relates that "it happened a good while
since, when the burghers of Bergen had the com-
merce of the Faroe Isles, that there was a man in
Serraade, called Jonas Soideman, who was kept by
the spirits in a mountain during the space of seven
years, and at length came out, but lived after-
wards in great distress and fear, lest they should
again take him away ; wherefore people were
The Mountain of Venus 219]
obliged to watch him in the night." The same
author mentions another young man who had been
carried away, and after his return was removed a
second time, upon the eve of his marriage.
Gervase of Tilbury says that " in Catalonia
there is a lofty mountain, named Cavagum, at the
foot of which runs a river with golden sands, in the
vicinity of which there are likewise silver mines.
This mountain is steep, and almost inaccessible.
On its top, which is always covered with ice and
snow, is a black and bottomless lake, into which if
a stone be cast, a tempest suddenly arises ; and
near this lake is the portal of the palace of
demons." He then tells how a young damsel was
spirited in there and spent seven years with the
mountain spirits. On her return to earth she was
thin and withered, with wandering eyes, and almost
bereft of understanding.
A Swedish story is to this effect. A young man
was on his way to his bride, when he was allured
into a mountain by a beautiful elfin woman. With
her he. lived forty years, which passed as an hour ;
on his return to earth all his old friends and relations
were dead, or had forgotten him, and finding no rest
there, he returned to his mountain elf-land.
In Pomerania, a labourer's son, John Dietrich of
TJie Mountain of Venus
Rambin, is said to have spent twelve years in the
underground land. When about eight years old
he was sent to spend a summer with his uncle, a
farmer in Rodenkirchen. Here John had to keep
cows with other boys, and they used to drive them
to graze about the Nine-hills. There was an old
cowherd, Klas Starkwolt, who used to join the
boys, and tell them stories of the underground
people who dwelt in a glorious land beneath the
Nine-hills. These tales John swallowed eagerly,
and could think of little else. One Midsummer
day he ran to the hills, and laid himself down on
the top of one of them, where, according to Klas,
the little people were wont to dance. John lay
quite still from ten till twelve at night. At last a
distant tower-clock tolled midnight. Instantly the
hill was covered with the little people, dancing and
tossing their caps about. One of these fell near
John : he caught it, and set it on his head. By the
acquisition of this cap he had obtained power over
the elves. When the cock began to crow, a bright
glass point appeared on the hill-top, and opened.
John and the people descended, and he found himself
in a land of wonder. He found that there were in
that place the most beautiful walks, in which he
might ramble along for miles in all directions with-
The Mountain of Venus 221
out ever finding an end of them, so immensely
large was the hill that the little people lived in ;
and yet outwardly it seemed but a little hill, with
a few bushes and trees growing on it. It was
extraordinary that, between the meads and fields,
which were thick sown with hills and lakes and
islands, and ornamented with trees and flowers in
the greatest variety, there ran, as it were, small
lanes, through which, as through crystal rocks, one
was obliged to pass to come to any new place ;
and the single meads and fields were often a mile
long, and the flowers were so brilliant and so fragrant,
and the song of the numerous birds so sweet, that
John had never seen any thing on earth at all like
it. There was a breeze, and yet one did not feel
the wind ; it was quite clear and bright, and yet
there was no heat, no sun, no moon ; the waves
dashed about, but there was no danger ; and the
most beautiful little barks and canoes came, like
white swans, when one wanted to cross the water,
and went backwards and forwards of themselves.
Whence all this came no one knew, nor could his
servant tell any thing about it ; but one thing John
saw plainly, which was, that the large carbuncles
and diamonds that were set in the roof and walls
gave light instead of the sun, moon, and stars.
222 The Mountain of Venus
Here John found a little maiden, Elizabeth Krab-
bin, daughter of the minister of Rambin, who had
been spirited away by the little people a few years
before. John and she soon formed an attachment,
and were wont to walk together. On one of their
strolls they must have approached the surface, for
they heard the crowing of a cock. At the sound,
the remembrance of earth returned to them, and
they felt a desire once more to be on Christian land.
" Every thing down here," said Elizabeth, " is beau-
tiful, and the little folk are kind, but there is not
pure pleasure here. Every night I dream of my
father and mother, and of our churchyard; and I
cannot go to the House of God, and worship Him
as a Christian should ; for this is no Christian life we
lead down here, but a delusive, half-heathen one."
John, however, could not release Elizabeth from
the power of the underground folk till he found a
toad, the sight and smell of which was so repulsive
to them, that they readily complied with every
request of John, on condition he should bury the
offensive reptile.
Then he and the girl escaped, taking with them
gold and silver and jewels, to such an amount, that
their fortune was made. They were, of course,
married ; and John bought up half the island of
The Mountain of Venus 223
Riigen, was ennobled, built and endowed the pre
sent church of Rambin, and became the founder 01
a powerful family. To the altar of Rambin he gave
some of the cups and plates of gold made by the
underground people, and his own and Elizabeth's
glass shoes which they had worn in the mount.
But these were taken away in the time of Charles
XII. of Sweden, when the Russians came on the
island, and the Cossacks plundered the churches 2 .
In the year 1520, there lived at Basle, in Switzer-
land, a tailor's son, named Leonard. He entered a
cave which penetrated far into the bowels of the
earth, holding a consecrated taper in his hand.
He came to an enchanted land, where was a beau-
tiful woman wearing a golden crown, but from her
waist downwards she was a serpent. She gave
him gold and silver, and entreated him to kiss her
three times. He complied twice, but the writhing
of her tail so horrified him, that he fled without
giving her the third kiss. Afterwards he prowled
about the mountains, seeking the entrance to the
cave, filled with a craving for the society of the
lady, but he never could find it again 3 .
2 Keightley's Fairy Mythology, 1860, p. 178.
3 Kornemann, Mons Veneris, c. 34. Pixetorius, Weltbe-
schreibung, p. 66 1.
The Mountain of Venus
There is a curious story told by Fordun in his
" Scotichronicon," by Matthew of Westminster in
his Chronicle, and by Roger of Wendover in his
" Flowers of History," which has some interest in
connexion with the legend of the Tanhauser. They
relate that in the year 1050, a youth of noble birth
had been married in Rome, and during the nuptial
feast, being engaged in a game of ball, he took off
his wedding-ring, and placed it on the finger of a
statue of Venus. When he wished to resume it, he
found that the stony hand had become clenched,
so that it was impossible to remove the ring.
Thenceforth he was haunted by the G oddess Venus,
who constantly whispered in his ear, " Embrace me ;
I am Venus, whom you have wedded ; I will never
restore your ring." However, by the assistance of
a priest, she was at length forced to give it up to
its rightful owner.
This story occurs also in Vincent of Beauvais,
whose version will be found in the Appendix 4 .
Caesarius of Heisterboch has also a story bear-
ing a relation to that of Venus and the ring.
A certain Clerk Phillip, a great necromancer,
took some Swabian and Bavarian youths to a
4 Appendix B. Vincent. Bellov. I. 36, Spec. Historiale.
Antonini Summa Histor. P. II., tit. 16.
The Mountain of Venus 225
lonely spot in a field, where, at their desire, he
proceeded to perform incantations. First he drew
a circle round them with his sword, and warned
them on no consideration to leave the ring. Then
retiring from them a little space he began his incan-
tations, and suddenly there appeared around the
youths a multitude of armed men, brandishing
weapons, and daring them to fight. The demons,
failing to draw them by this means from their
enchanted circle, vanished, and then there was seen
a company of beautiful damsels, dancing about the
ring, and by their attitudes alluring the youths
towards them. One of these, exceeding the others
in beauty and grace, singled out a youth, and
dancing before him, extended to him a ring of
gold, casting languishing glances towards him, and
by all means in her power endeavouring to attract
his attention, and kindle his passion. The young
man, unable any longer to resist, put forth his
finger beyond the circle to the ring, and the
apparition at once drew him towards her and
vanished along with him. However, after much
trouble, the necromancer was able to recover him
from the embraces of the evil spirit 5 .
5 Csesarius Heister. V. 4.
226 The Mountain of Venus
Another mediaeval story is founded on the same
myth, but purified and Christianized. A knight is
playing at ball, and incommoded by his ring. He
therefore removes it, and places it for safety on
the finger of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On seeking it again he finds the hand of the figure
clasped, and he is unable to recover his ring.
Whereupon the knight renounces the world, and as
the betrothed of the Virgin enters a monastery 6 .
The incident of the ring in connexion with tl
ancient goddess is certainly taken from the olc
religion of the Teutonic and Scandinavian peopl<
Freyja was represented in her temples holding a
ring in her hand ; so was Thorgerda Horgabruda.
The Faereyinga Saga relates an event in the life of
the Faroese hero, Sigmund Brestesson, which is to
the point. "They (Earl Hakon and Sigmund)
went to the temple, and the earl fell on the ground
before her statue, and there he lay long. The
statue was richly dressed, and had a heavy gold
ring on the arm. And the earl stood up and
touched the ring, and tried to remove it, but could
not ; and it seemed to Sigmund as though she
frowned. Then the earl said, ' She is not pleased
s Wolf, Beitrage z. deut. Myth. Gottingen, 1857, II., p. 257.
The Mountain of Venus 227
with thee, Sigmund ! and I do not know whether I
shall be able to reconcile you ; but that shall be
the token of her favour, if she gives us the ring,
which she has in her hand.' Then the earl took
much silver, and laid it on the footstool before
her ; and again he flung himself prostrate before
her, and Sigmund noticed that he wept profusely.
And when he stood up he took the ring, and she
let go of it. Then the earl gave it to Sigmund,
and said, ' I give thee this ring to thy weal, never
part with it.' And Sigmund promised he would
not 7 ." This ring is the death of the Faroese chief.
In after years, King Olaf, who converts him to
Christianity, knowing that this gold ring is a relic
of Paganism, asks Sigmund to give it him. The
chief refuses, and the king angrily pronounces a
warning that it will be the cause of his death.
And his word falls true, for Sigmund is murdered
in his sleep for the sake of the ring.
Unquestionably the Venus of the Horselberg, of
Basle, of the Eildon Hill, that of whom Fordun,
Vincent, and Csesarius relate such weird tales, is
the ancient goddess Holda, or Thorgerda ; a con-
7 Faereyinga Saga. Copenhagen, 1832, p. 103 ; and Fonv
manna Sogur, II., cap. 184.
Q 2
The Mountain of Venus
elusion to which the stories of the ring naturally
lead us.
The classic legend of Ulysses held captive for
eight years by the nymph Calypso in the island of
Ogygia, and again for one year by the enchantress
Circe, contains the root of the same story of the
Tanhauser.
What may have been the significance of the
primeval story-radical it is impossible for us now
ascertain ; but the legend, as it shaped itself in th<
Middle Ages, is certainly indicative of the struggl
between the new and the old faith.
We see thinly veiled in Tanhauser, the story of
a man, Christian in name, but heathen at heart,
allured by the attractions of Paganism, which seems
to satisfy his poetic instincts, and which gives full
rein to his passions. But these excesses pall on
him after a while, and the religion of sensuality
leaves a great void in his breast.
He turns to Christianity, and at first it seems to
promise all that he requires. But alas ! he is
repelled by its ministers. On all sides he is met by
practice widely at variance with profession. Pride,
worldliness, want of sympathy, exist among those
who should be the foremost to guide, sustain, and
receive him. All the warm springs which gushed
The Mountain of Venus 229
up in his broken heart are choked, his softened
spirit is hardened again, and he returns in despair
to bury his sorrows, and drown his anxieties, in the
debauchery of his former creed.
A sad picture, but doubtless one very true.
lurgatorj)
T N that charming mediaeval romance, Fortunatus
and his Sons, which, by the way, is a treasu
of Popular Mythology, is an account of a visit paid
by the favoured youth to that cave of mystery in
Lough Derg, the Purgatory of S. Patrick.
Fortunatus, we are told, had heard in his travels
of how two days' journey from the town, Valdric,
in Ireland, was a town, Vernic, where was the
entrance to the Purgatory ; so thither he went with
many servants. He found a great abbey, and
behind the altar of the church a door, which led
into the dark cave which is called the Purgatory
of S. Patrick. In order to enter it, leave had to
be obtained from the abbot ; consequently, Leo-
pold, servant to Fortunatus, betook himself to that
worthy, and made known to him that a nobleman
from Cyprus desired to enter the mysterious cavern.
S. Patrick's Purgatory 231
The abbot at once requested Leopold to bring his
master to supper with him. Fortunatus bought a
large jar of wine, and sent it as a present to the
monastery, and followed at the meal time.
"Venerable sir!" said Fortunatus, "I understand
the Purgatory of S. Patrick is here ; is it so ?"
The abbot replied, " It is so indeed. Many
hundred years ago, this place, where stand the
abbey and the town, was a howling wilderness.
Not far off, however, lived a venerable hermit,
Patrick by name, who often sought the desert for
the purpose of therein exercising his austerities.
One day he lighted on this cave, which is of vast
extent. He entered it, and wandering on in the
dark, lost his way, so that he could no more find
how to return to the light of day. After long ram-
blings through the gloomy passages, he fell on his
knees, and besought Almighty God, if it were His
will, to deliver him from the great peril wherein he
lay. Whilst Patrick thus prayed, he was ware of
piteous cries issuing from the depths of the cave,
just such as would be the wailings of souls in
purgatory. The hermit rose from his orison, and
by God's mercy found his way back to the surface,
and from that day exercised greater austerities,
and after his death he was numbered with the
232 S. Patrick's Purgatory
saints. Pious people, who had heard the story of
Patrick's adventure in the cave, built this cloister
on the site."
Then Fortunatus asked whether all who ventured
into the place heard likewise the howls of the tor-
mented souls.
The abbot replied, " Some have affirmed that
they have heard a bitter crying and piping therein ;
whilst others have heard and seen nothing. N<
one, however, has penetrated, as yet, to the further
limits of the cavern."
Fortunatus then asked permission to enter, am
the abbot cheerfully consented, only stipulating
that his guest should keep near the entrance, and
not ramble too far, as some who had ventured in
had never returned.
Next day, early, Fortunatus received the Blessed
Sacrament with his trusty Leopold ; the door
of the Purgatory was unlocked, each was pro-
vided with a taper, and then with the blessing of
the abbot they were left in total darkness, and the
door bolted behind them. Both wandered on in 1
the cave, hearing faintly the chanting of the monks
in the church, till the sound died away. They
traversed several passages, lost their way, their
candles burned out, and they sat down in de-
6". Patrick's Purgatory 233
spair on the ground, a prey to hunger, thirst, and
fear.
The monks waited in the church hour after hour ;
and the visitors of the Purgatory had not returned.
Day declined, vespers were sung, and still there
was no sign of the two who in the morning had
passed from the church into the cave. Then the
servants of Fortunatus began to exhibit anger, and
to insist on their master being restored to them.
The abbot was frightened, and sent for an old man
who had once penetrated far into the cave, with a
ball of twine, the end attached to the door handle.
This man volunteered to seek Fortunatus, and pro-
videntially his search was successful. After this
the abbot refused permission to any one to visit
the cave.
In the reign of Henry II. lived Henry of Saltrey,
who wrote a history of the visit of a Knight Owen
to the Purgatory of S. Patrick, which gained im-
mense popularity. Henry was a monk of the
Benedictine Abbey of Saltrey, in Huntingdonshire,
and received his story from Gilbert, Abbot of
Louth, who is said by some to have also published
a written account of the extraordinary visions of
Owen 1 . This account was soon translated into
1 Biograph. Brit. Lit. ; Anglo- Norm. Period, p. 321.
234 5. Patrick's Purgatory
other languages, and spread the fable through
mediaeval Europe. It was this work of Henry of
Saltrey which first made known the virtues of the
mysterious cave of Lough Derg. Marie of France
translated it into French metre, but hers was not
the only version in that tongue ; in English there
are two versions. In one of these, " Owayne Miles,"
H. S. Cotton. Calig. A. ii., fol. 89, the origin of the
purgatory is thus described :
" Holy byschoppes some tyme ther were,
That tawgte me of Goddes lore.
In Irlonde preched Seyn Patryke,
In that londe was non hym lyke :
He prechede Goddes worde full wyde,
And tolde men what shullde betyde.
Fyrste he preched of Heven blysse,
Who ever go thyder may ryght nowgt mysse :
Sethen he preched of Hell pyne,
Howe wo them ys that cometh therinne :
And then he preched of purgatory,
As he fonde in hisstory,
But yet the folke of the centre
Beleved not that hit mygth be ;
And seyed, but gyf hit were so,
That eny non myth hymself go,
And se alle that, and come ageyn,
Then wolde they beleve fayn."
Vexed at the obstinacy of his hearers, S. Patrick
besought the Almighty to make the truth manifest
to the unbelievers ; whereupon
5. Patrick's Purgatory 235
" God spakke to Saynt Patryke tho
By nam, and badde hym with Hym go :
He ladde hym ynte a wyldernesse,
Wher was no reste more ne lesse,
And shewed that he might se
Inte the erthe a pryve entre :
Hit was yn a depe dyches ende.
'What mon,' He sayde, * that wylle hereyn wer.de.
And dwelle theryn a day and a nyght,
And hold his byleve and ryght,
And come ageyn that he ne dwelle,
Mony a mervayle he may of telle.
And alle tho that doth thys pylgrymage,
I shalle hem graunt for her wage,
Whether he be sqwyer or knave,
Other purgatorye shalle he non have.'"
Thereupon S. Patrick, " he ne stynte ner day ne
night," till he had built there a " fayr abbey," and
stocked it with pious canons. Then he made a
door to the cave, and locked the door, and gave the
key to the keeping of the prior 2 . The Knight
Owain, who had served under King Stephen, had
lived a life of violence and dissolution ; but filled
with repentance, he sought by way of penance S.
Patrick's Purgatory. Fifteen days he spent in
preliminary devotions and alms-deeds, and then he
heard mass, was washed with holy water, received
the Holy Sacrament, and followed the sacred relics
2 Wright, S. Patrick's Purgatory, p. 65.
236 5. Patricks Purgatory
in procession, whilst the priests sang for him the
Litany, " as lowde as they mygth crye." Then
Sir Owain was locked in the cave, and he groped
his way onward in darkness, till he reached a
glimmering light ; this brightened, and he came
out into an underground land, where was a great
hall and cloister, in which were men with shaven
heads and white garments. These men informed
the knight how he was to protect himself against
the assaults of evil spirits. After having received
this instruction, he heard " grete dynn," and
" Then come ther develes on every syde,
Wykked gostes, I wote, fro Helle,
So mony that no tonge mygte telle :
They fylled the hows yn two rowes ;
Some grenned on hym and some mad mowes."
He then visits the different places of torment.
In one, the souls are nailed to the ground with
glowing hot brazen nails ; in another, they are
fastened to the soil by their hair, and are bitten
by fiery reptiles. In another, again, they are hung
over fires by those members which had sinned,
whilst others are roasted on spits. In one place
were pits in which were molten metals. In these
pits were men and women, some up to their chins,
others to their breasts, others to their hams. The
5. Patrick's Purgatory 237
knight was pushed by the devils into one of these
pits, and was dreadfully scalded, but he cried to
the Saviour, and escaped. Then he visited a lake
where souls were tormented with great cold ; and
a river of pitch, which he crossed on a frail and
narrow bridge. Beyond this bridge was a wall of
glass, in which opened a beautiful gate, which con-
ducted into Paradise. This place so delighted him
that he would fain have remained in it had he been
suffered, but he was bidden return to earth and
finish there his penitence. He was put into a
shorter and pleasanter way back to the cave than
that by which he had come ; and the prior found
the knight next morning at the door, waiting to be
let out, and full of his adventures. He afterwards
went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and
ended his life in piety. " Explycit Owayne 3 ."
Marie's translation is in three thousand verses ;
Legrand d'Aussy has given the analysis of it in his
" Fabliaux," torn. iv.
Giraldus Cambrensis, in his topography of Ire-
land, alludes to the Purgatory. He places the
island of Lough Derg among one of the marvels of
the country. According to him it is divided into
3 Wright, Op. cit., cap. iii.
238 6". Patrick's Purgatory
two parts, whereof one is fair and agreeable, and
contains a church, whilst the other is rough and
uncultivated, and a favourite haunt of devils. In
the latter part of the island, he adds, there were
nine caves, in any one of which, if a person were
bold enough to pass the night, he would be so
tormented by the demons, that he would be fortu-
nate if he escaped with life ; and he says, it is
reported that a night so spent relieved the sufferer
from having to undergo the torments of purgatory
hereafter 4 .
In the ancient Office of S. Patrick occurred the
following verse :
" Hie est doctor benevolus,
Hibernicorum apostolus,
Cui loca purgatoria
Ostendit Dei gratia."
Joscelin, in his life of the saint, repeats the fable.
Henry de Knyghton, in his history, however,
asserts that it was not the Apostle of Ireland, but
an abbot Patrick, to whom the revelation of purga-
tory was made ; and John of Brompton says the
same. Alexander Neckham calls it S. Brandan's
Purgatory. Caesar of Heisterbach, in the begin-
4 Girald. Gambr. Topog. Hibernias, cap. v.
5". Patrick's Purgatory 239
ning of the I3th century, says, " If any one doubt
of purgatory, let him go to Scotland (i. e. Ireland),
and enter the Purgatory of S. Patrick, and his
doubts will be dispelled 5 ." "This recommenda-
tion," says Mr. Wright, in his interesting and all
but exhaustive essay on the myth, " was frequently
acted upon in that, and particularly in the follow-
ing century, when pilgrims from all parts of Europe,
some of them men of rank and wealth, repaired to
this abode of superstition. On the patent rolls in
the Tower of London, under the year 1358, we
have an instance of testimonials given by the king
(Edward III.) on the same day, to two distinguished
foreigners, one a noble Hungarian, the other a
Lombard, Nicholas de Beccariis, of their having
faithfully performed this pilgrimage. And still
later, in 1397, we find King Richard II. granting
a safe conduct to visit the same place, to Raymond,
Viscount of Perilhos, knight of Rhodes, and cham-
berlain of the King of France, with twenty men
and thirty horses. Raymond de Perilhos, on his
return to his native country, wrote a narrative of
tvhat he had seen, in the dialect of the Limousan,
5 Caesar. Heist. De Miraculis sui Temporis, lib. xii.,
cap 38. Ap. Wright.
240 5. Patrick's Purgatory
of which a Latin version was printed by O'Sullo-
van, in his ' Historia Catholica Ibernise 6 '
This work is simply the story of Owam slightly
altered.
Froissart tells us of a conversation he had with
one Sir William Lisle, who had been in the Purga-
tory. " I asked him of what sort was the cave that
is in Ireland, called S. Patrick's Purgatory, and if
that were true which was related of it. He replied
that there certainly was such a cave, for he and
another English knight had been there whilst the
king was at Dublin, and said that they entered the
cave, and were shut in as the sun set, and that
they remained there all night, and left it next
morning at sunrise. And then I asked if he had
seen the strange sights and visions spoken of.
Then he said that when he and his companion had
passed the gate of the Purgatory of S. Patrick, that
they had descended as though into a cellar, and
that a hot vapour rose towards them, and so
affected their heads, that they were obliged to sit
down on the stone steps. And after sitting there
awhile they felt heavy with sleep, and so fell
asleep, and slept all night. Then I asked if they
6 Wright, Op. cit., p. 135.
S. Patrick's Purgatory 241
knew where they were in their sleep, and what sort
of dreams they had had ; he answered that they
had been oppressed with many fancies and wonder-
ful dreams, different from those they were accus-
tomed to in their chambers ; and in the morning
when they went out, in a short while they had
clean forgotten their dreams and visions ; where-
fore he concluded that the whole matter was
fancy."
The next to give us an account of his descent
into S. Patrick's Purgatory, is William Staunton of
Durham, who went down into the cave on the
Friday next after the feast of Holy rood, in the
year 1409. Mr. Wright has quoted the greater
portion of his vision from a manuscript in the
British Museum ; I have only room for a few ex-
tracts, which I shall modernize, as the original
spelling is somewhat perplexing.
" I was put in by the Prior of S. Matthew, of the
same Purgatory, with procession and devout prayers
of the prior, and the convent gave me an orison to
bless me with, and to write the first word in my
forehead, the which prayer is this, ' Jhesu Christe,
Fili Dei vivi, miserere mihi peccatori.' And the
prior taught me to say this prayer when any spirit,
good or evil, appeared unto me, or when I heard
R
5. Patrick's Purgatory
any noise that I should be afraid of." When left
in the cave, William fell asleep, and dreamed that
lie saw coming to him S. John of Bridlington and
S. Ive, who undertook to conduct him through the
scenes of mystery. After they had proceeded a
while, William was found to be guilty of a trespass
against Holy Church, of which he had to be purged
before he could proceed much further. Of this
trespass he was accused by his sister who appean
in the way. "I make my complaint unto y<
against my brother that here standeth ; for tl
man that standeth hereby loved me, and I love
him, and either of us would have had the other
cording to God's law, as Holy Church teaches, ai
I should have gotten of me three souls to God, bi
my brother hindered us from marrying." S. Jol
of Bridlington then turned to William, and asked
him why he did not allow the two who loved one
another to be married. " I tell thee there is no
man that hindereth man or woman from being
united in the bond of God, though the man be a
shepherd and all his ancestors, and the woman
be come of kings or of emperors, or if the man
be come of never so high kin, and the woman of
never so low kin, if they love one another, but he
sinneth in Holy Church against God and his deed,
5". Patrick's Purgatory
and therefore he shall have much pain and tribula-
tions." Being assoiled of this crying sin, S. John
takes William to a fire " grete and styngkyng," in
which he sees people burning in their gay clothes.
" I saw some with collars of gold about their necks,
and some of silver, and some men I saw with gay
girdles of silver and gold, and harnessed with horns
about their necks, some with no jagges on their
clothes, than whole cloth, others full of jingles and
bells of silver all over set, and some with long
pokes on their sleeves, and women with gowns
trailing behind them a long space, and some with
chaplets on their heads of gold and pearls and
other precious stones. And I looked on him that
I saw first in pain, and saw the collars, and gay
girdles, and baldrics burning, and the fiends dragging
him by two fingermits. And I saw the jagges that
men were clothed in turn all to adders, to dragons,
and to toads, and 'many other orrible bestes'
sucking them, and biting them, and stinging them
with all their might, and through every jingle I
saw fiends smite burning nails of fire into their
flesh. I also saw fiends drawing down the skin of
their shoulders like to pokes, and cutting them off,
and drawing them to the heads of those they cut
them from, all burning as fire. And then I saw
R 2
244 5. Patrick's Piirgatory
the women that had side trails behind them, and
the side trails cut off by the fiends and burned on
their head ; and some took of the cutting all
burning and stopped therewith their mouths, their
noses, and their ears. I saw also their gay chap-
lets of gold and pearls and precious stones, turned
into nails of iron, burning, and fiends with burning
hammers smiting them into their heads." These
were proud and vain people. Then he saw another
fire, where the fiends were putting out people's
eyes, and pouring molten brass and lead into the
sockets, and tearing off their arms, and the nails of
their feet and hands, and soldering them on again.
This was the doom of swearers. William saw
other fires wherein the devils were executing tor-
tures varied and horrible on their unfortunate
victims. We need follow him no further.
At the end of the fifteenth century the Purga-
tory in Lough Derg was destroyed, by orders of
the pope, on hearing the report of a monk of
Eymstadt in Holland, who had visited it, and had
Satisfied himself that there was nothing in it more
remarkable than in any ordinary cavern. The
Purgatory was closed on S. Patrick's day, 1497 ;
but the belief in it was not so speedily banished
from popular superstition. Calderon made it the
5. Patrick's Purgatory 245
subject of one of his dramas ; and it became the
subject of numerous popular chap-books in France
and Spain, where during last century it occupied
in the religious belief of the people precisely the
same position which is assumed by the marvellous
visions of heaven and hell sold by hawkers in
England at the present day, one of which, probably
founded on the old S. Patrick's Purgatory legend,
I purchased the other day, and found it to be a
publication of very modern date.
Unquestionably, the story of S. Patrick's Purga-
tory is founded on the ancient Hell-descents pre-
valent in all heathen nations ; Herakles, Orpheus,
Odysseus, in Greek Mythology, yneas, in Roman,
descend to the nether world, and behold sights very
similar to those described in the Christian legends
just quoted. Among the Finns, Wainomoinen
goes down into Pohjola, the land of darkness and
fear ; and the Esths tell of Kalewa plunging into a
mysterious cave which led him to the abode of the
foul fiend, where he visited his various courts, and
whence he ravished his daughters. A still more
striking myth is that of the ancient Quiches, con-
tained in their sacrepl book, the Popol-Vuh ; in
which the land of Xibalba contains mansions nearly
as unpleasant as the fields and lakes of S. Patrick's
246 5. Patrick's Purgatory
Purgatory. One is the house of gloom, another of
men with sharp swords, another of heat, one of
cold, one of the mansions is haunted by blood-
sucking bats, another is the den of ferocious tigers 7 .
Odin, in Northern Mythology, has mansions of cold
and heat 8 ; and Hell's abode is thus described:
" In Niflheim she possesses a habitation protected
by exceedingly high walls and strongly barred
gates. Her hall is called Elvidnir ; Hunger is
her table; Starvation, her knife; Delay, her man;
Slowness, her maid ; Precipice, her threshold ;
Care, her bed ; and Burning Anguish forms the
hangings of her apartment 9 ." Into this the au-
thor of the Solarliod, in the Elder Edda, is
supposed to have descended. This curious poem
is attributed by some to Soemund the Wise
(d. 1131), and is certainly not later. The com-
position exhibits a strange mixture of Chris-
tianity and Heathenism, whence it would seem
that the poet's own religion was in a transition
state :
7 Popul-Vuh : Brasseur de Boubourg, Paris, 1861 ; lib. ii.
714.
8 Hrolf's Saga Kraka, cap. 39; in Fornm. Sogur I., pp.
7779-
9 Prose Edda, c. 33.
vS. Patrick's Purgatory 247
" 39. The sun I saw, true star of day,
Sink in its roaring home ; but Hell's grated doors
On the other side I heard heavily creaking.
51. In the Norn's seat nine days sat I,
Thenre was I mounted on a horse :
There the giantess's sun shone grimly
Through the dripping clouds of heaven.
52. Without and within, I seemed to traverse
All the seven nether worlds ; up and down,
I sought an easier way
Where I might have the readiest paths."
He comes to a torrent about which flew "scorched
birds, which were souls, numerous as flies." Then
the wind dies away, and he comes to a land where
the waters do not flow. There false-faced women
grind earth for food.
" 58. Gory stones these dark women
Turned sorrowfully ; out of their breasts
Hung bleeding hearts, faint with much affliction."
He saw men with faces bloody, and heathen
stars above their heads, painted with deadly cha-
racters ; men who had envied others had bloody
runes cut in their breasts. Covetous men went to
Castle Covetous dragging weights of lead, mur-
derers were consumed by venomous serpents,
sabbath-breakers were nailed by their hands to
of
i
ne-
48 5. Patrick's Purgatory
hot stones. Proud men were wrapped in flame,
slanderers had their eyes plucked out by Hell's
ravens.
" 68. All the horrors thou wilt not get to know
Which Hell's inmates suffer.
Pleasant sins end in painful penalties :
Pains ever follow pleasure 1 ."
Among the Greeks a descent into the cave of
Trophonius occupied much the same place in theii
popular Mysticism that the Purgatory of S. Patri<
assumed among Christians. Lustral rites, some-
what similar, preceded the descent, and the results
were not unlike 2 .
It is worthy of remark that the myth of S. Pa-
trick's Purgatory originated among the Kelts, and
the reason is not far to seek. In ancient Keltic
Mythology the nether world was divided into three
circles, corresponding with Purgatory, Hell, and
Heaven ; and over Hell was cast a bridge, very
narrow, which souls were obliged to traverse if
they hoped to reach the mansions of light. This
was
" The Brig o' Dread, na brader than a thread."
And the Purgatory under consideration is a reflex
1 Edda of Soemund, tr. by Thorpe, Part I., p. 117.
* Pausanias, ix. c. 39 40, and Plutarch., De genio Socrat.
5. Patrick's Purgatory 249
of old Druidic teaching. Thus in an ancient Breton
ballad Tina passes through the lake of pain, on
which float the dead, white robed, in little boats.
She then wades through valleys of blood 3 .
As this myth has been exhaustively treated by
Mr. Thomas Wright (S. Patrick's Purgatory ; by
T. Wright, London, 1844), it shall detain us no
longer. I differ from him, however, as to its origin.
He attributes it to monkish greed ; but I have no
hesitation in asserting that it is an example of the
persistency of heathen myths, colouring and in-
fluencing Mediaeval Christianity. We will only
refer the reader for additional information to the
Purgatoire de Saint Patrice; legende du xiii e Siecle,
1842; a reprint by M. Prosper Tarbe of a MS.
in the library at Rheims ; a Memoire by M. Paul
Lacroix in the Melanges historiques, published by
M. Champollion Figeac, vol. iii. ; the poem of
Marie de France in the edition of her works, Paris,
1820, vol. ii. ; an Histoire de la Vie et du Ptirga-
toire de S. Patrice, par R. P. Franpois Bouillon,
O. S. F., Paris, 1651, Rouen, 1696 ; and also Le
Monde Enchante, par M. Ferdinand Denys, Paris,
1845, pp. I57I74-
3 Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte : Band III., Pie
Kelten, p. 29.
^Terrestrial
^ I ^HE exact position of Eden, and its present
* condition, does not seem to have occupied
the minds of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, nor to
have given rise among them to wild speculations.
The map of the tenth century in the British
Museum, accompanying the Periegesis of Priscian,
is far more correct than the generality of maps
which we find in MSS. at a later period ; and
Paradise does not occupy the place of Cochin
China, or the isles of Japan, as it did later, after
that the fabulous voyage of S. Brandan had
become popular in the eleventh century 1 . The
1 S. Brandan was an Irish monk, living at the close of the
sixth century ; he founded the Monastery of Clonfert, and is
commemorated on May 16. His voyage seems to be founded
on that of Sinbad, and is full of absurdities. It has been
republished by M. Jubinal from MSS. in the Bibliotheque
du Roi, Paris, 8vo., 1836 ; the earliest printed English edition
is that of Wynkyn de Worde, London, 1516.
The Terrestrial Paradise 251
site, however, had been already indicated by
Cosmas, who wrote in the seventh century, and
had been specified by him as occupying a con-
tinent east of China, beyond the ocean, and still
watered by the four great rivers Pison, Gihon,
Hiddekel, and Euphrates, which sprang from sub-
terranean canals. In a map of the ninth century,
preserved in the Strasbourg Library, the terrestrial
Paradise is, however, on the Continent, placed at
the extreme east of Asia ; in fact, is situated in the
Celestial Empire. It occupies the same position
in a Turin MS., and also in a map accompanying
a commentary on the Apocalypse in the British
Museum.
According to the fictitious letter of Prester John
to the Emperor Emanuel Comnenus, Paradise was
situated close to within three days' journey of
his own territories, but where those territories were,
is not distinctly specified.
" The river Indus, which issues out of Paradise,"
writes the mythical king, " flows among the plains,
through a certain province, and it expands, em-
bracing the whole province with its various wind-
ings : there are found emeralds, sapphires, car-
buncles, topazes, chrysolites, onyx, beryl, sardius,
and many other precious stones. There too grows
252 The Terrestrial Paradise
the plant called Asbestos." A wonderful fountain,
moreover, breaks out at the roots of Olympus, a
mountain in Prester John's domain, and " from
hour to hour, and day by day, the taste of this
fountain varies ; and its source is hardly three
days' journey from Paradise, from which Adam
was expelled. If any man drinks thrice of this
spring, he will from that day feel no infirmity, and
he will, as long as he lives, appear of the age of
thirty." This Olympus is a corruption of Alumbo,
which is no other than Columbo in Ceylon, as is
abundantly evident from Sir John Mandeville's
Travels, though this important fountain has es-
caped the observation of Sir Emmerson Tennant.
" Toward the heed of that forest (he writes) is the
cytee of Polombe, and above the city is a great
mountayne, also clept Polombe. And of that
mount, the Cytee hathe his name. And at the
foot of that Mount is a fayr welle and a gret,
that hathe odour and savour of all spices ; and at
every hour of the day, he chaungethe his odour
and his savour dyversely. And whoso drynkethe
3 times fasting of that watre of that welle, he is
hool of alle maner sykenesse, that he hathe. And
thei that duellen there and drynken often of that
welle, thei nevere han sykenesse, and thei semen alle
The Terrestrial Paradise 253
weys yonge. I have dronken there of 3 or 4 sithes ;
and zit, methinkethe, I fare the better. Some men
clepen it the Welle of Youthe : for thei that often
drynken thereat, semen alle weys yongly, and
lyven withouten sykenesse. And men seyn, that
that welle comethe out of Paradys : and therefore
it is so vertuous."
Gautier de Metz, in his poem on the " Image
du Monde," written in the thirteenth century,
places the terrestrial Paradise in an unapproachable
region of Asia, surrounded by flames, and having
an armed angel to guard the only gate.
Lambertus Floridus, in a MS. of the twelfth
century, preserved in the Imperial Library in
Paris, describes it as " Paradisus insula in oceano
in oriente :" and in the map accompanying it,
Paradise is represented as an island, a little south
east of Asia, surrounded by rays, and at some
distance from the mainland ; and in another MS.
of the same library a mediaeval encyclopaedia
under the word Paradisus is a passage which states
that in the centre of Paradise is a fountain which
waters the garden that in fact described by
Prester John, and that of which story-telling Sir
John Mandeville declared he had " dronken 3 or 4
sithes." Close to this fountain is the Tree of Life.
254 The Terrestrial Paradise
The temperature of the country is equable ; neither
frosts nor burning heats destroy the vegetation.
The four rivers already mentioned rise in it.
Paradise is, however, inaccessible to the traveller,
on account of the wall of fire which surrounds it.
Paludanus relates in his " Thesaurus Novus," of
course on incontrovertible authority, that Alexander
the Great was full of desire to see the terrestrial
Paradise, and that he undertook his wars in the
East for the express purpose of reaching it, and
obtaining admission into it. He states that on his
nearing Eden an old man was captured in a ravine
by some of Alexander's soldiers, and they were
about to conduct him to their monarch, when the
venerable man said, " Go and announce to Alex-
ander that it is in vain he seeks Paradise ; his
efforts will be perfectly fruitless, for the way of
Paradise is the way of humility, a way of which he
knows nothing. Take this stone and give it to Alex-
ander, and say to him, ' From this stone learn what
you must think of yourself/ " Now this stone was
of great value and excessively heavy, outweighing
and excelling in value all other gems, but when
reduced to powder it was as light as a tuft of hay,
and as worthless. By which token the mysterious
old man meant, that Alexander alive was the
The Terrestrial Paradise 255
greatest of monarchs, but Alexander dead would
be a thing of nought.
That strangest of mediaeval preachers, Meffreth,
who got into trouble by denying the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin, in his second
sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent, discusses
the locality of the terrestrial Paradise, and claims
S. Basil and S. Ambrose as his authorities for
stating that it. is situated on the top of a very lofty
mountain in Eastern Asia ; so lofty indeed is the
mountain, that the waters of the four rivers fall in
cascade down to a lake at its foot, with such a roar
that the natives who live on the shores of the lake
are stone-deaf. Meffreth also explains the escape
of Paradise from submergence at the Deluge, on
the same grounds as does the Master of Sentences
(lib. 2, dist. 17, c. 5), by the mountain being so
very high that the waters which rose over Ararat
were only abfe to wash its base.
A manuscript in the British Museum tells us
that " Paradise is neither in heaven nor on earth.
The book says that Noah's flood was forty fathoms
high, over the highest hills that are on earth ; and
Paradise is forty fathoms higher than Noah's flood
was, and it hangeth between heaven and earth
wonderfully, as the ruler of all things made it.
256 The Terrestrial Paradise
And it is perfectly level both in length and breadth,
There is neither hollow nor hill ; nor is there frost
nor snow, hail nor rain ; but there is fons vitae, that
is, the well of life. When the calends of January
commence, then floweth the well so beautifully and
so gently, and no deeper than man may wet his
finger on the front, over all that land. And so
likewise each month, once when the month comes
in the well begins to flow. And there is the copse
of wood, which is called Radion Saltus, where each
tree is as straight as an arrow, and so high, that no
earthly man ever saw so high, or can say of what
kind they are. And there never falleth leaf off,
for they are evergreen, beautiful, and pleasant, full
of happiness. Paradise is upright on the eastern
part of this world. There is neither heat nor
hunger, nor is there ever night, but always day.
The sun there shineth seven times brighter than on
this earth. Therein dwell innumerable angels of
God with the holy souls till doomsday. Therein
dwelleth a beautiful bird called Phcenix ; he is large
and grand, as the Mighty One formed him ; he is
the lord over all birds." (MS. Cotton. Vespas. D
xiv., fol. 163.)
The monk who incited S. Brandan to undertake
his mythical voyage told him that he had sailed
The Terrestrial Paradise 257
due east from Ireland, and had come at last to
Paradise, which was an island full of joy and mirth,
and the earth as bright as the sun, and it was a
glorious sight ; and the half-year he was there
slipped by as a few moments. On his return to
the abbey, his garments were still fragrant with
the odours of Paradise. Brandan also arrived at
the same island, and with his companions traversed
it for the space of forty days without meeting any
one, till he came to a broad river, on the banks of
which stood a young man, who told him that this
stream divided the world in twain ; and that none
living might cross it.
In a MS. volume in the library of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge, is a map of the world, dating
from the twelfth century, whereon Paradise is
figured as an island opposite the mouth of the
Ganges, which flows into the ocean somewhere
about where the Amour in reality empties itself.
The Anglo-Saxon poem, " De Phoenice," in the
Exeter book, a translation of the work of the
Pseudo-Lactantius, asserts :
" I have heard tell
That there is far hence
In eastern parts
A land most noble,
Amongst men renowned.
258 The Terrestrial Paradise
That tract of earth is not
Over mid earth
Fellow to many
Peopled lands ;
But it is withdrawn
Through the Creator's might
From wicked doers.
Beauteous is all the plain,
With delights blessed,
With the sweetest
Of earth's odours."
And then it rambles on in description of its
delights, which may be imagined without further
quotation.
The Hereford map of the thirteenth centu
represents the terrestrial Paradise as a circul
island near India, cut off from the continent not
only by the sea, but also by a battlemented wall,
with a gateway to the west.
Rupert of Duytz regards it as having been
situated in Armenia. Radulphus Highden, in the
thirteenth century, relying on the authority of
S. Basil and S. Isidore of Seville, places Eden in
an inaccessible region of Oriental Asia ; and this
was also the opinion of Philostorgus. Hugo de
S. Victor, in his book " De Situ Terrarum," ex-
presses himself thus: "Paradise is a spot in the
Orient productive of all kinds of woods and pomi-
ier
:
The Terrestrial Paradise 259
ferous trees. It contains the Tree of Life : there is
neither cold nor heat there, but perpetual equable
temperature. It contains a fountain which flows
forth in four rivers."
Rabanus Maurus, with more discretion, says :
"Many folk want to make out that the site of
Paradise is in the east of the earth, though cut off
by the longest intervening space of ocean or
earth from all regions which man now inhabits.
Consequently, the waters of the Deluge, which
covered the highest points of the surface of our orb,
were unable to reach it. However, whether it be
there, or whether it be any where else, God knows ;
but that there was such a spot once, and that it
was on earth, that is certain."
Jacques de Vitry (" Historia Orientalis"), Gervais
of Tilbury, in his " Otia Imperalia," and many
others, hold the same views as to the site of
Paradise that were entertained by Hugo de S.
Victor.
Jourdain de Severac, monk and traveller in the
beginning of the fourteenth century, places the
terrestrial Paradise in the " Third India ;" that is
to say, in trans-Gangic India.
Leonardo Dati, a Florentine poet of the fifteenth
century, composed a geographical treatise in verse,
S 2
260 The Terrestrial Paradise
entitled "Delia Sfera ;" and it is in Asia that he
locates the garden :
" Asia e le prima parte dove 1' huomo
Sendo innocente stava in Paradise."
But perhaps the most remarkable account of the
terrestrial Paradise ever furnished, is that of the
" Eireks Saga Vidforla," an Icelandic narrative of
the fourteenth century, giving the adventures of a
certain Norwegian, named Eirek, who had vowed,
whilst a heathen, that he would explore the fabulous
Deathless Land of pagan Scandinavian mythology.
The romance is possibly a Christian recension of an
ancient heathen myth ; and Paradise has taken the
place in it of Glcesisvellir.
According to the majority of the MSS. the story
purports to be nothing more than a religious novel ;
but one audacious copyist has ventured to assert
that it is all fact, and that the details are taken
down from the lips of those who heard them from
Eirek himself. The account is briefly this :
Eirek was a son of Thrand, king of Drontheim,
and having taken upon him a vow to explore the
Deathless Land, he went to Denmark, where he
picked up a friend of the same name as himself.
They then went to Constantinople, and called upon
The Terrestrial Paradise 261
the Emperor, who held a long conversation with
them, which is duly reported, relative to the truths
of Christianity and the site of the Deathless Land,
which, he assures them, is nothing more nor less
than Paradise.
" The world," said the monarch, who had not
forgotten his geography since he left school, "is
precisely 180,000 stages round (about 1,000,000
English miles), and it is not propped up on posts
not a bit ! it is supported by the power of God ;
and the distance between earth and heaven is
100,045 m il es (another MS. reads 9382 miles the
difference is immaterial) ; and round about the
earth is a big sea called Ocean." " And what's to
the south of the earth?" asked Eirek. " Oh ! there
is the end of the world, and that is India." " And
pray where am I to find the Deathless Land ?"
" Paradise, I suppose you mean, lies slightly east
of India."
Having obtained this information, the two
Eireks started, furnished with letters from the
Greek Emperor.
They traversed Syria, and took ship probably
at Balsora ; then, reaching India, they proceeded
on their journey on horseback, till they came to a
dense forest, the gloom of which was so great,
262 The Terrestrial Paradise
thr6ugh the interlacing of the boughs, that even by
day the stars could be observed twinkling, as though
they were seen from the bottom of a well.
On emerging from the forest, the two Eireks
came upon a strait, separating them from a beauti-
ful land, which was unmistakably Paradise ; and
the Danish Eirek, intent on displaying his Scrip-
tural knowledge, pronounced the strait to be the
river Pison. This was crossed by a stone bridge^
guarded by a dragon.
The Danish Eirek, deterred by the prospect of
an encounter with this monster, refused to advance,
and even endeavoured to persuade his friend to
give up the attempt to enter Paradise as hopeless,
after that they had come within sight of the
favoured land. But the Norseman deliberately
walked, sword in hand, into the maw of the dragon,
and next moment, to his infinite surprise and de-
light, found himself liberated from the gloom of the
monster's interior, and safely placed in Paradise.
" The land was most beautiful, and the grass as
gorgeous as purple ; it was studded with flowers,
and was traversed by honey rills. The land war
extensive and level, so that there was not to be
seen mountain or hill, and the sun shone cloudless
without night and darkness ; the calm of the ait
The Terrestrial Paradise 263
was great, and there was but a feeble murmur of
wind, and that which there was, breathed redolent
with the odour of blossoms." After a short walk,
Eirek observed what certainly must have been a
remarkable object, namely, a tower or steeple self-
suspended in the air, without any support whatever,
though access might be had to it by means of a
slender ladder. By this Eirek ascended into a loft
of the tower, and found there an excellent cold
collation prepared for him. After having partaken
of this he went to sleep, and in vision beheld and
conversed with his guardian angel, who promised
to conduct him back to his fatherland, but to come
for him again, and fetch him away from it for ever
at the expiration of the tenth year after his return
to Drontheim.
Eirek then retraced his steps to India, unmolested
by the dragon, which did not affect any surprise at
having to disgorge him, and, indeed, which seems
to have been, notwithstanding his looks, but a
harmless and passive dragon.
After a tedious journey of seven years, Eirek
reached his native land, where he related his adven-
tures, to the confusion of the heathen, and to the
delight and edification of the faithful. "And in
the tenth year, and at break of day, as Eirek went
264 The Terrestrial Paradise
to prayer, God's Spirit caught him away, and he
was never seen again in this world : so here ends
all we have to say of him 2 ."
The Saga, of which I have given the merest out-
line, is certainly striking, and contains some beauti-
ful passages. It follows the commonly-received
opinion which identified Paradise with Ceylon ;
and, indeed, an earlier Icelandic work, the " Rym-
begla," indicates the locality of the terrestrial Para
dise as being near India, for it speaks of the Gange
as taking its rise in the mountains of Eden. It is
not unlikely that the curious history of Eirek, is a
translation, with modifications, of a Keltic romanc
I form this opinion from the introduction of th
bridge over which Eirek has to pass, and the mar-
velous house suspended in air, which is an item
peculiar to the Paradise of Druidical Mythology.
Later than the fifteenth century, we find no
theories propounded concerning the terrestrial
Paradise, though there are many treatises on the
presumed situation of the ancient Eden. At
Madrid was published a poem on the subject,
entitled "Patriana decas," in 1629. In 1662 G. C.
Kirchmayer, a Wittemberg professor, composed a
2 Compare with this the death of Sir Galahad in the
" Morte d' Arthur" of Sir Thomas Malory.
i
The Terrestrial Paradise 265
thoughtful dissertation, " De Paradise," which he
inserted in his "Deliciae ^Estivae." Fr. Arnoulx
wrote a work on Paradise in 1665, full of the
grossest absurdities. In 1666 appeared Carver's
" Discourse on the Terrestrian Paradise." Bochart
composed a tract on the subject ; Huet wrote on it
also, and his work passed through seven editions,
the last dated from Amsterdam, 1701. The Pere
Hardouin composed a " Nouveau Traite de la Situ-
ation du Paradis Terrestre," La Haye, 1730. An
Armenian work on the rivers of Paradise was
translated by M. Saint Martin in 1819; and in
1842 Sir W. Ouseley read a paper on the situation
of Eden, before the Literary Society in London.
A MORE interesting task for the comparative
mythologist can hardly be found, than the
analysis of the legends attaching to this celebrated
soldier-martyr ; interesting, because these legends
contain almost unaltered representative myths of
the Semitic and Aryan peoples, and myths which
may be traced with certainty to their respective
roots.
The popular traditions current relating to the
Cappadocian martyr are distinct in the East and
the West, and are alike sacred myths of faded
creeds, absorbed into the newer faith, and re-
colouied. On dealing with these myths, we are
necessarily drawn into the discussion as to whether
such a person as S. George existed, and if he did
exist, whether he were a Catholic or a heretic.
Eusebius says (Eccl. Hist. B. viii. c. 5), " Imme-
5. George 267
diately on the first promulgation of the edict (of
Diocletian), a certain man of no mean origin, but
highly esteemed for his temporal dignities, as soon
as the decree was published against the Churches
in Nicomedia, stimulated by a divine zeal, and
excited by an ardent faith, took it as it was openly
placed and posted up for public inspection, and
tore it to pieces as a most profane and wicked
act. This, too, was done when two of the Caesars
were in the city, the first of whom was the eldest
and chief of all, arid the other held the fourth grade
of the imperial dignity after him. But this man, as
the first that was distinguished there in this manner,
after enduring what was likely to follow an act so
daring, preserved his mind calm and serene until
the moment when his spirit fled."
This martyr, whose name Eusebius does not give,
has been generally supposed to be S. George, and
if so, this is nearly all we know authentic concern-
ing him. But popular as a saint he unquestionably
was, from a very early age. He is believed to have
suffered at Nicomedia in 303, and his worship was
soon extended through Phoenicia, Palestine, and
the whole East. In the seventh century he had two
Churches in Rome ; in Gaul he was honoured in the
fifth century. In an article contributed to the
268 5. George
Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature l ,
Mr. Hogg speaks of a Greek inscription copied
from a very ancient church, originally a heathen
temple at Ezra, in Syria, dated A.D. 346, in which
S. George is spoken of as a holy martyr. This is
important testimony, as at this very time was
living the other George, the Alexandrian bishop,
(d. 362) with whom the Saint is sometimes con-
founded.
The earliest acts quoted by the Bollandists, are
in Greek, and belong to the sixth century ; they are
fabulous. Beside these, are some Latin acts, said
to have been composed by Pasikras, the servant of
the martyr, which belong to the eighth century ; and
which are certainly translations of an earlier work
than the Greek acts printed by the Bollandists.
These are also apocryphal. Consequently we
know of S. George little, except that there was such
a martyr, that he was a native of Lydda, but
brought up in Cappadocia, that he entered the
Roman army and suffered a cruel death for Christ.
That his death was one of great cruelty, is rendered
probable by the manner in which his biographers
dilate on his tortures, all agreeing to represent them
as excessive.
1 Second Series, vol. vii. pt. i.
S. George 269
The first to question the reverence shown for S.
George was Calvin, who says ' Nil eos Christo reli-
quum facere qui pro nihilo ducunt ejus intercessio-
nem, nisi accedant Georgius aut Hippolitus, aut
similes larvae.' Dr. Reynolds follows in the wake,
and identifies the martyr with the Arian Bishop of
Alexandria. This man had been born in a fuller's
mill at Epiphania, in Cilicia. He is first heard of as
purveyor of provisions for the army at Constanti-
nople, where he assumed the profession of Arianism ;
from thence, having been detected in certain frauds,
he was obliged to fly, and take refuge in Cappa-
docia. His Arian friends obtained his pardon, by
payment of a fine, and he was sent to Alexandria,
where his party elected him Bishop, in opposition
to S. Athanasius, immediately after the death of the
Arian prelate, Gregory. There, associating with
himself Dracontius, master of the mint, and the
Count Diodorus, he tyrannized alike over Catholics
and heathens, till the latter rose against him and
put him to death. Dr. Heylin levelled a lance in
honour of the Patron of England 2 ; but his histori-
cal character was again questioned in 1753, by Dr.
John Pettingal in a work on the original of the
2 Historic of that Most famous Saint and Soldier of Christ
Jesus, S. George of Cappadocia, 1633.
270 5. George
equestrian statue of S. George ; and he was an-
swered by Dr. Samuel Pegge, in 1777, in a paper
read before the Society of Antiquaries. Gibbon,
without much investigation into the ground of the
charge, assumes the identity of the Saint and the
Arian prelate. " The odious stranger, disguising
every circumstance of time and place, assumed the
mask of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero ;
and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been
transformed into the renowned S. George of Eng-
land, the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the
Garter 3 ."
The great improbability of such a transformation
would lead one to question the assertion, even if on
no other ground. Arians and Catholics were too
bitterly hostile, for it to be possible that a partisan
of the former, and a persecutor, should be accepted
as a saint by the latter. The writings of S. Atha-
nasius were sufficiently known to the Medisevals to
save them from falling into such an error, and
S. Athanasius paints his antagonist in no charm-
ing colours. I am disposed to believe that there
really was such a person as S. George, that he was
a martyr to the Catholic faith, and that the verr
3 Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap, xxiii.
S. George 271
uncertainty which existed regarding him, tended to
give the composers of his biography the opportu-
nity of attaching to him popular heathen myths,
which had been floating unadopted by any Christian
hero. The number of warrior saints was not so
very great; Sebastian's history was fixed, so were
those of Maurice and Gereon, but George was un-
provided with a history. The deficiency was soon
supplied. We have a similar instance in the story
of S. Hippolitus. The ancient tale of the son of
Theseus torn by horses was deliberately transferred
to a Christian of the same name.
The substance of the Greek acts is to this effect :
George was born of Christian parents in Cappa-
docia. His father suffered a martyr's death, and
the mother with her child took refuge in Palestine.
He early entered the army, and behaved with
great courage and endurance. At the age of
twenty he was bereaved of his mother, and by
her death came in for a large fortune. He then
went to the court of Diocletian, where he hoped
to find advancement. On the breaking out of the
persecution, he distributed his money among the
poor, and declared himself, before the Emperor,
to be a Christian. Having been ordered to sacri-
fice, he refused, and was condemned to death.
272 S. George
The first day, he was thrust with spears to prison,
one of the spears snapped like straw when it
touched him. He was then fastened by the feet
and hands to posts, and a heavy stone was laid
upon his breast.
The second day, he was bound to a wheel set
with blades of knives and swords. Diocletian
believed him to be dead ; but an angel appearing,
George courteously saluted him in military fashion,
whereby the persecutor ascertained that the Saint
was still living. On removing him from the wheel,
it was discovered that all his wounds were healed.
George was then cast into a pit of quicklime,
which, however, did not cause his death. On the
next day but one, the Emperor sent to have his
limbs broken, and he was discovered on his knees
perfectly whole.
He was next made to run in red-hot iron shoes.
The following night and day he spent in prayer,
and on the sixth day he appeared before Diocletian
walking and unhurt. He was then scourged with
thongs of hide till his flesh came off his back,
but was well next day.
On the seventh day he drank two cups, whereof
the one was prepared to make him mad, the other
to poison him, without experiencing any ill effects.
5. George 273
He then performed some miracles, raised a dead
man to life, and restored to life an ox which had
been killed ; miracles which resulted in numerous
conversions.
That night George dreamed that the Saviour
laid a golden crown on his head, and bade him
prepare for Paradise. S. George at once called to
him the servant who wrote these memoirs (ocrns
KOI TO, VTTO rbv ayiov vTro/jLvrffjiaTa avv atcpiffeta IT day
cruvera^ev), and commanded him, after his death,
to take his body and will to Palestine. On the
eighth day, the saint, by the sign of the cross,
forced the devil inhabiting the statue of Apollo
to declare that he was a fallen angel ; then all the
statues of the gods fell before him.
This miracle converted the Empress Alexandra ;
and Diocletian was so exasperated against the
truth, that he condemned her to instant death.
George was' then executed. The day of his
martyrdom was the 23rd of April.
The Latin acts may be summed up as follows ;
they, as already stated, are a translation from a
Greek original :
The devil urges Dacian, Emperor of the Persians,
king of the four quarters of heaven, having domi-
nion over seventy-two kings, to persecute the
T
274 5. George
Church. At this time lived George of Cappadocia,
a native of Melitena. Melitena is also the scene
of his martyrdom. Here he lived with a holy
widow. He is subjected to numerous tortures,
such as the rack, iron pincers, fire, a sword-spiked
wheel, shoes nailed to his feet ; he is put into an
iron box set within with sharp nails, and flung
down a precipice; he is beaten with sledge-hammers,
a pillar is laid on him, a heavy stone dashed on
to his head ; he is stretched on a red-hot iron be
melted lead is poured over him ; he is cast into
well, transfixed with forty long nails, shut into a
brazen bull over a fire, and cast into a well with
a stone round his neck. Each time he retu
from a torment, he is restored to former vigour.
His tortures continue through seven years. His
constancy and miracles are the means of converting
40,900 men, and the Empress Alexandra. Dacian
then orders the execution of George and his queen ;
and as they die, a whirlwind of fire carries off the
persecutor.
These two acts are the source of all later Greek
legends.
Papenbroech prints legends by Simeon Meta-
phrastes (d. 904), Andreas Hierosolymites, and
Gregorios Kyprios (d. 1289).
5. George 75
Reinbot von Dorn (cent, xiii.), or the French
author from whom he translated the life of S-
George, thought fit to reduce the extravagance
of the original to moderate proportions, the
seventy-two kings were reduced to seven, the
countless tortures to eight ; George is bound, and
has a weight laid on him, is beaten with sticks,
starved, put on a wheel covered with blades,
quartered and thrown into a pond, rolled down
a hill in a brazen bull, his nails transfixed with
poisoned thorns, and he is then executed with the
sword.
Jacques de Voragine says that he was first
attached to a cross, and torn with iron hooks
till his bowels protruded, and that then he was
washed with salt water. Next day he was given
poison to drink without its affecting him. Then
George was fastened to a wheel covered with razors
and knives, but the wheel snapped. He was next
cast into a caldron of molten lead. George was
uninjured by the bath. Then, at his prayer, light-
ning fell and destroyed all the idols, whilst the
earth, opening, swallowed up the priests. At the
sight of this, the wife of Dacian, whom Jacques
de Voragine makes proconsul under Diocletian,
is converted, and she and George are decapitated.
T 2
:
276 5. George
Thereupon lightning strikes Dacian and his mi-
nisters.
S. George, then, according to the Oriental Chris-
tian story, suffers at least seven martyrdoms, and
revives after each, the last excepted.
The Mussulmans revere him equally with the
Christians, and tell a tale concerning him having a
strong affinity to that recorded in the acts. Gher-
ghis, or El Khoudi, as he is called by them, lived at
the same time as the Prophet. He was sent by God
to the king of El Mauyil with the command that h
should accept the faith. This the king refused to do,
and ordered the execution of Gherghis. The saint
was slain, but God revived him, and sent him to the
king again. A second time was he slain, and agai
did God restore him to life. A third time did he
preach his mission. Then the persecutor had him
burned, and his ashes scattered in the Tigris.
But God restored him to life once more, and de-
stroyed the king and all his subjects 4 . The Greek
historian, John Kantakuzenos (d. 1380) remarks,
that in his time there were several shrines erected
to the memory of George, at which the Mohamme-
dans paid their devotions ; and the traveller Burck-
* Mas'udi, iibers. von Sprenger, vol. i. p. 120.
S. George 277
hardt relates, that " the Turks pay great veneration
to S. George ;" Dean Stanley moreover noticed a
Mussulman chapel on the sea-shore near Sarafend,
the ancient Sarepta, dedicated to El Khouder, in
which " there is no tomb inside, only hangings before
a recess. This variation from the usual type of
Mussulman sepulchres was, as we were told by
peasants on the spot, because El Khouder is not
yet dead, but flies round and round the world, and
these chapels are built wherever he has appeared 5 ."
Ibn Wahshiya al Kasdani was the translator of the
Book of Nabathaean Agriculture. "Towards the
year 900 of our era, a descendant of those ancient
Babylonian families who had fled to the marshes of
Wasith and of Bassora, where their posterity still
dwell, was struck with profound admiration for the
works of his ancestors, whose language he under-
stood, and probably spoke. Ibn Wahshiya al
Kasdani, or the Chaldaean, was a Mussulman, but
Islamism only dated in his family from the time
of his great-grandfather ; he hated the Arabs, and
cherished the same feeling of national jealousy to-
wards them as the Persians also entertained against
their conquerors. A piece of good fortune threw
5 Sinai and Palestine, p. 274.
278
S. George
into his hands a large collection of Nabathaeai
writings, which had been rescued from Mosl<
fanaticism. The zealous Chaldasan devoted his life
to their translation, and thus created a Nabathae<
Arabic library, of which three complete works, t(
say nothing of the fragments of a fourth, have
descended to our days V One of these is th<
Book of Nabathaean Agriculture, written b]
Kuthami the Babylonian. In it we find th<
following remarkable passage : "The contem-
poraries of Yanbushadh assert that all the seka'i]
of the gods and all the images lamented over
biishadh after his death, just as all the angels am
seka'in lamented over Tammuzi. The images (<
the gods), they say, congregated from all parts oi
the world to the temple in Babylon, and betool
themselves to the temple of the Sun, to the gre;
golden image that is suspended between heav(
and earth. The Sun image stood, they say,
the midst of the temple, surrounded by all th<
images of the world. Next to it stood the image
of the Sun in all countries ; then those of th(
Moon ; next those of Mars ; after them, the
images of Mercury ; then those of Jupiter ; aft<
6 Ernest Renan, Essay on the Age and Antiquity of tl
Book of Nabathaean Agriculture, London, 1862, p. 5.
S. George 279
them, those of Venus ; and last of all, of Saturn.
Thereupon the image of the Sun began to bewail
Tammuzi, and the idols to weep ; and the image of
the Sun uttered a lament over Tammuz and nar-
rated his history, whilst the idols all wept from the
setting of the sun till its rising at the end of that
night. Then the idols flew away, returning to their
own countries. They say that the eyes of the idol
of Tehama (in South Arabia), called the eagle, are
perpetually flowing with tears, and will so continue,
from the night wherein it lamented over Tammuz
along with the image of the Sun, because of the
peculiar share that it had in the story of Tammuz.
This idol, called Nesr, they say, is the one that
inspired the Arabs with the gift of divination, so
that they can tell what has not yet come to pass,
and can explain dreams before the dreamers state
what they are. They (the contemporaries of Yan-
bushadh) tell that the idols in the land of Babel
bewailed Yanbushadh singly in all their temples a
whole night long till morning. During this night
there was a great flood of rain, with violent thunder
and lightning, as also a furious earthquake (in the
district) from the borders of the mountain ridge of
Holwan to the banks of the Tigris near the city
Nebanvaja, on the eastern bank of that river. The
280 S. George
idols, they say, returned during this flood to their
places, because they had been a little shaken.
This flood was brought by the idols as a judgment
upon the people of the land of Babel for having
abandoned the dead body of Yanbushadh, as it lay
on the bare ground in the desert of Shamas, so that
the flood carried his dead body to the Wadi el-
A'hfar, and then swept it from this wadi into th
sea. Then there was drought and pestilence i
the land of Babel for three months, so that the
living were not sufficient to bury the dead. These
tales (of Tammuz and Yanbushadh) have been col-
lected and are read in the temples after praye
and the people weep and lament much thereupo
When I myself am present with the people in the
temple, at the feast of Tammuz, which is in the
month called after him, and they read his story
and weep, I weep along with them always, out of
friendly feeling towards them, and because I com-
passionate their weeping, not that I believe what
they relate of him. But I believe in the story of
Yanbushadh, and when they read it and weep, I
weep along with them, very differently from my
weeping over Tammuzi. The reason is this, that
the time of Yanbushadh is nearer to our own than
the time of Tammuz, and his story is, therefore,
;
S. George 281
more certain and worthy of belief. It is possible
that some portions of the story of Tammuz may
be true, but I have my doubts concerning other
parts of it, owing to the distance of his time from
ours."
Thus writes Kuthami the Babylonian, and his
translator adds :
" Says Abu Bekr A'hmed ibn Wa'hshiya. This
month is called Tammuz, according to what the
Nabathaeans say, as I have found it in their books,
and is named after a man of whom a strange
long story is told, and who was put to death, they
relate, several times in succession in a most cruel
manner. Each of their months is named after
some excellent and learned man, who was one,
in ancient times, of those Nabathaeans that in-
habited the land of Babel before the Chaldaeans.
This Tammuz was not one of the Chaldaeans,
nor of the Canaanites, nor of the Hebrews, nor
of the Assyrians, but of the primeval lanbanis. . .
All the Ssabians of our time, down to our own
day, wail and weep over Tammuz in the month
of that name, on the occasion of a festival in his
honour, and make great lamentation over him ;
especially the women, who all arise, both here
(at Bagdad) and at 'Harran, and wail and weep
282
S. George
over Tammuz. They tell a long and silly story
about him ; but, as I have clearly ascertained,
not one of either sect has any certain information
regarding Tammuz, or the reason of their lament-
ing over him. However, after I had translated
this book, I found in the course of my reading
the statement that Tammuz was a man concerning
whom there was a legend, and that he had been
put to death in a shameful manner. That was all ;
not another word about him. They knew nothing
more about him than to say, ' We found our ances-
tors weeping and wailing over him in this way at
this feast that is called after him Tammuzi.' My
own opinion is, that this festival which they hold
in commemoration of Tammuz is an ancient one,
and has maintained itself till now, whilst the story
connected with him has been forgotten, owing to
the remoteness of his age, so that no one of these
Ssabians at the present day knows what his story
was, nor why they lament over him." Ibn
Wa'hshiya then goes on to speak of a festival
celebrated by the Christians towards the end of
the month Nisan (April) in honour of S. George,
who is said to have been several times put to death
by a king to whom he had gone to preach Chris-
tianity, and each time he was restored to life
me
5. George 283
again, but at the last died. Then Ibn Wa'hshiya
remarks that what is related of the blessed George
is the same as that told of Tammuz, whose
festival is celebrated in the month Tammuz ; and
he adds that besides what he found regarding
Tammuz in the "Agriculture," he lit on another
Nabathaean book, in which was related in full the
legend of Tammuz; "how he summoned a king
to worship the seven (planets) and the twelve
(signs), and how the king put him to death several
times in a cruel manner, Tammuz coming to life
again after each time, until at last he died ; and
behold ! it was identical with the legend of S.
George that is current among the Christians 7 ."
Mohammed en Medun in his Fihrist-el-U'lum,
says, " Tammuz (July). In the middle of this
month is the Feast El Bugat, that is, of the
weeping women, which Feast is identical with
that Feast of Ta-uz, which is celebrated in honour
of the god Ta-uz. The women bewail him, be-
cause his Lord had him so cruelly martyred,
7 Chwolson: iiber Tammuz. St. Petersburg, 1860, pp.
41 56. The translation is for the most part from the
Christian Remembrancer, No. cxii., an article on Tammuz,
with the conclusions of which I cannot, altogether agree. My
own conviction as to Tammuz will be seen in the sequel.
284 5. George
his bones being ground in a mill, and scattered
to the winds V
We have then the Eastern myth of S. George
identified with that of Tammuz, by one who is
impartial. What that myth of Tammuz was in
its entirety we cannot say, but we have sufficient
evidence in the statement of Ibn Wa'hshiya to
conclude that the worship of S. George and its
popularity in the East, is mainly due to the fact
of his being a Christianized Tammuz.
Professor Chwolson insists on Tammuz having
been a man, deified and worshipped ; and the
review below referred to confirms this theory. I
believe this to be entirely erroneous. Tammuz
stands to Chaldee mythology in precisely the
same relation that the Ribhavas do to that of the
Vedas. A French orientalist, M. Neve, wrote a
learned work in 1847, on these ancient Indian deities,
to prove that they were deified sages. But the
careful study of the Vedic hymns to the Ribhus
lead to an entirely opposite conclusion. They
are the Summer breezes deified, which, in that
they waft the smoke of the sacrifices to heaven,
are addressed as assisting at the sacred offerings ;
8 Chwolson: Die Ssabier, ii. 27.
5. George 285
and in a later . age, when their real signification
was lost, they were anthropomorphized into a
sacred caste of priests. A similar process has,
I believe, taken place with Tammuz, who was
the sun, regarded as a God and hero, dying at
the close of each year, and reviving with the new
one. In Kuthami's age the old deity was appa-
rently misappreciated, and had suffered, in con-
sequence, a reincarnation in Yanbushadh, of whom
a similar story was told, and who received similar
worship, because he was in fact one with Tammuz.
Almost exactly the same legend is related by the
Jews of Abraham, who, they say, was cruelly tor-
tured by Nimrod, and miraculously preserved by
God 9 .
The Phoenician Adonis was identical with
Tammuz. S. Jerome in the Vulgate rendered
the passage in Ezekiel (viii. 14), " He brought
me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house,
which was towards the north ; and behold, there
sat women weeping for Tammuz," by ecce mulieres
sedentes plangentes Adonidem ; and in his com-
mentary on the passage says, "Whom we have
interpreted Adonis, both the Hebrew and Syriac
9 Leben Abrahams nach Ausfassung der Judischen Sage,
v. Dr. B. Beer, Leipzig, 1859.
286 5. George
languages call Thamuz . . . and they call the
month June by that name." He informs us also of
a very important fact, that the solstice was the time
when Tammuz was believed to have died, though
the wailing for him took place in June. Con-
sequently Tammuz's martyrdom took place at the
end of December. Cyril of Alexandria also tells
us of the identity existing between Adonis and
Tammuz (in Isaiah, chap, xviii.).
The name Adonis is purely Semitic, and signifies
the Lord. His worship was introduced to the
Greeks by the Phoenicians through Crete.
Adonis is identified with the Sun in one of the
Orphic hymns : " Thou shining and vanishing in
the beauteous circle of the Horae, dwelling at
one time in gloomy Tartarus, at another eleva-
ting thyself to Olympus, giving ripeness to the
fruits 1 !" According to Theocritus, this rising and
setting, this continual coursing, is accomplished in
twelve months : " In twelve months the silent
pacing Horae follow him from the nether- world to
that above, the dwelling of the Cyprian goddess,
and then he declines again to Acheron 2 ." The
cause of these wanderings, according to the fable,
1 Orph. Hymn Iv. 5, and 10, n.
2 Theocrit. Id. xv. 103, 104, 136.
S. George 287
was that two goddesses loved Adonis, Aphro-
dite, or more properly Astarte, and Persephone.
Aphrodite, the Syrian Baalti, loved him so tenderly
that the jealousy of Ares was aroused, and he
sent a wild boar to gore him in the chase. When
Adonis descended to the realm of darkness, Per-
sephone was inflamed with passion for the comely
youth. Consequently a strife arose between her
and Aphrodite, which should possess him. The
quarrel was settled by Zeus dividing the year
into three portions, whereof one, from the summer
solstice to the autumn equinox, was to belong
to Adonis, the second was to be spent by
him with Aphrodite, and the third with Perse-
phone. But Adonis voluntarily surrendered his
portion to the goddess of beauty 3 . Others say,
that Zeus decreed that he should spend six months
in the heavens with Aphrodite, and the other six
in the land of gloom with Persephone 4 .
The worship of Adonis, who was the same as
Baal, was general in Syria and Phoenicia. The
devotion to Tammuz, we are told, was popular
from Antioch to Elymai's 5 . It penetrated into
3 Cyrill. Alex, in Isa.; Apollodor. lib. iii. c. 14.
4 Schol. in Theocrit. Id. iii. v. 48, and xv. v. 103.
5 Ammian. Marcell. xxii. p. CElian, Hist, animal, xii. 33.
288 5. George
Greece from Crete. Biblos in Phoenicia was the
main seat of this worship.
Tammuz, or Adonis, was again identical with
Osiris. This is stated by several ancient writers 6 .
The myth relating to Osiris was very similar.
The Egyptian sun-god was born at the summer
solstice and died at the winter solstice, when pro-
cessions went round the temple seeking him, seven
times. Osiris in heaven was the beloved of Isis, in
the land of darkness was embraced by Nepthys.
Typhon, as the Greeks call Seth or Bes, a mon-
ster represented in swine or boar shape, attacked
Osiris, and slaying him, cut him up, and cast him
into the sea. This took place on the ijth of the
month Athor.
Then began the wailing for Osiris, which lasted
four days ; this was followed by the seeking, and
this again by the finding of the God.
Under another form, the same myth, and its ac-
companying ceremonies, prevailed in Egypt, just as
at Babylon that of Tammuz had its reflection in the
more modern cultus of Yanbushadh. The soul of
the deceased Osiris was supposed to be incarnate in
Apis ; and, in process of mythologic degradation,
the legend of Osiris passed over to Apis, and with
6 Lucian. de dea Syria, n. 7. Steph. de Urb. v.
5. George 289
it the significant ceremonial. Thus Herodotus tells
us how that at Memphis the death of the sacred
bull was a cause of general wailing, and its dis-
covery one of exultation. When Cambyses was in
Egypt, and the land groaned under foreign sway,
no Apis appeared ; but when his two armies were
destroyed, and he came to Memphis, Apis had
appeared ; and he found the conquered people mani-
festing their joy in dances, and with feasting and
gay raiment 7 .
We have, it will be seen, among Phoenicians,
Syrians, Egyptians, and Nabathseans, all Semitic
nations, peculiar myths, with symbolic ceremonies
bearing such a close resemblance to one another,
that we are constrained to acknowledge them as
forms, slightly varied, of some primaeval myth.
We find also among the Arabs, another Semitic
nation, a myth identical with that of the Babylonian
Tammuz, prevalent among them not long after their
adoption of Islamism. How shall we account for
this ? My answer is, that the pre-Mohammedan
Arabs had a worship very similar to that of Tam-
muz, Baal, Adonis, or Osiris, and that, on their con-
version to the faith of the prophet, they retained
the ancient legend, adapting it to El Koudir, whom
7 Thalia, c. 27.
U
290 5. George
they identified with S. George, because they found
that the Christians had already adopted this course,
and had fixed the ancient myth on the martyr of
Nicomedia. In Babylonia it had already passed t
Yanbushadh ; and it was made to pass further t
Gherghis, much as in Greece the story of Apollo
and Python was transferred to Perseus and the sea-
monster, and, as we shall see presently, was adopted
Into Christian mythology, and attributed to the
subject of this paper. And indeed the proce
was perhaps facilitated by the fact that on
of the names of this solar god was Giggras ; h
was so called after the pipes used in wailing fo
him.
The circumstances of the death of Tammuz vary
in the different Semitic creeds.
Let me place them briefly in apposition.
Nabathaean myth. Tammuz.
A great hero, and prophet ; is cruelly put t
death several times, but revives after each mar
tyrdom. His death a subject of wailing.
Phoenician myth. Adon or Baal.
A beautiful deity, killed by the furious Boar god.
Revived and sent to heaven. Divides his tim
between heaven and hell, subject of wailing,
seeking, and finding.
~y
:
5. George 291
Syrian myth. Baal.
Identical with the Phoenician.
Egyptian myth. Osiris.
A glorious god and great hero, killed by the evil
god. Passes half his time in heaven, and half
in the nether world. Subject of wailing, seeking,
and finding.
Arabian myth. El Khouder, original name Ta'uz.
A prophet, killed by a wicked king several times
and revived each time.
Oriental Christian myth. S. George.
A soldier, killed by a wicked king, undergoes
numerous torments, but revives after each. On
earth lives with a widow. Takes to the other
world with him the queen. Wailing and seek-
ing fall away, and the festival alone remains.
From this tabular view of the legends it is, I
think, impossible not to see that S. George, in his
mythical character, is a Semitic god Christianized.
In order to undergo the process of conversion, a
few little arrangements were rendered necessary,
to divest the story of its sensuous character, and
purify it. Astarte or Aphrodite had to be got out
of the way somehow. She was made into a pious
widow, in whose house the youthful saint lodged.
Then Persephone, the queen of Hades, had to be
U 2
292 5. George
accounted for. She was turned into a martyr, Alex-
andra ; and just as Persephone was the wife of the
ruthless monarch of the nether world, so was Alex-
andra represented as the queen of Diocletian or
Datian, and accompanied Georgeto the unseen world.
Consequently in the land of light, George was wit
the widow ; in that of gloom, with Alexandra : just
as Osiris spent his year between Isis and Nepthys,
and Adonis between Aphrodite and Persephone.
According to the ancient Christian legend, th
body of George travelled from the place of his mar
tyrdom to that of his nativity ; this resembles the
journey of the body of Osiris, down the Nile, over
the waves to Biblos, where Isis found him again.
The influence of Persian mythology is also per
ceptible in the legend. El Nedim says that Tarn
muz was brayed in a mill ; this feature in his mar-
tyrdom is adopted from the Iranian tradition of
Horn, the Indian Soma, or the divine drink
sacrifice, which was anthropomorphized, and th
history of the composition of the liquor was trans-
formed into the fable of the hero. The Horn was
pounded in a mortar, and the juice was poured on
the sacrificial flames, and thus carried up into
heaven in fire ; in the legend of the demigod, Horn
was a martyr who was cruelly bruised and broken
i
;
h
S. George 293
in a mortar, but who revived, and ascended to the
skies. In the tale of George there is another
indication of the absorption into it of a foreign
myth. George revives the dead cow of the peasant
Glycerius ; the same story is told of Abbot William
of Villiers, of S. Germanus, of S. Garmon, and of
S. Mochua. Thor also brought to life goats which
had been killed and eaten. The same is told in
the Rigveda of the Ribhus : "O sons of Sudharvan,
out of the hide have you made the cow to
arise ; by your songs the old have you made
young, and from one horse have you made another
horse 8 ."
The numbers in the legend of the soldier-saint
have a solar look about them. The torments of S.
George last seven years, or, according to the Greek
acts, seven days ; the tyrant reigns over the four
quarters of heaven, and seven kings ; in the Naba-
thaean story, Tammuz preaches the worship of the
seven planets, and the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
Osiris is sought seven days. The seven winter
months are features in all mythologies.
The manner in which S. George dies repeatedly
represents the different ways in which the sun dies
8 See my note in Appendix to " The Folklore of the N.
Counties of England," London, 1866. pp. 321-4.
S. George
each day. The Greeks, and, indeed, most nations,
regarded the close of day as the expiration of the
solar deity, and framed myths to account for his
decease. In Greek mythology the solar gods an
many, and the stories of their deaths are distributee
so as to provide each with his exit from the world
but in Semitic mythology it is not so, the sun-god
is one, and all kinds of deaths are attributed to him
alone, or, if he suffers anthropomorphism, to his
representative.
Phaethon is a solar deity ; he falls into the
western seas. Herakles is another ; he expires
flames, rending the poisoned garment given hii
by Dejanira. Phaethon's death represents th<
rapid descent of the sun in the west ; that ol
Herakles, the setting orb in a flaming western sk;
rending the fire-lined clouds, which wrap his body.
The same blaze, wherein sank the sun, was als<
supposed to be a funeral pyre, on which la]
Memnon ; and the clouds fleeting about it, som<
falling into the fire, and some scudding over the
darkling sky, were the birds which escaped from
the funeral pyre. Achilles, a humanized sun-god,
was vulnerable in his heel, just as the Teutonic
Sigfried could only be wounded in his back : thi:
represents the sun as retiring from the heavens with
6". George 295
his back turned, struck by the weapon of dark-
ness, just as Ares, the blind God, with his tusk
slew Adonis, or sightless Hodr with his mistletoe
shaft smote Baldur.
In the S. George fable, we have the martyr, like
Memnon or Herakles, on the fire, and transfixed,
like Achilles and Ajax ; exposed in a brazen bull
on a fire, that is, hung in the full rain-cloud over
the western blaze ; cast down a hill, like Phaethon ;
plunged into boiling metal, a representation of the
lurid vapours of the west.
Having identified S. George or Tammuz with
the sun, we shall have little difficulty in seeing
that Aphrodite or Isis is the moon when visible,
and Persephone or Nepthys the waned moon ;
Persephone is in fact no other than Aphrodite
in the region of gloom, where, according to the
decree of Zeus, she was to spend six months with
Aidoneus, and six months in heaven.
But it is time for us to turn to the Western myth,
that of the fight of S. George with the dragon ; in
this, again, we shall find sacred beliefs of antiquity
reappearing in Christian form.
The story of S. George and the dragon first pre-
sents itself in the Legenda Aurea of Jacques de
Voragine. It was accepted by the unquestioning
296 5. George
clerks and laity of the middle ages, so that it found
its way into the office-books of the Church.
O Georgi Martyr inclyte,
Te decet laus et gloria,
Predotatum militia;
Per quern puella regia,
Existens in tristitia,
Coram Dracone pessimo,
Salvata est. Ex animo
Te rogamus corde intirno,
Ut cunctis cum fidelibus
Cceli jungamur civibus
Nostris ablatis sordibus :
Et simul cum lastitia
Tecum simus in gloria;
Nostraque reddant labia
Laudes Christo cum gratia,
Cui sit honos in secula.
Thus sang the clerks from the Sarum " Horas B.
Marise," on S. George's day, till the reformation
of the Missals and Breviaries by Pope Clement
VII., when the story of the dragon was cut out,
and S. George was simply acknowledged as
martyr, reigning with Christ. His introit wa<
from Ps. Ixiii. The Collect, "God, who makest
us glad through the merits and intercession oi
blessed George the martyr, mercifully grant that
we who ask through him Thy good things may
obtain the gift of Thy grace." The Epistle,
5. George 297
1 Tim. ii. 8 u, and iii. TO 13 ; and the Gospel^
S. John xv. i 8.
The legend, as told by Voragine, is this :
George, a tribune, was born in Cappadocia, and
came to Lybia, to the town called Silene, near
which was a pond infested by a monster, which
had many times driven back an armed host that
had come to destroy him. He even approached the
walls of the city, and with his exhalations poisoned
all who were near. To avoid such visits, he was
furnished each day with two sheep, to satisfy his
voracity. If these were not given, he so attacked
the walls of the town, that his envenomed breath
infected the air, and many of the inhabitants died.
He was supplied with sheep, till they were ex-
hausted, and it was impossible to procure the
necessary number. Then the citizens held coun-
sel, and it was decided that each day a man and
a beast should be offered, so that at last they gave
up their children, sons and daughters, and none
were spared. The lot fell one day on the princess.
The monarch, horror-struck, offered in exchange
for her his gold, his silver, and half his realm, only
desiring to save his daughter from this frightful
death. But the people insisted on the sacrifice of
the maiden, and all the poor father could obtain,
298 5. George
was a delay of eight days, in which to bewail the
fate of the damsel. At the expiration of this time,
the people returned to the palace, and said, " Why
do you sacrifice your subjects for your daughter ?
We are all dying before the breath of this mon-
ster !" The king felt that he must resolve on part-
ing with his child. He covered her with royal
clothes, embraced her, and said, " Alas ! dear
daughter, I thought to have seen myself re-born
in your offspring. I hoped to have invited princes
to your wedding, to have adorned you with royal
garments, and accompanied you with flutes, tam-
bourins, and all kinds of music ; but you are to be
devoured by this monster! Why did not I die
before you ?"
Then she fell at her father's feet and besought
his blessing. He accorded it her, weeping, and
he clasped her tenderly in his arms ; then she
went to the lake. George, who passed that way,
saw her weeping, and asked the cause of her tears.
She replied : " Good youth ! quickly mount your
horse and fly, lest you perish with me." But
George said to her : " Do not fear ; tell me what
you await, and why all this multitude look on.."
She answered : " I see that you have a great and
noble heart ; yet, fly !" "I shall not go without
5. George 299
knowing the cause," he replied. Then she ex-
plained all to him ; whereupon he exclaimed :
" Fear nothing ! in the name of Jesus Christ, I will
assist you." "Brave knight!" said she; "do not
seek to die with me ; enough that I should perish ;
for you can neither assist nor deliver me, and you
will only die with me."
At this moment the monster rose above the sur-
face of the water. And the virgin said, all trem-
bling, "Fly, fly, sir knight !"
His only answer was the sign of the cross. Then
he advanced to meet the monster, recommending
himself to God.
He brandished his lance with such force, that he
transfixed it, and cast it to the ground. Then,
addressing the princess, he bade her pass her
girdle round it, and fear nothing. When this was
done, the monster followed like a docile hound.
When they had brought it into the town, the peo-
ple fled before it ; but George recalled them,
bidding them put aside all fear, for the Lord
had sent him to deliver them from the dragon.
Then the king and all his people, twenty thousand
men, without counting women and children, were
baptized, and George smote off the head of the
monster
300 5. George
Other versions of the story are to the effect that
the princess was shut up in a castle, and that
all within were perishing for want of water,
which could only be obtained from a fountain
at the base of a hill, and this was guarded by
the "laidly worm," from which George delivered
them.
" The hero won his well-earn'd place
Amid the saints, in death's dread hour ;
And still the peasant seeks his grace,
And next to God, reveres his power.
In many a church his form is seen
With sword, and shield, and helmet sheen :
Ye know him by his steed of pride,
And by the dragon at his side."
CHR. SCHMID.
The same story has attached itself to other saints
and heroes of the middle ages, as S. Secundus of
Asti, S. Victor, Gozo of Rhodes, Raimond of S.
Sulpice, Struth von Winkelried, the Count Aymon,
Moor of Moorhall, " who slew the dragon of Want-
ley," Conyers of Sockburn, and the Knight of
Lambton, "John that slew ye Worme." Ariosto
adopted it into his Orlando Furioso, and made
his hero deliver Angelica from Orca, in the true
mythic style of George 9 ; and it appears again in
9 Orland. Fur. c. xi.
5. George 301
the tale of Chederles f . The cause of the legend
attaching itself to our hero, was possibly a mis-
understanding of an encomium, made in memory of
S. George, by Metaphrastes, which concludes thus :
"Licebat igitur videre astutissimum Draconem,
adversus carnem et sanguinem gloriari solitum,
elatumque, et sese efferentem, a juvene uno illu-
sum, et ita dispectum atque confusum, ut quid
ageret non haberet." Another writer, summing up
the acts of S. George, says : " Secundo quod Dra-
conem vicit qui significat Diabolum ;" and Hos-
pinian, relating the sufferings of the martyr, affirms
distinctly that his constancy was the occasion of
the creation of the legend by Voragine f .
If we look at the story of Perseus and Andro-
meda, we shall find that in all essential particulars
it is the same as that of the Cappadocian Saint.
Cassiope having boasted herself to be fairer than
Hera, Poseidon sent a flood and a sea-monster
'to ravage the country belonging to her husband
Cepheus. The oracle of Ammon having been
consulted, it was ascertained that nothing would
stop the resentment of the gods except the ex-
posure of the king's daughter, Andromeda, on a
1 Noel: Diet, de la Fable; art. Chederles.
* Christian Remembrancer, vol. xlv. p. 320.
302 5. George
rock, to be devoured by the monster. At the
moment that the dragon approached the maiden,
Perseus appeared, and learning her peril, engaged
the monster and slew him.
The scene of this conflict was near Joppa, where
in the days of S. Jerome the bones of the huge
reptile were exhibited, and Josephus pretends to
have seen there the chains which attached the
princess to the rock 3 . It w r as at Berytus (Beyrut)
that the fight of S. George with the dragon took
place.
Similar stones were prevalent in Greece. In the
isle of Salamis, Cenchrius, a son of Poseidon, re-
lieved the inhabitants from the scourge of a similar
monster, who devastated the island. At Thespia,
a dragon ravaged the country round the city ; Zeus
ordered the inhabitants to give the monster their
children by lot. One year it fell on Cleostratus.
Menestratus determined to save him. He armed
himself with a suit covered with hooks, and was
devoured by the dragon, which perished in killing
him. Pherecydes killed a great serpent in Caulonia,
an adventure afterwards related of Pythagoras, with
the scene shifted to Sybaris ; and Herakles, as is
well known, slew Hydra. But these are all ver-
3 Hieron. Epist. 108. Joseph. Bell. Jud. iii. c. 7.
5. George 303
sions echoes of the principal myth of Apollo and
Python.
The monster Python was sent by Hera to perse-
cute Leto, when pregnant. Apollo, the moment
that he was born, attacked the hideous beast
and pierced him with his arrows. And from the
place where the serpent died, there burst forth a
torrent.
A similar myth is found among the Scandinavian
and Teutonic nations. In these Northern myth-
ologies Apollo is replaced by Sigurd, Sigfried, and
Beowulf.
The dragon with which Sigurd fights is Fafnir,
who keeps guard over a treasure of gold. Sigfried,
in like manner, in the Nibelungen Lied, fights and
overcomes a mighty dragon, and despoils him of
a vast treasure. The Anglo-Saxon poem of Beo-
wulf contains a similar engagement. A monster
Grendel haunts a marsh near a town on the North
Sea. At night the evil spirit rises from the swamp,
and flies to the mountains, attacking the armed
men, and slaying them. Beowulf awakes, fights
him, and puts him to flight. But next night
Grendel again attacks him, but is killed by the
hero with an enchanted sword. He fights a dragon
some years later, and robs it of an incalculable store
304 5. George
of gold. The Icelandic Sagas teem with similar
stories ; and they abound in all European house-
hold tales.
In the Rigveda we have the same story. Indra
fights with the hideous serpent Ahi, or Vrita, who
keeps guard over the fountain of rains. In Iranian
mythology, the same battle is waged between
Mithra and the daemon Ahriman.
It seems, then, that the fight with the dragon is
a myth common to all Aryan peoples.
Its signification is this :
The maiden which the dragon attemps to devour
is the earth. The monster is the storm-cloud.
The hero who fights it is the sun, with his glorious
sword, the lightning-flash. By his victory the earth
is relieved from her peril. The fable has been
varied to suit the atmospheric peculiarities of dif-
ferent climes in which the Aryans found themselves.
In India, Vrita is coiled about the source of water,
and the earth is perishing for want of rain, till
pierced by the sword of Indra, when the streams
descend. " I will sing," says the Rigveda, " the
ancient exploits by which flashing Indra is distin-
guished. He has struck Ahi, he has scattered the
waters on the earth, he has unlocked the torrents
of the heavenly mountains (i. e., the clouds). He
S. George 305
has struck Ahi, who lurked in the bosom of the
celestial mountain, he has struck him with that
sounding weapon wrought for him by Twachtri ;
and the waters, like cattle rushing to their stable,
have poured down on the earth 4 ." And again :
" O Indra, thou hast killed the violent Ahi, who
withheld the waters !"
" O Indra, thou hast struck Ahi, sleeping guar-
dian of the waters, and thou hast precipitated them
into the sea ; thou hast pierced the compact scale
of the cloud ; thou hast given vent to the streams,
which burst forth on all sides V
Among the ancient Iranians the same myth
prevailed, but was sublimated into a conflict be-
tween good and evil. Ahriman represents Ahi, and
is the principle of evil ; corrupted into Kharaman,
it became: the Armenian name for a serpent and
the devil. Ahriman entered heaven in the shape
of a dragon, was met by Mithra, conquered, and
like the old serpent of Apocalyptic vision, "he
4 Rigveda, sect. i. lee. 2. p. xiii. Ed. Langlois, iii. p. 329.
5 Ibid. vol. i. p. 44 ; ii. p. 447. In the Katha Sarit
Sagara, a hero fights a daemon monster, and releases a
beautiful woman from his thraldom. The story as told by
Soma Deva has already progressed and assumed a form very
similar to that of Perseus and Andromeda. Katha Sarit
Sagara, book vii. c. 42.
X
306 5. George
shall be bound for three thousand years, an
burned at the end of the world in melted metals 6 ,
Aschmogh (Asmodeus) is also the infernal serpent
of the books of the Avesta ; he is but anothe
form of Ahriman. This fable rapidly follow
in Persia the same process of application to kno
historical individuals that it pursued in Europ
In the ninth hymn of the Ya9na, Zoroaster asks
Homa who were the first of mortals to honour him
and Homa replies : " The first of mortals to who:
I manifested myself was Vivanghvat, father of Yim
under whom flourished the blessed age which kne
not cold of winter, or scorching heat of sum
mer, old age or death, or the hatred produced by
the Devas. The second was Athwya, father o
Thraetana, the conqueror of the dragon Daha
with three heads, and three throats, and six eye
and a thousand strengths." This Thraetana, i
the Shahnameh, has become Feridun, who over-
comes the great dragon Zohak.
In northern mythology, the serpent is probabl
the winter cloud, which broods over and keeps from
mortals the gold of the sun's light and heat, till
the spring the bright orb overcomes the powe
of darkness and tempest, and scatters his gol
6 Boundehesch. ii. 351. 416.
;
5. George 307
over the face of the earth. In the ancient Sagas
of Iceland, the myth has assumed a very peculiar
form, which, if it would not have protracted this
article to an undue length, I should have been glad
to have followed out. The hero descends into
a tomb, where he fights a vampire, who has
possession of a glorious sword, and much gold and
silver. After a desperate struggle, the hero over-
comes, and rises with the treasures to the surface
of the earthc This too, represents the sun in the
northern realms, descending into the tomb of winter,
and there overcoming the power of darkness, from
whom he takes the sword of the lightning, and the
treasures of fertility, wherewith the earth is blessed
on the return of the sun to the skies in summer.
This is probably the ancient form of the Scandi-
navian myth, and the King of gloom reigning over
his gold in the cairn, was only dragonized when the
Norse became acquainted with the dragon myths of
other nations. In the Saga of Hromund Greipson,
the hero is let down by a rope into a barrow, into
which he had been digging for six days. He found
below the old king Thrain the Viking, with a kettle
of quivering red flames suspended from the roof of
the vault above him. This king, years before, had
gathered all the treasures that he had obtained in
X 2
308 5. George
a long life of piracy, and had suffered himself to
be buried alive with his ill-gotten wealth. Hromund
found him seated on a throne in full armour, girded
with his sword, crowned, and with his feet resting on
three boxes containing silver. We have the same
story in the Gretla ; only there the dead king is
Karr the old; Grettir is led to open his cairn, by
seeing flames dancing on the mound at night. In
the struggle underground, Grettir and the vampire
stumble over the bones of the old king's horse, and
thereby Grettir is able to get the upper hand.
Similar stories occur in the Floamanna Saga,
the younger Saga of Olaf the saint (cap. 16), the
elder Olaf Saga (3 4), the history of Olaf Geir-
stafaalp, the Holmverja Saga, and the Barda Saga.
The last of these is strongly impressed with Chris-
tian influence, and gives indications of the transfor-
mation of the evil being into a dragon. Gest visited
an island off the coast of Helluland (Labrador),
where lay buried a grimly daemon king Raknar.
He took with him a priest with holy water and a
crucifix. They had to dig fifty fathoms before they
reached the chamber of the dead. Into this Gest
descended by a rope, holding a sword in one hand,
and a taper in the other. He saw below a great
dragon-ship, in which sat five hundred men,
5. George 309
champions of the old king, who were buried with
him. They did not stir, but gazed with blank
eyes at the taper flame, and snorted vapour from
their nostrils. Gest despoiled the old king of all
his gold and armour, and was about to rob him of
his sword, when the taper expired. Then, at once,
the five hundred rose from the dragon-ship, and
the daemon king rushed at him ; they grappled
and fought. In his need, Gest invoked S. Olaf,
who appeared with light streaming from his body,
and illumining the interior of the cairn. Before this
light, the power of the dead men failed, and Gest
completed his work in the vault 7 . In the story of Si-
gurd and Fafnir, the dragon is more than half man;
but in the battle of Gull-Thorir the creature is scaled
and winged in the most approved Oriental style s .
Let me place in apposition a few of the Aryan
myths relating to the strife between the sun and
the daemon of darkness, or storm.
Indian myth. Indra fights Ahi.
Indra kills Ahi, who is identified with the storm-
cloud, and releases from him the pent-up waters^
for want of which the earth is perishing. Ahi a
serpent.
7 Bardar S. Snaefellsass. Kjobnhavn. 1860. pp. 41 43.
8 Gull-Thoris Saga. Leipzig, 1858. c. iv.
310 5. George
Persian myth. Mithra and Ahriman.
Mithra is clearly identical with the sun, and Ahri-
man with darkness. Ahriman a dragon.
Greek myth. Apollo and Python ; Perseus and the
sea-monster.
Apollo identical with the sun, Python the storm-
cloud. Apollo delivers his mother from the
assault of the dragon.
Perseus delivers Andromeda from the water-born
serpent. In other Greek fables it is the earth
which is saved from destruction by the victory of
the hero.
Teutonic myth. Sigfried and the dragon.
Sigfried conquers the dragon who keeps guard
over a hidden treasure, the hero kills the dragon
and brings to light the treasure.
Scandinavian myth. Sigurd and Fafnir.
Like the myth of Sigfried. Other, and perhaps
earlier form, the dragon is a king of Hades, wh(
cannot endure light, and who has robbed th<
earth of its gold. The hero descends to his
realm, fights, overcomes him, and despoils him ol
his treasures.
Christian myth. S. George and dragon.
S. George delivers a princess from a monster,
who is about to devour her. According to an-
5. George 311
other version, the dragon guards the spring of
water, and the country is languishing for want of
water ; S. George restores to the land the use of
the spring by slaying the dragon.
This table might have been considerably ex-
tended by including Keltic and Sclavonic fables, but
it is sufficiently complete to show that the legend
of S. George and the dragon forms part of one of
the sacred myths of the Aryan family, and it is im-
possible not to grasp its signification in the light
cast upon it by the Vedic poems.
And when we perceive how popular this vene-
rable myth was in heathen nations of Europe, it is
not surprising that it should perpetuate itself under
Christianity, and that, when once transferred to a
hero of the new creed, it should make that hero one
of the most venerated and popular of all the saints
in the calendar.
In the reign of Constantine the Great, there
existed a great and beautiful church between
Ramula, the ancient Arimathaea, and Lydda or
Decapolis, dedicated by the Emperor to S. George,
over his tomb. Ramula also bore the name of
Georgia, and the inhabitants pretended that the
warrior saint was a native of their town. A temple
of Juno at Constantinople was converted into a
312
\ George
church, with the same dedication, by the first
Christian Emperor, and according to one tradition,
the bones of the martyr were translated from hi<
tomb near Lydda, to the church in the great cit;
of Constantine. At an early date his head w;
in Rome, or at all events one of his heads, foi
another found its way to the church of Mares-
Moutier, in Picardy, after the capture of Byzantiui
by the Turks, when it was taken from a church
erected by Constantine Monomachus, dedicatee
to the saint. The Roman head, long forgotten,
was rediscovered in 751, with an inscription on it
which identified it with S. George. In 1600 it wa<
given to the church of Ferrara. In Rome,
Palermo, and at Naples there were churches at
very early date, consecrated to the martyr. Ii
509 Clotilda founded a nunnery at Chelles in
honour ; and Clovis II. placed a convent at Baral;
under his invocation. In this religious house wa<
preserved an arm of S. George, which in the ninth
century was transported to Cambray ; and fifty
years later S. Germain dedicated an altar in Pari<
to the champion. In the sixth century a churcl
was erected to his honour at Mayence ; Clothain
in the following century dedicated one at Nimegu<
and his brother another in Alsace. George had
5. George 313
monastery dedicated to him at Thetford, founded
in the reign of Canute ; a collegiate church in
Oxford placed under his invocation in the reign
of the Conqueror. S. George's, Southwark, dates
from before the Norman invasion. The priory
church of Griesly in Derbyshire was dedicated
to SS. Mary and George, in the reign of Henry I.
The Crusades gave an impetus to the worship
of our patron. He appeared in light on the walls
of Jerusalem, waving his sword, and led the
victorious assault on the Holy City. Unob-
trusively he and S. Michael slipped into the
offices, and exercised the functions, of the Dioscuri.
Robert of Flanders, on his return from the Holy
Land, presented part of an arm of the saint to
the city of Toulouse, and other portions to the
Countess Matilda and to the abbey of Auchin.
Another arm of S. George fell miraculously from
heaven upon the altar of S. Pantaleon at Cologne,
and in honour of it Bishop Anno founded a church.
The church of Villers-Saint-Leu contains relics
of the saint, which were given to it in noi by
Alexander, chaplain of Count Ernest, who had
received them from Baldwin at Jerusalem.
The enthusiasm of the Crusaders for the Eastern
soldier-saint who led them to battle, soon raised S.
314 .S. George
George to the highest pitch of popularity among
the nobles and fighting- men of Europe. England,
Aragon, and Portugal assumed him as their patron,
as well as most chivalrous orders founded at the
date of these wars. In 1245, on S. George's day,
Frederic of Austria instituted an order of knight-
hood under his patronage ; and its banner, white
charged with a blood-red cross, in battle floated
alongside of that of the empire. When the
emperor entered the castle of S. Angelo at
Rome, these two banners were carried before
him. The custody of the sacred standard of
S. George was confided to the Swabian knights.
In the early part of the thirteenth century there
existed a military order under the protection of
S. George at Genoa, and in 1201 an order was
founded in Aragon, with the title of knights of
S. George of Alfama.
In 1348 King Edward III. founded S. George's
Chapel, Windsor. In the following year he was
besieging Calais. Moved by a sudden impulse,
says Thomas of Walsingham, he drew his sword
with the exclamation " Ha ! Saint Edward ! Ha !
Saint George!" The words and action communi-
cated spirit to his soldiers : they fell with vigour on
the French, and routed them with a slaughter of
5. George 315
two hundred soldiers. From that time S. George
replaced Edward the Confessor as patron of
England. In 1350 the celebrated order was
instituted. In 1415, by the Constitutions of Arch-
bishop Chichely, S. George's Day was made a
major double feast, and ordered to be observed
the same as Christmas Day, all labour ceasing ;
and he received the title of spiritual patron of the
English soldiery.
In 1545 S. George's Day was observed as a red
letter day, with proper Collect, Epistle, and Gospel ;
but in the reign of Edward VI. it was swept away,
and the holding of the chapter of the Garter on
S. George's Day was transferred to Whitsun Eve,
Whitsun Day, and Whitsun Monday. Next year,
the first of Queen Mary, the enactment was re-
versed, and since then the ancient custom has
obtained, and the chapter is held annually on the
feast of the patron.
In concluding this paper, it remains only to point
out the graceful allegory which lies beneath the
Western fable. S. George is any Christian who
is sealed at his baptism to be " Christ's faithful
soldier and servant unto his life's end," and armed
with the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of
the faith, marked with its blood-red cross, the
316
. George
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word or power of God.
The hideous monster against whom the Chris-
tian soldier is called to fight is that " old serpent,
the devil," who withholds or poisons the streams
of grace, and who seeks to rend and devour
the virgin soul, in whose defence the champion
fights.
If the warfare symbolized by this legend be
carried out in life, then, in Spenser's words
" Thou, amongst those saints whom thou doest see,
Shall be a saint, and thine owne nations frend
And patrone : thou Saint George shalt called bee,
Saint George of mery England, the sign of victoree."
. Ursula anfc tfje ISieben SHjousanti
IN reading the Germania of Tacitus, with a view
to the study of Teutonic mythology, I lit upon
a passage so perplexing, that I resolved to minutely
investigate it, and trace its connexion with other
statements, and examine its bearings, little knowing
whither it would lead. That passage shall be quoted
in the sequel. Suffice it to say here, that it guided
me to the legend of S. Ursula and her virgin com-
pany of martyrs.
At this point I became acquainted with the
masterly treatise of Dr. Oskar Schade, of Bonn,
on the story of S. Ursula l , and was agreeably sur-
prised to find that, proceeding from the point at
which I had arrived, he had been guided by sure
stages to that from which I had started.
1 Die Sage von der Heiligen Ursula, von Oskar Schade.
Hanover, 1854.
318 5. Ursula
As my object in these pages is the analysis of a
Christian myth, I shall follow the Doctor's course
rather than my own. The fable of S. Ursula is too
important to be omitted from this collection of
Myths, because of the extravagance of its details,
the devotion which it excited, the persistency with
which the Church clings to it, setting all her
scenery in motion to present the tragedy in its
most imposing and probable aspect. It may not
be omitted also because it is a specimen of the
manner in which saintly legends were develope
in the Middle Ages, the process of the develo
ment being unusually evident ; a specimen, lastly,
of the manner in which they were generated ou
of worse than nothing ; a process which is als
in this case, singularly apparent.
The legends of the Middle Ages were som
beautiful, some grotesque, some revolting. The
two latter classes we put aside at once, but for the
first we profess a lingering affection. Alas ! too
often they are but apples of Sodom, fair cheeked,
but containing the dust and ashes of heathenism.
Ursula and the eleven thousand British virgins
are said to have suffered martyrdom at Cologne,
on October aist, 237 ; for in 1837 was celebrated
with splendor the i6th centenary jubilee of their
and the Eleven Thousand Virgins 319
passion. They suffered under the Huns, on their
return from their defeat at Chalons by Aetius
in 451 ; so that the anachronism is considerable.
The early martyrology of Jerome, published by
d'Achery, makes no mention of S. Ursula ; neither
does that of the Venerable Bede, who was born in
672. Bede states that he has included all the
names of which he read : as Ursula was a British
lady of rank, and was accompanied to martyrdom
by the enormous number of eleven thousand dam-
sels, who shared with her the martyr's crown and
palm, it is singular and significant that Bede should
not allude to this goodly company. The Martyro-
logium Gallinense, a compilation made in 804,
does not include her ; nor does the Vetus Calen-
darium Corbeiense, composed in or about 831.
Neither is she mentioned in the Martyrology of
Rabanus Maurus, who died in 856. Usardus, who
wrote about 875, does not speak of her, though
under the aoth October he inserts the passion of
the holy virgins, Martha and Saula, with many
others in the city of Cologne. S. Ado wrote a
martyrology in 880, but makes no mention of
Ursula and the other virgins ; nor does Notker of
S. Gall, who died in 912 ; nor, again, does the Cor-
bey martyrology of 900 ; neither do the two of
320 S. Ursula
uncertain date called after Labbe and Richenove.
We see that up to the tenth century, for eithei
650 or 450 years after the martyrdom, there is no
mention of S. Ursula by name, and only one refer-
ence to virgin martyrs at Cologne. Usardus, who
mentions these, gives the names of Martha and
Saula. An old calendar in the Dusseldorf town
library, belonging to the tenth century, copies
Usardus, merely transferring the saints to the aist
October. A litany of the following century, in the
Darmstadt library, invokes five, in this order :
Martha, Saula, Paula, Brittola, Ursula. Another
litany in the same collection raises their number
to eight, and gives a different succession : Brittola,
Martha, Saula, Sambatia, Saturnina, Gregoria,
Pinnosa, Palladia. Another litany, in the Dussel-
dorf library, extends the number to eleven : Ursula,
Sencia, Gregoria, Pinnosa, Martha, Saula, Brittola,
Saturnina, Rabacia, Saturia, Palladia. And, again,
another gives eleven, but in different order :
Martha, Saula, Brittola, Gregoria, Saturnina,
Sabatia, Pinnosa, Ursula, Sentia, Palladia, Sa-
turia.
A calendar in a Freisingen Codex, published in
Eckhart's Francia Orientalis, notices them as 55.
M. XL Virginum. And, lastly, in the twelfth
and the Eleven Thousand Virgins 321
century the chronicle of Rodulf (written 1117)
reckons the virgin martyrs as twelve.
But S. Cunibert (d. 663) is related, in a legend
of the ninth century, to have been celebrating in
the church of the Blessed Virgins, when a white
dove appeared, and indicated the spot where lay
the relics of one of the martyrs : these were, of
course at once exhumed.
In the ninth century there was a cloister of the
blessed virgins at Cologne : this is also alluded to
in the tenth and following centuries. The first,
however, to develope the number of martyrs to any
very considerable extent, was Wandalbert, in his
metrical list of saints. This was written about
851. He does not mention Ursula by name, but
reckons the virgins who suffered as " thousands."
" Tune numerosa simul Rheni per littora fulgent
Christo virgineis erecta trophaea maniplis
Agrippinae urbi, quarum furor impius olim
Millia mactavit ductricibus inclyta sanctis."
The authenticity of these lines has, however,
been questioned by critics.
The next mention of the virgins as very nume-
rous is in a calendar of the latter end of the ninth
century, in which, under October 2ist, are com-
memorated S. Hilario and the eleven thousand
Y
322 S. Ursula
virgins. Archbishop Hermann of Cologne, in 922,
also speaks of this number. In 927 and 941
Archbishop Wichfried reckons them at eleven
thousand, and from that time the belief in the
virgin saints having numbered eleven thousand
spread gradually through Europe.
Various suggestions have been made to account
for this extraordinary number. By some it has
been supposed that Undecimilla was the name
one of the martyrs, and that the entry in th<
ancient calendars of Ursula et Undecimilla
Mart., originated the misconception; and, in fact,
one missal, supposed to be old, has a similar com-
memoration ; whilst an inscription at Spiers, accord-
ing to Rettberg, mentions Ursula et Decumilia.
Johann Sprenz believed that the mistake arose
from the use, in the old MSS. martyrologies and
calendars, of the Teutonic Gimartarot, or Kimar-
trot (passus), which, standing S. Ursula Ximartor,
might have led later writers to have taken the
entry to signify S. Ursula, et XL Martor. Or,
again, if the number of the virgins were eleven,
they may have been entered as SS. XL M. Vir-
gines, or the eleven martyr-virgins, and the M.
have been mistaken in a later age for a numeral.
Against this it is urged that in no ancient calendar
and tJie Eleven Thousand Virgins 323
does the M. precede the Virg. ; the usual manner
of describing these saints being SS. M. XL Virg.,
till the number rose at a leap to eleven thousand.
As yet we have had no circumstances relating to
these ladies, but with the tenth century they begin
to appear. Sigebert of Gemblours (d. 1112) is the
first author to narrate them. Under the date 453,
he reports the glorious victory of the Virgin Ursula.
She was the only daughter of Nothus, an illustrious
and wealthy British prince, and was sought in mar-
riage by the son of a "certain most ferocious tyrant."
Ursula had, however, dedicated herself to celibacy,
and her father was in great fear of offending God
by consenting to the union, and of exasperating
the king by refusing it However, the damsel
solved the difficulty : by Divine inspiration, she per-
suaded her father to agree to the proposal of the
tyrant, but only subject to the condition that her
father and the king should choose ten virgins of
beauty and proper age, and should give them to her,
and that she and they should each have a thousand
damsels under them, and that on eleven triremes
they should be suffered to cruize about for three
years in the sanctity of unsullied virginity. Ursula
made this condition in the hopes that the difficulty of
fulfilling it would prove insurmountable, or that she
Y 2
324 S. Ursula
might be able, should it be overcome, to persuade
a vast host of maidens to devote themselves to the
Almighty.
The tyrant succeeded in mustering the desired
number, and then presented them to Ursula, to-
gether with eleven elegantly furnished galleys. For
three years these damsels sailed the blue seas. One
day the wind drove them into the port of Tiela, in
Gaul, and thence up the Rhine to Cologne. Thence
they pursued their course to Basle, where they
left their ships, and crossed the Alps on foot, de-
scended into Italy, and visited the tombs of the
Apostles at Rome. In like manner they returned,
but, falling in with the Huns at Cologne, they were
every one martyred by the barbarians.
This story bears evidence of being an addition to
the original text of Sigebert's Chronicle, for it is
not to be found in the original MS. in the hand-
writing of the author, though marks of stitches at
the side of the page indicate that an additional
item had been appended, but by whom, or when,
is not clear, as the strip of parchment which had
been tacked on is lost.
Otto of Freisingen (d. 1158) mentions the legend
in his Chronicle ; for he says, "This army (of the
Huns) when overrunning the earth, crowned with
and the Eleven Thousand Virgins 325
martyrdom the eleven thousand virgins at Co-
logne."
A legend of the twelfth century, given by Surius,
invests the story with all the colours of a romance.
In the same century it appears in the marvellous
history of Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. 1154).
Whether this legend was in the Welsh book of
W T alter the Archdeacon, from which the good
Bishop of S. Asaph derived so much of his history,
does not appear. The story, as told by him, differs
materially from that received in Germany. He re-
lates that the Emperor Maximian, having depopu-
lated Northern Gaul, sent to Britain for colonies
wherewith to re-people the waste country. Thus
out of Armorica he made a second Britain, which he
put under the control of Conan Meriadoc. He then
turned his arms eastward, and, having established
himself at Treves, commenced hostilities against the
emperors Gratian and Valentinian, who disputed
with him the imperial purple. In the meanwhile
Conan was defending Brittany against the incursions
of the neighbouring Gauls, but, finding that his troops
would not settle without wives, he sent to Britain for
a cargo of damsels, who might become the spouses of
his soldiers, and raise up another generation of fight-
ing men to continue the war with the Gauls. At this
326 5. Ursula
time there reigned in Cornwall a king, Dionotus by
name, who had succeeded his brother Caradoc on
the throne. He was blessed with a daughter of
singular beauty, named Ursula, whose hand Conan
desired to obtain. Dionotus, having received a
message from the prince of Armorica stating his
difficulties, at once collected a body of eleven thou-
sand girls of noble rank, and sixty thousand of low
birth, and shipped them on the Thames for the
Armorican colony of expectant husbands.
No sooner, however, had the fleet left the mouth
of the Thames, than it was scattered by the winds,
and, some of the vessels having been driven ashore
on barbarous island coasts, the damsels were either
killed or enslaved ; some became the prey of the
execrable army of Guanius and Melga, kings of the
Huns and Picts, who, falling upon the band of luck-
less virgins, massacred them without compunction.
It is evident that Geoffrey did not regard this
legend as invested with sanctity, and he tells it as
an historical, and not a hagiological fact.
In 1 1 06 Cologne was besieged, and the walls in
several places were battered down. Directly the
enemy were gone, the inhabitants began to rebuild
them ; and, as the foundations had suffered, they
were compelled to relay them.
and the Eleven Thousand Virgins 327
Now it happened that the old walls ran across
the ancient cemetery of the Roman settlement of
Colonia Agrippina. Consequently in redigging the
foundations a number of bones were discovered,
especially at one spot. Thereupon some ecstatic
or excitable visionary beheld two females in a halo
of light, who indicated the bones as those of the
virgin martyrs. Immediately enthusiasm was
aroused, and the cemetery was examined. Innu-
merable bones were found, together with urns, arms,
stone cists, and monumental inscriptions. The old
Roman cemetery became a quarry of relics, appa-
rently inexhaustible. But in the midst of the
religious enthusiasm of the clergy and devotees of
Cologne, a sudden difficulty occurred, which pro-
duced bewilderment in the faithful, and mockery
in the unbelieving. A large number of bones and
inscriptions belonging to men were discovered ; thus
a Simplicius, a Pantulus, an Aetherius, were com-
memorated on the slabs exhumed, and the great
size of some of the tibia rendered it certain that
they had never belonged to slender virgins.
In the midst of the dismay reigning in the breasts
of the good Catholics at this untoward discovery,
appeared, most opportunely, an ecstatic nun, Eli-
zabeth by name, who resided in the convent of
Schonau. This visionary solved the difficulty, to
the great edification of the faithful. She fell into
trances, during which she was vouchsafed wondrous
revelations, which she detailed in Latin to her
brother Egbert, who alone was suffered to be
present during her ecstasies. According to her
account, the Pope Cyriacus, the cardinals of Rome,
several bishops, priests, and monks, had been so
edified at the sight of the holy virgins in Rome,
that they had followed them on their return as far
as Cologne, where they, as well as the damsels, had
won the martyr's palm.
Thus, in a most satisfactory way, the presence oi
these male bones was accounted for, and no scandal
attached to the chaste troop of male and female
celibates which had crossed the Alps, and descendec
the Rhine, to fall before the sword of the barbarian.
Simplicius was ascertained to have been Archbishop
of Ravenna, Pantulus to have been Bishop of Basl<
and Aetherius proved to have been the bridegroom
elect of Ursula, who had been converted to Chris-
tianity, and had come up the Rhine to meet hi;
saintly betrothed.
A little difficulty occurred on another point. How
was it that the martyrs were provided with ston<
coffins and sepulchral slabs ?
and the Eleven Thousand Virgins 329
In order to explain this, another incident was
added to the legend by the vision-seeing nun.
Jacobus, Archbishop of Antioch, a Briton by
birth, had gone to Rome to visit Cyriacus the Pope,
but had learned, on his arrival, that his holiness had
been last seen clambering the Alps in the train of
eleven thousand virgins of entrancing beauty. The
Eastern patriarch at once followed the successor of
S. Peter, and reached Cologne on the morrow of
the great massacre. He thereupon cut the names
and titles of many of the deceased on stone how
he ascertained their names is not stated ; but, before
he had accomplished his task, the Huns discovered
him engaged in his pious work, and dispatched him.
Doubt and disbelief were now silenced, and the
ecstatic nun, having finished her revelations con-
cerning the eleven thousand, died in the odour of
sanctity.
Scarcely was she dead before fresh discoveries
in the old cemetery reopened the scandal.
A considerable number of children's bones were
exhumed, and some of these belonged to infants
but a few months old. This was a startling and
awkward discovery, seriously compromising to the
memories of the Pope, cardinals, and prelates who
had accompanied the young ladies from Rome, and
330 5. Ursula
arousing a. suspicion that the damsels had not been
the sole managers of their vessels on the high seas,
as the early legends had stated.
The nun, Elizabeth of Schonau, was dead. Who
was there then to clear the characters of these
glorious martyrs ?
Fortunately, an old Prsemonstratine monk, named
Richard, an Englishman, lived in the diocese of
Cologne, in the abbey of Arnsberg. He waj
keenly alive to the slur cast upon the fair fame oi
his national saints, and, by means of visions, laboured
effectively to vindicate it. He declared that the
eleven thousand had excited such enthusiasm \\
England, that their married relations had accom-
panied them in the vessels, with their children ol
all ages, and that all together had received th<
martyr's crown. Richard added that a Siciliai
princess, Gerasina, had accompanied the pilgrim'
together with her four daughters and baby son
also that an empress of the Eastern empire, Con-
stantia by name, had suffered with them. King'
princes, and princesses, of Norway, Sweden, Ireland,
Flanders, Normandy, Brabant, Friesland, Denmark
in a word, of all lands with which a geographer of
the twelfth century was acquainted had joined the
expedition, in their desire to testify their admira-
and the Eleven Thousand Virgins 331
tion of the chastity and piety of Ursula and
her companions. Holofernes, bridegroom elect of
Ursula, notwithstanding his father's opposition,
insisted on taking command of the fleet. Under
him were three hundred sailors who manned the
vessels.
Such is the history of the expansion and final
development of this curious fable. It exhibits a
series of misconceptions and impostures, we should
hope, unparalleled. To this day the church of S.
Ursula at Cologne is visited by thousands who
rely on the intercession of a saint who never
existed, and believe in the miraculous virtues of
relics which are those of pagans.
But something worse remains to be told.
Ursula is no other than the Swabian goddess
Ursel or Horsel transformed into a saint of the
Christian calendar.
"A part of the Suevi sacrifice to Isis," says
Tacitus, in his Germania. This Isis has been iden-
tified by Grimm with a goddess Ziza, who was
worshipped by the inhabitants of the parts about
Augsburg. Kiichlen, an Augsburg poet of the
fourteenth century, sings
" They built a great temple therein,
To the honour of Zise the heathen goddess.
332 S. Urmia
Whom they after heathen customs
Worshipped at that time :
The city was named eke Zisaris,
After the heathen goddess ; that was its glory.
The temple long stood entire,
Until its fall was caused by age."
But it may be questioned whether Tacitus called
the goddess worshipped by the Suevi, I sis, because
the name resembled that of the German deity, or
whether he so termed her because he traced a
similarity in the myths and worship of the two
goddesses. I believe the latter to have been the
case. The entire passage reads, " They chiefly
worship Mercury, to whom on certain days they
sacrifice human beings. They appease Hercules
and Mars with beasts, and part of the Suevi sacri-
fice to Isis. Whence the cause and origin of the
foreign rite I have not ascertained, except that the
symbol itself, in shape of a Liburnian ship, indicates
that the religion was brought from abroad V
Here, in the same sentence, three of the German
gods are called by Roman names. Mercury is
Woden : Hercules, or Mars, is Thorr. It is, there-
fore, probable that the fourth, Isis, is named from
a resemblance of attributes, rather than identity of
name. Again, in connexion with the mention of
2 Tacitus, Germania, ix.
and the Eleven Thousand Virgins 333
Isis, he alludes to a rite observed by the Suevi of
carrying about a ship in her honour. Now, in
Rome, the 5th March (III. Non. Mart.) was called,
in the Kalendarium Rusticum, the day of the Isidis
navigium. This is referred to by Apuleius in his
Metamorphoses. The goddess appeared to the poor
ass, and said, " The morrow that from the present
night will have its birth is a day that eternal religion
hath appointed as a holy festival, at a period when,
the tempests of winter having subsided, the waves
of the stormy sea abated, and the surface of the
ocean become navigable, my priests dedicate to me
a new ship, laden with the first-fruits of spring, at
the opening of the navigation " (Lib. xi.). To this
alludes also Lactantius 3 .
The myth of Isis and her wanderings is too well
known to be related. Now it is certain that in
parts of Germany the custom of carrying about
a ship existed through the Middle Ages to the
present day, and was denounced by the Church
as idolatrous. Grimm 4 mentions a very curious
passage in the Chronicle of Rodulph, wherein it
is related that, in 1133, a ship was secretly con-
structed in a forest at Inda, and was placed on
3 Lactant. Instit. i. 27.
4 Deutsche Myth. i. 237.
334 5. Ursula
wheels, and rolled by the weavers to Aix, then
to Maestricht, and elsewhere, amidst dances, and
music, and scenes which the pious chronicler re-
frains from describing. That it was regarded
with abhorrence by the clergy, is evident from the
epithets employed in describing it : navim infausto
omine compactum gentilitatis studium profanas
simulacri excubias maligni spiritus qui in ill;
ferebantur infausti ominis monstrum ; and the lik<
At Ulm, in Swabia, in 1530, the people were foi
bidden the carrying about of ploughs and ships 01
Shrove Tuesday. A like prohibition was decreec
at Tubingen on the 5th March, 1584, against a
similar practice. I have myself, on two occasions,
seen ships dragged through the streets on wheels,
upon Shrove Tuesday, at Mannheim on the Rhine.
In Brussels is celebrated, I believe to this day, a
festival called the Ommegank, in which a ship is
drawn through the town by horses, with an image
of the Blessed Virgin upon it, in commemoration of
a miraculous figure of our Lady which came in a
boat from Antwerp to Brussels.
Sometimes the ship was replaced by a plough,
and the rustic ceremony of Plough Monday in
England is a relic of the same religious rite per-
formed in honour oi the Teutonic Isis.
find the Eleven Thousand Virgins 335
o
This great goddess was known by different
names among the various peoples of Germany.
She may have been the same as Zisca, but, as
we know absolutely nothing of the myth and
attributes of that deity, we cannot decide with
certainty. More probably she was the Holda, or
Holle, who still holds sway over the imagination
of the German peasantry.
Now Holda is the great pale lady who glides
through the sky at night, in whose dark courts are
many thousand bright-eyed damsels, all, like her,
pure ; all, with her, suffering eclipse.
" Siderum regina bicornis audi
Luna puellas.
O Ursula ! Princess among thy thousands of virgins,
Pray for us ! "
Holda, or the Moon, is the wandering Isis, or
Ursula, whom German poets love still to regard
as sailing over heaven's deep in her silver boat.
As
" Seh' ziehen die Wolke mit der Brust voll Segen,
Des Mondes Kahn im Meer der Nachte prangen."
ANAST. GRUN.
Or
" Es schimmert, wie der Silberkahn,
Der dort am Himmel strahlt."
VON STOLBERG.
Holda, in Teutonic mythology, is a gentle lady
836 5. Ursula
with a sad smile on her countenance, ever accom-
panied by the souls of maidens and children, which
are under her care. She sits in a mountain of
crystal, surrounded by her bright-eyed maidens,
and comes forth to scatter on earth the winter
snow, or to revive the spring earth, or bless the
fruits of autumn. This company of virgins sur-
rounding her in the crystal vault of heaven is
that described by ^Eschylus : "Acrrpwv /cdroiSa VVK-
Tepwv o/JLrjyvpiv (Agam. v. 4).
The kindly Holda was in other parts calle
Code, under which name she resembled Artemis,
as the heavenly huntress accompanied by her
maidens. In Austria and Bavaria she was called
Perchta, or Bertha (the shining), and was supposed
to have horns like Isis or lo, other lunar goddesses
But in Swabia and Thuringia she was represented
by Horsel or Ursul.
This Horsel, in other places called the night
bird Tutosel, haunted the Venusberg into which
Tanhauser plunged. She lived there in the midst
of her numerous troop of damsels, to assist the
laborious farmer and bless faithful lovers, or to
allure to herself those souls which still clung to
the ancient faith. A beautiful and benignant
goddess the peasantry ever regarded her, little
and the Eleven Thousand Virgins 337
heeding the brand put upon her pure brow by
an indignant clergy, who saw in her only the
Roman Venus in her grossest character, and not
Aphrodite, the foam-begotten moon, rising silvery
above the frothing sea.
Further this legend shall not lead us. Its
history is painful.
That ancient myths should have penetrated and
coloured Mediaeval Christianity is not to be won-
dered at, for old convictions are not eradicated in
the course of centuries. I shall, in this book,
instance several cases in which they have left their
impress on modern Protestant mythology. But
it is sad that the Church should have lent herself
to establish this fable by the aid of fictitious
miracles and feigned revelations. And now, when
minds weary with groping after truth, and not
finding it in science, philosophy, and metaphysics,
turn to the Church with yearning look, why should
she repel them from clasping the Cross, which, in
spite of all fables, "will stand whilst the world
rolls," by her tenacity in clinging to these idle
and foolish tales, founded on paganism, and but-
tressed with fraud ?
Is this cultus of Ursula and her eleven thousand
nothing but a "pious belief"? A pious belief,
Z
338 5. Ursula
which can trust in the moon and the myriad stars,
and invoke them as saints in Paradise ! " If I
beheld . . . the moon walking in brightness ; and
my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth
hath kissed my hand : this also were an iniquity
to be punished by the judge : for I should hav
denied the God that is above " (Job xxxi. 26 28).
It is Truth which men yearn for now ; and sacr
Truth, when taught by a mouth which lends itse
to utter cunningly devised fables, is not listened to,
If the Catholic Church abroad would only purg
herself of these, her grand eternal doctrines would
be embraced by thousands. But the fathers hav
eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are s
on edge.
The bibliography of the legend must be briefly
discussed. It is not of remarkable interest.
The revelations of Elizabeth of Schonau, and
those of Hermann, Joseph of Steinfeld, will be
found in Surius, "Vita Sanctorum," under Octo-
ber 2 ist.
" Epistola ad virgines Christi univ. super hystoria
nova undecim milimum (sic!) virginum," without
place and date, but belonging to the latter end of
the fifteenth century, is very rare : I have not
seen it.
:i
and the Eleven Thousand Virgins 339
" Hjstoria vndecim milium virginum breviori
atque faciliori modo pulcerrime collecta." Colon.
1509, 4to. Very scarce also.
"De Legende, vn hystorie der XI dusent jon-
feren, s. 1. et a." (circ. 1490), a curious Low German
legend, illustrated with quaint engravings, forty in
number.
De S. Lory, "Sainte Ursule triomphante des
cceurs, de 1'enfer, de Fempire, Patrone du celebre
college de Sorbonne," Paris, 1666, 4to. The
legend has been carefully analyzed by Rettberg,
in his " Deutschlands Kirchengeschichte," i. pp.
IT I 123.
Crombach broke a lance in honour of the eleven
thousand in 1647: his work, "Ursula Vindicata,"
Colon. 1647, f--> with three maps, is interesting as
containing documentary evidence ; but it is dis-
figured by the superstition of the writer.
Leo, J. G., " aTroo-Klacr/jLa hist.-antiquarium de
11,000 virginibus." Leucopetrae, 1721, 4to. Rei-
schert, L., " Lebens-Geschichte u. Martyrtod der
N. Ursula." Cologne, 1837, 8vo.
Heinen, E. M. J., "Leben, Fahrt, u. Martyrtod
der h. Ursula." Cologne, 1838, 8vo. Scheben,
A., "Leben der h. Ursula." Cologne, 1850, 8vo.
Schade, Oskar, " Die Sage v. der h. Ursula,"
Z 2
340 6*. Ursula and the Eleven Thoiisand Virgins
Hanover, 1854, 8vo. Also a beautiful series of
illustrations of the legend copied from the interest-
ing paintings in the church at Cologne, published
by Kellerhoven, " La legende de S. Ursula." Leipzig
1861.
Some curious stories of the appearances of the
sacred virgin companions of Ursula, and of the
marvels wrought by their bones, occur in Caesariuj
of Heisterbach's gossiping Dialogue of Miracles.
Eegcnti of tfje
Sibyll. vi. 26.
IN the year 1850 chance led me to the discovery
of a Gallo-Roman palace at Pont d'Oli (Pons
Aulae), near Pau, in the south of France. I was
able to exhume the whole of the ruins, and to
bring to light one of the most extensive series
of mosaic pavements extant.
The remains consisted of a mansion two hundred
feet long, paved throughout with mosaic : it was
divided into summer and winter apartments ; the
latter heated by means of hypocausts, and of small
size ; the former very large, and opening on to a
corridor above the river, once adorned with white
marble pillars, having capitals of the Corinthian
order. One of the first portions of the palace to
be examined was the atrium, out of which, on the
The Legend of the Cross
west, opened the tablinum, a semi-circular chaml
panelled with alabaster and painted.
The atrium contained a large quadrangular tan]
or impluvium, the dwarf walls of which were encase(
in variegated Pyrenean marbles. On the west sid<
of the impluvium, below the step of the tablinum,
the pavement represented five rows of squares.
The squares in the first, third, and fifth rows were
filled with a graceful pattern composed of curves,
In the second and fourth rows, however, evei
fourth square contained a distinctly characteriz<
red cross on white ground, with a delicate wh
spine down the middle (Fig. 2). Some few
these crosses had a black floriation in the angles,
much resembling that met with in Gothic crosses
(Fig. 4). Immediately in front of the tablinum, 01
the dwarf wall of the impluvium, stood the altar t<
the Penates, which was found. The corresponding
pavement on the east of the impluvium was similai
in design to the other, but the S. George's crosses
were replaced by those of S. Andrew, each liml
terminating either in a heart-shaped leaf or a
trefoil (Figs, i, 5). The design on the north and
south was different, and contained no crosses. The
excavations to the north led to the summer apart-
ment. The most northerly chamber measured 2
The Legend of the Cross
343
feet by 22 feet ; it was not only the largest, but
evidently the principal room of the mansion, for
the pavement was the most elaborate and beautiful.
It was bordered by an exquisite running pattern of
vines and grape bunches, springing from four drink-
ing vessels in the centres of the north, south, east,
and west sides. The pattern within this border
was of circles, containing conventional roses alter-
nately folded and expanded. This design was,
however, rudely interrupted by a monstrous cross
measuring 19 feet 8 inches by 13 feet, with its head
towards the south, and its foot at the head of a
flight of marble steps descending into what we were
344 The Legend of the Cross
unable to decide whether it was a bath or a vesti-
bule. The ground of the cross was white ; the limbs
were filled with cuttle, lobsters, eels, oysters, and fish,
swimming as though in their natural element ; but
the centre, where the arms intersected, was occu-
pied by a gigantic bust of Neptune with his trident.
The flesh was represented red ; the hair, and beard,
and trident were a blue-black. The arms of th<
figure did not show : a line joining the lower edge
of the transverse limbs of the cross cut the figui
at the breast, leaving the head and shouldei
above. The resemblance to a crucifix was suffi-
ciently remarkable to make the labourers exclaim,
as they uncovered it, " C'est le bon Dieu, c'e<
Jesus!" and they regarded the trident as th(
centurion's spear. A neighbouring cure satisfie(
himself that the pavement was laid down in con-
scious prophecy of Christianity, and he pointed to
the chalices and grapes as symbolizing the holy
Eucharist, and the great cross, at the head of what
we believed to be a circular bath, as typical of
Christian baptism. With regard to the cross, the
following laws seem to have governed its represen-
tation in the Gallo-Roman villa :
The S. George's cross occupied the place of
honour in the chief room, and at the head of this
The Legend of the Cross 347
room, not in the middle, but near the bath or
porch. Again, in the atrium this cross was re-
peated twenty times in the principal place before
the tablinum and altar of the household divinities,
and again in connexion with water. Its colour was
always red or white.
Six varieties of crosses occurred in the villa
(Figs, i 5) : the S. George's cross plain ; the
same with foliations in the angles ; the same
inhabited by fish, and bust of Neptune : the
Maltese cross : the S. Andrew's cross with
trefoiled ends ; the same with heart-shaped
ends.
On the discovery of the villa, several theories
were propounded to explain the prominence given
to the cross in the mosaics.
It was conjectured by some that the Neptune
crucifix was a satire upon the Christians. To
this it was objected that the figure was too
large and solemn, and was made too prominent,
to be so taken ; that to the cross was assigned the
place of honour; and that, independently of the
bust of the sea-god, it was connected by the
artists with the presence of water.
It was supposed by others that the villa had
belonged to a Christian, and that the execution of
348 The Legend of the Cross
his design in the pavement had been entrusted
to pagans, who, through ignorance, had sub-
stituted the head of Neptune for that of the
Saviour.
Such a solution, though possible, is barely
probable.
My own belief is, that the cross was a
sacred sign among the Gaulish Kelts, and
that the villa at Pau had belonged to a Gallo-
Roman, who introduced into it the symbol ol
the water-god of his national religion, and com-
bined it with the representation of the marine
deity of the conquerors' creed.
My reasons for believing the cross to have
been a Gaulish sign are these:
The most ancient coins of the Gauls were
circular, with a cross in the middle; little wheels,
as it were, with four large perforations (Figs. 6, 7,
8). That these rouelles were not designed to
represent wheels is apparent from there being
only four spokes, placed at right angles. More-
over, when the coins of the Greek type took
their place, the cross was continued as the orna-
mentation of the coin. The gold and silver
Greek pieces circulating at Marseilles were the
cause of the abandonment of the primitive type;
The Legend of the Cross 349
and rude copies of the Greek coins were made
by the Keltic inhabitants of Gaul. In copying the
foreign pieces, they retained their own symbolic
cross.
The reverse of the coins of the Volcae Tec-
tosages, who inhabited the greater portion of
Languedoc, was impressed with crosses, their
angles filled with pellets, so like those on the
silver coins of the Edwards, that, were it not
for the quality of the metal, one would take
these Gaulish coins to be the production of
the Middle Ages. The Leuci, who inhabited the
country round the modern Toul, had similar
coins. One of their pieces has been figured
by M. de Saulcy 1 . It represents a circle con-
taining a cross, the angles between the arms
occupied by a chevron. Some of the crosses
have bezants, or pearls, forming a ring about
them, or occupying the spaces between their
limbs. Near Paris, at Choisy-le-Roy, was dis-
covered a Gaulish coin representing a head, in
barbarous imitation of that on a Greek medal,
and the reverse occupied by a serpent coiled round
the circumference, and enclosing two birds.
1 Revue de Numismatique, 1836.
350
The Legend of the Cross
Between these birds is a cross, with pellets at
the end of each limb, and a pellet in each
angle.
A similar coin has been found in numbers
near Arthenay, in Loiret, as well as others of
analogous type. Other Gaulish coins bear the
cross on both obverse and reverse. About two
hundred pieces of this description were found
in 1835, in the village of Cremiat-sur-Yen, near
Quimper, in a brown earthen urn, with ashes
and charcoal, in a rude kistvaen of stone
blocks ; proving that the cross was used on the
coins in Armorica, at the time when increma-
tion was practised. This cross with pellets, a
characteristic of Gaulish coins, became in time
the recognized reverse of early French pieces,
and introduced itself into England with the Anglo-
Norman kings.
We unfortunately know too little of the icono-
graphy of the Gauls, to be able to decide whether
the cross was with them the symbol of a water
deity; but I think it probable, and for this
reason, that it is the sign of gods connected, more
or less remotely, with water in other religions.
That it was symbolic among the Irish and British
Kelts is more than probable. The temple in the
The Legend of the Cross 351
tumulus of Newgrange is in the shape of a cross
with rounded arms (Fig. 9). Curiously enough,
the so-called Phoenician ruin of Giganteia, in
Gozzo, resembles it in shape. The shamrock of
Ireland derives its sacredness from its affecting the
same form. In the mysticism of the Druids the
stalk or long arm of the cross represented the way
of life, and the three lobes of the clover-leaf, or the
short arms of the cross, symbolized the three con-
ditions of the spirit-world, Heaven, Purgatory,
and Hell.
Let us turn to the Scandinavians. Their god
Thorr was the thunder, and the hammer was his
symbol. It was with this hammer that Thorr
crushed the head of the great Mitgard serpent, that
he destroyed the giants, that he restored the dead
goats to life which drew his car, that he conse-
crated the pyre of Baldur. This hammer was a
cross.
Just as the S. George's cross appears on the
Gaulish coins, so does the cross cramponnee, or
Thorr's hammer (Fig. u), appear on the Scan-
dinavian moneys.
In ploughing a field near Bornholm, in Fyen,
in 1835, a discovery was made of several gold
coins and ornaments belonging to ancient Danish
352 The Legend of the Cross
civilization. The collection consisted of personal
ornaments, such as brooches, fibulas, and torques,
and also of pieces of money, to which were fastened
rings in order that they might be strung on a neck-
lace. Among these were two rude copies of coins
of the successors of Constantine ; but the other
were of a class very common in the North. They
were impressed with a four-footed horned beast,
girthed, and mounted by a monstrous human head,
intended, in barbarous fashion, to represent th
rider. In front of the head was the sign of Thorr'
hammer, a cross cramponnee. Four of the specimens
bearing this symbol exhibited likewise the name of
Thorr in runes. A still ruder coin, discovered with
the others, was deficient in the cross, whose pla
was occupied by a four-point star 2 .
Among the flint weapons discovered in Denmark
are stone cruciform hammers, with a hole at the
intersection of the arms for the insertion of the
haft (Fig. 10). As the lateral limbs could have
been of little or no use, it is probable that these
cruciform hammers were those used in conse-
crating victims in Thorr's worship.
The cross of Thorr is still used in Iceland as a
8 Transactions of the Society of Northern Antiquaries for
The Legend of the Cross 353
magical sign in connexion with storms of wind and
rain.
King Olaf, Longfellow tells us, when keeping
Christmas at Drontheim
" O'er his drinking-horn, the sign
He made of the Cross Divine,
As he drank, and mutter'd his prayers ;
But the Berserks evermore
Made the sign of the Hammer of Thorr
Over theirs."
Actually they both made the same symbol.
This we are told by Snorro Sturleson, in the
Heimskringla 3 , when he describes the sacrifice at
Lade, at which King Hakon, Athelstan's foster-son
was present : " Now, when the first full goblet was
filled, Earl Sigurd spoke some words over it, and
blessed it in Odin's name, and drank to the king
out of the horn ; and the king then took it, and
made the sign of the cross over it. Then said
Kaare of Greyting, ' What does the king mean by
doing so ? will he not sacrifice ?' But Earl Sigurd
replied, ' The king is doing what all of you do who
trust in your power and strength ; for he is blessing
the full goblet in the name of Thorr, by making
the sign of his hammer over it before he drinks
it.' "
5 Heimskringla, Saga iv., c. 18.
A a
,ross
Bells were rung in the Middle Ages to drr
away thunder. Among the German peasantry the
sign of the cross is used to dispel a thunder-ston
The cross is used because it resembles Thon
hammer, and Thorr is the Thunderer : for tl
same reason bells were often marked with tl
"fylfot," or cross of Thorr (Fig. n), especially
where the Norse settled, as in Lincolnshire an<
Yorkshire. Thorr's cross is on the bells
Appleby, and Scotherne, Waddingham, Bishop'
Norton, and West Barkwith, in Lincolnshire, 01
those of Hathersage in Derbyshire, Mexborougl
in Yorkshire, and many more.
The fylfot is curiously enough the sacred Sw;
lika of the Buddhist; and the symbol of Buddha 01
the reverse of a coin found at Ugain is a cross
equal arms, with a circle at the extremity of eacl
and the fylfot in each circle.
The same peculiar figure occurs on coins
Syracuse, Corinth, and Chalcedon, and is frequently
employed on Etruscan cinerary urns. It curiously
enough appears on the dress of a fossor, as a sort
of badge of his office, on one of the paintings in
the Roman catacombs.
But, leaving the cross cramponnee, let us examine
some other crosses.
The Legend of the Cross 355
Sozomen, the ecclesiastical historian, says that,
on the destruction of the Serapium in Egypt,
" there were found sculptured on the stones certain
characters regarded as sacred, resembling the sign
of the cross. This representation, interpreted by
those who knew the meaning, signified 'The Life
to come.' This was the occasion of a great num-
ber of pagans embracing Christianity, the more so
because other characters announced that the temple
would be destroyed when this character came to
light V Socrates gives further particulars : " Whilst
they were demolishing and despoiling the temple
of Serapis, they found characters, engraved on
the stone, of the kind called hieroglyphics, the
which characters had the figure of the cross.
When the Christians and the Greeks [i. e. heathen]
saw this, they referred the signs to their own
religions. The Christians, who regarded the cross
as the symbol of the salutary passion of Christ,
thought that this character was their own. But
the Greeks said it was common to Christ and
Serapis ; though this cruciform character is, in
fact, one thing to the Christians, and another
to the Greeks. A controversy having arisen,
4 Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. vii., c. 14.
A a 2
.egend of the Cross
some of the Greeks [heathen] converted to Chri
tianity, who understood the hieroglyphics, inter-
preted this cross-like figure to signify * The Lif<
to come.' The Christians, seizing on this as i
favour of their religion, gathered boldness an
assurance ; and as it was shown by other sacr
characters that the temple of Serapis was to
have an end when was brought to light this cruci-
form character, signifying 'The Life to come,' a
great number were converted and were baptized,
confessing their sins V
Rufinus, who tells the story also, says that thi
took place at the destruction of the Serapium at
Canopus 6 ; but Socrates and Sozomen probably
followed Sophronius, who wrote a book on th
destruction of the Serapium, and locate the eve:
in Alexandria 7 .
Rufinus says, "The Egyptians are said to hav
the sign of the Lord's cross among those lett
which are called sacerdotal of which letter
figure this, they say, is the interpretation : ' Th
Life to come.' "
;
,t
:
5 Socrat. Hist. Eccles. v., c. 17.
6 Rufin. Hist. Eccles. ii., c. 29.
7 " Sophronius, vir apprime eruditus, laudes Bethleem ad-
huc puer, et nuper de subversione Serapis insignem librum
composuit." Hieronym. Vit. Illust.
The Legend of the Cross 357
There is some slight difficulty as to fixing the
date of the destruction of the Serapium. Marcel-
linus refers it to the year 389, but some chrono-
logists have moved it to 391. It was certainly
overthrown in the reign of Theodosius I.
There can be little doubt that the cross in the
Serapium was the Crux ansata (Fig. 12), the
S. Anthony's cross, or Tau with a handle. The
antiquaries of last century supposed it to be a
Nile key or a phallus, significations purely hypo-
thetical and false, as were all those they attri-
buted to Egyptian hieroglyphs. As Sir Gardner
Wilkinson remarks, it is precisely -the god Nilus
who is least often represented with this symbol
in his hand s , and the Nile key is an ascertained
figure of different shape. Now it is known for
certain that the symbol is that of life. Among
other indications, we have only to cite the Rosetta
stone, on which it is employed to translate the
title alcdi>6/3i,o<; given to Ptolemy Epiphanius.
The Christians of Egypt gladly accepted this
witness to the cross, and reproduced it in their
churches and elsewhere, making it precede, follow,
or accompany their inscriptions. Thus, beside
8 Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, iv.
P- 34i.
358 The Legend of the Cross
one of the Christian inscriptions at Phile is seen
both a Maltese cross and a crux ansata. In a
painting covering the end of a church in the
cemetery of El-Khargeh, in the Great Oasis, are
three handled crosses around the principal sub-
ject, which seems to have been a figure of a
saint 9 .
Not less manifest is the intention in an in-
scription in a Christian church to the east of the
Nile in the desert. It is this :
Beside, or in the hand of, the Egyptian gods, this
symbol is generally to be seen : it is held in 'the
right hand, by the loop, and indicates the Eter-
nity of Life which is the attribute of divinity.
When Osiris is represented holding out the crux
ansata to a mortal, it means that the person to
whom he presents it has put off mortality, and
entered on the life to come.
Several theories have been started to account
for the shape. The Phallic theory is monstrous,
and devoid of evidence. It has also been sug-
gested that the Tau (T) represents a table or altar,
9 Hoskins, Visit to the Great Oasis, Lond. 1837, plate
xii.
The Legend of the Cross 359
and that the loop symbolizes a vase l or an egg '
upon that altar.
These explanations are untenable when brought
into contact with the monuments of Egypt. The
ovoid form of the upper member is certainly a
handle, and is so used (Fig. 13). No one knows,
and probably no one ever will know, what origin-
ated the use of this sign, and gave it such signi-
ficance.
The Greek cross is also found on Egyptian
monuments, but less frequently than the cross of
S. Anthony. A figure of a Shari (Fig. 14), from Sir
Gardner Wilkinson's book, has a necklace round his
throat, from which depends a pectoral cross. A
similar ornament hangs on the breast of Tiglath
Pileser, in the colossal tablet from Nimroud, now
in the British Museum (Fig. 15). Another king
from the ruins of Nineveh wears a Maltese cross on
his bosom. And another, from the hall of Nisroch,
carries an emblematic necklace, consisting of the
sun surrounded by a ring, the moon, a Maltese
1 " Hieroglyphica ejusdem (vocis) figura formam exhibet
mensas sacrae fulcro innixas cui vas quoddam religionis indi-
cium superpositum est." P. Ungarelli, Interpretat. Obelisco-
rum Urbis. p. 5.
2 Dognee, Les Symboles Antiques, L'CEuf. Bruxellcs,
1865.
The Legend of the Cross
cross likewise in a ring, a three-horned cap, an
symbol like two horns 3 .
A third Egyptian cross is that represented Fig.
1 6, which apparently is intended for a Latin cros
rising out of a heart, like the mediaeval emblem o
" Cor in Cruce, Crux in Corde : " it is the hieroglyph
of goodness 4 .
The handled cross was certainly a sacred symbo
among the Babylonians. It occurs repeatedly o
their cylinders, bricks, and gems.
On a cylinder in the Paris Cabinet of Antiquities,
published by Miinter 5 , are four figures, the first
winged, the second armed with what seems to be
thunderbolts. Beside him is the crux ansata, wit
a hawk sitting on the oval handle. The other
figures are a woman and a child. This cross is
half the height of the deity.
Another cylinder in the same Cabinet represent
three personages. Between two with tiaras is th
same symbol. A third in the same collectio
bears the same three principal figures as the first.
The winged deity holds a spear ; the central god
3 Bonomi, Nineveh and its Palaces, pp. 303, 333, 414.
4 H. W. Westrop, in Gentleman's Magazine, N. S., vol
xv., p. 80.
5 Miinter, Religion d. Babylonier, Taf. i.
!
The Legend of the Cross 361
is armed with a bundle of thunderbolts and a dart,
and is accompanied by the cross ; the third, a
female, bears a flower. On another and still more
curious cylinder is a monarch or god, behind whom
stands a servant holding up the symbol (Fig. 17).
The god is between two handled crosses, and
behind the servant is a Maltese cross. Some way
above is a bird with expanded wings. Again, on
another the winged figure is accompanied by the
cross. A remarkable specimen, from which I have
copied the principal figure (Fig. 18), represents a
god holding the sacred sign by the long arm,
whilst a priest offers him a gazelle.
An oval seal, of white chalcedony, engraved in
the Memoires de 1' Academic royale des Inscrip-
tions et Belles Lettres (vol. xvi.), has as subject
a standing figure between two stars, beneath which
are handled crosses. Above the head of the deity
is the triangle, or symbol of the Trinity.
This seal is of uncertain origin : it is supposed
not to be Babylonish, but Phoenician. The Phoe-
nicians also regarded the cross as a sacred sign.
The goddess Astarte, the moon, the presiding di-
vinity over the watery element, is represented on
the coins of Byblos holding a long staff surmounted
by a cross, and resting her foot on the prow of a
362
The Legend of the Cross
galley, and not unlike the familiar figures of Faitl
on the Christian Knowledge Society books.
The cyclopean temple at Gozzo, the island
adjacent to Malta, has been supposed to be a
shrine of the Phoenicians to Mylitta or Astarte.
It is of a cruciform shape (Fig. 9). A superb
medal of Cilicia, bearing a Phoenician legend,
and struck under the Persian domination, has on
one side a figure of this goddess with a crux
ansata by her side, the lower member split.
Another form of the cross (Figs. 19, 20) is
repeated frequently and prominently on coins of
Asia Minor. It occurs as the reverse of a silver
coin supposed to be of Cyprus, on several Cilician
coins : it is placed beneath the throne of Baal of
Tarsus, on a Phoenician coin of that town, bearing
the legend Tin ^3 (Baal Tharz). A medal, pos-
sibly of the same place, with partially obliterated
Phoenician characters, has the cross occupying the
entire field of the reverse side. Several, with in-
scriptions in unknown characters, have a ram on
one side, and the cross and ring on the other.
Another has the sacred bull accompanied by this
symbol ; others have a lion's head on obverse,
and the cross and circle on the reverse.
A beautiful Sicilian medal of Camarina bears a
The Legend of the Cross 363
swan and altar, and beneath the altar is one of
these crosses with a ring attached to it 6 .
As in Phoenician iconography this cross generally
accompanies a deity, in the same manner as the
handled cross is associated with the Persepolitan,
Babylonish, and Egyptian gods, we may conclude
that it had with the Phoenicians the same signifi-
cation of life eternal. That it also symbolized
regeneration through water, I also believe. On
Babylonish cylinders it is generally employed in
conjunction with the hawk or eagle, either seated
on it, or flying above it. This eagle is Nisroch,
whose eyes are always flowing with tears for the
death of Tammiiz. Nesr, or Nisroch, is certainly
the rain-cloud. In Greek iconography Zeus, the
heaven, is accompanied by the eagle to symbolize
the cloud. On several Phoenician or uncertain
coins of Asia Minor the eagle and the cross go
together. Therefore I think that the cross may
symbolize life restored by rain.
An inscription inThessaly, EPMAtt X0ONIOY,
is accompanied by a Calvary cross (Fig. 21) ; and
Greek crosses of equal arms adorn the tomb of
6 These medals are engraved to accompany the article of
M. Raoul-Rochette on the Croix ansee, in the Mem. de
1'Academie des Inscr. et Belles Lettres, torn. xvi.
364 The Legend of the Cross
Midas, in Phrygia. Crosses of different shapes,
chiefly like Figs. 2 and n, are common on ancient
cinerary urns in Italy. These two forms occur on
sepulchral vessels found under a bed of volcanic
tufa on the Alban mount, and of remote antiquity.
It is curious that the T should have been used
on the roll of the Roman soldiery as the sign of
life, whilst the designated death 7 .
But, long before the Romans, long before the
Etruscans, there lived in the plains of Northern
Italy a people to whom the cross was a religious
symbol, the sign beneath which they laid their
dead to rest ; a people of whom history tells
nothing, knowing not their name ; but of whom
antiquarian research has learned this, that they
lived in ignorance of the arts of civilization, that
they dwelt in villages built on platforms over
lakes, and that they trusted in the cross to guard,
and may be to revive, their loved ones whom they
committed to the dust. Throughout Emilia are
found remains of these people ; these remains
form quarries whence manure is dug by the
peasants of the present day. These quarries
7 Isidor. Origin, i., c. 23. " T nota in capite versiculi sup-
posita superstitem designat." Persius, Sat. iv. 13. Rufin.
in Hieronym. ap. Casaubon ad Pers.
The Legend of the Cross 365
go by the name of terramares. They are vast
accumulations of cinders, charcoal, bones, frag-
ments of pottery, and other remains of human
industry. As this earth is very rich in phosphates,
it is much appreciated by the agriculturists as a
dressing for their land. In these terramares there
are no human bones. The fragments of earthen-
ware belong to articles of domestic use ; with them
are found querns, moulds for metal, portions of
cabin floors and walls, and great quantities of
kitchen refuse. They are deposits analogous to
those which have been discovered in Denmark
and in Switzerland. The metal discovered in the
majority of these terramares is bronze. The re-
mains belong to three distinct ages. In the first
none of the fictile ware was turned on the wheel or
fire-baked. Sometimes these deposits exhibit an
advance of civilization. Iron came into use, and
with it the potter's wheel was discovered, and the
earthenware was put in the furnace.
When in the same quarry these two epochs are
found, the remains of the second age are always
superposed over those of the bronze age.
A third period is occasionally met with, but only
occasionally. A period when a rude art introduced
itself, and representations of animals or human
366 The Legend of the Cross
beings adorned the pottery. Among the remains
of this period is found the first trace of money, the
ses rude, little bronze fragments without shape.
According to the calculations of M. Des Vergers,
the great development of Etruscan civilization took
place about 290 years before the foundation of
Rome, more than 1040 years before our era. The
age of the terramares must be long antecedent to
the time of Etruscan civilization. The remote
antiquity of these remains may be gathered from
the amount of accumulation over them. A section
of the deposit in Parma, where was one of these
lacustrine villages is as follows :
It. in.
Roman and later remains a depth of 4 i
Midden of ancient inhabitants, three deposits sepa-
rated by thin layers of red earth or ashes .... 68
Latest bed of lake containing piles 7
Secondary bed containing piles 33
Original bed of lake containing piles 21 o
Twice had the accumulation risen so as to necessi-
tate the re-driving of piles, and over the last, the
deposits had reached the height of 6 feet 8 inches.
Since the age when these people vanished, earth
has accumulated to the depth of 4 feet.
At Castione, not far from the station of Borgo
S. Donino, on the line between Parma and Placenza,
The Legend of the Cross 367
is a convent built on a mound. Where that mound
rises there was originally a lake, and the foundations
of the building are laid in the ruins of an ancient
population which filled the lake, and converted it
into a hill of refuse.
From the broken bones in the middens, we learn
that the roebuck, the stag, the wild boar, then ranged
the forests, that cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and dogs
were domesticated ; that these people had two kinds
of horses, one a powerful animal, the other small-
boned, and that horseflesh was eaten by the in-
habitants of the terramares.
Wheat, barley, millet, and beans have been found
about the piles, together with the stones of wild
plums, sloes, and cherries, also crab-apple pips.
A bronze dagger was found at Castione, a spear-
head of the same metal in the deposit of Bargone
di Salso. A hatchet came from the terramare of
Noceto ; quantities of little wheels, of unknown
use, have been discovered, also hair-pins and
combs. One, for a lady's back-hair, ornamented,
and of stag's horn, came from the terramare of
Fodico di Poviglio. The pottery found is mostly
in fragments. Sometimes the bottoms of the vessels
were rudely engraved with crosses (Figs. 22, 23, 24).
At Villanova, in the Commune of S. Maria delle
368 The Legend of the Cross
Caselle, near Bologna, has been discovered a ceme-
tery of this ancient people. The graves cover a
space measuring about 73 yards by 36 yards. One
hundred and thirty-three tombs have been examined.
They were constructed of great boulders, rect-
angular, somewhat cylindrical, and slightly conical.
Earth had accumulated over them, and they were
buried. They were about four feet deep. The cist
was floored with slabs of freestone, the sides were
built up of boulders ; other cists were constructed of
slabs, and cubical in shape. A hundred and seventy-
nine of the bodies had been burnt Each tomb
contained a cinerary urn containing the calcined
human remains. The urns were of a^peculiar shape,
and appeared to have been made for the purpose.
They resembled a dice-box, and consisted of a
couple of inverted cones with a partition at their
bases, where they were united. Half-melted remains
of ornaments were found with some of the human
ashes. In one vessel was a charred fragment of a
horse's rib. Therefore it is likely that the favourite
horse was sacrificed and consumed with his master.
The mouth of the urn which contained the ashes
of the deceased was closed with a little vessel or
saucer. Near the remains of the dead were found
curious solid double cones with rounded ends; these
The Legend of the Cross 369
ends were elaborately engraved with crosses (Figs.
23. 25. 27). In the ossuaries made of double cones,
around the diaphragm ran a line of circles contain-
ing crosses (Fig. 26).
Another cemetery ol the same people exists at
Golasecca, on the plateau of Somma, at the ex-
tremity of the Lago Maggiore. A vast number of
sepulchres have there been opened. They belong
to the same period as those of Villanova, the age
of lacustrine habitations.
" That which characterizes the sepulchres of Go-
lasecca, and gives them their highest interest," says
M. de Mortillet, who investigated them, " is this,
first, the entire absence of all organic representa-
tions ; we only found three, and they were excep-
tional, in tombs not belonging to the plateau ;
secondly, the almost invariable presence of the
cross under the vases in the tombs. When one re-
verses the ossuaries, the saucer-lids, or the acces-
sory vases, one saw almost always, if in good pre-
servation, a cross traced thereon. . . . The exami-
nation of the tombs of Golasecca proves in a most
convincing, positive, and precise manner, that which
the terramares of Emilia had only indicated, but
which had been confirmed by the cemetery of
Villanova ; that above a thousand years before
B b
370 The Legend of the Cross
Christ, the cross was already a religious emblem
of frequent employment V
It may be objected to this, that the cross is a
sign so easily made, that it was naturally the
first attempted by a rude people. There are,
however, so many varieties of crosses among the
urns of Golasecca, and ingenuity seems to hav<
been so largely exercised in diversifying this on<
sign, without recurring to others, that I cannot but
believe the sign itself had a religious signification.
On the other side of the Alps, at the same
period, lived a people in a similar state of civilization,
whose palustrine habitations and remains have
been carefully explored. Among the Swiss potteries,
however, the cross is very rarely found.
In the depths of the forests of Central America,
is a ruined city. It was not inhabited at the time
of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards.
They discovered the temples and palaces of
Chiapa, but of Palenque they knew nothing.
According to tradition it was founded by Votan
8 De Mortillet, Le signe de la Croix avant le Chris-
tianisme. Paris, 1866. The title of this book is deceptive.
The subject is the excavations of pre-historic remains in
Northern Italy, and pre-Christian crosses are only casually
and cursorily dealt with.
The Legend of the Cross 371
in the ninth century before the Christian era.
The principal building in Palenque is the palace,
228 feet long, by 180 feet, and 40 feet high. The
Eastern facade has fourteen doors opening on a
terrace, with bas-reliefs between them. A noble
tower rises above the courtyard in the centre. In
this building are several small temples or
chapels, with altars standing. At the back of one
of these altars is a slab of gypsum, on which are
sculptured two figures standing, one on each side of
a cross (Fig. 28), to which one is extending his
hands with an offering of a baby or a monkey. The
cross is surrounded with rich feather-work, and
ornamental chains 9 .
The style of sculpture, and the accompanying
hieroglyphic inscriptions leave no room for doubt-
ing it to be a heathen representation. Above the
cross is a bird of peculiar character, perched, as we
saw the eagle Nisroch on a cross upon a Babylonish
cylinder. The same cross is represented on old
pre-Mexican MSS., as in the Dresden Codex, and
that in the possession of Herr Fejervary, at the
end of which is a colossal cross, in the midst of
which is represented a bleeding deity, and figures
9 Stephens, Central America. London, 1842. Vol. ii.
P-346
B b 2
372
The Legend of the Cross
stand round a Tau cross, upon which is perched
the sacred bird l .
The cross was also used in the north of Mexico.
It occurs amongst the Mixtecas and in Queredaro.
Siguenza speaks of an Indian cross which was found
in the cave of Mixteca Baja. Among the ruins on
the island of Zaputero in Lake Nicaragua were also
found old crosses reverenced by the Indians. White
marble crosses were found on the island of S. Ulloa,
on its discovery. In the state of Oaxaca, the
Spaniards found that wooden crosses were erected
as sacred symbols, so also in Aguatolco, and among
the Zapatecas. The cross was venerated as far as
Florida on one side, and Cibolaonthe other. In South
America, the same sign was considered symbolical
and sacred. It was revered in Paraguay. In
Peru the Incas honoured a cross made out of a
single piece of jasper, it was an emblem belong-
ing to a former civilization.
Among the Muyscas at Cumana the cross was re-
garded with devotion, and was believed to be endued
with power to drive away evil spirits; consequently
new-born children were placed under the sign 2 .
1 Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, v. 142, 143.
3 See list of authorities in Miiller, Geschichte der Ameri-
kanischen Urreligionen. Basel, 1855, pp. 371. 421. 498, 499.
The Legend of the Cross 373
Probably all these crosses, certainly those of
Central America, were symbols of the Rain-god.
This we are told by the conquerors, of the crosses
on the island of Cozumel. The cross was not an
original symbol of the Azteks and Tolteks, but
of the Maya race, who inhabited Mexico, Guate-
mala, and Yucatan. The Mayas were subdivided
into the tribes of Totonacs, Othomi, Huasteks,
Tzendales, &c., and were conquered by a Nahual
race from the North, called Azteks and Tolteks,
who founded the great Mexican empire with which
Cortez and his Spaniards were brought in colli-
sion 3 . This Maya stock was said to have been
highly civilized, and the conquered to have in-
fluenced their conquerors.
The Maya race invaded Central America,
coming from the Antilles, when the country
was peopled by the Quinamies, to whom the
Cyclopean erections still extant are attributed.
They were overthrown by Votan, B.C. 800. The
cross was adopted by the Azteks, from the
conquered Mayas. It was the emblem of Quia-
teot, the god of Rain. In order to obtain rain
3 It is exceedingly difficult to classify these races, and
arrive at any exact conclusions with regard to their history.
The Tzendales were probably never conquered.
374 The Legend of the Cross
little boys and girls were sacrificed to him, and
their flesh was devoured at a sacred banquet by the
chiefs. Among the Mexicans, the showery month
Quiahuitl received its name from him. In Cibola,
water as the generator was honoured under this
symbol ; in Cozumel, the sacred cross in the tem-
ples was of wood or stone, ten palms high, and to it
were offered incense and quails. To obtain showers,
the people bore it in procession.
The Tolteks said that their national deity Quet-
zalcoatl had introduced the sign and ritual of the
cross, and it was their God of Rain and Health, and
was called the Tree of Nutriment, or Tree of Life.
On this account also was the mantle of the Toltek
atmospheric god covered with red crosses.
The cross was again a symbol of mysterious
significance in Brahminical iconography. In the
Cave of Elephanta, in India, over the head of a
figure engaged in massacring infants, is to be seen
the cross. It is placed by Miiller, in his " Glauben,
Wissen, und Kunst der alten Hindus," in the hands
of Seva, Brahma, Vishnu, Tvashtri (Fig. 29). This
cross has a wheel in the centre, and is called Kiakra
or Tschakra. When held by Vishnu, the world-
sustaining principle, it signifies his power to pene-
trate heaven and earth, and bring to naught the
of powers evil. It symbolizes the eternal govern-
The Legend of the Cross 375
ance of the world, and to it the worshipper of
Vishnu attributes as many virtues as does the
devout Catholic to the Christian cross. Fra
Paolino tells us it was used by the ancient kings
of India as a sceptre.
In a curious Indian painting reproduced by
Miiller (Tab. i., fig. 2), Brahma is represented
crowned with clouds, with lilies for eyes, with four
hands one holding the necklace of creation ;
another the Veda ; a third, the chalice of the source
of life ; the fourth, the fiery cross. Another paint-
ing (Tab. i., fig. 78) represents Krishna in the
centre of the world as its sustaining principle, with
six arms, three of which hold the cross, one a
sceptre of dominion, another a flute, a third a
sword. Another (Tab. u., fig. 61) gives Jama,
the judge of the nether world, with spear, sword,
scales, torch, and cross. Tab. u., fig. 140, gives
Brawani, the female earth principle, holding a lily,
a flame, a sword, and a cross. The list of repre-
sentations might be greatly extended.
It was only natural that the early and mediaeval
Christians, finding the cross a symbol of life among
the nations of antiquity, should look curiously into
the Old Testament, to see whether there were noV
foreshadowings in it of " the wood whereby right-
eousness cometh."
376 The L egend of the Cross
They found it in the blood struck on the lint(
and the door-posts of the houses of the Israelites \\
Egypt. They supposed the rod of Moses to hai
been headed with the Egyptian Crux ansata, ii
which case its employment in producing the stoi
of rain and hail, in dividing the Red Sea, in brin<
ing streams of water from the rock, testify to ii
symbolic character with reference to water. Th(
saw it in Moses with arms expanded on the Mounl
in the pole with transverse bar upon which w;
wreathed the brazen serpent, and in the two stic]
gathered by the Widow of Sarepta. But especially
was it seen in the passage of Ezekiel (ix. 4. 6), "Th<
Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the
city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set
mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigl
and that cry for all the abominations that be done
in the midst thereof. Slay utterly old and young,
both maids, and little children, and women : but
come not near any man upon whom is the mark ;
and begin at My sanctuary." In the Vulgate, it
stands : "Et signa Thau super frontes vivorum
gementium." There is some doubt as to whether
the sign Thau should be inserted or not. The
Septuagint does not give it. It simply says So?
S. Jerome testifies that the versions of
The Legend of the Cross 377
Aquila and Symmachus, written, the one under
Adrian, the other under Marcus Aurelius, were
without it, and that it was only in the version
of Theodotion, made under Septimius Severus,
that the f was inserted. Nevertheless S. Jerome
adopted it in his translation.
On the other hand Tertullian saw the cross in
this passage 4 . The Thau was the old Hebrew
character, which the Samaritan resembled, and
which was shaped like a cross. S. Jerome pro-
bably did not adopt his rendering without founda-
tion, for he was well skilled in Hebrew, and he
refers again and again to this passage of Ezekiel 5 .
The Epistle of S. Barnabas seems to allude to it 6 ;
so do S. Cyprian, S. Augustine, Origen, and
S. Isidore 7 . Bishop Lowth was disposed to
accept the Thau, so was Dr. Miinter, the Pro-
testant bishop of Zeeland. But, indeed, there
need be little doubt as to the passage. The
4 Adv. Marcion. iii. 22 : " Est enim littera, Graecorum
Thau, nostra autem T, species crucis quam portendebant
futuram in frontibus nostris apud veram et catholicam Hie-
rusalem."
5 In Ezech. ix. 4. Epistol. ad Fabiol. In Isaia c. Ixvi.
6 Epist. ch. ix. : Sraupos- Iv rw T e/^eXXei/ ex etl/ r *l v X l *P lv -
7 Cypr. Testimon. adv. Jud. ii. c. 27. August, de Alterc
Synag. et Eccles.
378 The Legend of the Cross
word for sign used by the prophet is Up Tau,
meaning, as Gesenius says in his Lexicon, signum
cruciforme ; and he adds, "The Hebrews on their
coins adopted the most ancient cruciform sign +."
The Mediaevals went further still, they desired to
see the cross still stronger characterized in the his-
tory of the Jewish Church, and as the records of
the Old Covenant were deficient on that point, they
supplemented them with fable.
That fable is the romance or Legend of the Cross,
a legend of immense popularity in the Middle Ages,
if we may judge by the numerous representations of
its leading incidents, which meet us in stained glass
and fresco.
In the churches of Troyes alone, it appears on
the windows of S. Martin-es-Vignes, of S. Panta-
leon, S. Madeleine, and S. Nizier 8 .
It is frescoed along the walls of the choir of the
church of S. Croce at Florence, by the hand of
Agnolo Gaddi. Pietro della Francesca also dedi-
cated his pencil to the history of the Cross in a
series of frescoes in the Chapel of the Bacci, in the
church of S. Francesco at Arezzo. It occurs as a
predella painting among the specimens of early art
8 Curiositcs de la Champagne. Paris, 1860.
The Legend of the Cross 379
in the Academia delle Belle Arti at Venice, and is
the subject of a picture by Beham in the Munich
Gallery 9 . The legend is told in full in the Vita
Christi, printed at Troyes in 1517, in the Legend a
Aurea of Jacques de Voragine, in an old Dutch
work, " Gerschiedenis van det heylighe Cruys," in
a French MS. of the thirteenth century in the
British Museum. Gervase of Tilbury relates a
portion of it in his Otia Imperalia \ quoting from
Comestor ; it appears also in the Speculum His-
toriale, in Gottfried von Viterbo, in the Chronicon
Engelhusii, and elsewhere.
Gottfried introduces a Hiontus in the place of
Seth in the following story ; Hiontus is corrupted
from lonicus or lonithus.
The story is as follows :
When our first father was banished Paradise, he
lived in penitence, striving to recompense for the
past by prayer and toil. When he reached a
great age and felt death approach, he summoned
Seth to his side, and said, " Go, my son, to the
terrestrial Paradise, and ask the Archangel who
keeps the gate to give me a balsam which will
9 Lady Eastlake's History of our Lord. Lond. 1865, ii.
p. 390.
1 Tertia Decisio, c. liv.; ed. Liebrecht, p. 25.
380 The Legend of the Cross
save me from death. You will easily find the way,
because my footprints scorched the soil as I le
Paradise. Follow my blackened traces, and the
will conduct you to the gate whence I was expelled.
Seth hastened to Paradise. The way was barren,
vegetation was scanty and of sombre colours
over all lay the black prints of his father's an
mother's feet. Presently the walls surroundin
Paradise appeared. Around them nature reviv
the earth was covered with verdure and dappl
with flowers. The air vibrated with exquisit
music. Seth was dazzled with the beauty whi
surrounded him, and he walked on forgetful of hi
mission. Suddenly there flashed before him
wavering line of fire, upright, like a serpent
light continuously quivering. It was the flamin
sword in the hand of the Cherub who guarded th
gate. As Seth drew nigh, he saw that the angel's
wings were expanded so as to block the door.
He prostrated himself before the Cherub, unable
to utter a word But the celestial being read in
his soul, better than a mortal can read a book, the
words which were there impressed, and he said,
" The time of pardon is not yet come. Four thou-
sand years must roll away ere the Redeemer shall
open the gate to Adam, closed by his disobedience.
"i
The Legend of the Cross 381
But as a token of future pardon, the wood whereon
redemption shall be won shall grow from the tomb
of thy father. Behold what he lost by his trans-
gression !"
At these words the angel swung open the great
portal of gold and fire, and Seth looked in.
He beheld a fountain, clear as crystal, sparkling
like silver dust, playing in the midst of the garden,
and gushing forth in four living streams. Before
this mystic fountain grew a mighty tree, with a
trunk of vast bulk, and thickly branched, but desti-
tute of bark and foliage. Around the bole was
wreathed a frightful serpent or caterpillar, which
had scorched the bark and devoured the leaves.
Beneath the tree was a precipice. Seth beheld the
roots of the tree in Hell. There Cain was en-
deavouring to grasp the roots, and clamber up them
into Paradise ; but they laced themselves around the
body and limbs of the fratricide, as the threads of a
spider's web entangle a fly, and the fibres of the
tree penetrated the body of Cain as though they
were endued with life.
Horror-struck at this appalling spectacle, Seth
raised his eyes to the summit of the tree. Now
all was changed. The tree had grown till its
branches reached heaven. The boughs were co-
382
lie Legend of the Cross
vered with leaves, flowers, and fruit. But the faires
fruit was a little babe, a living sun, who seemed t
be listening to the songs of seven white dov
who circled round his head. A woman, more
lovely than the moon, bore the child in he
arms.
Then the Cherub shut the door, and said, " I giv
thee now three seeds taken from that tree. Whe
Adam is dead, place these three seeds in thy father'
mouth, and bury him."
So Seth took the seeds and returned to hi
father. Adam was glad to hear what his son tol
him, and he praised God. On the third day after
the return of Seth he died. Then his son burie
him in the skins of beasts which God had given hi
for a covering, and his sepulchre was on Golgoth
In course of time three trees grew from the seeds
brought from Paradise : one was a cedar, another
cypress, and the third a pine. They grew with pr
digious force, thrusting their boughs to right an
left. It was with one of these boughs that Moses
performed his miracles in Egypt, brought water out
of the rock, and healed those whom the serpents
slew in the desert.
After a while the three trees touched one another,
then began to incorporate and confound their
:
The Legend of the Cross 383
several natures in a single trunk. It was beneath
this tree that David sat when he bewailed his
sins.
In the time of Solomon, this was the noblest
of the trees of Lebanon ; it surpassed all in the
forests of King Hiram, as a monarch surpasses
those who crouch at his feet. Now, when the son
of David erected his palace, he cut down this tree
to convert it into the main pillar supporting his
roof. But all in vain. The column refused to an-
swer the purpose : it was at one time too long, at
another too short. Surprised at this resistance,
Solomon lowered the walls of his palace, to suit the
beam, but at once it shot up and pierced the roof,
like an arrow driven through a piece of canvas,
or a bird recovering its liberty. Solomon, enraged,
cast the tree over Cedron, that all might trample
on it as they crossed the brook.
There the Queen of Sheba found it, and she,
recognizing its virtue, had it raised. Solomon
then buried it. Some while after, the king dug the
pool of Bethesda on the spot. This pond at once
acquired miraculous properties, and healed the sick
who flocked to it. The water owed its virtues to
the beam which lay beneath it.
When the time of the Crucifixion of Christ drew
384 The Legend of the Cross
nigh, this wood rose to the surface, and was brought
out of the water. The executioners, when seeking
a suitable beam to serve for the cross, found it, and
of it made the instrument of the death of the
Saviour. After the Crucifixion it was buried on
Calvary, but it was found by the Empress Helena,
mother of Constantine the Great, deep in the
ground with two others, May 3, 328 ; Christ's
was distinguished from those of the thieves by a
sick woman being cured by touching it. This same
event is, however, ascribed by a Syriac MS. in the
British Museum, unquestionably of the 5th century,
to Protonice, wife of the Emperor Claudius. It was
carried away by Chosroes, king of Persia, on the
plundering of Jerusalem ; but was recovered by
Heraclius,who defeated him in battle, Sept. 14, 615;
a day that has ever since been commemorated as
the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
Such is the Legend of the Cross, one of the
wildest of mediaeval fancies. It is founded, though
unconsciously, on this truth, that the Cross was a
sacred sign long before Christ died upon it.
And how account for this ?
For my own part, I see no difficulty in believing
that it formed a portion of the primaeval religion,
traces of which exist over the whole world, among
The Legend of the Cross 385
every people ; that trust in the Cross was a part of
the ancient faith which taught men to believe in a
Trinity, in a War in Heaven, a Paradise from which
man fell, a Flood, and a Babel ; a faith which was
deeply impressed with a conviction that a Virgin
should conceive and bear a son, that the Dragon's
head should be bruised, and that through Shedding
of blood should come Remission. The use of the
cross, as a symbol of life and regeneration through
water, is as widely spread over the world as the
belief in the ark of Noah. May be, the shadow of
the Cross was cast further back into the night of
ages, and fell on a wider range of country, than
we are aware of.
It is more than a coincidence that Osiris by the
cross should give life eternal to the Spirits of the
Just ; that with the cross Thorr should smite the
head of the Great Serpent, and bring to life those
who were slain ; that beneath the cross the Muysca
mothers should lay their babes, trusting by that
sign to secure them from the power of evil spirits ;
that with that symbol to protect them, the ancient
people of Northern Italy should lay them down in
the dust 2 .
2 Appendix C.
C C
Scfjatmt
T T will be remembered that, on the giving of the
-* law from Sinai, Moses was bidden erect
God an altar : " Thou shalt not build it of he
stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hi
polluted it " (Exod. xx. 35). And later : " Thei
shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God,
an altar of stones : thou shalt not lift up any iroi
tool upon them" (Deut. xxvii. 6). Such an all
was raised by Joshua after the passage of Jordan
" An altar of whole stones, over which no man hatl
lift up any iron " (Joshua viii. 31).
When King Solomon erected his glorious templ(
" the house, when it was in building, was built
stone made ready before it was brought thither: so
that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool
of iron, heard in the house while it was in building"
(i Kings vi. 7). And the reason of the prohibition
Schamir 387
of iron in the construction of the altar is given in
the Mischna iron is used to shorten life, the altar
to prolong it (Middoth 3, 4). Iron is the metal
used in war ; with it, says Pliny, we do the best
and worst acts : we plough fields, we build houses,
we cleave rocks ; but with it, also, come strife, and
bloodshed, and rapine. The altar was the symbol
of peace made between God and man, and therefore
the metal employed in war was forbidden to be used
in its erection. The idea was extended by Solomon
to the whole temple. It is not said that iron was
not used in the preparation of the building stones,
but that no tool was heard in the fitting together
of the parts.
That temple symbolized the Church triumphant
in heaven when the stones, hewn afar off in the
quarries of this world, are laid noiselessly in their
proper place, so that the whole, "fitly framed
together, groweth unto a holy temple in the
Lord ;" an idea well expressed in the ancient
hymn " Angulare fundamentum :"
" Many a blow and biting sculpture
Polish'd well those stones elect,
In their places well compacted
By the heavenly Architect."
Nothing in the sacred narrative implies any
c c 2
388
ScJiamir
miraculous act having been accomplished in this
erecting a temple of stones hewn at a distanc
and in the account of the building of the temp
in the Book of Chronicles no reference is made
che circumstance, which would have been the
had any marvel attended it.
The Septuagint renders the passage, 6 OIKOS \i6o
a/cpoTOfjLOLS apyols MKoSo/jLtjd'rj. The word a/cporo/jios
is used by the LXX in three places, for
which is rough, hard, unhewn stone. Where
says in Deuteronomy (viii. 15), "Who brought th
forth water out of the rock of flint," the LXX u
aKpoTopos. Where the Psalmist says, " Who turned
the flint-stone into a springing well" (Ps. cxiv.
and Job, " He putteth His hand upon the roc
(xxviii. 9), they employ a/eporoyiio?. So, too, in t
Book of Wisdom (xi. 4), " Water was given them out
of the flinty rock," etc Trerpas a/cporo^ov, which is
paralleled by "the hard stone," X#?o? o-K\r)p6$.
And in Ecclesiasticus, Ezekias is said to ha
"digged the hard rock with iron," wpvge o-tS
(xlviii. 17).
poTOfAos is, therefore, not a hewn sto
but one with natural angles, unhewn. Thus Suid
uses the expression, o-K\rjpa KOI ar/i^ro?, and Theo-
dotion calls the sharp stone used by Zipporah
Schamir 389
circumcising her son, a/eporo^o?. The apyois of the
LXX signifies also the rough natural condition of
the stones. Thus Pausanias speaks of gold and
silver in unfused, rough lumps as apyvpos KCLI %pvcrbs
dpyos. Apparently, then, the LXX, in saying that
the temple was erected of d/cpoTopois dpyols, express
their meaning that the stones were unhewn and in
their natural condition, so that the skill of Solomon
was exhibited in putting together stones which had
never been subjected to the tool. This is also the
opinion of Josephus, who says, " The whole edifice
of the temple is, with great art, compacted of rough
stones, e/c \L6o3v aKpo-Topwv, which have been fitted
into one another quite harmoniously, without the
work of hammer or any other builder's tool being
observable, but the whole fits together without the
use of these, and the fitting seems to be rather one
of free will than offeree through mechanical means."
And therein lay the skill of the king, for the un-
shapen blocks were pieced together as though they
had been carefully wrought to their positions. And
Procopius says that the temple was erected of
unhewn stones, as it was forbidden of God to lift
iron upon them, but that, nevertheless, they all
fitted into one another. We see in these passages
tokens of the marvellous having been supposed to
390 Schamir
attach to a work which was free from any miraculous
Interposition. But at this point fable did not stop.
Upon the carrying away of the Jews to Babylon,
they were brought into contact with a flood of
Iranian as well as Chaldaean myths, and adopted
them without hesitation.
Around Solomon accumulated the fables whi<
were related of Dschemschid and other Persi;
heroes, and were adopted by the Jews as legei
of native production. It was not sufficient tl
Solomon should have skilfully pieced together
rough stones : he was supposed to have h
them by supernatural means, without the tool
iron.
As Solomon, thus ran the tale, was about
build the temple without the use of iron, his wi
men drew his attention to the stones of the hi;
priest's breastplate, which had been cut and polish(
by something harder than themselves. This
schamir, which was able to cut where iron woul
not bite. Thereupon Solomon summoned
spirits to inform him of the whereabouts of tl
substance. They told him schamir was a worm
of the size of a barley corn, but so powerful that
the hardest flint could not resist him. The spirits
advised Solomon to seek Asmodeus, king of the
Schamir 391
devils, who could give him further information.
When Solomon inquired where Asmodeus was to
be met with, they replied that, on a distant
mountain, he had dug a huge cistern, out of
which he daily drank. Solomon then sent Ben-
aiah with a chain, on which was written the magic
word " schem hammphorasch," a fleece of wool and
a skin of wine. Benaiah, having arrived at the
cistern of Asmodeus, undermined it, and let the
water off by a little hole, which he then plugged
up with the wool ; after which he filled the pit
with wine. The evil spirit came, as was his
wont, to the cistern, and scented the wine. Sus-
pecting treachery, he refused to drink, and re-
tired ; but at length, impelled by thirst, he
drank, and, becoming intoxicated, was chained
by Benaiah and carried away. Benaiah had no
willing prisoner to conduct : Asmodeus plunged
and kicked, upsetting trees and houses. In this
manner he came near a hut in which lived a
widow, and when she besought him not to injure
her poor little cot, he turned aside, and, in so doing,
broke his leg. "Rightly," said the devil, "is it
written : 'a soft tongue breaketh the bone !'" (Prov.
xxv. 15). And a diable boiteux he has ever re-
mained. When in the presence of Solomon,
392
Schamir
Asmodeus was constrained to behave with great(
decorum. Schamir, he told Solomon, was the pro-
perty of the Prince of the Sea, and that prince
entrusted none with the mysterious worm exc<
the moor-hen, which had taken an oath of fidelity
to him. The moor-hen takes the schamir with h<
to the tops of the mountains, splits them, and ii
jects seeds, which grow and cover the naked rocl
Wherefore the bird is called Naggar Tura, the
mountain-carver. If Solomon desired to possess
himself of the worm, he must find the nest of the
moor-hen, and cover it with a plate of glass, so that
the mother bird could not get at her young withoi
breaking the glass. She would seek schamir fc
the purpose, and the worm must be obtained froi
her.
Accordingly, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, sought th<
nest of the bird, and laid over it a piece of gla<
When the moor-hen came, and could not reach h(
young, she flew away and fetched schamir, an<
placed it on the glass. Then Benaiah shouted,
and so terrified the bird, that she dropped th<
worm and flew away. Benaiah by this meai
obtained possession of the coveted schamir, and
bore it to Solomon. But the moor-hen was so
distressed at having broken her oath to the Prince
Schamir 393
of the Sea that she slew herself 1 . According to
another version, Solomon went to his fountain,
where he found the daemon Sackar, whom he
captured by a ruse, and chained down. Solo-
mon pressed his ring to the chains, and Sackar
uttered a cry so shrill that the earth quaked.
Quoth Solomon, " Fear not ; I shall restore you
to liberty if you will tell me how to burrow noise-
lessly after minerals and metals."
" I know not how to do so," answered the Jin ;
" but the raven can tell you : place over her eggs
a sheet of crystal, and you shall see how the
mother will break it."
Solomon did so, and the mother brought a stone
and shattered the crystal. " Whence got you that
stone ?" asked Solomon.
" It is the stone Samur," answered the raven ;
"it comes from a desert in the uttermost east."
So the monarch sent some giants to follow the
raven, and bring him a suitable number of stones 2 ."
According to a third version, the bird is an eagle,
and schamir is the Stone of Wisdom.
1 Gittin, Ixviii. Eisenmenger : Neu-entdecktes Judenthum.
Konigsberg, 1711, i. p. 351.
2 Collin de Plancy : Legendes de TAncien Test. Paris,
1861, p. 280
394 Schamir
Possessed of this schamir, Solomon wrought the
stones for his temple.
Rabbinical fantasy has developed other myths
concerning this mysterious force, resident in worm
or stone. On the second day of Creation were
created the well by which Jacob met Rebecca, the
manna which fed the Israelites, the wonder-working
rod of Moses, the ass which spake to Balaam, and
schamir, the means whereby without iron tool
Solomon was to build the House of God. Scha-
mir is not in early rabbinical fable a worm ; the
treatise Sota gives the first indication of its being
regarded as something more than a stone, by
terming it a "creature," Nrvo. "Our Rabbis
have taught us that schamir is a creature as big
as a barley-corn, created in the hexameron, and
that nothing can resist it. How is it preserved ?
It is wrapped in a wisp of wool, and kept in a
leaden box full of small grains like barley-meal 3 ."
After the building of the temple schamir vanished.
The story passed to the Greeks. ^Elian relates of
the eTroiJr or hoopoe, that a bird had once a nest in
an old wall, in which there was a rent. The pro-
prietor plastered over this crack. The hoopoe find-
3 Sota, xlviii. 8.
Schamir 395
ing that she could not get to her young, flew away
in quest of a plant jroa, which she brought, and
applied to the plaster, which at once gave way,
and admitted her to her young. Then she went
forth to seek food, and the man again stopped up
the hole, but once more the hoopoe removed the
obstacle by the same means. And this took place
a third time again 4 . What ^Elian relates of the
hoopoe, Pliny tells of the woodpecker. This bird,
he says, brings up its young in holes ; and if the
entrance to them be plugged up never so tight, the
bird is able to make the plug burst out.
In the English Gesta Romanorum is the follow-
ing story. There lived in Rome a noble emperor,
Diocletian by name, who loved the virtue of com-
passion above every thing. Therefore he desired
to know which of all the birds was most kindly
affectioned towards its young. One day, the
Emperor was wandering in the forest, when he lit
upon the nest of a great bird called ostrich, in
which was the mother with her young. The king
took the nest along with the poults to his palace,
and put it into a glass vessel. This the mother-
bird saw, and, unable to reach her little ones, she
4 Lilian, Hist. Animal, iii. 26.
396 Schamir
returned into the wood, and after an absence of
three days came back with a worm in her beak,
called thumare. This she dropped on the glass,
and by the power of the worm, the glass was shi-
vered, and the young flew away after their mother.
When the Emperor saw this, he highly commended
both the affection and the sagacity of the ostrich.
On which we may remark, that a portion of that
sagacity was wanting to those who applied the
myth to that bird which of all others is singularly
deficient in the qualities with which Diocletian cre-
dited it. Similar stories are told by Vincent of
Beauvais in his " Historical Mirror 5 ," and by gossip-
ing, fable-loving, and delightful Gervase of Tilbury 6 .
The latter says that Solomon cut the stones of
the temple with the blood of a little worm called
thamir, which when sprinkled on the marble, made
it easy to split. And the way in which Solomon
obtained the worm was this. He had an ostrich,
whose chick he put in a glass bottle. Seeing this,
the ostrich ran to the desert, and brought the worm,
and with its blood fractured the vessel. " And in
our time, in the reign of Pope Alexander III.,
5 Vincent Bellov., Spec. Nat. 20, 170.
6 Gervasii Tilberiensis Otia Imp., ed. Liebrecht. Hanov.
1856, p. 48.
Schamir 397
when I was a boy, there was found at Rome, a
vial full of milky liquid, which, when sprinkled on
any kinds of stone, made them receive such sculp-
ture as the hand of the graver was wont to execute.
It was a vial discovered in a most ancient palace,
the matter and art of which was a subject of
wonder to the Roman people."
Gervase drew from Comestor (Regum lib. iii.
c-5).
"If you wish to burst chains," says Albertus
Magnus 7 , " go into the wood, and look for a wood-
pecker's nest, where there are young ; climb the
tree, and choke the mouth of the nest with any thing
you like. As soon as she sees you do this, she flies
off for a plant, which she lays on the stoppage ; this
bursts, and the plant falls to the ground under the
tree, where you must have a cloth spread for re-
ceiving it" But then, says Albertus, this is a fancy
of the Jews 8 .
Conrad von Megenburg relates : " There is a bird
which in Latin is called merops, but which we in
German term Bomheckel (i.e. Baumhacker), which
nests in high trees, and when one covers its children
with something to impede the approach of the bird,
7 De Mirab. Mundi. Argent. 1601, p. 225.
8 De Animalibus. Mantua, 1479, ult. pag.
398 Schamir
it brings a herb, and holds it over the obstacle, and
it gives way. The plant is called herba meropis, or
woodpecker-plant, and is called in magical books
chora V
In Normandy, the swallow knows how to find
upon the sea-beach a pebble which has the mar-
vellous power of restoring sight to the blind. The
peasants tell of a certain way of obtaining posses-
sion of this stone. You must put out the eyes of a
swallow's young, whereupon the mother-bird will
immediately go in quest of the stone. When she
has found it and applied it, she will endeavour to
make away with the talisman, that none may dis-
cover it. But if one has taken the precaution to
spread a piece of scarlet cloth below the nest, the
swallow, mistaking it for fire, will drop the stone
upon it.
I met with the story in Iceland. There the
natives tell that there is a stone of such wondrous
power, that the possessor can walk invisible, can, at
a wish, provide himself with as much stock-fish and
corn-brandy as he may desire, can raise the dead,
cure disease, and break bolts and bars. In order to
obtain this prize, one must hard-boil an egg from
9 Apud Mone, Anzeiger, viii. p. 614.
Schamir 399
the raven's nest, then replace it, and secrete oneself
till the mother-bird, finding one of her eggs resist
all her endeavours to infuse warmth into it, flies off
and brings a black pebble in her beak, with which
she touches the boiled egg, and restores it to its
former condition. At this moment she must be
shot, and the stone be secured.
In this form of the superstition schamir has the
power of giving life. This probably connects it
with those stories, so rife in the middle ages, of birds
or weasels, which were able to restore the dead to
life by means of a mysterious plant. Avicenna
relates in his eighth book, " Of Animals," that it
was related to him by a faithful old man, that he
had seen two little birds squabbling, and that one
was overcome ; it therefore retired and ate of a
certain herb, then it returned to the onslaught ;
which when the old man observed frequently, he
took away the herb, and when the bird came and
found the plant gone, it set up a great cry and
died. And this plant was lactna agrestis.
In Fouque's " Sir Elidoc," a little boy Amyot is
watching by a dead lady laid out in the church,
when " suddenly I heard a loud cry from the child.
I looked up, a little creature glided by me ; the
shepherd's staff of the bov flew after it ; the creature
400 Schamir
lay dead, stretched on the ground by the blow. I
was a weasel. . . . Presently there came
second weasel, as if to seek his comrade, and whe
he found him dead, a mournful scene began ; h
touched him as if to say, 'Wake up, wake up,
let us play together !' And when the other little
animal lay dead and motionless, the living one
sprang back from him in terror, and then repeated
the attempt again and again, many times. Its
bright little eyes shone sadly, as if they were full of
tears. The sorrowful creature seemed as though it
suddenly bethought itself of something. It erected
its ears, it looked round with its bright eyes, an
then swiftly darted away. And before Amyot and
I could ask each other of the strange sight, the little
animal returned again, bearing in its mouth a root,
a root to which grew a red flower ; I had never
before seen such a flower blowing ; I made a sign
to Amyot, and we both remained motionless. The
weasel came up quickly, and laid the root and the
flower gently on its companion's mouth ; the crea-
ture, but now stiff in death, stretched itself, and
suddenly sprang up, with the root still in its mouth.
I called to Amyot, ' The root ! take it, take it, but
do not kill !' Again he flung his staff, but so dexter-
ously that he killed neither of the weasels, nor even
Schamir 401
hurt them. The root of life and the red blossoms
lay on the ground before me, and in my power."
With this, naturally enough, the lady who is speak-
ing restores the corpse to life. Sir Elidoc is founded
on a Breton legend, the Lai d'Eliduc of Marie de
France ; but another tale from the same country
makes the flower yellow ; it is a marigold, which,
when touched on a certain morning by the bare foot
of one who has a pure heart, gives the power to un-
derstand the language of birds l . This is the same
story as that of Polyidus and Glaucus. Polyidus
observed a serpent stealing towards the corpse of
the young prince. He slew it ; then came another
serpent, and finding its companion dead, it fetched
a root by which it restored life to the dead serpent.
Polyidus obtained possession of the plant, and
therewith revived Glaucus 2 . In the Greek romance
of Rhodante and Dosicles is an incident of similar
character. Rhodante swallows a poisoned goblet
of wine, and lies as one dead, deprived of sense
and motion. In the meanwhile, Dosicles and
Cratander are chasing wild beasts in the forest.
There they find a wounded bear, which seeks a
certain plant, and, rolling upon it, recovers health
1 Bode, Volksmahrchen a. d. Bretagne. Leipz. 1847, P- &
' Apollodorus, ii. 3.
D d
402
Schamir
and vigour instantaneously. The root of this he
was white, its flowers of a rosy hue, attached to
stalk of purplish tinge. Dosicles picked the her
and with it returned to the house where he fou
Rhodante apparently dead ; with the wondrou
plant he, however, was able to restore her. The
same story is told in Germany, in Lithuania, amon
the modern Greeks and ancient Scandinavians.
Germany teems with stories of the marvello
properties of the Luckflower.
A man chances to pluck a beautiful flower, whi
in most instances is blue, and this he puts in
breast, or in his hat. Passing along a mounta
side, he sees the rocks gape before him, and ent
ing, he sees a beautiful lady, who bids him help him-
self freely to the gold which is scattered on all sid
in profusion. He crams the glittering nuggets in
his pockets, and is about to leave, when she ca
after him, " Forget not the best ! " Thinking that
she means him to take more, he feels his crammed
pockets, and finding that he has nothing to reproach
himself with in that respect, he seeks the light of
day, entirely forgetting the precious blue flower
which had opened to him the rocks, and which has
dropped on the ground.
As he hurries through the doorway, the rocks
E
Schaimr 403
close upon him with a thunder-crash and cut off
his heel. The mountain-side is thenceforth closed
to him for ever.
Once upon a time a shepherd was driving his
flock over the Ilsenstein, when, wearied with his
tramp, he leaned upon his staff. Instantly the
mountain opened, for in that staff was the " Spring-
wort." Within he saw the Princess Use, who bade
him fill his pockets with gold. The shepherd
obeyed, and was going away, when the princess
exclaimed, "Forget not the best!" alluding to
his staff, which lay against the wall. But he,
misunderstanding her, took more gold, and the
mountain clashing together, severed him in twain.
In some versions of the story, it is the pale blue
flower
" The blue flower, which Bramins say
Blooms nowhere but in Paradise"
(Lalla RookK)
which exclaims in feeble, piteous tone, " Forget-
me-not !" but it5 little cry is unheeded.
Thus originated the name of the beautiful little
flower. When this story was forgotten, a romantic
fable was invented to account for the peculiar
appellation.
In the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,
D d 2
404 Schamir
it is a word, "sesame," which makes the rocks
part, and gives admission to the treasures within ;
and it is oblivion of the magic word which brings
destruction upon the luckless wretch within. But
sesame is the name of a well-known easte
plant, sesamum orientate ; so that probably in th
original form of the Persian tale absorbed into th
Arabian Nights, a flower was employed to giv
admission to the mountain. But classic antiqui
has also its rock-breaking plant, the saxijragi
whose tender rootlets penetrate and dissolve t
hardest stones with a force for which the Ancien
were unable to account.
Isaiah, describing the desolation of the vineya
of Zion, says that " There shall come up bria
and thorns " (v. 6), rvn D'tr^l TDtt^ (vii. 23 : c
also ix. 17 ; x. 17). And, "Upon the land of m
people shall come up thorns and briars" (xxxii.
13), where "VOIP is combined with pp. Th
word jTitf never stands alone, but is alwa
joined with "VDltf, which the LXX render afcavOa
/col %opro? ; the word in the fifth chapter they
render ^epcro? aicavOai ; that in the seventh, p^epcro?
and a/cavOa ; so that %epcro9 is put for TDitf, and
aicavOa for rvitf. The word in the ninth chapter
is a7po>cm9 &7pa, that in the tenth, wcrd %6pTov
ScJiamir 405
v\r]v. Upon both names the translators are not
agreed. Now, this word " smiris " is used by Isaiah
alone as the name of a plant. The smiris, as we
have seen, is a stone-breaking substance, and the
same idea which is rendered in Latin by saxifraga is
given in the Hebrew word used by Isaiah, so that
we may take JWl TDitf to mean saxifraga and
thorn 3 . In the North, we have another object, to
which are attributed the same properties as to the
" Springwort " and schamir, and that is the Hand of
Glory. This is the hand of a man who has been
hung, and it is prepared in the following manner :
wrap the hand in a piece of winding-sheet, drawing
it tight, so as to squeeze out the little blood which
may remain ; then place it in an earthenware
vessel with saltpetre, salt, and long pepper, all
carefully and thoroughly powdered. Let it remain
a fortnight in this pickle till it is well dried, then
expose it to the sun in the dog-days, till it is com-
pletely parched, or, if the sun be not powerful
enough, dry it in an oven heated with vervain and
3 Cassel, Ueber Schamir, in Denkschrift d. Konigl. Akad.
der Wissenschaften. Erfurt, 1856, p. 76. The Oriental word
" smiris " passed into use among the Greeks as the name of
the hardest substance known, used in polishing stones, and
is retained in the German " Smirgel," and the English
" emery."
lamir
fern. Next make a candle with the fat of a hun
man, virgin-wax, and Lapland sesame. Observ
the use of this herb : the hand of glory is us
to hold this candle when it is lighted*. Doust
Swivel, in the "Antiquary," adds, " You do make
candle, and put into de hand of glory at de pro
hour and minute, with de proper ceremonisth ; an
he who seeksh for treasuresh shall find none at
all !" South ey places it in the hands of the en
chanter Mohareb, when he would lull to slee
Yohak, the giant guardian of the caves of Babylo
He
" From his wallet drew a human hand,
Shrivell'd, and dry, and black ;
And fitting, as he spake,
A taper in his hold,
Pursued : ' A murderer on the stake had died ;
I drove the vulture from his limbs, and lopt
The hand that did the murder, and drew up
The tendon strings to close its grasp ;
And in the sun and wind
Parch'd it, nine weeks exposed.
The taper . . . But not here the place to impart,
Nor hast thou undergone the rites
That fit thee to partake the mystery.
Look ! it burns clear, but with the air around,
Its dead ingredients mingle deathliness V "
Several stories of this terrible hand are related in
4 Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal.
8 Thalaba the Destroyer, book v.
Paris, 1818.
Schamir 407
Henderson's " Folklore of the Northern Counties of
England." I will only quote one, which was told me
by a labouring man in the West Riding of York-
shire, and which is the same story as that given by
Martin Anthony Delrio in his "Disquisitiones Ma-
gicse," in 1593, and which is printed in the Appendix
to that book of M. Henderson.
One dark night, after the house had been closed,
there came a tap at the door of a lone inn, in the
midst of a barren moor.
The door was opened, and there stood without,
shivering and shaking, a poor beggar, his rags
soaked with rain, and his hands white with cold.
He asked piteously for a lodging, and it was cheer-
fully granted him ; though there was not a spare bed
in the house, he might lie along on the mat before
the kitchen fire, and welcome.
All in the house went to bed except the servant
lassie, who from the kitchen could see into the
large room through a small pane of glass let
into the door. When every one save the beggar
was out of the room, she observed the man
draw himself up from the floor, seat himself at
the table, extract a brown withered human hand
from his pocket, and set it upright in the candle-
stick ; he then anointed the fingers, and, apply-
408 Schamir
ing a match to them, they began to
Filled with horror, the girl rushed up the bacl
stairs, and endeavoured to arouse her master am
the men of the house ; but all in vain, they slej
a charmed sleep ; and finding all her efforts
effectual, she hastened downstairs again. Lool
ing again through the small window, she ol
served the fingers of the hand flaming, but th<
thumb gave no light : this was because one
the inmates of the house was not asleep,
beggar began collecting all the valuables of tl
house into a large sack no lock withstood th<
application of the flaming hand. Then, putting
it down, the man entered an adjoining apartment.
The moment he was gone, the girl rushed in,
and seizing the hand, attempted to extinguish
the quivering yellow flames, which wavered at
the fingers' ends. She blew at them in vain ; she
poured some drops from a beer-jug over them,
but that only made the fingers burn the brighter ;
she cast some water upon them, but still without
extinguishing the light. As a last resource, she
caught up a jug of milk, and dashing it over
the four lambent flames, they went out imme-
diately.
Uttering a piercing cry, she rushed to the door
Schamir 409
of the room the beggar had entered, and locked
it. The whole house was aroused, and the thief
was secured and hung.
We must not forget Tom Ingoldsby's render-
ing of a similar legend :
" Open, lock,
To the Dead Man's knock !
Fly, bolt, and bar, and band !
Nor move, nor swerve,
Joint, muscle, or nerve,
At the spell of the Dead Man's hand !
Sleep, all who sleep ! Wake, all who wake !
But be as the dead for the Dead Man's sake !
" Now lock, nor bolt, nor bar avails,
Nor stout oak panel thick-studded with nails.
Heavy and harsh the hinges creak,
Though they had been oil'd in the course of the week.
The door opens wide as wide may be,
And there they stand,
That murderous band,
Lit by the light of the GLORIOUS HAND,
By one ! by two ! by three ! "
But, instead of pursuing the fable through
its further ramifications, let us apply the scha-
mir of comparative mythology to the myth itself,
and see whether before it the bolts do not
give way, and the great doors of the cavern of
mysteries expand, and discover to us the ori-
gin of the superstitious belief in this sea-prince's
worm, the stone of wisdom, sesame, forget-me-
not, or the hand of glory.
What are its effects ?
It bursts locks, and shatters stones, it opens
in the mountains the hidden treasures hitherto
concealed from men, or it paralyzes, lulling into
a magic sleep, or, again, it restores to life.
I believe the varied fables relate to one and
the same object and that, the lightning.
But what is the bird which bears schamir, the
worm or stone which shatters rocks ? It is the
storm-cloud, which in many a mythology of an-
cient days was supposed to be a mighty bird.
In Greek iconography, Zeus, "the aether in his
moist arms embracing the earth," as Euripides
describes him, is armed with the thunderbolt,
and accompanied by the eagle, a symbol of the
cloud.
" The refulgent heaven above,
Which all men call, unanimously, Jove 6 ,"
has for its essential attributes the cloud and its
bolt, and when the sether was represented under
human form, the cloud was given shape as a
bird. It is the same storm-cloud which as " blood-
6 Cicero, De N. Deorum xvi.
Schamir 411
thirsting eagle " banquets its " full on the black
viands of the liver" of Prometheus. The same
cloud in its fury is symbolized by the Phorcidae
with their flashing eye and lightning tooth
Trpbs Topyoveia TreSia Kio-Qrjvrjs, tva
at QopKides vaiovcri drjvaial Kopai
rpels KVKvofJiopCpot., KOIVOV o/z/i' eKTrjp,i>ai,
fj.ovo$ovTS, as ovO* rjXtos TrpocrSe'pKerai
i', ovO* fj vi/KTepos p-tyr) Trore.
. Prom.},
and also by the ravening harpies. In ancient
Indian mythology, the delicate white cirrus cloud
drifting overhead was a fleeting swan, and so it
was as well in the creed of the Scandinavian,
whilst the black clouds were ravens coursing
over the earth, and returning to whisper the news
in the ear of listening Odin. The rushing vapour
is the roc of the Arabian Nights, which broods
over its great luminous egg, the sun, and which
haunts the sparkling valley of diamonds, the
starry sky. The resemblance traced between
bird and cloud is not far fetched : it recurs to the
modern poet as it did to the Psalmist, when he
spoke of the "wings of the wind." If the cloud
was supposed to be a great bird, the lightnings
were regarded as writhing worms or serpents
in its beak. These fiery serpents, eXifclai,
412 Schamir
are believed in to this day
the Canadian Indians, who call the thunder their
hissing. It was these heavenly reptiles which
were supposed by the Druids to generate the sun,
the famous anguineum so coveted and so ill compre-
hended. The thunderbolt shattering all it struck,
was regarded as the stone dropped by the cloud-
bird. A more forced resemblance is that supposed
to exist between the lightning and a heavenly
flower, blue, or yellow, or red, and yet there is evi-
dence, upon which I cannot enter here, that so it
was regarded.
The lightning-flashing cloud was also supposed
to be a flaming hand. The Greek placed the
forked dart in the hand of Zeus
" rubente
Dextera sacras jaculatus arces ; "
and the ancient Mexican symbolized the sacrificial
fire by a blood-red hand impressed on his sanctu-
ary walls. The idea may have been present in the
mind of the servant of Elijah when he told his
master that he saw from the top of Carmel rising
" A little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand.
And it came to pass, that the heaven was black
\vith clouds and wind, and there was a great rain"
(i Kings xviii. 44). In Finnish and Esthonian
Schamir 41 3
mythology, the cloud is a little man with a copper
hand, who, rising from the water, becomes a giant
The black cloud with the lambent flames issuing
from it was the original of the magical hand of
glory.
The effects produced by the lightning are differ-
ently expressed. As shattering the rocks, scha-
mir is easily intelligible. It is less so as giving
access to the hidden treasures of the mountains.
The ancient Aryan had the same name for cloud
and mountain. To him the piles of vapour on the
horizon were so like Alpine ranges, that he had but
one word whereby to designate both. These great
mountains of heaven were opened by the lightning.
In the sudden flash he beheld the dazzling splen-
dour within, but only for a moment, and then, with
a crash, the celestial rocks closed again. Believing
these vaporous piles to contain resplendent trea-
sures of which partial glimpse was obtained by
mortals in a momentary gleam, tales were speedily
formed, relating the adventures of some who had
succeeded in entering these treasure-mountains.
The plant of life, brought by weasel or serpent,
restores life to one who was dead. This myth was
forged in Eastern lands, where the earth apparently
dies from a protracted drought. Then comes the
ed
ad
,ai
cloud. The lightning flash reaches the barren,
dead, and thirsty land ; forth gush the waters of
heaven, and the parched vegetation bursts once
more into the vigour of life, restored after sus-
pended animation. It is the dead and parched
vegetation which is symbolized by Glaucus, an<
the earth still and without the energy of life
which is represented by the lady in the L<
d'Eliduc. This reviving power is attributed in
mythology to the rain as well. In Sclavonic
myths, it is the water of life which restores the
dead earth, a water brought by a bird from the
depths of a gloomy cave. A prince has been
murdered, that is, the earth is dead ; then comes
the eagle bearing a vial of the reviving water
the cloud with the rain ; it sprinkles the corpse
with the precious drops, and life returns 7 .
But the hand of glory has a very different
property it paralyzes. In this it resembles the
Gorgon's head or the basilisk. The head of
Medusa, with its flying serpent locks, is unques-
tionably the storm-cloud ; and the basilisk
which strikes dead with its eye is certainly the
7 Compare with this the Psyche in "The Golden Ass,"
and the Fair One with the Golden Locks of the Countess
d'Aulnay.
Schamir 415
same. The terror inspired by the outburst of
the thunder-storm is expressed in fable by the
paralyzing effect of the eye of the cockatrice, the
exhibition of the Gorgon's countenance, and the
waving of the glorious hand.
Strained as some of these explanations may
seem, they are nevertheless true. We, with our
knowledge of the causes producing meteorological
phenomena, are hardly able to realize the extrava-
gance of the theories propounded by the ignorant
to account for them.
How Finn cosmogonists could have believed
the earth and heaven to be made out of a
severed egg, the upper concave shell representing
heaven, the yolk being earth, and the crystal
surrounding fluid the circumambient ocean, is
to us incomprehensible : and yet it remains a
fact that so they did regard them. How the
Scandinavians could have supposed the moun-
tains to be the mouldering bones of a mighty
Jotun, and the earth to be his festering flesh, we
cannot conceive : yet such a theory was solemnly
taught and accepted. How the ancient Indians
could regard the rain-clouds as cows with full
udders, milked by the winds of heaven, is beyond
our comprehension, and yet their Veda contains
416 Schamir
indisputable testimony to the fact that so they
were regarded.
Nonnus Dionysius (v. 163 et seq.) spoke of
the moon as a luminous white stone, and De-
mocritus regarded the stars as irerpovs. Lucre-
tius considered the sun as a wheel (v. 433), and
Ovid as a shield
" Ipse Dei clypeus, terra cum tollitur ima,
Mane rubet : terraque rubet, cum conditur ima.
Candidus in summo . . . ." (Metam. xv. 192 sq.)
As late as 1600, a German writer would illus-
trate a thunder-storm destroying a crop of corn
by a picture of a dragon devouring the produce of
the field with his flaming tongue and iron teeth
(Wolfii Memorabil. ii. p. 505) ; and at the present
day children are taught that the thunder-crash is
the voice of the Almighty.
The restless mind of man, ever seeking a reason
to account for the marvels presented to his senses,
adopts one theory after another, and the rejected
explanations encumber the memory of nations
as myths, the significance of which has been
forgotten.
of Jgameln
HAMELN town was infested with rats, in the
year 1384. In their houses the people had
no peace from them ; rats disturbed them by night
and worried them by day
" They fought the dogs, and kill'd the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And lick'd the soup from the cook's own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoil'd the women's chats,
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats."
One day, there came a man into the town, most
quaintly attired in parti-coloured suit. Bunting
the man was called, after his dress. None knew
whence he came, or who he was. He announced
himself to be a rat-catcher, and offered for a certain
E e
418 The Piper of Hameln
sum of money to rid the place of the vermin. Th(
townsmen agreed to his proposal, and promised
him the sum demanded. Thereupon the man
drew forth a pipe and piped.
" And ere three shrill notes the pipe utter'd,
You heard as if an army mutter'd ;
And the muttering grew to a grumbling,
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling :
And out of the town the rats came tumbling.
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
Cocking tails and pricking whiskers ;
Families by tens and dozens,
Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives,
Follow'd the Piper for their lives.
From street to street he piped advancing,
Until they came to the river Weser,
Wherein all plunged and perish'd."
No sooner were the townsfolk released from their
torment, than they repented of their bargain, and,
on the plea that the rat-destroyer was a sorcerer,
they refused to pay the stipulated remuneration.
At this the piper waxed wrath, and vowed ven-
geance. On the 26th June, the feast of SS. John
and Paul, the mysterious Piper reappeared in
Hameln town
" Once more he stept into the street,
And to his lips again
The Piper of Hameln 41 9
Laid his long pipe of smooth, straight cane ;
And, ere he blew three notes (such sweet,
Soft notes as yet musician's cunning
Never gave to the enraptured air),
There was a rustling, that seem'd like a bustling
Of merry crowds justling, at pitching and hustling,
Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering :
And, like fowls in a farmyard where barley is scattering,
Out came the children running.
All the little boys and girls,
With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
And sparkling eyes, and teeth like pearls,
Tripping, skipping, ran merrily after
The wonderful music with shouting and laughter."
The Piper led the way down the street, the chil-
dren all following, whilst the Hameln people stood
aghast, not knowing what step to take, or what
would be the result of this weird piping. He led
them from the town towards a hill rising above the
Weser
" When, lo ! as they reach'd the mountain's side,
A wondrous portal open'd wide,
As if a cavern were suddenly hollow'd ;
And the piper advanced, and the children follow'd ;
And when all were in, to the very last,
The door in the mountain side shut fast."
No ! not all. Two remained : the one blind, and
the other dumb. The dumb child pointed out the
spot where the children had vanished, and the blind
E e 2
420
The Piper of Hameln
boy related his sensations when he heard the pip<
play. In other accounts, the lad was lame, and h<
alone was left ; and in after years he was sad. And
thus he accounted for his settled melancholy
" It's dull in our town since my playmates left ;
I can't forget that I'm bereft
Of all the pleasant sights they see,
Which the piper also promised me ;
For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,
Joining the town, and just at hand,
Where waters gush'd, and fruit-trees grew,
And flowers put forth a fairer hue,
And every thing was strange and new ;
And sparrows were brighter than peacocks here
And their dogs outran our fallow deer,
And honey bees had lost their stings,
And horses were born with eagle's wings ;
And just as I became assured
My lame foot would be speedily cured,
The music stopp'd, and I stood still,
And found myself outside the hill,
Left alone against my will,
To go now limping as before,
And never hear of that country more."
The number of children that perished was 01
hundred and thirty. Fathers and mothers rush<
to the east gate, but when they came to the moui
tain, called Koppenberg, into which the train he
disappeared, nothing was observable except a smal
hollow, where the sorcerer and their little ones ha<
entered.
The Piper of Hameln 421
The street through which the piper went is called
the Bungen-Strasse, because no music, no drum
(Bunge), may be played in it. If a bridal pro-
cession passes through it, the music must cease
until it is out of it. It is not long since two moss-
grown crosses on the Koppenberg marked the spot
where the little ones vanished. On the wall of a
house in the town is written, in gold characters
"Anno 1284 am dage Johannis et Pauli war der 26. Junii
dorch einen piper mit allerlei farve bekledet gewesen 130
kinder verledet binnen Hameln gebon to Calvarie, bi den
Koppen verloren."
On the Rathhaus was sculptured, in memory of
the event
" Im Jahr 1284 na Christi gebert
Tho Hamel worden uthgevert
hundert und dreiszig kinder dasiilvest geborn
durch einen Piper under den Koppen verlorn."
And on the new gate
" Centum ter denos cum magus ab urbe puellos
Duxerat ante annos CCLXXil condita porta fuit."
For long, so profound was the impression pro-
duced by the event, the town dated its public
documents from this calamity \
1 Thorpe, Northern Mythology, iii. 119; and Grimm,
Deutsche Sagen, Berlin, 1866, i. p. 245. Grimm has col-
lected a list of authorities who speak of the event as an his-
torical fact.
422 The Piper of Hameln
Similar stories are told of other places. A man
with a violin came once to Brandenburg, and walked
through the town fiddling. All the children fol-
lowed him : he led them to the Marienberg, which
opened and admitted him and the little ones, and,
closing upon them, left none behind. At one time,
the fields about Lorch were devastated with ants.
The Bishop of Worms instituted a procession and
litanies to obtain the deliverance of his people from
the plague. As the procession approached the
Lake of Lorch, a hermit came to meet it, and
offered to rid the neighbourhood of the ants, if the
farmers would erect a chapel on the site, at the cost
of a hundred gulden. When they consented, he
drew forth a pipe and piped so sweetly that all the
insects came about him ; and he led them to the
water, into which he plunged with them. Then he
asked for the money, but it was refused. Where-
upon he piped again, and all the pigs followed him :
he led them into the lake, and vanished with them.
Next year a swarm of crickets ate up the herbage ;
the people were in despair. Again they went in
procession, and were met by a charcoal-burner,
who promised to destroy the insects, if the people
would expend five hundred gulden on a chapel.
Then he piped, and the crickets followed him into
The Piper of Hamcln 423
the water. Again the people refused to pay the
stipulated sum, thereupon the charcoal-burner piped
all their sheep into the lake. The third year comes
a plague of rats. A little old man of the mountain
this time offers to free the land of the vermin for a
thousand gulden. He pipes them into the Tannen-
berg ; then the farmers again button up their
pockets, whereupon the little man pipes all their
children away 2 .
In the Hartz mountains once passed a strange
musician with a bagpipe. Each time that he
played a tune a maiden died. In this manner he
caused the death of fifty girls, and then he vanished
with their souls 3 .
It is singular that a similar story should exist in
Abyssinia. It is related by Harrison, in his " High-
lands of ./Ethiopia," that the Hadjiuji Madjuji are
daemon pipers, who, riding on a goat, traverse a
hamlet, and, by their music, irresistibly draw the
children after them to destruction.
The soul, in German mythology, is supposed to
bear some analogy to a mouse. In Thuringia, at
Saalfeld, a servant-girl fell asleep whilst her com-
a Wolf, Beitrage zur Deutschen Mythologie. Gottingen,
1852,1. 171.
3 Frohle, Mahrchen, No. 14.
424 The Piper of Hamcln
panions were shelling nuts. They observed a little
red mouse creep from her mouth and run out of the
window. One of the fellows present shook the
sleeper, but could not wake her, so he moved hei
to another place. Presently the mouse ran bacl
to the former place, and dashed about seeking th<
girl : not finding her, it vanished ; at the sam<
moment, the girl died 4 .
Akin to the story of the piper is that mad<
familiar to us by Goethe's poem, the Erlking.
A father is riding late at night with his chil<
wrapped in a mantle. The little fellow hears th<
erlking chanting in his ear, and promising him th<
glories of Elf-land, where his daughters dance an<
sing, awaiting him, if he will follow. The fathei
hushes the child, and bids him not to listen, for il
is only the whistling of the wind among the trees.
But the song has lured the little soul away, an<
when the father unfolds his mantle, the child is
dead.
It is curious that a trace of this myth should re-
main among the Wesleyans. From my experience
of English dissenters, I am satisfied that their reli-
gion is, to a greater extent than any one has sup-
4 Praetorius, i. 40.
The Piper of Hameln 425
posed, a revival of ancient paganism, which has
long lain dormant among the English peasantry.
A Wesleyan told me one day that he was sure his
little servant-girl was going to die; for the night
before, as he had lain awake, he had heard an
angel piping to her in the adjoining room ; the music
was inexpressibly sweet, like the warbling of a flute.
" And when t'aingels gang that road," said the
Yorkshire man, " they're boun to tak bairns' souls
wi' em." I know several cases of Wesleyans de-
claring that they were going to die, because they
had heard voices singing to them, which none but
themselves had distinguished, telling them of the
" happy land
Far, far away,"
precisely as the piper of Hameln's no 
