itself corrected and enlarged by prehistoric inquiry, 5;
continuous history begins with Abraham, 113.
Bil, Assyrian sun-god, 193.
Black races, the, 115.
Bow, earliest use of the, 50.
Brahma, 202.
Brehon laws, the, 322.
Brennus, 322.
Bridge of death, the, 277.
Bronze age, the, 54;
domestication of animals in, 148.
Bronze introduced into Europe by the Aryans, 140.
Bronze weapons, found throughout Europe, 149.
Browning’s “Pied Piper of Hameln,” 272.
Bulgarians, the, 106.
Burgundians, the, 104, 325.
Burial customs, 40.
Burial mounds. See TUMULI.
Canaanites, the, 98; their gods, 195.
Carinthians, the, 105.
Case endings, origin of, 75.
Caspian Sea, the boundary of the Aryan home, 243.
Cattle, place of, in Aryan mythology, 151.
Cave-dwellers, 49;
implements of, 15;
drawings of, 18;
used fire, 20;
skeletons of, 21.
Celts, the, 101, 322;
their fighting capacity, 323.
Cerberus, 245.
Chaldæa, 123.
Chaldæans, 98;
a mixed people, 124;
their buildings, 125;
their civilization, traces of, found in that of Mexico and Peru, 128;
their religion, 193.
Cherdorlaomer, 126.
China, 127.
Chinese, 117;
kept in a primitive condition by the early invention of writing;
their characters, symbolic, 293 _et seq._;
determinitive signs of, 295;
their civilization connected with that of the Accadians, 128.
Cimbri, the, 103.
Civilization, successive steps in the earliest, 135.
Clovis, 325.
Commerce of Cave-dwellers, 52;
among the Aryans, 152.
Confucius, 127.
Cord records, 284.
Crab, the word, 68.
Cromlechs, 42.
Cuneiform writing, 310.
Cupid and Psyche, the myth of, 258.
Cushites, the, 119.
Cybele, 205.
Czechs, the, 105.
Dagon, 194.
Daphne, the dawn, 257.
Daughter, signification of the word, 108, 110, 132, 200.
Dawn and evening in the Veda, 212.
Death, the region of, 236 _et seq._;
Aryan idea of, 237;
Egyptian idea of, 238;
a journey to the sky, 241;
the Indian conception of, 244;
the river of, 243;
and sleep, 243; myths of, 273;
the various images of, in popular tales, 278.
Delphi, 216.
Demeter, 204, 205;
and Persephone, 220 _et seq._
Determinitive signs, 295.
_dic_ the Latin root, 70.
Domestication of animals in second stone age, 50;
in the bronze age, 148.
Drift implements, 10;
form a class apart, 11;
types of, 13.
Drift period, men of the, 49.
Druid circles, so-called, 42.
Dutch, 99, 104.
Dyâus, 199, 202, 207.
Eadwine, King, 1.
Earth-goddess of the Aryans, 204.
Eddic poems, 327.
Egypt, history begins in, 52, 121;
peculiar features of nature in, 178;
the land-root of civilization, 314.
Egyptians, 97.
Egyptian civilization, the continuation of that of the stone age, 121;
intellectual character of, 122.
---- idea of death and the soul, 238 _et seq._
---- life and thought, two elements in the character of, 122.
---- religion, 176;
how distinguished from that of other nations, 178;
influence of nature on, 178;
nature gods of, 181;
distinctive feature of, 181;
divinities of, 181 _et seq._
---- writing, 298 _et seq._;
mixed character of, 301;
difficulty in deciphering, 302;
Hieratic and Demotic, 303.
El. See IL.
Elamites, 125.
Elysian Fields, 242.
English, the, 104.
_Erde_ and _Herde_, 94.
Erech, 125.
Eskimo, the, 117.
Etruscans, the, 320.
Fee, the word, 151.
“Fight of Finnsburg,” 327.
Finnish tongues, 90.
Finns, the, 117.
Flemings, the, 104.
Flint weapons of Presigny, 139.
Franks, 104, 325.
French, the, 99.
Frey, 203, 204.
Freyja, 204;
the goddess of spring, beauty, and love, 230.
Freyr, 230.
Frigg, 204, 205, 230.
Gaedhill, 101.
Gaels, 101.
Gaulish myth of a sea of death, 276.
Gauls, the, 101.
Genghis Khan, 119.
Geological periods, length of, 7.
Gerda, 231.
German and English, kinship of, 92.
Germans, the, 99.
Gesture language gives no insight into the origin of language, 62.
_Gewiss_, the word, 66.
Gipsies, 159.
Glass mountains, the stories of, allegories of death, 279.
Goths, the, 324.
Government, an extensive scheme of, impossible to a people
ignorant of social arts, 167.
Græco-Italic family, the, 319.
Grammatical terminations accounted for, 74.
Greek conception of the realms of death, 241 _et seq._
Greeks, 99, 102;
appearance of in Europe, 133;
their religion, 214;
the first European nation, 317;
from the beginning a commercial people, 318.
Grimm’s laws, 107.
Hackelberg, the wild huntsman of the Harz, 270.
Hades, 241.
Hadubrand and Hildebrand, the lay of, 327.
Hamites, the, 119.
Hapi, 192.
Hathor, 188.
Hel, 250.
Hellenes, 102;
first use of the word as a national epithet, 319.
Hera, 204.
Heracles, 202, 209;
life and labors of, 218.
Hermes, 217 _et seq._;
the wind god, 232, 244.
Herne the Hunter, 226, 249.
Hieratic and Demotic writing of the Egyptians, 303.
Hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians, 298.
Hindoos, 98.
History, prerequisite conditions of, 3.
Hittites, the, 315.
Hoa, 193.
Hormuzd, 234.
Horus, 184, 196, 201.
House-fire, the sacred, among the Aryans, 144.
Householders, assembly of, in the village community, 163.
Human victims found in tumuli, 37.
Huns, the, 119.
Hunter, life of the primitive, 137.
Iberians, the, 101.
Ideographs, groups of, 294.
Il, the most ancient conception of God known to the Semites, 195.
Implements of later stone age, 39.
Incas of Peru, 116.
Indians, the North American, 159;
“picturing” of, 288, 290 _et seq._
Indra, 202, 206;
hymn to, 208;
character of, 209;
resembles Apollo, 217.
Inflected language, 79, 81, 83;
spoken by the white race, 118;
divisions of, 118.
Inflections, growth of, 70;
the third stage in the formation of language, 72.
Ishtar, 194.
Isis, 189, 195, 196.
Israel, the children of a nomadic people, 130.
Italians, 99; the primitive, 320.
“Jack the Giant Killer,” 264.
Japanese use of Chinese characters, 296.
“_Javan_” in the Bible for Ionians, 318.
Jupiter, 199, 202, 206, 207.
Kaiser Karl in the Unterberg, 278.
Karkemish, 315.
Kinship in languages, 91.
Kitchen-Middens. See SHELL MOUNDS.
Kneph, 188.
Kurdur-Nankunty, a king of Susa, 126.
Lake dwellings, bronze weapons found in the later, 150.
Lake villages, the, 44;
construction of, 45;
object of 46;
civilization of, 47, 52.
Language, the growth of, 55;
five stages in, 81;
arrested by the invention of writing, 84;
change in, resolved into two forces, 85;
classification by, 106;
holds the records of past times, 106;
the key to the early Aryan civilization, 141.
_Langue d’oil_ and _langue d’oc_, 66.
Lapps, the, 117.
Letters, invention and growth of, 280 _et seq._;
invention of, by the Egyptians, 301.
Law first connected with religion, 166.
_Leiche_, the word, 93.
Lithuanians, the, 99, 105.
Lohengrin, myth, 275, 276.
Loki, 210.
Lombards, the, 104.
Longobardi, the, 325.
Lot, 126.
Mâ, the Sanskrit root, 68.
Magyars, the, 119.
Mammoth age, the, 10.
Mammoth, drawing of a, by a prehistoric man, 18.
Man, the earliest traces of, 6;
his first stages of life, 16.
“Man,” the one who measures, 68.
Mankind, progress of, in the stone ages, 48 _et seq._
Maoris, the, 118.
Mara, the name, 272.
Mark, the word, 153.
Marriage ceremony among the Aryans, 145.
Maruts, the hymn to, 209.
Maut, an Egyptian divinity, 187
Melanesia, 115.
Menes, 121.
Mesopotamia, 123.
Milky Way, the, a river of death, 277.
Minôs, 318.
Mir, the Russian, 162.
Mitra, 211.
Mnemonics, different systems of, 284 _et seq._
Moloch, 194.
Monger, the word, 153.
Mongolians, marks of the, 120.
Monosyllabic language, 78, 81, 83.
Montenegrins, the, 106.
Moon, “the measurer,” 68.
Moon-gods of the Egyptians, 185.
Moon myths, 262 _et seq._
Moravians, the, 105.
Moses receives the law, 166.
Mound-builders, their religion, 40.
Mythologies, the relationship between different, 173;
of the different Aryan nations, 176.
Mythology explained through the study of language, 172, 173;
the earliest, 177;
of the Shemites barren in incident and character, 195;
the stories related of the gods, 255.
Myths, diversity of, 254;
of death and the other world, 273.
Nation, the beginnings of, 313, 316.
Nations of the prehistoric world, 133.
Nature worship at the bottom of most mythologies, 173;
this does not imply an absence of spirituality, 176;
the objects of, everywhere the same, 177;
in Aryan religions, 197.
Neanderthal, 15;
skeleton discovered in, 22.
Nebo, 194.
Negroes of Africa and Melanesia, 115.
Neit, 187.
Neolithic era, 13, 29.
Nephthys, 190.
Nergal, 194.
Nerthus, 204.
New Guinea, 115.
Nibelungen, the, 327.
Nile, the, significance of to the Egyptians, 180;
the personification of, 192.
Nimrod, 125.
Nin, 194.
Noah, 118.
Norsemen, the other world of the, 249.
_Obotriti_, the, 105.
O’Brien, origin of the name, 323.
Odin, 204, 224 _et seq._;
the heaven god, 227;
collects the souls of heroes slain in battle, 249, 268;
as the Wandering Jew, etc., 264;
as the “Pied Piper” of Hameln, 264, 272;
as the arch fiend, 270.
“Old Mother Goose,” 272.
Osiri, the name, how written by the Egyptians, 301.
Osiris, 182, 193, 196, 201.
Ostro-Goths, the, 104.
Ouse, the, prolific in drift implements, 11.
Oxus, the, 99.
Palæolithic era, 13, 25.
Pan, 215.
Pastoral life, qualities involved in, 150;
a nomadic one, 151.
Patriarch, the authority of a, part of Aryan religion, 167.
Patriarchal family, the, 141.
Patriarchal customs, 142.
Patroclus, funeral of, a picture of Aryan rites, 247.
_Pecunia_, the word, 151.
Pelasgi, 102, 320;
the worshippers of pure nature, 215.
Persephone, 204, 221 _et seq._
Perseus and the Gorgon, a sun story, 262.
Persians, 98.
Perthes, M. Boucher de, 11.
Peruvian system of mnemonics, 284.
Phantom army, the legend of, 225, 249.
Phœbus Apollo, the god of the younger Greeks, 318.
Phœnicians, 98, 129;
commercial needs gave rise to their alphabet, 305;
the transporters of civilization, 315;
in Europe, 317.
Phœnician alphabet, 304;
how formed, 305;
resemblance to Hieratic writing of Egyptians, 306;
the parent of all existing alphabets except Japanese, 308;
how modified, 309.
Phonetic signs, origin of, 299 _et seq._
Phonetic writing, transition to, 297.
Picture records, 287.
Picture writing, 289 _et seq._
Picturing, 287;
distinguished from picture-writing, 290.
“Pied Piper of Hameln,” the, 264, 272;
a Slavonic legend, 273.
Poles, the, 99, 105.
Polynesian islands, 118.
Pomeranians, the, 105.
Pottery, broken, strewed at the grave’s mouth, 40.
Prehistoric conditions, our knowledge of, uncertain, 4.
Prehistoric studies, aids to, 2;
of events, rather than chronological, 6.
Prince Hatt under the earth, the Swedish story of, 260.
Prithvi, 205, 220.
Proper names, researches into, 111;
in the Bible often stand for races, 114.
Prussians, the, 105.
Ptah, 184.
Pyramids, a sort of tumuli, 53.
Python, the, 202.
Quipus, the Peruvian cord records, 285.
Ra, 184.
Red races, 116;
considered by some a variety of the yellow race, 118.
Religion of the mound-builders, 40;
first signs of, 51.
Religious rites hard to trace back, 172.
Rents, the three, 152.
Rex, the, 95, 109.
Rivers, English, the names of, Keltic, 111.
Romans, the, 99, 102, 320;
development as a nation, internal, 321.
Rome, her proficiency in the arts
of government, 168.
Root sounds, 67.
Runes, Gothic, 309.
Russians, the, 99, 105.
Russian village communities, 169.
Sabhâ, the, 144.
St. Ursula, the myth of, 263.
San, 194.
Sarama, 218; the Sons of, 244.
Sargon I., 125.
_Sarrasin_, the word, 159.
Sati, 188.
Savitar, hymn to, 213.
Saxons, 325.
Scandinavians, 99, 104.
Sea coast, gradual protrusion of, 34.
Sea of death, the, mythical, 276.
Sekhet-Pasht, 185.
Semitic languages. See ARYAN.
Semitic races, 97.
Semitic religion infused with awe, 198.
Servians, the, 106.
Shell mounds, 29, 34;
proofs of their antiquity, 35, 136.
_Sheol_, 241, note.
Siamese, the, 117.
Sigurd the Volsung, 267;
fire and thorn hedge used in the tale of, 278.
Silesians, 105.
Sin, 194.
Skirnir, 231.
Sky-divinities of the Egyptians, 187.
Sky-god of the Aryans, 200.
Slavonians, the, 103, 104;
pushing back the Tartars, 119.
Social life, early, 135.
Soil-deity of the Egyptians, 189.
Somme, the, drift implements first discovered in the bed of, 11.
“Son of,” how used in the Bible, 114.
Sorabians, the, 105.
Sothis, 192.
Sound and sense, connection of, 61.
Spanish, the, 99.
Speech, the origin of, indiscoverable, 59.
Stone age, the two periods of, 12.
Stone age, the old, man’s life in, 24;
animals of, 26.
Stone age, the later, 28;
theories to account for the transition to, 28;
continuous history begins with, 29;
man of, in Denmark, 30;
navigation of, 30;
domestic animals in, 32, 36;
men of, not cannibals, 32;
burial mounds of, 36;
human victims in, 37;
classes of implements of, 38;
pottery of, 39;
ornaments, 41;
burial customs of, 40;
tumuli, the truest existing representatives of, 43;
also called the polished stone age, 43;
duration of, in Europe, 44;
civilization of, 47 _et seq._;
successive steps in, 49 _et seq._;
first signs of religion in, 51;
civilization of, 52;
implements of, different materials of, 50;
people, little known of their social state, 136.
Stone ages, progress of mankind in, 48 _et seq._
Stonehenge, 36, 42.
Suevi, the, 104, 325.
Sun, supreme god of the Semitic nations, 200;
hopes of futurity suggested by, 246.
Sun-god, the death of, 236.
Sun-gods of the Egyptians, 181 _et seq._;
how regarded by the Indo-European nations, 202.
Sun-heroes, the different, 262.
Sun-myths, 257.
Surya, 211.
Susa, 126.
Swan, the, connected with ideas of death, 275.
Swarga, 244.
Symbolical teaching of the Egyptians, 191.
Tallies, the invention of, the germ of writing, 283.
Tannhäuser, the legend of, 263.
Tartar class of languages, 89.
Tartar races, invasion of the, 119.
Tasmania, 114.
Tellus, 205.
Teutonic family of nations, 103, 104.
Teutons, village history of the, 169;
divisions of, 324;
an agricultural people, 326;
conquerors, 326;
feudal, 327;
poems of, 327.
Tew, 199.
Thanatos, 241.
Thammuz, 194.
Thibetans, the, 117.
Thmei, 192.
Thor, 202;
labors of, 228;
as “Jack the Giant Killer,” 264;
the recovery of his hammer, 264.
Thoth, 185, 194.
“Time and Tide,” 94.
Timûr Link (Tamerlaine), 119.
Tomb-builders, the, 36.
Towns, English, the names of Teutonic, etc., 111.
Tumuli, 36; contents of, 37;
pottery found in, 52, 125;
civilization of the builders of the, 138.
Turanian languages, 88.
Turanians of Central Asia, 119;
the early inhabitants of India were, 120.
Turks, the, 119.
Typhon, 196, 202.
Tyr, 228.
Ulfilas, 324.
Ur of the Chaldees, 125.
Urki, 194.
Urvasi and Pururaras, the story of, 258.
Ushas, 205.
Vandals, 104, 325.
Van der Decken, 226.
Valkyriur, the, 249, 269;
changed into witches, 272, 275.
Varuna, 203; corresponds to Ouranos, 231.
Vedic religion of India, 207.
Verb endings, origin of, 75.
Village community, the, 159;
features and regulations of, 160;
relation of the members to each other, 161;
correspondence of the Russian _Mir_ to, 162;
source of authority in, 162;
essentials of a true, 163;
assembly of householders, 163;
origin of, 163;
the ideas of personal and communal property arise in, 165;
origin of, distinction between
divine and human law, in, 167;
changes resulting from the adoption of, 68;
chief of the Teuton, possessed of but little power, 170.
Visi-Goths, 104.
Vortices of national life, 313.
Vritra, 209.
Vul, 194.
Wampum, 284.
“Wandering Jew,” the, 264, 270.
White races, 118.
_Wiltzi_, 105.
Wind-myths, 268.
Words, significant and _in_-significant, 57 _et seq._;
formation of, by joining others, 72.
Writing, the art of picturing sound, 281;
the invention of, 282.
Yaranas, 100, 132.
Yellow races, 117.
_Yes_, origin of the word, 65.
Zend Avesta, 207, 233, 235.
Zend language, the, 235.
Zend religion, the, pre-eminence of, 232.
Zeus, 199, 202, 206;
the Olympic and Pelasgic, 214;
shrines of, at Dodona and in Elis, 215, 227.
Zio, 199.
Zoroaster, 166.
Zoroastrianism, 233.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Bæda, ii. 13.
[2] See Appendix.
[3] Mr. Evans in his _Stone Implements of Great Britain_ divides those
of the River Drift into Flakes, Pointed Implements, and Sharp-rimmed
Implements.
[4] Most of these carved implements were discovered by Mr. Christy and
M. Lartet, and left by the former to the French Museum of Prehistoric
Antiquities at St. Germains. Exact copies of these in plaster, as well
as several carved bones, may however be seen at the British Museum;
and during the last year the national collection has been greatly
enriched by the acquisition of several beautiful specimens of cave
carvings from the collection of M. Pecadeau de l’Isle.
[5] See Appendix.
[6] It is curious that there are no remains in Scandinavia which can
with certainty be called palæolithic. It would seem as though during
this era the countries remained too cold for habitation.
[7] Both in Switzerland and in the neighbourhood of the Pyrenees.
[8] _In height_, that is. The distance of coast-line which disappears
owing to the mere volcanic depression, or the distance of coast-line
which appears on the other shore from volcanic upheaval (independently
of river deposits, etc.), depends of course upon the level of the
coast. It would not, however, be generally more than a yard or two.
[9] Probably as altars or perhaps as gods themselves. I desire to
speak with great caution of the rude stone monuments of Europe; for of
all branches of prehistoric study this has been the least developed by
modern research.
[10] It seems highly probable that the invention of some sort of malt
liquor followed upon the growth of corn. Tacitus mentions such a
liquor as having been drunk by the Germans of his day. He is doubtless
describing a sort of beer.
[11] But not sheep apparently; at least not in Western Europe. In
these islands the sheep did not appear before the time of Julius Cæsar.
[12] _Hamlet_, act v., sc. 1.
[13] M. Troyon has started the idea that the crouched attitude of the
dead--_repliée_, as he describes it: he declares that it does not
in the least resemble the crouched attitude which men of some races
assume when sleeping--was imposed upon the dead with a symbolical
meaning, viz. that it was meant to imitate the position of the
child in the womb of its parent, and as such to enfold the hope of
resurrection in the act of entombment. The idea is a poetical one, but
I much doubt whether it has pre-existed in other minds before finding
a place in that of M. Troyon. The author, however, should be heard in
defence of his own theory, and may be so in the _Revue Arch._, ix. 289.
[14] Some of the varieties of grain found in these lake-dwellings are
not otherwise known to botanists.
[15] The Phœnicians are said by tradition to have invented the
manufacture of glass. But there is no proof of this.
[16] Of course the making of very rude huts of branches and leaves may
have been practised by these--such huts as formed the only shelter of
the Tasmanians down to our day. For an imaginative description of the
most primitive house, see Violet de Duc, _The Houses of Men in all
Ages_, ch. i.
[17] The simile is Mr. Max Müller’s.
[18] In English we have _grind_, _grate_, (_s_)_cra_(_pe_), _grave_
(German _graben_, ‘to dig;’ Eng. ‘grub.’) All words for writing mean
cutting, because all writing was originally graving on a stone: thus
the Latin _scribo_ (corrupted in the French to _écris_), in the Greek
is _grapho_, in the German _schreibe_. These words, as well as the
English _write_, are known to be all from the same root; it is not
pretended that they are _proofs_ of a natural selection of sound; but
they may be instances of it.
[19] The reader, however, may be referred to Tylor’s _Early History of
Mankind_, ch. iv., for much interesting information on the subject.
[20] _Yes_ is probably not the same word as the German _ja_ (whose
significant form is lost), though our _yea_ is.
[21] See below, pp. 70-80.
[22] These two words have, it is true, quite changed their meanings;
but our _knight_ rose to its honourable sense from having come to be
used only for the servants or attendants of the king (in battle),
while the German word retained its older sense of servant, groom, only.
[23] See above, p. 66.
[24] The reader who does not know Latin may easily recognize the
kindred forms in French, Italian, Spanish, etc.
[25] Mr. Max Müller calls it the _terminational_ stage.
[26] _Agone_ is possibly from a stronger form _âgan_, ‘to pass away.’
[27] To get the full sound of the _th_, this should be said not as we
pronounce our article _the_ (which really has the sound _dhe_), but
like the first part of Thebes, theme, etc.
[28] Cf. the Greek _klutos_.
[29] Stephen, _Lectures on the History of France_.
[30] This is the theory of Aryan origins still most generally
accepted. It has, however, been maintained by several philologists
that there is no evidence of an Asiatic origin of the European nations.
[31] See Chapter I.
[32] Among the Iberians, however, the Celtic blood was much diluted
with an infusion of that of an earlier Turanian race allied to the
modern Basques.
[33] Or say, rather, the people of Italy. Only the Etruscans
must probably be excepted from the category, and the Gauls, who
subsequently settled themselves in Cisalpine Gaul.
[34] The principal among these laws were elaborated by Jacob Grimm,
and hence called ‘Grimm’s Laws.’ They may be seen in his _Teutonic
Grammar_, and also in his _History of the German Tongue_.
[35] Because they would be hardly likely to give a fresh name to such
an intimate relationship as the daughter. On the other hand, it seems
necessary that the Aryan race must have been in the hunter state at
some period, and equally necessary that they must _then_ have had a
word for daughter. Milking, it may be urged, might be practised before
the domestication of animals. See also Chapter VI.
[36] Supreme, because his title became a supreme title among these
_different_ Aryan stocks.
[37] And this without any reproach to the industry of those at work.
The volumes of Kühn’s _Zeitschr. für vergleichende Sprachforschung_,
Lazarus and Steinthal’s _Zeitsch. f. Völkerpsychologie_, M. Pictet’s
fascinating _Origines indo-européennes_, etc., are storehouses which
display the treasures already obtained.
[38] Such a book as we have imagined would form a natural sequel to
the principles of comparative grammar as laid down by Bopp, etc. It
would differ from a mere comparative dictionary in the arrangement,
showing the nature and extent of modification which each word had
undergone--where, for instance, Grimm’s laws of change hold good,
where not; the cases of the survival of archaic forms (agreeable to
Grimm’s _second law_); and, if they could be discovered as the result
of such a classification, the determining causes of such survival
among any of the different races.
[39] I have been told that the late Lord Strangford, a great linguist,
and a comparative philologist to boot, could always find amusement
for an idle half-hour in a book which the reader would probably think
of, if asked to name the most uninteresting of created things--I mean
Bradshaw, English or foreign; and his interest lay in extracting the
hidden meaning and history which lay concealed in these lists of
geographical names.
[40] It is found that the peculiarity of curling or not curling in
hair depends upon the form, the form in _section_, of the individual
hairs. The woolly hairs are oval in section, the straight ones round.
[41] Lenormant, _Manual of the Ancient History of the East_, vol. i.,
p. 55.
[42] Not that this particular foothold has descended to the Turks from
early times. See the next paragraph.
[43] Lenormant, _Manual_, i. 343. It should be remarked that the
authority of Justin on such a point is not high.
[44] Mariette’s date is B.C. 5004, Lepsius’s 3892,
Wilkinson’s only 2700. Wilkinson’s chronology, however, founded upon
the theory of _contemporaneous dynasties_ in the lists of Manetho, has
now been generally rejected.
[45] Shûmîr was a portion of the country inhabited by the Accadians.
[46] See Chapter XIII.
[47] Gen. xi. 2.
[48] Gen. xiv.
[49] Kung-foo-tse was his real name.
[50] ‘Fool! why journeyest thou wearisomely in thy antiquarian
fervour to gaze on the stone pyramids of Geeza, or the clay stones
of Sacchara? These stand there, as I can tell thee, idle and inert,
looking over the desert, foolishly enough, for the last three thousand
years; but canst thou not open thy Hebrew BIBLE, or even
Luther’s version thereof?’ _Sartor Resartus._
[51] For example, the Hindee _rupee_, the Latin _pecunia_, and our
_fee_.
[52] As the Sanskrit _gôpa_, ‘a prince,’ the Slavonic _hospodar_ (from
_gôspada_) contains the word _gô_, our ‘cow,’ and means the protector
of the cattle; from the same root, Sanskrit _gavya_, ‘pasturage,’
Saxon _gê_, ‘county,’ Greek _gaia_, or _gê_, ‘earth.’
[53] See above, page 94.
[54] Cattle were probably originally communal property: and were
appropriated to individuals at a later stage than other movable goods.
In the Roman law we find that they could only be transferred by the
same forms as were required for the conveyance of land: being classed
amongst the ‘res mancipi.’
[55] The same connection between ‘mother’ and ‘daughter’ villages also
once existed to a large extent in Germany.
[56] That is to say, the stories themselves may be old enough; the
application of them to some special members of a pantheon marks the
condition of the creed.
[57] The etymology of Indra’s name is uncertain. It cannot therefore
be said whether or no he was originally a sun-god, though he has many
of the attributes of one. In the Vedas he is also a god of storms.
[58] Welcker maintains (_Griech. Götterlehre_) that the title, Son
of Time, belonged to Zeus before Kronos (Chronos) was invented as a
personality to be the father of Zeus.
[59] I purposely leave out Aphrodite (Venus) from this category, as
she partakes so much of the nature of an Oriental goddess.
[60] Not directly, however; see Grimm, D. M., vol. i., p. 252.
[61] Soma was the mystic (and no doubt intoxicating) drink used in the
sacrifices, and poured as libation to the gods. It was personified as
a divinity.
[62] The _flash_, the father of the Maruts (?).
[63] The dew? (=Prokris?) imaged here as a cow. She is the mother of
the Maruts.
[64] Though the character of this has been a good deal exaggerated in
the popular notions of the religion of the ancient Persians.
[65] Mitra is associated with the idea of the sun. But I incline to
think that originally he was rather the wind of morning, or even the
morning _sky_. He is almost always linked in the hymns with Varuna,
who most certainly was at one time the sky (ούρανός), and once a
supreme god. See what is said below of Surya.
[66] The Dawn. See p. 205.
[67] The fish.
[68] Literally, ‘the egg’s son.’
[69] It has been already said that the Latin mythology, _as we know
it_, is almost all borrowed directly from the Greek. It is obviously
right, therefore, to call the deities by their Greek, and not, as was
till recently always done, by their Latin names. The Latin gods had
no doubt much of the character of their Greek brethren; but it is to
the Greek poets that we are really indebted for what we know about
them. In this chapter, for the sake of clearness, the Latin name is
generally given in parentheses after the Greek one.
[70] To appreciate this we must compare the representations of Apollo
with those of Helios, who was simply and frankly a sun-god even to
the later Greeks, and we see that they are essentially the same
personality. Even in the very early statues of Apollo, where the
artist had not the skill to make wide, flowing locks, the hair is
always indicated with great care and some elaboration of detail.
[71] A word allied to our _fen_.
[72] Homeric hymn to Dêmêtêr.
[73] See Appendix. _Persephone and Balder._
[74] Albeit that Aphroditê like Athenê is likewise a goddess sprung
from water--from the sea.
[75] As she springs from the head of Zeus, the storm-cloud.
[76] Our knowledge of Teutonic mythology is chiefly gathered from the
Norsemen, and in fact almost exclusively from Icelandic literature.
The most valuable source of all is the collection of sacred songs
which generally goes by the name of _Edda den Ældra_, the Elder Edda.
[77] Odhinn is the Norse, Wuotan the German, Wodan or Wodin the
English name.
[78] Or else the god who inspires. (See _Corp. Poet Bor._, Introd., p.
civ.)
[79] Literally, ‘The Hall of the Slain,’ _i.e._ the hall of heroes.
[80] Æsir, pl. of As or Ans, the general Norse name for a god.
[81] One of the last appearances of such a phantom army is graphically
described by Mr. Motley in his _History of the Dutch Republic_.
The occasion was a short time before the battle of Mookerhyde, in
which the army of Prince Louis of Nassau was defeated, and himself
slain:--‘Early in February five soldiers of the burgher guard at
Utrecht, being on their midnight watch, beheld in the sky above them
the representation of a furious battle. The sky was extremely dark
except directly over their heads, where for a space equal in extent
to the length of the city, and in breadth to that of an ordinary
chamber, two armies in battle array were seen advancing upon each
other. The one moved rapidly up from the north-west, with banners
waving, spears flashing, trumpets sounding, accompanied by heavy
artillery and by squadrons of cavalry. The other came slowly forward
from the south-east, as if from an entrenched camp, to encounter
their assailants. There was a fierce action for a few moments, the
shouts of the combatants, the heavy discharge of cannon, the rattle
of musketry, the tramp of heavy-armed foot-soldiers, and the rush of
cavalry being distinctly heard. The firmament trembled with the shock
of the contending hosts, and was lurid with the rapid discharges of
their artillery.... The struggle seemed but short. The lances of the
south-eastern army seemed to snap ‘like hempstalks,’ while their firm
columns all went down together in mass beneath the onset of their
enemies. The overthrow was complete--victors and vanquished had faded;
the clear blue space, surrounded by black clouds, was empty, when
suddenly its whole extent where the conflict had so lately raged was
streaked with blood, flowing athwart the sky in broad crimson streaks;
nor was it till the five witnesses had fully watched and pondered over
these portents that the vision entirely vanished.’ (Vol. ii., p. 526.)
[82] The story of Van der Decken, the Flying Dutchman, is surely (more
especially since its dramatization by Wagner) too well known to need
relation. Van der Decken, or Dekken, seems to mean ‘the man with the
cloak;’ he too is probably a changed form of Odin.
[83] It may be as well to say here that every detail of the legend is
found upon a critical inquiry to be significant. His name Hackelbärend
(cloak-bearer) connects him with Odin, the wind-god. His two dogs
connect him with two dogs of Sanskrit mythology, also signifying the
wind.
[84] See Uhland, _Der Mythus von Thor_.
[85] _Baldur; a Song of Divine Death_, by Robert Buchanan.
[86] This scarcely holds as a simile, for in fact the light _is_ the
aurora. It need hardly be said, therefore, that the comparison is not
found in the original story.
[87] _I.e._ Garðr a general name for earth, expanded from the confined
meaning of inclosure, _yard_ (allied to οἶκος, _hortus_); just as γαῖα
is connected with a cow-inclosure.
[88] The meaning of Zoroaster, or rather Zarathustra, his true name.
The reader may usefully consult M. James Darmesteter’s _Zend Avesta_
(_Sacred Books of the East_, vol. iv.), in which he will see how much
of this religion is (in the opinion of M. Darmesteter) simply an early
nature-religion parallel to that of the Vedas.
[89] Hence the name Mazdean applied to this creed.
[90] See Chapter IV., p. 100.
[91] Or the graves of those whom he desired specially to honour. We
can guess at the process of his thought pretty well. First, the body
is buried deep, or earth is thrown over it in a heap, to keep it from
being torn up by wild beasts. Then as the covering of the body gets to
be thought a special insurance of vitality to the soul, the practice
is exaggerated more and more until we get the great grave-mounds and
the pyramids.
[92] Wooden statues were very common in the earliest Egyptian
dynasties. But they belong to these only.
[93] Blue or green is the colour of Osiris, who represents the soul.
(See Chapter VII.)
[94] The Egyptian tombs having generally an upper chamber for the
sacrifices or funeral feasts, and a chamber in the earth beneath for
the mummy.
[95] _Sheol_ is the Hebrew word generally translated ‘grave’ in our
version. Very different from the teaching of modern religion is the
following passage:--
‘_Sheol_ shall not praise the Jehovah,
The dead shall not celebrate Thee:
They that go down into the pit shall not hope for Thy truth.
The living, the living, shall praise Thee as I do this day.’
(Isa. xxxviii. 18, 19.)
[96] Still, this effect of their art on us may arise from the
disappearance of some monuments which had a very different character,
_e.g._ the _campo santo_ pictures, as we may call them, of Polygnotus
at Delphi. (See Pausanias, x. 28.)
[97] The reason why the ‘blameless Ethiopians’ were honoured by name
and by the company of the gods, is most likely to be found in the fact
of their living, as Homer thought, so near the western border of the
world.
[98] Weber, in Chamb. 1020.
[99] V_r_hadâra_n_yaka, _Ed. Pol._, iii. 4-7.
[100] According to the proper laws of change from Sanskrit to Greek,
Sârameyas = Έρμείας, Έρμής
[101] Wilson, _As. Res._, iii. 409.
[102] vii. 6, 15.
[103] Father of the ‘family’ in its larger sense. (See the chapter on
Early Social Life.)
[104] ψυχή, _spiritus_, Geist, ghost, all from the notion of breathing.
[105]
ψυχή δἐ κατἀ χθονὀς, ἠΰτε καπνός, ᾤχετο
(_Il._ xxiii, 100.)
‘And to its home beneath the earth like _smoke_
His soul went down.’
[106] The suggestion of Grimm (_Ueber das Verb. der Leichen_), that
burying may have been used by an agricultural people, by those who
were wont to watch the sown seed spring into new life, whereas burning
is the custom of shepherd races, is not supported by a wide survey
of the facts. The Aryans were not essentially pastoral, on the whole
less so than the Turanian people who buried (see Herod., I. 4, for the
Scythians), and less so again than the Semites, who did the same.
[107] The Vendidâd relates how after that Auramazda had created
sixteen perfect localities upon earth, Ahrimanes came after (like the
sower of tares), and did what in him lay to spoil the paradises, by
introducing all sorts of noxious animals and other abominations, such
as the practice of burning the dead body or giving it to the water.
The Iranians, as is well known, suspended their dead upon a sort of
grating, and left them to be devoured of wild birds.
[108] _Beowulf_, the oldest poem in our language (in Early English),
is considered to have been written somewhere about A.D.
700. It relates the adventures of a prince of Jutland or of Southern
Sweden. Though made and sung in a Christian country, it breathes the
spirit of an earlier (heathen) time, as the instance of the burning of
Beowulf alone would testify.
[109] Hel, from _helja_, ‘to conceal,’ answered identically to Hades.
[110] This heavenward journey may be described as at first a
haven-ward one (_i.e._ across the sea); later as a really heavenward
one through the air, with the wind-god.
[111] This is the Younger, or Prose Edda, of Snorro (Dæmisaga 49), not
that called the Edda of Sæmund--the _Elder_ Edda. Undoubtedly the myth
of Balder is largely infused with Christian elements.
[112] Hel, in Norse mythology, is a person, the regent of Helheim.
Just in the same way Hades is in Homer always a god, never a place.
The idea concerning Helheim seems to have been that all who were not
slain in battle went to its dark shore.
[113] _i.e._ Dokkr, _dark_. She sits in a cave, because both day and
night are imagined as coming from a cave. So Shelley sings--
‘Swiftly walk over the western cave,
Spirit of Night,
Out of thy misty eastern cave.’
[114] Or, strictly speaking, the Brahmana of the Yagur Veda. The
Brahmana is the scholiast (as it were) or _targum_ of the original
text. Urva_s_i is Ushas, the Dawn.
[115] Morris, _Earthly Paradise_: Cupid and Psyche.
[116] I have no doubt there is another element in all these stories,
not inconsistent with but complementary to the first--namely, what I
will call a _mystery_ element connected with a descent to the world of
shades, such as formed the staple of the Eleusinian mysteries. Thus
I think Pururavas is the hidden sun (the dark Osiris as it were).
He might call himself Pururavas _under the earth_ as Prince Hatt is
Prince Hatt _under the earth_. This would explain how the story got
to be connected with Psyche (the Soul). It may be said, too, that
there is often a _mystery_ element connected with such notions as the
concealment of names, etc.
[117] Connected with Lêthê, _concealment_ or _forgetfulness_, as with
Lêto, the mother of Apollo. All signify the darkness.
[118] See last chapter, p. 252. Endymion is found by Artemis sleeping
in a cave of Latmos.
[119] See Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths_, etc.
[120] He is actually a reduplication of Thor; for his name means
_thunder_, as does Thor’s. Thor is of course much more than a god of
thunder only; but his hammer is undoubtedly the thunder-bolt. Thrym
represents the same power associated with beings of frost and snow,
the winter thunder, in fact. This stealing Thor’s hammer is merely a
repetition of the idea implied by his name and character.
[121] Which Freyja wore.
[122] Giant does not really translate Thurs. Most of the Thursar
were giants as opposed to the Dvargar, the dwarfs. But this Alvîs
(all-wise) is spoken of as a dwarf.
[123] There is a clear recollection of this in the end of
Rumpelstiltskin.
[124] This story, be it said, comes only from the younger Edda. No
hint of it in the older.
[125] ‘Beowulf,’ we have said, is thought to have been first composed
in English at the end of the seventh century. There was probably an
earlier and more simple version of the poem which has come down to
us. I do not mean to say that either Beowulf or Sigurd are simply
personifications of the sun; only that some of their belongings and
adventures have descended to them from sun-heroes.
[126] Valkyria, sing.; Valkyriur, pl.
[127] _Kinder-u. Hausmärchen._
[128] _I.e._ the sky. See Grimm, _Deutsche Myth._, s.v. (Hackelberg);
and also two very interesting articles by A. Kühn, _Zeitsch. für
deutsch. Alterth._, v. 379, vi. 117, showing relationship of
Hackelbärend and the Sârameyas.
[129] These twelve nights occupy in the middle-age legends the place
of a sort of battle-ground between the powers of light and darkness.
One obvious reason of this is that they lie in midwinter, when the
infernal powers are the strongest. Another reason, perhaps, is that
they lie between the great Christian feast and the great heathen one,
the feast of Yule. Each party might be expected to put forth its full
power.
[130] Perhaps for a reason like that which made the beetle a symbol of
the soul or immortality among the Egyptians, namely, because the mouse
hibernates like the sleeping earth. It is worth noticing that Anubis,
the Egyptian psychopomp, is also a wind-god.--A. K.
[131] The appearance of _children_ in the story need not, however,
necessarily mean that the mortality had specially affected the
children. It may only have been an expression like the Latin
_manes_--the little ones--used for the souls of the departed. We know
how constantly in mediæval art the soul is represented as drawn out of
the body in the form of a child.
[132] There are at least six different versions of the same legend
given in Grimm’s _Deutsche Sagen_.
[133] This myth is related by Procopius (_B. G._, iv.). There is
little doubt that this island, which _he_ calls Brittia (and of course
distinguishes from Britannia), is really identical with it. The _wall_
which he speaks of as dividing it is proof sufficient.
[134] To the house of Yama.
[135] See above, p. 251.
[136] See above, p. 231.
[137] The fortune which accompanies a myth is very curious. That
of Freyr and Gerda is by no means conspicuous in the Edda, and I
should not have been justified in comparing it in importance with the
Persephone myth, _but_ that precisely the same story forms a leading
feature in _the_ great Norse and Teuton epic, the Volsung and Nibelung
songs.
[138] It is interesting to note that _one_ of the proofs that the
Greek _alphabet_ is derived from the Phœnician is precisely similar
to the proof that the Sanskrit _Dyâus_ or _duhitar_ are earlier
forms than Zeus or _daughter_. Because in Greek _alphabet_ means
only _alpha_ (α) _beta_ (β), but in Phœnician _alpha_ or _aleph_ and
_beta_ or _beth_ have distinct meanings--‘ox’ and ‘house’--the objects
supposed to be symbolized by the first two Phœnician letters. See
above.
[139] Or Khita.
[140] The word would be more correctly spelt _Yawân_. It is known that
Iôn has been changed from Ivôn, or rather Iwôn, by the elision of the
digamma.
[141] _i.e._ the Gauls.
[142] For the story of Bran’s head, which spoke after it was cut off,
and which is in its natural interpretation probably the sun, see Mr.
M. Arnold’s _Celtic Literature_.
[143] Or if the Teutones were really Germans. Some have denied this
(see Latham’s _Germania_, Appendix). But, I think, without sufficient
reason.
[144] Latham’s _Germania_.
[145] And therefore possibly Slaves, Wend being a name applied by
Teutons to Slaves.
[146] _e.g._ Old German, _aran_, to plough = _arare_, etc.
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
party exterminated=> partly exterminated {pg 101}
certain among the the islands=> certain among the islands {pg 115}
of the Semitic=> of the Semetic {pg 118}
the Ayran people=> the Aryan people {pg 199}
have the Elsyian fields=> have the Elysian fields {pg 243}
the Egyptian heiroglyphics=> the Egyptian hieroglyphics {pg 311}
closely alied to=> closely allied to {pg 320}
the ancient Egptian=> the ancient Egyptian {pg 339}
case in repect of=> case in respect of {pg 351}
in Phenician=> in Phœnician {pg 357}
to the Eyptians=> to the Egyptians {pg 364}