In the _Vishnu P._,[626] we have Kapilas, a form of Vishnus, or of the

solar hero (inasmuch as he is of a reddish colour, or else of the

evening sun), who carries off the horse destined for the açvamedhas,

that is to be sacrificed. (In other words, the solar horse, the horse

which was meant for the sacrifice, escapes from it, in the same way as,

in the preceding chapter, we have seen the bull escape into the

forests.) In the _Râmâyanam_,[627] the horse destined for the sacrifice

is, on the contrary, carried off by a serpent (_i.e._, the monster of

night ravishes the evening sun, whilst, in the western sky, the fire is

being prepared for his immolation). The sons of Sagaras (the clouds of

the heavenly ocean, the word _sagaras_ meaning sea), make a noise like

thunder, searching for the horse that had been carried off from them.

They find it near the god Vishnus or Kapilas (here the sun himself, the

solar horse itself, carried off into the cloudy ocean of night);

believing him to be the ravisher, they assail him; Kapilas (or the solar

horse), full of indignation, burns them to ashes. Their nephew,

Ansumant (he who is furnished with rays, the radiant sun of morning), on

the contrary, delivers the horse out of the forest. In the evening he is

reconducted back to the place of sacrifice, on the golden pavement,

after having made the journey round the world.[628] In the same way as

we have seen, in the preceding chapter, that the bull or the cow is

touched or struck as an augury of fruitfulness and abundance, in the

_Râmâyanam_,[629] Kâuçalyâ touches the horse (a stallion) in order to be

fruitful, as he desires to have sons (_putrakâmyayâ_), and the king and

queen smell the odour of the burnt marrow or fat of the horse, as a

talisman which may work for them the gratification of a like wish.[630]

Of course we must always refer the legend to the myth of the solar

horse, which, even when sacrificed, makes itself fruitful, so that it

may rise again in the morning in a new and young form. And we can easily

prove that the horse of the açvamedhas was a mythical horse, since the

açvamedhas was originally a celestial ceremony, seeing we read in the

_Rigvedas_ how the swift heroic horse destined to be sacrificed was born

of the gods, and how the Vasavas had adorned it with the colours of the

sun.[631] We saw a short time ago how in the _Rigvedas_ itself it is

now the Açvinâu, and now Agnis who give the heroic steed to the

predestined youth. Agnis, moreover, who gives a horse to the hero, is

himself now a handsome red horse, and now an excellent ghridhnus,[632] a

word which means the ravisher, as well as the vulture (as a bird of

prey). The thief plays a principal part, even in the Vedic myths. In the

war between the demons and the gods, described at length in the first

book of the _Mahâbhâratam_, there is a continual strife between the two

sides as to who will show himself the most skilful in stealing the cup

which contains the ambrosia. And the horse's head which, according to

Hindoo cosmogony, is born in the very production of the ambrosia with

the mythical gem, the horse's heads of Dadhyanc and of Vishnus, which

are found in the ambrosia [through the mouth of which (Vadavamukhas) it

is necessary to pass in order to enter hell, where one hears the cries

and howls of the tormented, who inhabit the water[633]], shows us how

already in the myth the legend of the theft of the earrings (the

Açvinâu), or of the queen's gem (the sun), or of the treasure, must be

united with the theft of the horse (the sun itself), as it seems to be

united in the legend of Utañkas, before quoted, in which Utañkas flees

upon the divine horse as he carries away from hell the earrings of the

queen, which another skilful thief, the king of the serpents, had, in

his turn, stolen from him. (Herodotos already knew the story of the

skilful thief who robs the king's treasure and obtains the king's

daughter to wife; he applies it to the king of Egypt, Rampsinitos.)

When the stag, in the fable, flees in the forest, his high horns betray

him; when the bull flees, he fears that his horns may betray the

fugitives; even the mane of the solar hero takes the name of horns. The

Vedic hymn describing the horse destined for the sacrifice, represents

it as having golden horns, and feet as rapid as thought (like the stag),

whose horns (or whose mane, like the hair of the biblical Absalom, who

revives again in the legendary tradition of Mediæval Europe under an

analogous form), stretching here and there, are caught in the trees of

the forest.[634] Here, therefore, we have the swift-footed animal, whose

mane and horns are entangled to the trees. Another Vedic hymn presents

to us the hero Tugras lost in the sea, who embraces a tree, and is saved

by means of it.[635] In popular stories, the hero is often saved upon a

tree, either because the thieves or the bear cannot see him, or because

he is thus able to see the horizon; the tree brings good luck to him,

now because by letting something drop or making a noise, he terrifies

the thieves, now because he cheats the cowherds, whose cattle he wishes

to possess himself of, by appearing now upon one tree, and now upon

another; whereupon the cowherds begin to dispute about his identity, one

affirming that it is the same person, another that it cannot be; they

therefore hastily go back to inspect the first tree, and leave the

cattle unguarded, upon which the hero-thief descends from the tree, and

drives them away before him (this occurs in _Afanassieff_; the enemy of

robbers is generally himself an exceedingly skilful thief; Kereçâçpa was

no less a cunning thief than Mercury, the god of robbers, who discovers

the deceit of others, because he is himself so expert a deceiver). In

the nineteenth Mongol story, which is of Hindoo origin, the young hero,

after having discharged his pious filial duties at the tomb of his

father, mounts a fiery horse, while he seizes the branch of a tree. The

tree is uprooted, and with it the horse and the hero massacre the army

of the king, whose daughter the hero wishes to marry. In the Russian

story[636] which narrates the adventures of Little Thomas Berennikoff,

blind of an eye, the _miles gloriosus_, Little Tom, after killing an

army of flies, begins to boast of the heroism he had shown in

overthrowing, by himself, a whole army of light cavalry. He meets with

two real heroes, Elias of Murom and Alexin Papovic (son of the priest),

who, on hearing him narrate his achievements, immediately own and honour

him as their elder brother. The valour of the three is soon put to the

proof; Elias and Alexin show themselves to be true heroes; at last it

comes to Little Tom's turn to make proof of his valour; he kills a

hostile hero whilst his eyes are shut, and then endeavours to ride his

horse, but cannot. It is a hero's horse, and can be ridden only by a

hero. At length he fastens the horse to an oak-tree, and climbs up the

tree in order to leap from it upon the horse's back. The horse feels

the man on his back, and plunges so much that he roots up the whole

tree, and drags it after him, carrying Tom away into the heart of the

Chinese army. The Chinese are struck down by the oak-tree and trodden

under foot by the furious charger, and those who are not killed are put

to flight. (The mythical wooden horse which proved so fatal to the

Trojans appears to be a mythical variety of this horse with the tree so

fatal to the Chinese.) The Emperor of China declares that he will never

make war again with a hero of Little Tom's strength. Then the King of

Prussia, an enemy of the Chinese, gives, in gratitude to Tom, and as a

reward for his valour, his own daughter to wife. It is remarkable that,

in the course of the story, Alexin once observes to Elias that the horse

which Little Tom had brought from his house showed none of the

characteristic qualities of a hero's horse. Alexin, as the priest's son,

is the wise hero; Elias, the strong one, who had conceived a high

opinion of his new colleague, Little Tom, seriously answers that a

hero's strength consists in himself, and not in his horse. However, the

development of the story shows that Alexin was right; without the fiery

horse of the dead hero, Tom would not have dispersed the Chinese.

Thus, in a Vedic hymn,[637] we read that Indras, when he removes himself

from his two horses, becomes like to a weak and wearied mortal; when he

yokes them, he becomes strong. The enemies in the battles cannot resist

the charge of the two fair-coloured horses of the god Indras;[638] and

not only this, but one part alone of the divine horse is sometimes

sufficient to give assurance of victory to the hero-god. Another

hymn[639] sings, "A horse's tail wert thou then, O Indras;" that is,

when Indras vanquished the monster serpent. It is with the head of the

horse Dadhyanc that Indras discomfits his enemies.[640] The horse of the

Açvinâu, which kills the monster serpent, has already been referred to

in these pages. The solar horse Dadhikrâ, the same as Dadhyanc, in

another hymn of the _Rigvedas_,[641] is celebrated as a swift falcon,

luminous, impetuous, who destroys his enemies like a hero-prince, who

runs like the wind. His enemies tremble, terrified by him, as by the

thundering sky; he fights against a thousand enemies--invincible,

formidable, and resplendent. Finally, the horses of the god Agnis are

said to vanquish the enemies with their fore-feet.[642]

When Añgadas wishes to fight with the monster Narântakas, in the

_Râmâyanam_,[643] he strikes with his fist the head of his great and

swift-footed horse, and then with another blow he smites the monster

in the chest, and kills him.

In the seven adventures of Rustem, related by Firdusi, the hero's horse

fights against the monster, and drives him away, while the hero sleeps.

It is said of Bucephalus, the horse which Alexander the Great alone

was able to tame--so called because he had, it would seem, on his head

protuberances similar to the horns of a bull (we saw not long since

how the mane of the solar horse is spoken of as horns in the Vedic

hymns)--that he several times saved Alexander in battle, and that,

though mortally wounded, in an engagement in India, in the flank and

head, he still summoned up strength enough to flee away with

extraordinary swiftness and save his master, and then died. Pliny,

quoting Philarcus, says that when Antiochus was slain, the warrior who

had killed him endeavoured to ride his horse, but that the latter

threw him on the ground, and he expired.

Of Pêgasos, the winged horse which bore the hero Bellerophon over the

waters, and by means of whom that hero won his glorious victories, we

know that the warrior-goddess Pallas wore the effigy upon her helmet.

Suetonius writes of the horse of Julius Cæsar that it had almost human

feet, with toes ("pedibus prope humanis, et in modum digitorum ungulis

fissis"), from which the aruspices prognosticated to Cæsar the empire

of the world; this horse, like Bucephalus, and every heroic courser,

would bear no other rider than its master--the great conqueror.

The horse Baiardo, in _Ariosto_, fights the enemies with its feet. The

hippogriff of Ariosto has, moreover, the privilege of being winged

like Pêgasos, and of walking on air, like the Tatos of the Hungarians.

The name of Falke, given to the horse of the Germanic and Scandinavian

hero Dietrich or Thidrek (Theodoricus), induces us to believe that it

too had the same winged nature.

In the _Edda_, Skirner receives from Frey a horse which carried its

rider through fogs (waters) and flames, and the sword which strikes of

itself when the wearer of it happens to be a hero. The horse of Sigurd

or Sîfrit exhibits the same bravery in bearing the hero intact through

the flames. This happens in the morning, when the sun emerges safe and

sound from the flames of the aurora; in the evening, on the contrary,

when the sun loses itself in the flames of the aurora, or when the

solar hero dies, his horse, too, like the horse of Balder in the

_Edda_, is burned upon the pyre or sacrificed; the resurrection of the

dead horse and that of the dead hero happen at the same time. The

horse's head which protrudes out of the window, represented in ancient

Hellenic tombs, and preserved in Germanic customs,[644] is, for man, a

symbol of resurrection. The head of Vishnus, that of Uccâihçravas, and

that of Dadhyanc, in Hindoo tradition, have the same meaning. He who

enters into this head finds death and hell; he who comes out of it

rises again to new life. The pious Christian belief in the

resurrection that is to come, and the numerous mediæval legends of

Europe concerning dead heroes or maidens who are resuscitated, had

their origin and ground in the contemplation of the annual and daily

resurrection of the sun.

In the thirty-eighth story of the fifth book of _Afanassieff_, the

young prince receives from an enchanted bird the present of a

war-charger, and of an apple the colour of the sun. (The youth gives

the golden apple to a beautiful princess for the pleasure of passing

the night with her; remark here, again, the relation of the horse and

the apple, and probably of the horse and the bull, the sun and moon).

In other Russian stories, the horse of the hero, Ivan Tzarevic, is at

first bound underground by twelve iron chains; when Ivan rides him, he

breaks them all.[645] The horse which Ivan the thief is told to carry

off from his master[646] is shut up within three gates made fast by

six bolts; if he steals it, he is to receive a reward of 200 roubles;

and if he does not, 200 bastinadoes will be his punishment. Ivan takes

his master's clothes, disguises himself as a gentleman, and, imitating

his voice, orders the grooms to bring him his favourite horse. The

grooms are deceived, and obey, and thus Ivan carries the horse off.

Finally, in a third Russian story,[647] Ivan Tzarevic must ride a

hero's horse on the occasion of his nuptials with the beautiful but

wicked Anna. He has recourse to his preceptor Katoma, surnamed Hat of

Oak (here we find again the hero in relation with the tree and the

horse), who orders the blacksmith to prepare a hero's horse; twelve

young blacksmiths (the twelve hours of the night, or else the twelve

months of the year) draw twelve bolts, open twelve doors, and lead out

an enchanted horse, bound with twelve iron chains. Scarcely has the

preceptor mounted on its back when it flies higher than the forest

which stays still, and lower than the cloud which moves.[648] The

preceptor subdues it by taking hold of its mane with one hand, and

striking it with the other between the ears with four pieces, one

after another, of an enchanted iron pillar. The horse then begs, with

a man's voice, for its life, the power of speech being a distinctive

attribute of the hero's horse (a power of which it often makes use, as

Rustem's horse does, for instance, to warn the hero of the dangers

which surround him, and to give him good advice; sometimes, on the

contrary, when it is in the monster's power, it plays the part of a

spy upon the hero's actions, and reports them to the monster);[649] it

promises also to do the will of the preceptor. Katoma, calling the

horse dog's flesh, orders it to stay still the next day, which is the

day fixed for the wedding, and, when the bridegroom Ivan is to ride

it, to seem as though it were oppressed by a great weight.

In the seventh Esthonian story, the young hero steals the horse from the

master (the devil, or the black monster of night) in whose service he

had engaged himself. When he comes to the place where the sun sets, he

bethinks himself of binding the horse with iron chains (the rope of

Yamas, or Varunas, the nocturnal coverer or binder, which binds the

Vedic hero Çunahçepas, the sun, he of the golden rod), in order that it

may not escape and go back again. This particular is very interesting,

as rendering the meaning of the myth more manifest. Seeing that the sun,

in the evening, does not return, it was supposed that the solar horse

had been bound by the hero himself, who had stolen it.

In the European popular tales we sometimes have, instead of the hero

who carries off his master's horse, the hero himself, who escapes from

his master in the form of a horse, helped in his flight by the

daughter of his master, by the magician's or demon's daughter or black

maiden (who afterwards becomes beautiful and luminous). In the

Hungarian belief, the youngest of the witch's daughters (the aurora)

often assumes the form of the heroic horse of the Tatos. She becomes

Tatos when the hero, meeting her, strikes her on the forehead with the

bridle; then she carries him, in the shape of a horse, into the air.

In the Russian story,[650] the son of a merchant goes to be instructed

by a wise magician, who teaches him every kind of knowledge, and,

among the rest, what sheep say when they bleat, birds when they sing,

and horses when they neigh. At last the young man, having learned

every species of mischief, returns home and transforms himself into a

horse, in order that his father may sell him at the market and make

money; but he warns his father not to give up the bridle, that he may

not fall again into the hands of the magician. The father forgets, and

sells horse and bridle together. The magician attaches the horse by a

ring to an oak-tree; the black maiden (dievki cernavke), the sister of

the devil, gives the horse millet and hydromel; the horse thus gains

strength enough to break the chain which binds him to the tree, and

escapes. The devil follows him; the horse becomes a fish, and from a

fish a ring; the king's daughter buys the ring and puts it on her

finger; during the day it is a ring (the solar disc), and during the

night a handsome youth, who lies in the bed of the queen's daughter

(the hidden sun, or the moon, in the darkness of night). One day the

princess lets the ring fall on the ground, and it breaks into a

thousand pieces (the evening sun which falls upon the mountain); then

the devil becomes a cock, to pick up the pieces of the broken ring;

but a little piece falls under the princess's foot; this piece is

transformed into a falcon, which strangles and devours the cock.

In the bridle which binds this hero who becomes a horse, I think I can

recognise the lasso with which Varunas keeps Çunahçepas bound in the

_Âitareya Br._ In the _Rigvedas_,[651] we have Sûryas, the sun, as

Sâuvaçvyas, or son of Svaçvyas, that is, of him who has fine horses;

but as, besides Svaçvyas, we find Svaçvas, he who has a fine horse,

the sun itself would seem to be this horse. The legend narrates that

Svaçvas, having no children, requested the sun to give him some, and

that the sun, to please him, was himself born of him. Svaçvas, he who

has a fine horse and has no sons, is perhaps the same as the old man

who has lost his son by selling the horse; when the sun returns his

son also comes back again. In the Vedic expressions, _without a horse,

born without a bridle, the sun_ (as a courser[652]), the hero would

seem to be indicated who has not as yet that horse or that bridle,

without which he is powerless; for the idea of the hero is rarely

unaccompanied by that of the horseman.

For the horseman hero his horse is his all, and sometimes it even takes

the bit in its mouth, then the hero punishes it. We have already noticed

the well-known Hellenic myth of Phaethôn, who is, with both the chariot

and the horses, precipitated into the waters, because the horses

threatened to set the earth on fire. This happens every day towards

evening, when the sun sets; the whole sky goes down, then the sun is

thrown down into the ocean of night; the course of the solar steeds is

interrupted, and the wheels of the chariot no longer turn. A similar

catastrophe is repeated on St John's Day, at the summer solstice, in

which the sun stops and begins to retire, for which reason the light of

day, from this time to Christmas, grows less and less.

It is a custom on St John's Day, in Germany,[653] for hunters to fire

at the sun, believing that they will thereby become infallible

hunters. According to another popular German belief, he who, on St

John's Day, fires towards the sun is condemned ever after to hunt for

ever, like Odin, the eternal hunter; and both superstitions have their

reason. In the night, as well as in the period during which the

splendour of the sun diminishes, and especially in autumn, the gloomy

forest of heaven is filled with every kind of ferocious animal; the

sun enters this forest, becomes moon, and hunts the wild beasts in it

during the whole of the night, or of the year that is, until he is

born again. In the _Rigvedas_, where we have seven sister-mares yoked

to the sun-chariot,[654] Indras, to please his favourite, Etaças,

after having drunk the ambrosia, pushes the clouds that had fallen

behind before the flying steeds of the sun,[655] that is to say, he

prevents the solar hero, drawn by horses, either by the cloud in a

tempest, or by the darkness of night, from going on; and he even

strikes the wheels themselves of the solar chariot to arrest its

incendiary course. From these Vedic data it is easy to pass to the

Hellenic Phaethôn, who is precipitated into the waters on account of

the horses. The hero killed on account of his horses is a frequent

subject of mythology, and the Greek name Hippolytos refers to this

kind of death. Hippolytos, the son of Theseus, fleeing from his

father, who supposes him guilty of incest with his step-mother Phedra,

is thrown from the chariot broken to pieces, when the horses that draw

it approach the sea and are terrified by marine monsters. This is a

variation of the legend of the young hero, persecuted by his

step-mother, who is thrown into the sea, with the novel and remarkable

accompaniment that it is his horses themselves which are the cause of

his death. The Christian legend of St Hippolytos has appropriated this

particular trait, representing the holy martyr, who was prefect under

the emperors Decius and Valerian, as dying, having been condemned to

be torn in pieces by horses. The poet Prudentius comments upon the

story in these two curious distichs, on the occasion of the Roman

judge pronouncing capital punishment against St Hippolytos--

"Ille supinata residens cervice, quis inquit

Dicitur? affirmant dicier Hippolytum.

Ergo sit Hippolytus; quatiat turbetque jugales

Intereatque feris dilaceratus equis."

But the horses which draw the hero into the water are the same as

those that save him by carrying him over the deep, drawing the chariot

or ship on the sea towards the shore. The Açvinâu do the same in the

_Rigvedas_, where they save from the waves both themselves and other

heroes upon their chariot, which is compared to a ship.[656] Hero and

horse always have the same fate.

When the hero approaches, or when some fortunate incident is about to

happen to the hero, his horse neighs for joy.

In the _Rigvedas_,[657] on the arrival of the god Indras, the horse

neighs, the cow lows, like a messenger between heaven and earth. The

neighing of this horse, and the lowing of this cow, are the thundering

of the sun in the cloud. By this neighing or lowing, man is informed

that the hero-god Indras is beginning his battles in heaven. Another

hymn, which calls the two horses of Indras two rays of the sun

(sûryasya ketû), celebrates them as neighing and pouring out

ambrosia,[658] _i.e._, the sun makes rain fall from the clouds; when

he shows himself in the east at morn, his horse neighs and drops the

dew on the ground.

Herodotus, and, after him, Oppianos and Valerius Maximus, relate the

mythical story of Darius Hystaspes, who unexpectedly succeeded to the

empire from having persuaded his colleagues to decree that he should

obtain the crown whose horse happened first to neigh at the sight of

the sun. It is narrated that when he came to the place, Darius, in

order to assure himself of success, made his horse smell the odour of

a mare.[659] Neighing is the laughter of the horse. We have seen, in

the preceding chapter, how the bull speaks and the fish laughs at

sight of coition; and so we have here, in the story of Darius, the

horse who neighs on account of the mare.--To return to the horse of

mythology; the solar horse neighs within the thundering-cloud which,

as a cow, the bull makes pregnant, and as a mare, the stallion, and

neighs at the approach of the aurora, who appears now as the driver of

a hundred chariots[660] (a round number, like the hundred thousand

horses which, in another hymn,[661] the god Indras drives; a favourite

number, like seven, which is applied to the same solar horses, solar

rays and Añgirasas[662])--on which account it can be compared with the

Hellenic Aphroditê Hippodameia--now even as a real mare. The sun is

now a driver of horses, and now himself a horse; in the same way, the

aurora is now an Amazon horsewoman, now a driver of chariots, now

açvâvatî, and now a mare. When the sun approaches the aurora, or when

the horse approaches the mare, the horse neighs. We know how the

Açvinâu considered themselves sons of the wife of the sun, Saranyû,

daughter of Tvashtar, who united herself to the sun in the form of a

mare. Whether this Saranyû be the cloud or the aurora, we have in her,

anyhow, a mare with which the sun, solar hero, or solar horse, unites

himself to produce the twin heroes, who are, for this reason, also

called the two sons of the mare.[663] We have already seen, in the

preceding chapter, a hero and a heroine who are hatched from eggs; of

the Dioscuri, we know that they were born of the egg of Leda; and the

mare's egg is the subject of a story in the _Ukermark_.[664] Greek

writers have handed down several cases of coition between men and

mares, and between horses and women, with corresponding births of

monstrous conformation. Now, unnatural as such births must appear to

us, they are, in mythology, in strict accordance with nature. In the

preceding chapter we saw the cow which leaps over the hare, and

explained this phenomenon by the cloud or darkness covering the moon,

and also by the earth covering the moon in eclipses. In Herodotus and

Valerius Maximus, a mare, in the time of Xerxes, gives birth to a

hare; and we must here understand the hare to be the moon, coming out

of the darkness or clouds; and when we read that the hare suffocated

the mare, we must understand it to mean the moon as dispersing the

darkness or clouds (perhaps also the sun or evening aurora). We must

have recourse in this way to the myth to comprehend the examples of

parturition without coition found in some Hindoo legends, and applied

to heroes, as well as the curious discussions and information which we

find in the ancients, from Aristotle, Varro, Pliny, Columella,

Solinus, and St Augustin, to Albertus Magnus and Aldrovandi,

concerning mares, and especially Spanish and Portuguese mares, made

pregnant by the wind (called by Oppianos[665] of the windy feet), and

which are also spoken of in the _Pentamerone_,[666] with less

decency, in reference to the myth of the maiden born of the tree.

The horse of Ariosto, too, has a similar nature--

"Questo è il destrier che fu dell' Argalia

Che di fiamma e di vento era concetto

E senza fieno e biada si nutria

De l'aria pura e Rabican fu detto."

The horse of Ciolle, in a Tuscan proverb, also feeds upon wind alone.

The horse of Dardanos, son of Zeus, was also said to be born of the

wind, which brings us back to the Vedic Marutas, whose chariots have

horses for wings, and to the _volucer currus_ of the Diespiter of

Horace.[667] In the Sanskrit tongue, the expression _vâtâçvas_, or

wind-horse, is very common, to indicate a very swift-footed horse.

No sooner is the horse Uccâihçravas born than he neighs; and like him,

in the _Mahâbhâratam_, the hero Açvatthâman laughs, the son of Dronas,

properly he who has strength in his horse, which is the same as the

hero-horse.

Moreover, as the horse exults by neighing over the good fortune of the

hero who rides him, so he not only becomes sad, but sheds real tears

when his rider is about to meet with misfortune.

When Râvanas, in the _Râmâyanam_, comes forth in his chariot, to join

in final combat with Râmas, his coursers shed tears,[668] as a

sinister omen, Râvanas is the monster of darkness and clouds; when the

cloud begins to disperse, drops of rain fall, that is, the horses of

the monster weep. The treacherous sister who is confederate with the

monster against her brother, in Russian stories, is condemned by her

brother, who kills the monster, to fill a whole basin with her

tears.[669] These tears are also a legendary symbol of the rain which

falls when the solar hero has torn the cloud in two.

Suetonius, in the Life of Cæsar, writes that the horses consecrated by

Cæsar to Mars, and then set at liberty after the passage of the

Rubicon, refused to eat, and wept abundantly.[670] Note that this

legend of the horses that weep is connected with the passage of water,

of the Rubicon (a river which no geographer has been able to identify

with certainty, probably because the legend of Cæsar relating to it is

a fable of mythical origin. We know how mythical beliefs incline to

assume a human form, and are especially prone to group themselves

round the great personages of history--Cyrus, Alexander, Romulus,

Cæsar, Augustus, Vespasian, Attila, Theodoric, and Charlemagne are

proofs of this; and perhaps a day will come in which Napoleon I. or

Garibaldi will offer a new _mannequin_ to some popular tradition,

which is now uncertain and wandering). Thus it is said that Cæsar's

horse itself shed tears for three days before the hero's death. In the

_Iliad_,[671] the horses of Achilleus weep for the death of

Patroklos, whom Hektor has thrown from his chariot into the dust; in

the _Paraleipomenoi_ of Quintus Smyrneus,[672] the horses of Achilleus

weep bitterly for the death of their hero. This is a variety of the

legend of the horses which throw the solar hero down into the waters,

the ocean of night or the clouds, and of that of the horses of

Poseidôn. The mists which after sunset in the evening impregnate the

air, and the diurnal or nocturnal rains, as well as the autumnal ones,

cause tears to fall upon the ground, or weep over the (apparent) death

of the solar hero.

The dew of the morning, on the contrary, which comes from the mouth of

the solar horse like foam, or from its hoof as ambrosia and salutary

water, is fraught with every species of healthful influence.

The horse and the bull of mythology are pourers out _par excellence_. In

a Vedic strophe--which seems in my eyes to be one of those riddles which

are recited in order to loosen the thread of the tongue--relative to the

two outpouring or fertilising horses of Indras, there is a continual

play kept up upon the root _varsh_ or _vrish_, which means at once to

pour out and to make fruitful,[673] and upon the letter _r_ which enters

into almost every word of the verse. Not only do the horses of Indras

pour out and make fruitful; the same virtue is attributed to the chariot

which they draw.[674] We have seen already that the horse of the

Açvinâu is the killer of the monster serpent, and that the horse's head

Dadhyanc, he who goes in the milk or in the liquefied butter, and who is

found in a sea of milk, discomfits the enemies of Indras. A Vedic hymn

sings that, with the foam of the waters, Indras beats down the head of

the monster serpent.[675] In Tuscany, the whooping-cough is called the

horse-cough or asinine-cough,[676] and it is thought that the cough is

cured by giving the children to drink the foam from the horse's mouth,

or causing them to drink in the water where a horse has been drinking.

This is a remedy founded upon the principle _similia similibus_, the

foam being used against the convulsive cough, which, like all

convulsions in general, brings much saliva or foam to the mouth. The

credit, however, of this marvellous medicine is slightly compromised

when we read that the same foam is also very efficacious for ear-ache.

Pliny, Sextus Empiricus, and Marcellus, quoted by Aldrovandi,[677] also

recommend the saliva of a horse as a cure for cough, particularly in the

case of consumptive patients, adding that the sick person is cured in

three days, but that the horse dies; a superstition which must have had

its origin in the mythical horse who feeds on ambrosia, and who loses

his strength, and expires when his saliva, foam, ambrosia, or dew is

taken from him. It is well known that the Açvinâu, besides being

luminous horsemen, were, as friends of men, also exceedingly skilful

physicians; nor could they be otherwise, having in their power the head

of Dadhyanc which is in the ambrosia, that is, whose foam is ambrosia.

The Dioscuri also frequently appear, in European legends, as unexpected

and miraculous deliverers. With this mythical belief of the horse that

produces ambrosia, is also connected the transformation, described by

Ovid in the second book of the _Metamorphoses_, of Ocyroe into a mare,

because she had predicted that Æsculapius would save men from death by

the medical art. It is a well-known fact that Æsculapius was revered

near fountains whose waters were supposed to have salutary effects, and

that he was protected by the sun-god Apollo; and the two physicians,

sons of Asklêpios or Æsculapius, seem to be nothing more than a specific

form of the Dioscuri.

But the solar horse does not produce ambrosia with his mouth alone.

He has great strength in his hoofs (whence Isidorus and other mediæval

etymologists derived the name _caballus_, thus, "Quod ungula terram

cavet"[678]), and makes use of them in the myth, and in the legend,

not only to combat the enemies, but also to break open the earth, and

cause ambrosial fountains to spring out of it. Sometimes ambrosia

pours out of the hoof of the horse itself. In the _Rigvedas_,[679] the

horses of Agnis are said to have hands (_i.e._, hoofs of the

fore-feet) that pour out; and the horse given by the Açvinâu to the

hero protected by them (that is, to the solar horse, to the morning

sun), with his strong hoof fills a hundred jars with inebriating

liquor.[680] It is not necessary for me to instance here the famous

fountain of the horse, or Hippokrênê, which Bellerophon's horse

Pêgasos caused to spring out of the earth by breaking the soil with

his hoof (called also for this reason _Pêgasía krênê_). In Latin

tradition, the horse's hoof was worshipped on a spot near Lake

Regillus, where it is said that the Dioscuri had appeared.[681] In a

Russian story,[682] when Johnny (Ivanushka) sees a horse's hoof, he is

sorely tempted to drink out of it, but is dissuaded by his sister. He

experiences the same temptation upon seeing a bull's hoof, and

afterwards that of a kid. At last he gives way, drinks from the kid's

hoof, and is himself transformed into a kid. In the footprint of a

horse's hoof, in other stories, the ant is in danger of being drowned;

saved by a man, it is ever afterwards grateful to him.[683]

Several myths which we have already noticed in the preceding chapter

as applied to the bull, occur again in connection with the horse; as,

for instance, the birds which come out of the horse; the hero who

takes the horse's skin off, seizing it by the tail in order to make a

sack of it; the swift horse of Adrastus, which runs after the tortoise

(a Greek proverb);[684] the lunar horse, and the solar one. These

exchanges between moon and sun, and between bull and horse, are

happily indicated by the Latin poet, Fulgentius:--

"Jam Phoebus disjungit equos, jam Cynthia jungit,

Quasque soror liquit, frater pede temperat undas:

Tum nox stellato coelum circumlita peplo

Coerula rorigenis pigrescere jusserat alis

Astrigeroque nitens diademate luna bicornis

Bullarum bijugis conscenderat æquora tauris."

The gods had often a liking to transform themselves into horses; so much

so, that the sacrifice of the god, that is, the god's death, is

represented by the death of the horse. Every one knows that gods and

heroes delighted in showing themselves good horsemen, or, at least, good

charioteers. On this account, it would be difficult to say to which god

in particular the horse is sacred. The Vedic Açvinâu, the Vedic aurora,

who wins the race in her chariot, Agnis, Savitar, Indras, victorious and

splendid by means of their steeds, the hippios Poseidôn, the hippeia

Athênê, the hippodameia Aphroditê, the horsemen Dioscuri, Mars, Apollo,

Zeus, Pluto, and the German Wuotan (like his _alter ego_, St Zacchæus),

never show themselves otherwise than on horseback; hence the horse was

naturally sacred to all of them. In the Christian faith, the innumerable

gods of the ancients having become innumerable saints (when they were

not so unfortunate as to degenerate into devils), the horse is now

recommended in its stable to the protection of several saints, from the

obscure Sicilian St Aloi to the no less modest Russians St Froh and St

Laver, who take the horse, as well as the mule and the ass, under their

especial protection, not to speak of the glorious horsemen St George, St

Michael, St James, St Maurice, St Stephen, St Vladimir, and St Martin,

especially revered by warriors, and in whose honour the principal orders

of knighthood in Europe were founded. But religions being, from one

point of view, the caricature of mythologies, there is now some

difference between the mythical old deities and the legendary new ones,

inasmuch as the former would at times ingenuously accept the homage of

the animal in effigy, as we have observed in the preceding chapter;

while the latter, and they who purvey to them upon earth, not being

quite so simple, never leave their devotee in peace until they have

received, at sight and without discount, the full value of their

favours. In the Life of San Gallo, we read that, in the times of King

Pepin (we already know what these times mean), a certain Willimar, being

ill, promised, if cured, to offer a horse to the Church of San Gallo.

Having recovered his health, he forgot his promise; but passing one day

before the church of the saint, his horse stopped before the gate, and

by no possibility could it be induced to-move on, until Willimar had at

last declared his intention of fulfilling his vow. In the Life of St

Martin, there is a rather gayer variation of the same anecdote. King

Clodoveus, after having become a Christian, when fighting against the

Visigoths, promises his own horse to St Martin, if he grants the victory

to him. Having obtained it, Clodoveus regrets being obliged to deprive

himself of his good charger, and beseeches St Martin to be kind enough

to take money instead, offering him a hundred pieces of gold. St Martin

thinks the sum insufficient, and asks for double, which Clodoveus gives;

but, inasmuch as a little heretic blood still runs in his veins, he

cannot refrain from aiming a pointed witticism at him: "Martinus,

quantum video, auxiliator est facilis, sed mercator difficilis!"[685]

FOOTNOTES:

[526] The word _atyas_ has the same meaning.

[527] Yungantv asya kâmyâ harî vipakshasâ rathe çonâ dhrishnû

nrivâhasâ; _Rigv._ i. 6, 2.

[528] Vacoyugâu; _Rigv._ i. 7, 2.

[529] Yukshvâ hi keçinâ harî vrishanâ kakshyaprâ; _Rigv._ i. 10, 3.

[530] Sûracakshasah; _Rigv._ i. 16, 1.

[531] Indrâya vacoyugâ tatakshur manasâ harî; _Rigv._ i. 20, 2.

[532] Saudhanvanâ açvâd açvam atakshata; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7.

[533] Vi ganân chyâvah çitipâdo akhyan ratham hiranyaprâugam vahantah;

_Rigv._ i. 33, 5.

[534] Indro vañkû vañkutarâdhi tishthati; _Rigv._ i. 5, 11.

[535] Yukshvâ madacyutâ harî; _Rigv._ i. 81, 3.

[536] Vâm açvinâ manaso gaviyân rathah svaçvah; _Rigv._ i. 117, 2.

[537] Â tvâ yachantu harito na sûryam ahâ viçveva sûryam; _Rigv._ i.

130, 2.

[538] Harî sûryasya ketû; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 6.

[539] Ghritaçcutam svâram asvârshtâm; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7.

[540] Pra ye dvitâ diva ringanty âtâh susammrishtâso vrishabhasya

mûrah; _Rigv._ iii. 43, 6.

[541] Indra haribhir yâhi mayûraromabhih; _Rigv._ iii. 45. 1.

[542] Sholhâ yuktâh panca-pancâ vahanti; _Rigv._ iii. 55, 18.

[543] Patatribhir açramâir avyatibhir dansanâbhih; _Rigv._ vii. 69, 7.

The Açvinâu also are called dravatpânî (swift-hoofed); _Rigv._ i. 3, 1.

[544] Açvatarî--rathenâgnir âgimadhâvattâsâm prâgamâno

yonimakûlayattásmâttâ na vigâyante. Gobhirarunâirushâ

âgimadhâvattasmâdushasyagatâyâmarunamivaeva

prabhâtyushasorûpamaçvarathenendra âgimadhâvattasmâtsa uccâirghosha

upabdimânkshatrasya rûpamâindro hi sa gadarbharathenâçvinâ

udagayatâmaçvinâvâçnuvâtâm; _Ait. Br._ iv. 2, 9.

[545] Tvâshtrî tu savitur bhâryâ vadavârupadhârinî asûyata mahâbhâgâ

sâ 'ntarîkshe 'çvinâvubhâu; _Mbh._ i. 2599.

[546] _Il._ x. 352.

[547] In the Monferrato, according to the information kindly given me,

concerning the beliefs relative to animals current in this country, by

Dr Giuseppe Ferraro, the young collector of the popular songs and

stories of the Monferrato, it is believed that the horse's teeth hung

upon the necks of infants at the breast cause them to cut their teeth,

and that the two incisors of the horse, when worn, are a spell to

charm away every evil.

[548] _Mbh._ i. 1093-1237.

[549] Cfr. the first of the Tuscan stories of _Santo Stefano di

Calcinaia_.--In the preceding chapter, we have seen how the apples of a

certain apple-tree cause horns to grow on whoever eats them. In an

unpublished Italian story, instead of the apple-tree, we have the

fig-tree, and instead of horns, the tail. It is narrated by an old man

of Osimo, in the Marches:--Three poor brothers, having but little

inclination for work, go in search of fortune round the world. Overtaken

in the country by night, they fall asleep in the open air. A fairy,

under the aspect of a hideous old woman, comes up and wakens them,

offering herself as their wife. The three brothers excuse themselves,

and declare that they wish for nothing except a little money with which

to make merry. The fairy answers, "Tell me what you wish for, and you

shall have it." The first asks for a purse, which shall always be full

of money; the second for a whistle, by blowing into which a whole army

of brave combatants would be summoned to his side; the third a mantle,

which would make its wearer invisible. The fairy satisfies them, and

then disappears in flames, like the devil. The eldest brother, Stephen,

goes with his purse into Portugal, where he plays and loses, but still

remains rich. This comes to the queen-dowager's ears, who wishes to see

the stranger, hoping to possess herself of his secret; she feigns to

love him, and the wedding-day is fixed; but before it comes she has

already gained his confidence, and taking the purse from him, she orders

him to be flogged. Stephen returns to his brothers, relates his

grievance, and proposing to revenge himself upon the queen, induces them

to lend him the whistle, which calls armies into existence. The queen

softens towards him, protesting that she expected to the last that he

would have appeared on the day appointed for the wedding, and that he

had been flogged without her knowledge. Stephen gives way, and the

whistle passes out of his hands into those of the queen. He is flogged

again, but twice as severely as before. Again he has recourse to his

brothers; he implores, supplicates, and promises to get everything back

by the miraculous mantle; but having obtained it, he allows himself to

be deceived once more by the queen. Deprived of everything, he wanders

about in despair, reduced to beggary. In the middle of January, he sees

a tree covered with beautiful figs; desirous of them, he eats with

avidity; but for every fig that he swallows, a span of tail as thick as

a boa grows on to him. He goes on his way, still more desperate, till he

finds more figs, of a smaller size; he eats them, and the tail

disappears. Contented with this discovery, he fills a basket with the

first figs, and disguised as a countryman, comes to the palace of the

Queen of Portugal. Every one marvels on seeing such fine figs in

January. The queen buys the basket, and every one eats; but tails

immediately grow on their backs. Stephen then dresses himself as a

doctor, and with the little figs, cures many persons. The queen has him

called; he obliges her to confess to him first, and in the confession

makes her say where the three marvellous gifts of the fairy are kept.

Having recovered them, he leaves the queen with ten spans of tail, and

returns rich and happy to his brothers. In this story there must be some

parts wanting; it is probable that the fairy warned the brothers not to

discover their secret to any one. The last enterprise, moreover, is more

likely to have been undertaken by the third brother, who always assumes

in fairy tales the part of the cunning one, than by the first-born, who

in this story represents the part of the fool.--Polydorus speaks of the

horse's tail as a chastisement for an insult to Thomas Archbishop of

Canterbury, in the thirteenth book of his _Hist. Angl._:--"Irridentes

Archiepiscopum, caudam equi cui insidebat, amputarunt. At postea nutu

Dei ita accidit, ut omnes ex eo hominum genere qui id facinus fecissent,

nati sunt instar brutorum caudati."

[550] Hiranyakarnam manigrîvam arnas; _Rigv._ i. 122, 14.

[551] _Ilíou Halôsis_, 65-72.

[552] In the before-quoted collection of Radloff, _Täktäbäi Märgän_.

[553]

Longa solitos caligine pasci

Terruit orbis equos; pressis hæsere lupatis

Attoniti meliore polo; rursusque verendum

In chaos obliquo pugnant temone reverti.

Claudianus, _De Raptu Proserpinæ_, ii. 193.

[554] _Phainomena_, 215.

[555] _Mbh._ i. 1470, 1471.

[556] Quelli cavalli che sono de pilo morello se fanno de humore

colerico impero che e più caldo humore et sicco che non e lo sangue et

per questo produce ad nigredine el pelo. _I tre Libri della Natura Dei

Cavalli et del Modo di medicar le Loro Infermità_, composti da Maestro

Agostino Columbre; _Prologo._ 6, Vinegia, 1547.

[557]

Hippomanes phüton esti par Arkasi tôi d'epi pasai

Kai pôloi mainontai an ôrea, kai thoai hippoi; ii. 48.

[558] Devennosi corrigere et emendare quelli li quali se posseno dire

heretici, impero che voleno dire che quelle tal bestie che portano li

crini advolte et atrezate; et con loro poco cognoscimento dicono che

sono le streghe che li cavalcano et chiamanli cavalli stregari;"

_Prologo._ 10, the work quoted before.--Cfr. on the Damavoi, Ralston,

_The Songs of the Russian People_, p. 120, 139.

[559]

Hippous melaínas ou kalon pantôs blepein

Hippôn de leukôn opsis, aggelôn phasis.

In Tuscany, flying horses, when seen in dreams, announce news; no

doubt, this flying horse seen in dreams can only refer to the

nocturnal voyage of the solar horse.

[560] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_,

Leipzig, 1870.

[561] The Hungarians call the bier of the dead St Michael's horse;

Neo-Greek popular songs represent the ferryman of the dead, Charon, on

horseback; in Switzerland, the sight of a horse is a harbinger of

approaching death for a person seriously ill.--Cfr. Rochholtz,

_Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 163, 164.

[562] _Afanassieff_, v. 37.

[563] _Ib._ v. 54.

[564] _Afanassieff_, i. 6.

[565] _Ib._ ii. 25.--Cfr. iii. 5, iv. 27.

[566] _Afanassieff_, ii. 28.

[567] _Ib._ iv. 41.--In the twenty-first story of _Erlenwein_, the

poor brother obtains wealth by means of a mare's head, while the rich

brother, on the other hand, becomes poor.--In _Af._ v. 21, the

dwarf-boy, who possesses great strength, enters into the ear of one of

the two horses when in the act of ploughing; upon which they plough of

their own accord, and the old father of the dwarf is at liberty to

rest.--In the sixth Calmuck story, the head of the dead horse, when

fallen from the tree, brings riches and good luck to him who lets it

fall, who finds under it a golden cup: this is a form of the ambrosia

which comes out of the horse's head, which we shall find farther on.

[568] The Russian text seems to me of too much importance, in the

history of myths, not to deserve to be recorded here: "Iediet apiát

vsadnik: sam cornoi, adiet va vsiem cornom; na cornom kanié; padskakál

k varótam babijaghí i is-cesz, kak skvosz szemlin pravalílsia; nastála

noc."

[569] Idiót aná i draszít. Vdrúg skacet mimo iejá vsadnik sam bieloi,

adiet v bielom, kon pod nim bieloi, i sbruja na kanié biélaja; na dvarié

stalo raszvietát. Idiót aná dalshe, kak skacet drugoi vsadnik; sam

krasnoi, adiét v krasnom i na krasnom kanie; stalo vshódit solntze.

[570] Yah pâurusheyena kravishâ samañkte yo açvyena paçunâ yâtudhânah

yo aghnyâyâ bharati kshîram agne teshâin çîrshâni harasâpi vriçca;

_Rigv._ x. 87, 16.--Cfr. the dragon that torments the horses in the

_Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 300.

[571] Tad agne cakshuh prati dhehi rebhe çaphârugam yena paçyasi

yâtudhânam; _Rigv._ x. 87, 12.--The demon Hayagrîvas killed by Vishnus,

which is the same as horse's neck, and Hayaçiras, or horse's head,

another monster giant in the _Râmâyanam_, iv. 43, 44, always refer to

the Vedic açva-yâtudhânas. We are already acquainted with the demon who,

during the night, makes the horses sweat and grow lean, _i.e._, who

makes them ugly. In the Latin tradition, after having assisted the

Romans in the battle of the Lake Regillus, Castor and Pollux were seen,

near the ambrosial lacus Iuturnæ (Ovidius, _Fasti_, i.), to wash the

sweat off their horses with the water of this lake, which was near the

temple of Vesta. To this Macaulay alludes in his verses--

"And washed their horses in the well

That springs by Vesta's fane."

--_Battle of the Lake Regillus_, xxxix.

The salutary water of the Dioscuri, or sons of the luminous one, would

here occupy the place of the fire lighted by night in stables, and of

the Vedic Agnis who kills the monster of horses. My friend Giuseppe

Pitrè writes me, that in Sicily, when an ass, a mule, or a horse is to

enter a new stable, salt is put upon its back (a form of Christian

baptism), in order that the fairies may not lame it.--The Küllaros,

the heroic horse of the Dioscuri, is perhaps not unrelated to the word

_küllos_, which means lame and bent; the solar horse, before being

heroic, is hump-backed, lame, lean, and ugly; the lame hero, the lame

horse (ass or mule), the lame devil, seem to me to be three _penumbræ_

of the solar hero, or of the sun in the darkness.

[572] Vibhir ûhathur rigrebhir açvâih; _Rigv._ i. 117, 14.--Cfr. vii.

69, 7.

[573] Açvain na gûlham açvinâ durevâir rishim narâ vrishanâ rebham

apsu; _Rigv._ i. 117, 4.--The Açvinâu pass the sea upon a chariot,

which resembles a ship; this chariot is said to have the sun for a

covering--rathena sûryatvacâ; _Rigv._ i. 47, 9.

[574] Yam açvinâ dadathuh çvetam açvam aghâçvâya çaçvad it svasti;

_Rigv._ i. 116, 6.

[575] Agnis tuviçravastamain tuvibrahmânam uttamam atûrtam çrâvayatpatim

putram dadâti dâçushe--Agnir dadâti satpatim sâsâha yo yudhâ nribhih

agnir atyam raghushyadam getâram aparâgitam; _Rigv._ v. 25, 5, 6.

[576] _Rigv._ i. 155, 6.

[577] i. 154, 4.

[578] Vishnor nu kam vîryani pra vocam yah pârthivâni vimame ragânsi

yo askabhâyad uttaram sadhastham vicakramânas tredhorugâyah; _Rigv._

i. 154, 1.

[579] Yadâ te vishnur ogasâ trîni padâ vicakram âd it te haryatâ harî

vavakshatuh; _Rigv._ viii. 12, 27.

[580] _Râmây._ iv. 40.

[581] Yuktas te astu dakshina uta savyah çatakrato tena gâyâm upa

priyâm mandâno yâhy andhaso yogâ; _Rigv._ i. 82, 5.

[582] Tad û shu vâm agiram ceti yânain yena patî bhavathah sûryâyâh;

_Rigv._ iv. 43, 6.--In the following hymn, strophe 1st, the aurora is

called now daughter of the sun, now cow: Tam vâm ratham vayam adyâ

huvema prithugrayam açvinâ samgatim goh--Tah sûryâm vahati.

[583] Rathasya naptyah; _Rigv._ i. 50. 9.

[584] _Rigv._ i. 116, 10.

[585] vi. 9.

[586] The lake of Brâhman, visited by Hanumant in the _Râmâyanam_, vi.

53, has the form of a horse's snout (hayânanam).

[587] Indro dadhîco asthabhir vritrâny apratishkutah gaghâna navatîr

nava; _Rigv._ i. 84, 13, 14, i. 117, 22, and the corresponding

commentary of Sâyanas.--The bones of the heroic horse possess strength

equal to that of the horse itself; thus in the last chapter we have

seen how, when the bones of the sacrificed bull or cow are kept, it

springs up again with renewed strength.--Cfr. concerning this subject

the interesting and copious details relating to European beliefs to be

found in Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 219-253.

[588] ii. 24.

[589] Divo napâtâ; _Rigv._ i. 182, 1.

[590] As to the Vedic passage, v. 76, 3, where it would seem that the

Açvinâu are invoked in the morning, at midday, and in the evening,

there seems to me to be room for discussion. The text says: Utâ yâtam

sañgave prâtar ahno (that is, in the early dawn, when the cows are

gathered together), madhyandine (which, in my mind, is the middle term

which separates the gloomy hours from the luminous ones), uditâ

sûryasya (which, meaning the rising of the sun, cannot express

evening, but precisely the rising of the morning sun). We too would

have thus expressed the three moments in the morning in which it was

opportune to invoke the Açvinâu.

[591] Sushupvânsam na nirriter upasthe sûryam na dasrâ tamasi

kshiyantam çubhe rukmam na darçatam nikhâtam ud ûpathur açvinâ

vandanâya; _Rigv._ i. 117, 5.

[592] Madhuprishtham ghoram ayâsam açvam; _Rigv._ ix. 89, 4.

[593] _Rigv._ viii. 104, 15-25.

[594] Quoted in Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 264.--Somas united with

Agnis in the _Rigvedas_, Somas united with Rudras, seem, in my opinion,

to be the same as Somas united with Indras.--Cfr. Muir, v. 269, 270.

[595] xii. 1, quoted by Muir in his _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 224.

[596] In the _Edda_ we find the Açvinâu under the forms of night and

day. Odin took Natt and Dag her son, gave them two horses and two

drays, and placed them in the heavens to go round the earth in

twenty-four hours. Natt was the first to advance with Hrimfaxe, her

horse; he scatters every morning the foam from his bit upon the earth;

it is the dew. The horse of Dag is named Skenfaxe; the air and the

earth are illumined by his mane.

[597] Â vâm patitvam sakhyâya gagmushî yoshâvrinîta genyâ yuvâm patî;

_Rigv._ i. 119, 5.

[598] Cfr. the legends relating to Cyavanas cured by the Açvinâu in

the _Çatapatha Brâhmanam_ and in the _Mahâbhâratam_, referred to by

Muir in the above-quoted fifth volume of the _Sanskrit Texts_, p. 250,

and those following.

[599] In the _Rigv._ i. 8, 2, also, the invokers of Indras desire to

fight the enemies, the monsters Mushtihatyayâ and Arvatâ, by fist and

by horses.

[600] _Mbh._ i. 6484-6504.

[601] _Râmây._ i. 49, ii. 7.

[602] iv. 12.

[603] iv. 7, 17.

[604] iv. 8.

[605] iv. 10.

[606] _Râmây._ iv. 8.

[607] The Persian hero often takes his name from his horse or his

horses; hence Kereçâçpa, Vîstâçpa, Argâçp, Gustâçp, Yapâçp,

Pûrushâçpa, Açpâyaodha, &c.

[608] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, ii. 72.--In the Servian stories of

Wuck, one of two brothers sleeps, transformed into stone with all his

people, until the other comes to free and resuscitate him.

[609] i. 91, and following, Rosen's version.

[610] ii. 20, and following.

[611] ii. 157.

[612] _Tuti-Name_, i. 151.

[613] Cfr. a zoological variety of this myth in the chapter on the

Cock and the Hen.

[614] This is a variety of the legend of the Tzar's daughter enamoured

of Emilius, the foolish and idle, though fortunate, youth, whom the

indignant Tzar orders to be shut up in a cask and thrown with her

lover into the sea, as we have seen in the first chapter.

[615] iv. 24.

[616] We shall shortly find the hare (the moon) who devours the mare.

[617] i. 53.

[618] U kavó preszde sviecâ sama saboi zagaritsia, tot tzar budiet.

[619] Tzelijá kuci zolotá v anbarah nasipani; cto ni pluniet on, to

vsié zólotom; dievat niekudá!

[620] It will, I hope, be deemed not inappropriate to quote here the

words with which Professor Roth begins his essay upon the legend of

Çunahçepas in the first volume of the _Indische Studien_: "Die Deutung

der indischen Sagengeschichte sucht noch die Regeln, nach welchen die

das überlieferte verworrene Material behanden soll. Eine und dieselbe

Sage wird vielleicht in zehn verschiedenen Büchern in zehnfacher Form

erzählt. Glaubt man einen festen Punkt gefunden zu haben, auf welchen

nach einem Berichte die Spitze der Erzählung zusammenläuft, so streben

andere Berichte wieder nach ganz anderem Ziele und treiben denjenigen,

der einen festen Kern der Sage fassen will, rathlos im Kreise herum. Die

Widersprüche, mit welchen ein Sammler und Ordner griechischer

Heldensagen zu kämpfen hat, sind lauter Einklang und Klarheit im

Vergleiche zu dem wirren Knäuel, in welchen die Willkühr indischer

Poeten die reichen Ueberlieferungen ihrer Vorzeit zusammengeballt hat."

[621] ix. 37, 3.--I observe that the same craft as that used by the

two brothers to steal the treasure, in an as yet unpublished fairy

tale of the Canavese in Piedmont, was employed by the inexperienced

robber, who becomes at length very skilful to rob the loaves from the

baker's oven. The Piedmontese thief makes an opening from without, and

thus carries the bread off. The same thief then steals the king's

horse. At first, he learns his profession from the chief of the

robbers. The chief sends him the first time to waylay some travellers,

and bids him leap upon them; the young thief obeys these directions to

the letter; he makes the travellers lie down and then jumps upon them,

but does not rob them. The second time the chief tells him to take the

travellers' quattrini (the name of a very small coin, by which money

in general is also expressed). The young thief takes the quattrini

alone, and lets the travellers keep their dollars and napoleons. At

last, however, he becomes an accomplished thief.

[622] Cfr. in the same _Pentamerone_, the ninth story of the first

book; the eighteenth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_;

the thirty-ninth of the Sicilian stories of the _Gonzenbach_; the

sixtieth and the eighty-fifth story of Grimm's collection, _Kinder und

Hausmärchen_; the tenth of Kuhn and Schwartz's _Märchen_; the

twenty-second of the Greek stories of Hahn, _Griechische und

Albanesische Märchen_; the fourth of Campbell's in _Orient und

Occident_; the first book of the _Pancatantram_, and the twelfth story

of the fifth book of the same; and Cox, the work quoted before, i.

141, 142, 161, 281, 393, &c.

[623] In the _Pentamerone_, i. 9, the queen's son does the same with

the wife of his twin-brother; "Mese la spata arrancata comme staccione

'miego ad isso ed a Fenizia."

[624] In the corresponding collections of Ferraro, Bolza, and

Wolf.--Cfr. the end of the twenty-eighth of the _Novelline di Santo

Stefano di Calcinaia_.

[625] i. 807 and following.

[626] iv. 4.

[627] i. 41-43.

[628] _Râmây._ i. 13.

[629] i. 13.

[630] In the Western stories, instead of the horse's fat or marrow, it

is generally the fish eaten by the queen and her servant-maid which

gives life to the two brothers, who become three when the water in

which the fish was washed is given to be drunk by the mare or the

bitch, whence the son of the mare or bitch is born. I have already

attempted to prove the identity of the fish with the phallos; the fish

eaten by the queen, the maid, the mare, or the bitch, which renders

them pregnant, seems to me a symbol of coition. The horse's fat or

marrow smelled by the queen seems to have the same meaning.

[631] Vâgino devagâtasya sapteh pravakshyâmo vidathe vîryâni; _Rigv._

i. 162, 1.--Sûrâd açvam vasavo nir atashta; _Rigv._ i. 163, 2.

[632] Sâdhur na gridhnuh; _Rigv._ i. 70, 11.

[633] Vikroçatâm nâdo bhûtânâm salilâukasâm çrûyate bhriçâmârttânâm

viçatâm vadavâmukham; _Râmây._ iv. 40.--Aurvas, who, in the shape of a

horse's head, swallows the water of the sea and vomits flames, is a

variety of the same solar myth; _Mbh._ i. 6802, and following verses.

[634] Hiranyaçriñgo yo asya pâdâ manogavâ; _Rigv._ i. 163, 9.--Tava

çriñgâni vishthitâ purutr âranyeshu garbhurânâ caranti. 11.--We find

the stag in relation with the horse, as his stronger rival until man

mounts upon the horse's back, in the well-known apologue of Horace,

_Epist._ i. 10.

"Cervus equum pugna melior communibus herbis

Pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo

Imploravit opes hominis, frenumque recepit;

Sed postquam victor discessit ab hoste,

Non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore."

[635] Vriksho nishthito madhye arnaso yam tâugryo nâdhitah

paryashasvagat; _Rigv._ i. 182, 7.

[636] _Afanassieff_, v. 11.

[637] Apa yor indrah pâpaga â marto na çaçramâno bibhîvân çubhe yad

yuyuge tavishîvân; _Rigv._ x. 105, 3.

[638] Iasya samsthe na vrinvate harî samatsu çatravah; _Rigv._ i. 5, 4.

[639] Açvyo vâro abhavas tad indra; _Rigv._ i. 32, 12; and the Hindoo

commentator notes that Indras chased the enemy as the tail of a horse

shakes off the insects that place themselves upon it, which it is much

more natural to believe of the tail of Indras's horse, which is

covered with milk, butter, honey, and ambrosia.

[640] _Rigv._, the hymn quoted before, i. 84, 13, 14; Agnis, too, is

honoured as a tailed horse (vâravantam açvam), _Rigv._ i. 27, 1.

[641] Rigipyam çyenam prushitapsum âçum carkrityam aryo nripatim na

çûram--vâtam iva dhragantam--uta smâsya tanyator iva dyor righâyato

abhiyugo bhayante yadâ sahasram abhi shîm ayodhîd durvartuh smâ

bhavati bhîma ringan; _Rigv._ iv. 38, 2, 3, 8.

[642] Avakrâmantah prapadâir amitrân; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7.

[643] vi. 49.

[644] Cfr. Simrock, _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, p. 375, and

Rochholtz, the work quoted before.

[645] _Afanassieff_, ii. 24.

[646] _Ib._ v. 6.

[647] _Ib._ v. 35.

[648] Povíshe liessú stajácavo, ponísze ablaká hadiácavo.

[649] For instance, in the _Pentamerone_, iii. 7, where the king of

Scotland sends Corvetto to steal the horse of the ogre who lives ten

miles distant from Scotland: "Haveva st' Huorco no bellissimo cavallo,

che pareva fatto co lo penniello, e tra le autre bellizze no le

mancava manco la parola." When Corvetto carries off the horse, it

cries out, "A l'erta ca Corvetto me ne porta."--Cfr. also the

_Pentamerone_, iii. 1.--Not only has the horse the gift of speech, but

the chariot too: in the seventh book of the _Râmâyanam_, 44, the

chariot Pushpakam speaks to Râmas, and says to him that he alone is

worthy of driving it.

[650] _Afanassieff_, vi. 46.--Cfr. also v. 22, and the 26th of the

_Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_.

[651] i. 61, 15.

[652] Anaçvo gâto anabhîçur arvâ; _Rigv._ i. 152, 5.

[653] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_.

[654] Sapta svasârah suvitâya sûryam vahanti harito rathe; _Rigv._

vii. 66, 15.

[655] Adha kratvâ maghavan tubhyam devâ anu viçve adaduh somapeyam yat

sûryasya haritah patantîh purah satîr uparâ etaçe kah; _Rigv._ v. 29, 5.

[656] Â no nâvâ matînâm yâtam parâya gantave, yungâthâm açvinâ ratham;

_Rigv._ i. 46, 7.

[657] Krandad açvo nayamâno ruvad gâur antar dûto na rodasî carad vâk;

_Rigv._ i. 173, 3.

[658] Ghritaçcutam svâram asvârshtâm; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7.

[659] ... in equæ genitalem partem demissam manum, cum ad eum locum

ventum esset, naribus equi admovit, quo odore irritatus ante omnes

hinnitum edidit, auditoque eo sex reliqui summæ potestatis continuo

equis dilapsi candidati, ut mos est Persarum, humi prostratis

corporibus Darium regem salutarunt; Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ vii.;

_Herodotus_, iii. 87. Herodotus also refers to another variation of

the same anecdote, where he adds, that at the first dawn of day it

lightninged and thundered.

[660] Devî gîrâ rathânâm; _Rigv._ i. 48, 3.--Çatam rathebhih

subhagoshâ iyam vi yâty abhi mânushân; i. 48, 7.

[661] Upa tmani dadhâno dhury âçûnt sahasrâni çatâni vagrabâhuh;

_Rigv._ iv. 29, 4.

[662] Cfr. _Rigv._ iv. 3, 11; iv. 13, 3.

[663] Cfr. Böhtling u. Roth, _Sanskrit Wörterbuch_, s. v. _açvin_.

[664] Kuhn u. Schwartz, p. 330.--The English proverbial expression, "a

mare's nest," now used to denote an impossibility, probably originally

referred to a real myth.

[665] _Künêgetikôn_, i. 284.

[666] ii. 3.--"Allecordatose d'haver 'ntiso na vota da certe

stodiante, che le cavalle de Spagna se'mpreñano co lo viento;" and the

story goes on to speak of the ogre's surprise, who, seeing a beautiful

maiden in his garden, "penzaie che lo shiavro de lo pideto, havesse

'ngravedato quarche arvolo, e ne fosse sciuta sta penta criatura;

perzo abbracciatala co gran'ammore, decette, figlia mia, parte de sto

cuorpo, shiato de lo spireto mio, e chi me l' havesse ditto mai, che

co na ventosetate, havesse dato forma a ssa bella facce?" Varro

seriously wrote: "In fætura res incredibilis est in Hispania, sed est

vera, quod in Lusitania ad Oceanum in ea regione, ubi est oppidum

Olyssipo monte Tagro, quædam e vento concipiunt equæ, ut hic gallinæ

solent, quarum ova hypanemia appellant, sed ex his equis qui nati

pulli, non plus triennium vivunt."

[667] Rathebhir açvaparnâih; _Rigv._ i. 88, 1.--In Horace, _Carm._ i.

14--

"Namque Diespiter,

Igni corusco nubila dividens,

Plerumque per purum tonantes

Egit equos, volucremque currum."

[668] Açrûni câsya mumucurvâginah; _Râmây._ vi. 75.

[669] In the corresponding Italian stories, the hero or heroine,

punished for some indiscretion, must, before being pardoned, wear out

seven pairs of iron shoes, and fill seven flasks with their tears.

[670] Proximus diebus equorum greges, quos in trajiciendo Rubicon

Marti consacraverat, ac sine custodibus vagos dimiserat, comperit

pabulo pertinacissime abstinere, ubertimque flere.

[671] xvii. 426.

[672] iii. 740.

[673] Vrishâ tvâ vrishanam vardhatu dyâur vrishâ vrishabhyâm vahase

haribhyâm sa no vrisha vrisharathah suçipra vrishakrato vrishâ vagrin

bhare dhâh; _Rigv._ v. 36, 5.--In Piedmont there exists a game of

conversation, consisting in the description of the presents which one

intends making to one's bride, in which description the letter _r_

must never enter; he who introduces it loses the game.

[674] Vrishâyam indra te ratha uto te vrishanâ harî; _Rigv._ viii. 13,

31.

[675] Apâm phenena namuceh çira indrod avartayah; _Rigv._ viii. 14, 13.

[676] It is also called the canine cough, and it is believed on this

account that it is cured when the children are made to drink where a

dog has been drinking.

[677] _De Quadrupedibus_ i.

[678] Du Cange, _Gloss. Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis_, s. v. _caballus_.

[679] Vrshapânayo 'çvâh; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7.

[680] Kârotarâc chaphâd açvasya vrishnah çatam kumbhân asincatam

surâyah; _Rigv._ i. 116, 7.

[681] "One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was for many ages

regarded with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's

hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this mark was believed

to have been made by one of the celestial chargers."--Macaulay,

Preface to the _Battle of the Lake Regillus_.

[682] _Afanassieff_, iv. 45.

[683] The milk of white mares, which, according to Olaus Magnus (i.

24) was poured into the ground by the king of the Goths every year, on

the 28th of August, in honour of the gods, who received it with great

avidity, would seem to be an announcement of the imminent rains of

autumn; the horse loses his ambrosial humour, and his end is at hand.

[684] The Græco-Latin proverb, "Equus me portat, alit rex," would seem

also to have a mythical origin, and to refer to the mythical legend of

the betrayed blind man, who carries the cunning hunchback or lame man;

who sometimes only feigns lameness, in order to play off his practical

jokes upon his companion.

[685] The fable in _Phædrus_, iv. 24, of the poet Simonides saved by the

Dioscuri, is well known; but the gods punish the miser who refuses to

give the reward that he had promised, not on their own account, but on

account of the wrong done to the poet, whom they love. It is remarkable

that, as the Latin legend shows us the horses of the Dioscuri

perspiring, so Phædrus represents the Dioscuri themselves as--

"Sparsi pulvere

Sudore multo diffluentes corpore."

This sweat must be the crepuscular mists, in the same way as the poet

Simonides, who alone escapes, being delivered by the Dioscuri, the

ceiling of whose banqueting-hall he had ruined, seems to conceal an

image of the sun saved from the night.

CHAPTER III.

THE ASS.

SUMMARY.

Glory has been pernicious to the ass.--The purely stupid ass not an

ancient belief in India.--Eastern and Western asses; the ass of an

inferior quality pays the penalty of the reputation acquired in the

East by his superior congener.--Christianity, instead of improving

the condition of the ass, has aggravated it.--The mediæval hymn in

honour of the ass is a satire.--The ass in the sacred ceremonies of

the Church.--Physical and moral decadence of the ass.--Indian names

of the ass; equivoques in language form myths.--Gardabhas and

gandharbas.--Identification of the mythical ass with the gandharvas;

both are in connection with salutary waters, with perfumes or

unguents, and with women.--The ass which carries mysteries.--The

flight into Egypt; the ass laden; the old man, the boy, and the

ass.--Peau d'âne.--The onokentauros.--Urvaçî and Purûravas in

connection with the gandharvas; Cupid and Psyche in connection with

the ass.--The mythical ass and the kentauros correspond, as well as

the ass and the gandharvas.--The Hindoo onocentaur and satyr; monkey

and gandharvas as warriors.--Kentauros, gandharvas, and ass in the

capacity of musicians and dancers.--Kriçâçvas

dancing-master.--Kriçânus and Kereçâni.--Hybrid nature of the

mythical ass and of the gandharvas.--The Açvinâu ride asses, and

give youth to Cyavanas; the youthfulness of the ass.--The Vedic ass

as a warrior.--The Vedic ass flies.--The decadence of the ass dates

as far back as the Vedâs; its explanation.--The phallic ass and the

punishment of the ass for adulterers.--The braying of the ass in

heaven; Indras kills the ass.--The funereal and demoniacal ass of

the Hindoos; the ass piçâcas; the faces of parrots; equivoque

originated by the words _haris_ and _harit_.--The golden ass.--The

ass in love.--The ass in the tiger's skin.--The ass who betrays

himself by singing.--The Zend lame ass who brays in the

water.--Rustem, devourer of asses.--The ass's kick.--The fool and

the ass, the trumpet and the drum, the trumpet of Malacoda.--The

king Midas in the Mongol story; the hero forced to speak, in order

not to burst.--The ass among the monkeys.--Midas, king of Phrygia,

in connection with the ass, with Silenos, Dionysos, the roses, gold,

blades of corn, and waters.--The centaurs among the flowers.--The

ass awakens Vesta whilst she is being seduced.--Priapos and the ass

of Silenos.--The ass as a musical umpire between the cuckoo and the

nightingale.--Midas judges between Pan and Apollo.--The ears of King

Midas; his secret revealed by the young man who combs his hair.--The

Phrygian ass held up to derision by the Greeks.--The Greek spirit of

nationality still more pernicious to the ass.--The ass of Vicenza

impaled.--Pan and the ass.--Gandharvâs and satyrs.--Pan and the

nymphs.--Syrinx and the reed or cane; the leaf of the cane, and the

ass.--Pan chases away fear; the ass's skin gives courage.--The ass

in hell; golden excrements.--The heroic ass and Pan.--Perseus who

eats asses.--The ass and the water of the Styx; the horned ass.--The

cornucopia.--Ass and goat.--The asses save the hero out of the

water.--The asses in heaven.--The ass carries the water of

youth.--Ass's milk has a cosmetic virtue.--Youth and beauty of the

ass.--The deaths of the ass.--The ass carries wine and drinks

water.--The ass wet by the rain, the ass's ears predict rainy

weather.--The shadow of the ass; the ass's wool; lana caprina; to

shear the ass; the gold on the ass's head.--Asini prospectus.--The

ass and the gardener.--The ass chases the winds away.--The third

braying or flatus of the ass kills the fool.--The prophetic ass; the

kick of the ass kills the lion; the ass a good listener, who hears

everything; the hero Oidin Oidon; the ears of Lucifer.

The ass, in Europe at least, has had the misfortune to have been born

under an evil star, a circumstance which must be reckoned to the

account of the Greeks and Romans, whose humour it was to treat it as a

sort of Don Quixote of animals. Its liability to be flogged has always

increased with its celebrity, which, no one can deny, is great and

indefeasible. The poor ass has paid very dear, and continues to pay

still dearer, upon earth for the flight which the fantasy of primeval

men made it take in the mythical heavens. May this chapter--if it

produce no other effect--have at least that of sparing the poor

calumniated animal some few of the many blows which, given in fun, it

is accustomed to receive, as if to afford a vent for the satirical

humour of our race, and _ad exhilarandam caveam_.

The germ of the reputation the ass has of being both a stupid and a

petulant animal, acquired in Greece and in Italy, spreading thence

into all the other parts of Europe, may already be found in the

ancient myths of the Hindoos. Professor Weber,[686] however, has

proved, in answer to Herr Wagener, that the idea of a stupid and

presumptuous ass, such as we always find it represented in the fables

of the _Pancatantram_, was diffused in India by the Greeks, and is not

indigenous to Hindoo faith and literature.

In India, the ass was not a particular object of ridicule; and this

was perhaps for the simple reason that the Eastern varieties of the

asinine family are far handsomer and nobler than the Western ones. The

ass in the East is generally ardent, lively, and swift-footed, as in

the West it is generally slow and lazy, having no real energy except

of a sensual nature. For if even the West (and especially the south of

Europe) possesses a distinct species of ass, which reminds us of the

_multinummus_ ass of Varro (in the same way as the East also, though

exceptionally, has inferior varieties), the asinine multitude in

Europe is composed of animals of a low type and a down-trodden

appearance, and it is against them that our jests and our floggings

are especially directed. This is the proverbial ass's kick against the

fallen; the poor outcast of the West dearly pays the penalty of the

honours conceded to his illustrious mythical ancestors of the East. We

think that the ass of which we hear heroic achievements related is the

same as that which now humbly carries the pack; and since we no longer

regard him as capable of a magnanimous action, we suppose that he

(unfortunate animal!) appropriates to himself all these ancient

glories out of vain presumption, for which reason there is no affront

which we do not feel entitled to offer to him. Nor did Christianity

succeed in delivering him from persecution,--Christianity, which, as

it represents the Sun of nations, the Redeemer of the world, as born

between the two musical animals, the ox and the ass (who were to

prevent His cries from being heard), and introduces the ass as the

saviour of the Divine Child persecuted during the night, and as the

animal ridden by Christ, in his last entry into Jerusalem, invested

him with more than one sacred title which ought from its devotees to

have procured for him a little more regard. Unfortunately, the same

famous mediæval ecclesiastical hymn which was sung in France on the

14th of January in honour of the ass, richly caparisoned near the

altar, to celebrate the flight into Egypt, was turned into a satire.

It must have been not without some gay levity that priest and people

exclaimed "Hinham!" three times after the conclusion of the mass, on

the day of the festival of the ass.[687] Nor did the inhabitants of

Empoli show him more reverence, when, on the eighth day after the

festival of the _Corpus Domini_--that is, near the summer

solstice--they made him fly in the air, amid the jeers of the crowd;

nor the Germans, who, in Westphalia, made the ass a symbol of the dull

St Thomas, who was the last of the apostles to believe in the

resurrection. The Westphalians were accustomed to call by the name of

"the ass Thomas" (as in Holland he is called "luilak") the boy who on

St Thomas's Day was the last to enter school.[688] On Christmas Day,

in the Carnival, on Palm-Sunday, and in the processions which follow

the festival of _Corpus Domini_,[689] the Church often introduced the

ass into her ceremonies, but more in order to exhilarate the minds of

her devotees than to edify them by any suggestion of the virtues it

represents in the Gospels; so that, notwithstanding the great services

rendered by the ass to the Founder of the new religion, he not only

received no benefit in return from Christianity, but became instead

the unfortunate object of new attentions, which rather depressed than

heightened his already sufficiently degraded social condition.

And so the Greeks and Romans first, and the Catholic priests afterwards,

combined, by their treatment of him, to make the ass more indifferent

than he would otherwise have been to the passion and spirited struggle

for life shown in all the other animals. He was perhaps intended for a

higher fate, if man had not come upon earth, and interfered too

persistently to thwart his vocation. And probably his race gradually

deteriorated, just because, having become ridiculous, few cared to

preserve or increase his nobleness. As the proverb said that it was

useless to wash the ass's head, so it seemed useless for man to

endeavour to ameliorate or civilise his form: the physical decadence of

the ass was contemporary and parallel with his decline morally.

But although it was in Greece and Rome that the poor ass was thrown

completely down from his rank in the animal kingdom, the first decree of

his fall was pronounced in his ancient Asiatic abode. Let us prove this.

In the _Rigvedas_, the ass already appears under two different

aspects--one divine and the other demoniacal--to which may perhaps be

added a third intermediate or gandharvic aspect.

In the _Rigvedas_, the ass has the names of _gardabhas_ and

_râsabhas_; in Sanskrit, also those of _kharas, cakrîvant, ciramehin_,

and _bâleyas_.

It is important to notice how each of these designations tends to

lapse into ambiguity; and ambiguity in words plays a considerable part

in the formation of myths and popular beliefs.

Let us begin with the most modern designations.

_Bâleyas_ may mean the childish one (from _bâlas_ = child, and

stupid[690]), as well as the demoniacal (from _balis_; and indeed,

besides being a name given to the ass, _bâleyas_ is also a name for a

demon).

_Ciramehin_ is the ass as _longe mingens_ (a quality which can apply

to the ass, but still more so to the rainy cloud).

_Cakrîvant_ means he who is furnished with wheels, with round objects or

testicles (an epithet equally applicable to the ass and his phallos).

_Kharas_ signifies he who cries out, as well as the ardent one (and

_kharus_, which ought to have the same meaning, signifies, according

to the Petropolitan Dictionary, foolish, and horse; perhaps ass too).

_Râsabhas_ is derived from the double root _ras_, whence _rasa_ =

humour, juice, water, savour, sperm, and _râsa_ = din, tumultuous noise.

_Gardabhas_ comes from the root _gard_,[691] to resound, to bellow; but

I think I can recognise in the word _gardabhas_ the same meaning as

_gandharbas_ or _gandharvas_, and _vice versa_. The _gardabhas_ explains

to me how the _gandharvas_ was conceived to be a musician; and the

_gandharvas_ (a word which, I repeat, seems to me composed of _gandha_ +

_arvas_, developed out of a hypothetic _rivas_,[692] that is, he who

walks in the unguent, or he who goes in the perfume) helps me to

understand the proverb, "Asinus in unguento," and the corresponding

legends. The equivocal word _râsabhas_, in its two meanings, seems to

unite together the sonorous _gardabhas_ with the _gandharbas_ who likes

perfumes, or the _gandharvo apsu_ (_gandharvas_ in the waters) of the

_Rigvedas_,[693] the guardian of the ambrosial plant.[694] The mythical

ass and the Vedic _gandharvas_ have the same qualities and the same

instincts. The gandharvâs, for instance, are represented in the

_Âitareya Br._ as lovers of women,[695] so much so that for a woman's

sake they allow themselves to be deprived of the ambrosia (or somas);

and it is also known from the story of Urvaçî how jealous they are of

their nymphs, the _apsarâs_, or them who flow by on the waters (the

clouds), and from the story of Hanumant, in the _Râmâyanam_, how greedy

they are of their salutary herbs and waters.[696] The mythical and

legendary ass also has a foible for beautiful maidens; it is unnecessary

to give the reason of this belief.[697] When Circe wishes to give, by

means of an unguent, an ass's head to Odysseus, we find an allusion to

the loves of the ass and the beautiful woman. When the Lucius of

Apuleius, while endeavouring to change himself into a bird (another of

the names by which the phallos is indicated), becomes instead, by means

of the woman's unguent, an ass, the ass is another name for the

phallical bird. And as the Vedic ass delights in the _rasas_, or humour,

water or sperm (the two words _râsas_ and _rasas_, derived from a common

root, being easily interchangeable); as the mythical ass, when it finds

the ambrosia of the roseate morning aurora, once more becomes the

splendid young sun; so the ass of Apuleius, too, becomes Lucius again,

or the luminous and handsome youth that he was before, as soon as he has

an opportunity of feeding upon roses: he becomes an ass for love of a

woman, and regains his splendour in the rosy aurora. During the night,

being subject to the enchantment of a beautiful fairy, the hero remains

an ass; and in the form of an ass, and under an ass's skin, he carries

the priapoean mysteries, whence the expression of Aristophanes in the

_Frogs_, "The ass which carries mysteries" (onos agôn müstêria), the

same mysteries as the Phallagia or Perifallia of Rome. In the Christian

myth, this mystery is the flight of the new-born Divine Child into

Egypt;[698] in the story of Perrault, it is the beautiful maiden, the

evening aurora, the girl persecuted by her father and would-be seducer,

who disguises herself during the night with an ass's skin;[699] the

beautiful girl evidently transfers her erotic sympathies to the ass that

loves her. Of loves such as these,--of an ass with a maiden, or of the

young hero and an ass,--are born the monstrous onokentaurs and Empusa,

now a beautiful maiden, and now the terrifier of children, who is

represented with ass's feet, because her mother was an ass, and her

father, Aristoxenes, enamoured of an ass. It is now the evening aurora,

now the dying sun, and now both, who, under the cloud of night, or in

winter, are represented as covered with an ass's skin. Professor Kuhn

has already proved the close affinity, amounting to identity, between

the gandharvâs and the Hellenic kentauroi, both of which come before us

in connection with the inebriating drink; but the kentauros is

essentially a hippokentauros, or, still better, an onokentauros,[700]

or centaur ass. The fable of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius, in its

relation with the story of the ass, perfectly agrees with the analogous

Hindoo fable of the loves of Purûravas and Urvaçî, united with the story

of the Gandharvâs. Peau d'âne, Psyche, and Urvaçî are therefore mythical

sisters.

Professor Kuhn's proof of the identity of the gandharvas and the

kentauros being admitted, the identity of the gardabhas with the

gandharbas, and of the ass with the gandharvas, seems to follow as a

natural consequence. The myth of the kentauros, either hippokentauros or

onokentauros, no less than the myth of the gandharvas, corresponds

entirely with that of the ass. The kentauros loves wine and women; he

plays the lyre upon the car of Dionysos in conjunction with satyrs,

nymphs, and bacchantes; he teaches on Mount Pelion music,[701] the

science of health, and the prophetic art to the Dioscuri, which are all

subjects that occur again with slight modifications in the Hindoo

legends concerning the gandharvâs, and in the fable of the ass, as we

shall prove hereafter.--But to return to the Hindoo myth; in the same

way as the gandharvâs has a hybrid nature, and shows himself at one time

in the aspect of a demi-god, at another in that of a semi-demon, so the

mythical ass of India has now a divine nature, and now a human. The

gandharvas is the guardian of riches and waters: inasmuch as he defends

them from the demoniacal robbers, preserves them from mortals, and

distributes them among the pious, he appears under a beneficent and

divine aspect; inasmuch, on the other hand, as he carries them off and

keeps them shut up like a miser, he resembles the monster that is fabled

to guard fountains and treasures, the demon who keeps the waters shut

up, the thieves who gather treasures together, and the devil, the master

of all riches. For the same reason we already find in Hindoo tradition

the beneficent ass and his evil-doing congener. The sun (sometimes the

moon also) in the cloud and the darkness of night is the same as the

treasure in the cavern, the treasure in hell, and the hero or heroine in

the gloomy forest; and this cavern and hell sometimes assume the form of

an ass's skin, or of an ass simply. That which comes out of the cloud,

and of the gloom, also comes out of the ass; the soul of the ass is the

sun, or the hero or heroine, or the riches which he conceals. The

Açvinâu are often found in connection with the worthless horse, which

afterwards becomes handsome by means of the ambrosia itself that the

horse produces; the gandharvâs, a more nocturnal and cloudy form, if I

may use the expression, of the solar or lunar hero, are in near relation

with the ass, their _alter ego_, who enjoys the blessing of eternal

youth. The Açvinâu themselves, the two horsemen who have given youth to

the old Cyavanas, rode upon asses before they rode upon horses. The myth

of the gandharvâs and that of the Açvinâu, the myth of the horse and

that of the ass, are intimately connected: from the gandharvâs the açvin

comes forth; from the mythical ass the horse comes out. This is

unnatural in zoology, but it is very natural in mythology: the sun

comes, now out of the grey shades of night, and now out of the grey

cloud.

The Vedic hymns already present us with several interesting myths

concerning the ass.

The ass of the Açvinâu is swift; the devotees ask the Açvinâu when they

are to yoke it, that they may be carried by it to the sacrifice.[702] In

another hymn, as the Açvinâu are two, so are their asses two (râsabhâv

açvinoh). Finally, the second strophe of the 116th hymn offers us a

twofold significant particularity, viz., the ass, that vanquishes a

thousand in the rich battlefield of Yamas (or in the nocturnal battle,

in the struggle in hell, in which the ass appears as a real warrior,

joined with riches, and fighting for riches), and is helped by strong

and rapid wings (in which it shows us the ass that flies).[703]

The _Rigvedas_ also represents the ass of Indras as swift-footed.[704]

But in the same hymn we already see the reverse of the medal, that is

to say, the swift ones who deride him who is not swift, the horses

that are urged before the ass.[705] The solar hero, towards morning,

substitutes the horse for the ass, or appears with horses, leaving the

ass or asses behind. We have learned in the preceding chapter how, in

the heavenly race of the Vedic gods, the asses gained the palm of

victory; but it was an effort superior to their powers. The _Âitareya

Br._ informs us that by this effort they lost their swiftness and

became draught animals, deprived of honey, but yet preserving great

vigour in their sperm, so that the male ass can generate offspring in

two ways, that is, mules by union with a mare, and asses by union with

an ass.[706] Here, therefore, the ass is already considered an animal

of an essentially phallical nature, which notion is confirmed by the

precept of Kâtyâyanas, recorded by Professor Weber,[707] which enjoins

the sacrificing of an ass to expiate violated chastity. To chastise

the ass, to sacrifice the ass, must mean the same as to chastise and

to mortify the body,[708] and especially the phallos; and the Eastern

and Western punishment of leading adulterers about upon an ass has the

same meaning; the real martyr, however, in this punishment being the

ass, who is exposed to every kind of derision and ill-treatment. In

the same way, the henpecked husband who allowed himself to be beaten

by his wife, used, in several villages of Piedmont, only a few years

ago, to be led about ignominiously upon an ass: a husband who lets his

wife impose upon him, and cannot subdue her, deserves to be chastised

by means of an ass; he is not a man, and his ass, the emblem of his

manly strength, must on this account suffer the punishment, because

he has not shown himself able to assert his marital rights. The

adulterer upon the ass, and the silly husband upon the ass, are

punishments for phallic offences in, and in connection with, the

person of that which represents the phallos: one is chastised for

having wished, in this regard, to do too much, and the other for not

having been able to do enough. On this account the condemned person

was forced, in similar cases, to ride upon an ass with his face turned

towards the animal's tail, another image which is yet more manifestly

phallical; whence the very name of the punishment, "asini caudam in

manu tenere."[709] As to the other proverb which says, "He to whom the

ass belongs, holds him by the tail," it is explained by the narrative

of a peasant who drew his ass out of a swamp, taking it by the tail;

but this story too seems to have a phallic signification.

The ass, therefore, is already deposed from his noble place as a

swift-footed courser in the _Rigvedas_ itself. And in the _Rigvedas_,

too, where we have observed the ass described as a warrior who fights

for the gods, we find him in the demoniacal form of a disagreeable

singer who terrifies the worshippers of the god Indras; the latter is

therefore requested by the poet to kill the ass who sings with a

horrible voice.[710] Here the ass already appears as a real monster,

worthy even of the steel of the prince of the celestial heroes

himself, who prepares to combat him. The ass, therefore, is already

sacred to the monsters in the white Yagurvedas.[711]

In the _Râmâyanam_,[712] the slowness of the ass has already become

proverbial. The modest Bharatas excuses himself from not being able to

equal his brother Râmas in the science of government, just as the ass,

he says, cannot run like the horse, or other birds cannot fly like the

vulture. The mythical ass, moreover, appears in this epic poem[713] in a

demoniacal and infernal aspect: Bharatas, in fact, dreams of seeing his

dead father Daçarathas, in blood-coloured clothes, borne to the southern

funereal region on a car drawn by asses; and we are told that when a man

is seen upon a car drawn by asses, it is a sign of his departure for the

abode of Yamas. Kharas, a word which, as we already know, means ass, is

also the name of a younger brother of the great monster Râvanas. Râvanas

himself is drawn by asses upon a chariot adorned with gold and gems.

These asses have the faces of the monster Piçâcâs,[714] that is, faces

of parrots, as Hanumant afterwards informs us when he speaks of the

monsters which he has seen in Lañkâ, which he also says are as swift as

thought.[715] We know that the coursers of Râvanas were asses, and

therefore the asses with the faces of the Piçâcâs, and the horses of the

monsters with the faces of parrots, are the same. The monster Piçâcâs,

therefore, has the face of a parrot. How is it that the parrot is reared

in India as a sacred bird? It appears to me that equivocation in

language had something to do with the formation of this singular

mythological image. The word _piçâcas_ is derived, like _piçañgas_,

which means golden and red, from the root _piç_, to adorn; whence also

the Vedic feminine _piç_, ornament, and the Vedic neuter, _peças_,

coloured tissue. The ass piçâcas, who draw the chariot full of gold, are

therefore themselves, at least in their face, in their foremost part,

golden asses, or red like the colour of gold, red like the colour of the

sun; in fact, we find kharas (the ardent) as the proper name of an

attendant on the sun, and kharânçus or khararaçmih, he of the burning

ray, as Sanskrit names of the sun. Kharaketus, he who has a burning ray,

is also the name of one of the monsters in the _Râmâyanam_.[716] We

therefore already see here the golden ass and the infernal monster

identified with the sun; and hence we are very near the monster with the

parrot's face. In the preceding chapter we observed how the solar horse

appears in the morning luminous at first in its foremost parts,--now in

its legs, now in its face, now in its mane, which is called golden; it

is only the head of the horse which is found in the butter; of Dadhyanc

we perceive only his head in connection with the ambrosia. Thus of the

nocturnal ass, of the demoniacal ass, of the demon himself, the piçâcas

(the piçâcâs are called carnivorous[717]), only the face is seen, in the

same way as of the piçâcâs, and of the horses belonging to the monsters,

only the head is that of a parrot. But what connection can there be

between the gold colour of the ass piçâcas and the green colour of the

parrot? The equivoque lies probably in the words _hari_ and _harit_,

both of which, in the Hindoo tongue mean yellow, as well as green. Haris

and hari signify the sun, and the moon, as being yellow; harayas and

haritas are the horses of the sun; harî are the two horses of Indras and

of the Açvinâu, of whom we also know that they more usually rode upon

asses. We thus arrive at the light-coloured asses, at the asses that are

golden, at least in their foremost parts, that is, in the morning

twilight, when after his nocturnal course, the solar horseman is on the

point of arriving at his golden eastern destination, whence the head of

the ass which carries the divine horseman is illumined by him. But

_haris_, besides signifying the solar hero as being yellow, also

signifies the parrot as green; on this account the ass or demon with a

golden head was exchanged with the ass or monster with the green head,

or with the parrot's head. We shall see in the chapters concerning

birds how the bird was often substituted for the horse in the office of

carrying the deity or the hero.

To conclude the subject of the Hindoo mythical ass, it is certain that

it existed in the heavens; it is certain that it flies in the sky,

that it fights in the sky like a valiant warrior, that it terrifies

its enemies in the sky with its terrible voice; that, in a word, it

was a real and legitimate heroic animal. It is certain, moreover,

that, considered under another aspect, it not only throws down the

heroes, but carries them to hell, serves the infernal monsters, and is

found in connection with the treasures of hell. Moreover, admitting,

as I hope the reader will, my identification of the mythical ass with

the gandharvas, we have the ass as dancer, the ass as musician, the

ass who loves women, and the ass in the odorous ointment and in the

inebriating drink, the somas which occupies the place of the wine of

the Dionysian mysteries, in which the Hellenic ass took a solemn part.

In the fables of the _Pancatantram_, the ass is partly modelled on the

Hellenic type and partly preserves its primitive character. The fourth

book shows us the ass twice attracted towards the lion by the jackal,

who induces him to believe that a beautiful female ass is awaiting

him. The ass is distrustful and shows his fear, but the argument of

the female ass, upon which the artful jackal insists, overcomes his

timidity. He is, however, cunning enough to send the jackal before

him; and at the sight of the lion he perceives the jackal's treachery

and turns, fleeing away with such rapidity that the lion cannot

overtake him. The jackal returns to the assault, and convinces the ass

that he did wrong to abandon the beautiful female ass when he was on

the point of receiving her favours; and thus touching the tender

chord of his heart, he goes on to assure him that the female ass will

throw herself into the fire or the water if she does not see him

return. "Omnia vincit amor;" the ass returns, and this time the lion

surprises and tears him to pieces; upon which the lion, before

partaking of his meal, goes to perform his ablutions and devotions.

Meanwhile the jackal eats the ass's heart and ears, and makes the

lion, on his return, believe that the stupid animal had neither the

one nor the other, because if he had had them, he would not have

returned to the dangerous spot after having once escaped. The lion

declares himself to be perfectly satisfied with this explanation. Here

we have a mixture in the ass of swift-footedness, lust, and stupidity,

his stupidity being caused by his lustfulness. Now, it is possible

that his acquaintance with the Hellenic ass may have induced the

author of the _Pancatantram_ to embody in the ass a quality which is

generally attributed in fables of Hindoo origin to the monkey; but

this is not absolutely necessary in order to explain the narrative of

which we have now given the epitome.

On the other hand, in the fourth book of the _Pancatantram_, the fable

of the ass in the tiger's skin--an insignificant variety of the ass in

the lion's skin--was, as Professor Weber has already proved, taken

from the Æsopian fable. Another fable, in the fifth book, which tells

us of the ass who, being passionately fond of music,[718] insisted

upon singing, and was thus discovered and made a slave of, also seems

to be of Hellenic origin. But, although the editing of these two

Hindoo fables in a literary form had its origin in the knowledge of

Hellenic literature, the original myth of the ass-lion (haris, which

is the horse of Indras, also means the lion), and that of the

ass-musician (as gandharvas and gardabhas), can be traced as far back

as the Vedic scriptures.

In the Zendic _Yaçna_,[719] I find a new proof, which appears to me a

very satisfactory one, of the identification which I have proposed of

the ass with the gandharvas. I have already mentioned the gandharvas

who guards over the somas in the midst of the waters, and I observed

how the gandharvas kriçânus of the Vedâs, and the Zend kereçâni who

guards over the _hom_ in the _Vôuru-Kasha_, have been identified. But

the same office is fulfilled in the _Yaçna_ by a three-legged ass,

that is, a lame ass (or the solar horse who has become lame during the

night, in the same way as the solar hero becomes lame, or a lame

devil), who, by braying, terrifies the monsters and prevents them from

contaminating the water.

In the first of the seven adventures of Rustem, in the _Shah-Name_ of

Firdusi, the starving Rustem goes with his brave heroic horse to chase

wild asses. The asses flee, but the hero's horse is swifter than they,

and overtakes them; Rustem takes one by means of a lasso, and has it

cooked, throwing away the bones. He then goes to sleep (_then_

sometimes expresses in the myths the interval of a whole day or of a

whole year.--The hero does almost the same in his second adventure and

in the book of _Sohrab_). While Rustem sleeps, a monstrous lion makes

its appearance to surprise the hero; Rustem's heroic horse throws the

lion down and tears it to pieces with its hoofs and teeth. This

battle between the horse of the sleeping hero and the monster lion is

an epic form of the fable which represents the animals as being

terrified in the forest by the braying of the ass, and of that of the

lion itself killed by the ass's kick. Probably the bones of the dead

ass, when preserved, gave heroic strength to Rustem's horse.

In the Mongol stories, of which we have on a previous occasion

indicated the Hindoo origin, we find two other legends relating to the

ass. In the eighteenth Mongol story, a foolish man goes with his ass

to hang up some rice; he hides his ass in a cave; some merchants pass

by with their goods, and the fool sends forth, by means of a trumpet,

such a sonorous shout, that the merchants, thinking brigands are

hidden in the cavern, escape, leaving their goods in the ass's

possession. Here the fool and the ass are already identified. The

trumpet and the blowing made by the fool correspond to the braying of

the ass, of whom we shall soon see other miracles related. The sense

of the myth is this: the solar hero in the night or in the cloud grows

stupid; he becomes an ass during the night or in the cloud; the cloud

thunders, and the thunder of the cloud gives rise to the idea now of

the braying and now of the flatus of the ass (or the fool), now of a

trumpet,[720] and now of a drum. We must not forget that the word

_dundubhis_ which properly means kettledrum or drum, is also the name

of a monster, and that Dundubhî is the proper name of the wife of a

gandharvas, or of a gandharvî. The skin of the drum being made of an

ass's hide is one more reason why the thundering cloud, being very

naturally likened to a drum, the thunder should be also considered now

as a _flatus oris_, now as a _flatus ventris_ of the celestial ass, or

of the foolish hero who accompanies him.

In the twenty-second Mongol story we have a variety, though partly a

less complete and partly a richer one, of the fable of the Phrygian king

Midas. A king who has golden ass ears, has his head combed every night

with golden combs by young men, who are immediately after put to death

(to comb the ass's head is about the same as to wash it; but however

much it is combed, the ears can never be abolished). One day a young man

predestined to the highest honours, before going to comb the king's

head, receives from his mother a cake made of her own milk and flour.

The young man offers the cake to the king, who likes it, and spares the

youth's life on condition that he tells no one, not even his mother, the

great secret, _viz._, that the king has golden ears. The youth promises

to preserve silence, and makes a very great effort indeed to keep his

promise, but this effort makes him seriously ill, so much so that he

feels he will burst if he does not tell the secret. His mother then

advises him to go and relieve his mind by whispering it into a fissure

of the earth or of a tree. The young man does so; he goes into the open

country, finds a squirrel's hole, and breathes gently down it, "Our king

has ass's ears;" but animals have understanding and can speak, and there

are men who understand their language. The secret is conveyed from one

to another, till the king hears that the young man has divulged it. He

threatens to take his life; but relents when he hears from him how it

happened, and not only pardons him, but makes him his prime minister.

The fortunate youth's first act is to invent a cap of the shape of the

ears of an ass, in order that the king may be able to conceal the

deformity; and when the people see the king with a cap of this shape, it

pleases them so much that they all adopt it; and so the king, by means

of his young minister, is no longer obliged to live secluded, and in the

constant tormenting dread of discovery, but lives at his ease and

happily ever afterwards.

Having thus examined under its principal aspects the most popular

Asiatic tradition relative to the ass, let us now go on to epitomise

the European tradition, and, if possible, more briefly; all the more

that the reader, having, as I hope, now the key of the myth, will be

of himself able to refer to it many analogous particulars of

Græco-Latin tradition. I say Græco-Latin alone, because the myth of

the ass among Slavonic and Germanic nations, where the ass is little,

if at all, known, had no especial and independent development. In

Slavonic countries, the part of the ass is generally sustained by Ivan

the fool or Emilius the lazy one, as also by the bear or wolf, as in

India it is often sustained by the monkey;[721] ass, bear, wolf, and

monkey, as mythical animals, represent almost identical phenomena.

Let us take the story of Midas again at its commencement.

Midas appears in _Herodotus_, not only as a king of Phrygia, but as a

progenitor of the Phrygians. In the Tusculans of Cicero, the drunken

satyr Silenos (originally another form of the same Midas, the satyrs

having ass's ears), the master of Dionysos, loses himself in the

rose-garden belonging to Midas, before whom he is conducted, and by

whom he is benevolently received and entertained, and then sent back

with honour to the god, who, in gratitude, concedes to Midas the gift

of turning to gold everything that he touches, to such an extent as to

affect the food that he wishes to eat and the water in which he

bathes. This myth is probably of a complex nature. Midas ought, like

the ass, to turn to gold what he has eaten, that is, to turn his food

and drink into excrements of gold, to fructify the golden ears of

corn, _i.e._, in heaven, the solar rays. Cicero himself leads us to

suppose that the myth of Midas is in relation with the ears of corn,

when, in his first book _De Divinatione_, he says that the ants

carried grains of wheat into the mouth of Midas when a child; these

being symbols of abundance and of fecundity which are quite applicable

to the mythical ass. For although the common ass is not a privileged

foecundator, the mythical ass, in its capacity of a rain-giving cloud

or ciramehin, is the best fertiliser of the fields. The sun, or gold,

or treasure, comes out of the ass-darkness or ass-cloud. The ass

Lucius, after having eaten the roses of morning or the east, again

becomes Lucius the luminous one (the sun). On this account the ass

Midas, too, who also delights in roses, turns to gold whatever he

eats, as well as the dew or ambrosial fountain in which he bathes; the

rosy becomes the golden; the sun comes out of the contact of the ass

of night with the aurora.

Servius, in his commentary on the sixth book of the _Æneid_, also

tells us the centauri "in floribus stabulant," as the Hindoo

gandharvas in the perfumes. These perfumes are rain and dew. The ass

crowned with loaves of bread[722] and flowers, in the Latin worship

of Vesta, who remembered the service rendered to her one day by the

braying of the ass, which aroused her from her sleep when some one was

attempting to violate her, is another variety of the myth of the

aurora who awakes out of the night, golden, that is, rich in golden

oats and in golden wheat. The ass itself is sacrificed, because,

perhaps, it was the ass itself that had made an attempt to deprive

Vesta of her chastity; but having betrayed itself, as it often happens

in fables, by its braying, it arouses Vesta, who punishes it by

offering it in sacrifice. In a variation of the same story in the

first book of Ovid's _Fasti_, where instead of Vesta we have the nymph

Lothis asleep, the red Priapos, who wishes to violate her, also loses

his opportunity, because the ass of Silenos--

"Intempestivos edidit ore sonos,"

on which account it is killed by Priapos:

"Morte dedit poenas auctor clamoris, et hæc est

Hellespontiaco victima sacra Deo."

The apologue is well known of the long-eared ass, who, when called

upon to judge between the nightingale and the cuckoo as to who has the

sweetest voice, decides in favour of the cuckoo. The nightingale then

appeals to man with the sweet song that we are all acquainted

with.[723] In the myth of Midas, the Phrygian hero is given ass's

ears as a chastisement by Apollo, because, having been called upon to

judge between the cithern or lyre of Apollo (whence the proverb

"Asinus ad lyram") and the pastoral pipe (calamus agrestis) of Pan

(who is represented as a horned and bearded satyr, with a tail and

long ears), he pronounced that the pan-pipes were the most harmonious

instrument. Midas hides his ears in a red cap, but his comber lets out

the secret, as in the Mongol story, and in a manner almost identical--