insula sic dicta ab albis rupibus quas mare alluit.' This etymon of
Albion from the white cliffs is very questionable; but, since Alb and
Elf are generally related, it might have suggested the notion about
English demons. Heine identifies the 'White Island,' or Pluto's realm
of Continental folklore, as England.
[120] Richardson's 'Borderer's Fable-Book,' vi. 97.
[121] Martin, Appendix to Report on 'Ossian,' p. 310.
[122] 'Scenes and Legends,' p. 13.
[123] Dr. James Browne's 'History of the Highlands,' p. 113.
[124] 'North American Review,' January 1871.
[125] Dennys, p. 81 et seq.
[126] Ezekiel xxxix.
[127] 'Rig-Veda,' iv. 175, 5 (Wilson).
[128] Ibid., i. 133, 6.
[129] 'Rig-Veda,' vi. 14.
[130] 'The Nineteenth Century,' November 1877. Article: 'Sun-Spots
and Famines,' by Norman Lockyer and W. W. Hunter.
[131] 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Place of Hell,' by Tobias
Swinden, M.A., late Rector of Cuxton-in-Kent. 1727.
[132] Carlyle, 'Past and Present,' i. 2.
[133] 'Discoveries in Egypt,' &c. (Bentley.) 1852.
[134] 'Legends of Old Testament Characters,' i. p. 83.
[135] OEdip., 1. II. ii. See 'Mankind: their Origin and Destiny,'
p. 699.
[136] Compare Kali, Fig. 18.
[137] Soc. of Heb. Literature's Publications. 2d Series. 'Legends
from the Midrash,' by Thomas Chenery (Trübner & Co.). The same legend
is referred to in the story of the Astrologer in Washington Irving's
'Alhambra.'
[138] Faust, ii. Act 4 (Hayward's Translation).
[139] 'Emerson's Poems. Monadnoc.'
[140] 'Modern Painters,' Part V. 19.
[141] Bel's mountain, 'House of the Beloved,' is called 'high place'
in Assyrian, and would be included in these curses ('Records of the
Past,' iii. 129).
[142] Jer. xiii. 16.
[143] 'Our Life in Japan.' By Jephson and Elmhirst.
[144] Another derivation of Elf (Alf) is to connect it with Sanskrit
Alpa = little; so that the Elves are the Little Folk. Professor Buslaef
of Moscow suggests connection with the Greek Alphito, a spectre. See
pp. 160n. and 223.
[145] Brinton, p. 85.
[146] Ibid., p. 166.
[147] 'Tales and Legends of the Tyrol.' (Chapman and Hall, 1874.)
[148] Od. xii. 73; 235, &c.
[149] London Daily Telegraph Correspondence.
[150] John Sterling.
[151] 'Rig-Veda,' ii. 15, 5. Wilson. 1854.
[152] 'Du monstre qui m'avait tant ennuyé, il n'était plus question;
il était pour jamais réduit au silence. Il n'avait plus forme de
géant. Déjà en partie couvert de verdure, de mousse et de clématites
qui avaient grimpé sur la partie où j'avais cessé de passer, il n'était
plus laid; bientôt on ne le verrait plus du tout. Je me sentais si
heureux que je voulus lui pardonner, et, me tournant vers lui:--A
present, lui dis-je, tu dormiras tous tes jours et tous tes nuits sans
que je te dérange. Le mauvais esprit qui était en toi est vaincu, je
lui defends de revenir. Je t'en ai délivré en te forçant à devenir
utile à quelque chose; que la foudre t'épargne et que la neige te
soit légère! Il me sembla passer, le long de l'escarpement, comme un
grand soupir de résignation qui se perdit dans les hauteurs. Ce fut
la dernière fois que je l'entendais, et je ne l'ai jamais revu autre
qu'il n'est maintenant.'
[153] Von Spix and Von Martin's 'Travels in Brazil,' p. 243.
[154] 'Anatomy of Melancholy.' Fifteenth Edition, p. 124.
[155] 'Les Dieux en Exile.' Heinrich Heine. Revue des Deux Mondes,
April, 1853.
[156] 'Book of Songs.' Translated by Charles E. Leland. New York:
Henry Holt & Co. 1874.
[157] Dennys.
[158] Bleek, 'Hottentot Fables,' p. 58.
[159] Baring-Gould, 'Curious Myths,' &c.
[160] Ibid., ii. 299.
[161] 'Shaski,' vi. 48.
[162] Hugh Miller, 'Scenes and Legends,' p. 293.
[163] 'The Mirror,' April 7, 1832.
[164] 'The Origin of Civilisation,' &c. By Sir John Lubbock.
[165] Hildebrand in Grimm's 'Wörterbuch.'
[166] Wisdom of Solomon, xvii. What this impressive chapter says of
the delusions of the guilty are equally true of those of ignorance.
'They sleeping the same sleep that night ... were partly vexed with
monstrous apparitions, and partly fainted, their heart failing them
... whosoever there fell down was straitly kept, shut up in a prison
without iron bars.... Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious
noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of
water running violently, or a terrible sound of stones cast down,
or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts, or a roaring
voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow
mountains: these things made them to swoon for fear. The whole world
shined with clear light ... over them only was spread a heavy night,
an image of that darkness which should afterward receive them: but
yet were they to themselves more grievous than that darkness.'
[167] Bayard Taylor's 'Faust.' Walpurgis-night.
[168] i. 228.
[169] North American Review. March 1877.
[170] In his very valuable work, 'Northmen in Cumberland and
Westmoreland.' Longmans. 1856.
[171] 'Journal of Philology,' vi. No. II. On the Word Glamour and
the Legend of Glam, by Professor Cowell.
[172] 2 Chron. xvi. 12; 2 Kings xx.; Mark v. 26; James v. 14; &c.,
&c. The Catholic Church follows the prescription by St. James of prayer
and holy anointing for the sick only after medical aid--of which
Asa died when he preferred it to the Lord--has failed; i.e. extreme
unction. Castelar remarks that the Conclave which elected Pius
IX. sat in the Quirinal rather than the Vatican, 'because, while
it hoped for the inspirations of the Holy Spirit in every place, it
feared that in the palace par excellence divine inspirations would
not sufficiently counteract the effluvias of the fever.' The legal
prosecutions of the 'Peculiar People' for obeying the New Testament
command in case of sickness supply a notable example of the equal
hypocrisy of the protestant age. England has distributed the Bible
as a divine revelation in 150 different languages; and in London it
punishes a sect for obedience to one of its plainest directions.
[173] London 'Times,' June 11, 1877.
[174] 'Mankind: their Origin and Destiny' (Longmans, 1872), p. 91. See
also Voltaire's Dictionary for an account of the sacred dances in
the Catholic Churches of Spain.
[175] Deut. xxviii. 60.
[176] 1 Sam. v. 6.
[177] 1 Sam. xvi. 14. In chap. xviii. 10, this evil spirit is said
to have proceeded from Elohim, a difference indicating a further step
in that evolution of Jehovah into a moral ruler which is fully traced
in our chapter on 'Elohim and Jehovah.'
[178] Boundesch, ii. pp. 158, 188. For an exhaustive treatment of the
astrological theories and pictures of the planispheres, see 'Mankind:
their Origin and Destiny' (Longmans, 1872).
[179] 'Catastrophe Magnatum: or the Fall of Monarchie. A Caveat
to Magistrates, deduced from the Eclipse of the Sunne, March
29, 1652. With a probable Conjecture of the Determination of
the Effects.' By Nich. Culpeper, Gent., Stud. in Astrol. and
Phys. Dan. ii. 21, 22: He changeth the times and the seasons: he
removeth Kings, and setteth up Kings: he giveth wisdome to the Wise,
and knowledge to them that know understanding: he revealeth the deep
and secret things, he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light
dwelleth with him. London: Printed for T. Vere and Nath. Brooke,
in the Old Baily, and at the Angel in Cornhil, 1652.'
[180] See the Dictionary of Böhtlingk and Roth.
[181] Heb. ii. 14.
[182] 1 Cor. v. 5; xi. 30.
[183] 2 Cor. xii. 7.
[184] 'Records of the Past,' iii. p. 136. Tr. by Mr. Fox Talbot.
[185] Ibid., iii. p. 143. The refrain recalls the lines of Edgar
A. Poe:--
They are neither man nor woman,
They are neither brute nor human,
They are ghouls!
[186] The Pahlavi Text has been prepared by Destur Jamaspji Asa,
and translated by Haug and West. Trübner, 1872.
[187] Cf. fig. 9.
[188] Larousse's 'Dict. Universel.'
[189] 'Records,' &c., iii. p. 141. Marduk is the Chaldæan Hercules.
[190] Micah vii. 19.
[191] See the excellent article in the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of
the R.A.S., by Dundris De Silva Gooneratnee Modliar (1865-66). With
regard to this sanctity of the number seven it may be remarked that
it has spread through the world with Christianity,--seven churches,
seven gifts of the Spirit, seven sins and virtues. It is easy therefore
to mistake orthodox doctrines for survivals. In the London 'Times' of
June 24, 1875, there was reported an inquest at Corsham, Wiltshire,
on the body of Miriam Woodham, who died under the prescriptions of
William Bigwood, herbalist. It was shown that he used pills made
of seven herbs. This was only shown to be a 'pagan survival' when
Bigwood stated that the herbs were 'governed by the sun.'
[192] See p. 44.
[193] 'Jour. Ceylon R. A. Soc.,' 1865-66.
[194] This demoness is not to be connected with the Italian
Mania, probably of Etruscan origin, with which nurses frightened
children. This Mania, from an old word manus signifying 'good,' was,
from the relation of her name to Manes, supposed to be mother of
the Lares, whose revisitations of the earth were generally of ill
omen. According to an oracle which said heads should be offered for
the sake of heads, children were sacrificed to this household fiend
up to the time of Junius Brutus, who substituted poppy-heads.
[195] Phædrus, i. 549. Cf. Ger. selig and silly.
[196] 'Lect. on Language,' i. 435.
[197] Ralston's 'Songs of the Russian People,' p. 230.
[198] 'Sagen der Altmark.' Von A. Kuhn. Berlin, 1843.
[199] Wake's 'Evolution of Morality,' i. 107.
[200] 'The Aborigines of Australia' (1865), p. 15.
[201] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6.
[202] Published by Mozley and Smith, 1878.
[203] Max Müller. 'Lectures on Language,' ii. p. 562, et seq.
[204] See the beautifully translated funereal hymn of the Veda in
Professor Whitney's 'Oriental and Linguistic Studies,' p. 52, etc.
[205] 'The Avesta.' 'Oriental and Linguistic Studies,' p. 196.
[206] 'Records of the Past,' i. 143.
[207] Sale's 'Koran' (ed. 1836). See pp. 4, 339, 475.
[208] 'Discoveries,' &c., p. 223.
[209] 'Modern Painters,' Part V. xix.
[210] The history of this tree which I use for a parable is told in the
Rev. Samuel Mateer's 'Land of Charity.' London: John Snow & Co. 1871.
[211] 'Studies in the History of the Renaissance.' Macmillan &
Co. 1873.
[212] Concerning which Mr. Wright says: 'It is taken from an oxybaphon
which was brought from the Continent to England, where it passed into
the collection of Mr. William Hope.... The Hyperborean Apollo himself
appears as a quack-doctor, on his temporary stage, covered by a sort
of roof, and approached by wooden steps. On the stage lies Apollo's
luggage, consisting of a bag, a bow, and his Scythian cap. Chiron
(ChIRÔN) is represented as labouring under the effects of age and
blindness, and supporting himself by the aid of a crooked staff,
as he repairs to the Delphian quack-doctor for relief. The figure
of the centaur is made to ascend by the aid of a companion, both
being furnished with the masks and other attributes of the comic
performers. Above are the mountains, and on them the nymphs of
Parnassus (NYMPhAI), who, like all the other actors in the scene, are
disguised with masks, and those of a very gross character.... Even a
pun is employed to heighten the drollery of the scene, for instead
of PYThIAS, the Pythian, placed over the head of the burlesque
Apollo, it seems evident that the artist had written PEIThIAS, the
consoler.'--'History of Caricature,' p. 18. But who is the leaf-crowned
figure, without mask, on the right hand? Was it some early Offenbach,
who found such representation of the gods welcome at Athens where
the attempt to produce our modern Offenbach's Belle Helène recently
caused a theatrical riot?
[213] Wuttke. 'Volksaberglaube,' 18.
[214] Schleicher, 'Litauische Märchen,' 141-145. Mr. Ralston's
translation abridged.
[215] Of this latter kind of hungry werewolf a specimen still
occasionally revisits the glimpses of the moonshine which, for too
many minds, still replaces daylight. So recently as January 17, 1878,
one Kate Bedwell, a 'pedlar, was sentenced in the Marylebone Police
Court, London, to three months' hard labour for obtaining various
sums of money, amounting to 9s. 10d., by terrorism, from Eliza Rolf,
a cook. The pedlar came to the plaintiff's place of work and asked
her if she would like to have her fortune told. Eliza replied, 'No,
I know it; it is hard work or starving.' The fortune-teller asked her
next time if she would have her planet ruled; the other still said no;
but her nerves yielded when the 'Drud' told her 'she lived under three
stars, one good the others bad, and that she could disfigure her or
turn her into something else.' 'Thank God, she did not!' exclaimed
the poor woman in court. However, she seemed to have trusted rather
in her money than in any other providence for her immunity from an
unhappy transformation. But even into this rare depth of ignorance
enough light had penetrated to enable Eliza to cope with her werewolf
in the civilised way of haling her before a magistrate. When Fenris
gets three months with hard labour, he no doubt realises that he has
exceeded his mental habitat, and that the invisible cords have bound
him at last.
[216] Elf has, indeed, been referred by some to the Sanskrit
alpa=little; but the balance of authority is in favour of the
derivation given in a former chapter.
[217] Mannhardt, 'Götter,' 287.
[218] Freia-Holda, the Teutonic goddess of Love. 'Cornhill Magazine,'
May, 1872.
[219] 'Records of the Past,' vi. 124.
[220] See Cooper's 'Serpent-Myths of Ancient Egypt,' figs. 109 and
112. Serapis as a human-headed serpent is shown in the same essay
(from Sharpe), fig. 119.
[221] 'Representative Men,' American edition of 1850, p. 108.
[222] 'L'Oiseau,' par Jules Michelet.
[223] A deadly Southern snake, coloured like the soil on which
it lurks, had become the current name for politicians who, while
professing loyalty to the Union, aided those who sought to overthrow
it.
[224] See his learned and valuable treatise, 'The Serpent Myths of
Ancient Egypt.' Hardwicke, 1873.
[225] 'Time and Faith,' i. 204. Groombridge, 1857.
[226] 'The Epic of the Worm,' by Victor Hugo. Translated by Bayard
Taylor from 'La Légende des Siècles.'
[227] Bruce relates of the Abyssinians that a serpent is commonly kept
in their houses to consult for an augury of good or evil. Butter and
honey are placed before it, of which if it partake, the omen is good;
if the serpent refuse to eat, some misfortune is sure to happen. This
custom seems to throw a light on the passage--'Butter and honey shall
he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good'
(Isa. vii. 15).--Time and Faith, i. 60.
Compare the apocryphal tale of Bel and the Dragon. Bel was a healing
god of the Babylonians, and the Dragon whom he slew may have been
regarded in later times as his familiar
[228] 'Principles of Greek Etymology,' ii. 63. English translation.
[229] See pp. 8 and 20.
[230] 'Rig-veda,' v. (Wilson).
[231] In a paper on the 'Origin of Serpent-worship,' read before the
Anthropological Institute in London, December 17, 1872.
[232] 'Science of Language,' i. 230.
[233] 'Lectures on Language,' i. 435.
[234] Grimm's 'Mythology,' p. 650 ff. Simrock, p. 440.
[235] Roth, in the 'Journal of the German Oriental Society,'
vol. ii. p. 216 ff., has elucidated the whole myth.
[236] I have in my possession a specimen of the horned frog of America,
and it is sufficiently curious.
[237] Gesta Rom., cap. 68. Grimm's Myth., 650 ff. Simrock, p. 400.
[238] Others derive the name from the ancient Borbetomagus.
[239] Traditions, p. 44.
[240] Loathely.
[241] Pope's 'Homer,' Book xv.
[242] See p. 59.
[243] See p. 154.
[244] Æsch. Prom. 790, &c.
[245] Vol. i. p. 38.
[246] 'North American Review,' January 1871.
[247] 'Records of the Past,' x. 79.
[248] Page 285.
[249] 'Alcestis in England.' Printed by the South Place Society,
Finsbury, London. 1877.
[250] Eating meat was the process of incarnation.
[251] 'Results of a Tour in Dardistan, Kashmir,' &c., by Chevalier
Dr. G. W. Leitner, Lahore, vol. i. part iii. Trübner & Co.
[252] Page 91.
[253] In the Etruscan Museum at Rome there is a fine representation
of this. The old belief was that a dragon could only be attacked
successfully inside.
[254] 'The Jewish Messiah,' &c. By James Drummond, B.A. Longmans &
Co. (1877). See in this valuable work chapter xxi.
[255] Matt. viii. 30.
[256] Luke xxiii. 3.
[257] Acts i. 25.
NOTES TO VOLUME II
[1] 'Treatise of Spirits.' By John Beaumont, Gent. London, 1705.
[2] Luke x. 19.
[3] Rev. xii.
[4] Rev. xii. cf. verses 4, 9 and 14.
[5] Rev. xii. 12.
[6] 'Zendavesta,' Yaçna xxx.; Max Müller, 'Science of Religion,'
p. 238.
[7] Yaçna xliii.
[8] 'Die Christliche Lehre von der Sünde.' Von Julius Müller, Breslau,
1844, i. 193.
[9] 'Ormazd brought help to me; by the grace of Ormazd my troops
entirely defeated the rebel army and took Sitratachmes, and brought him
before me. Then I cut off his nose and his ears, and I scourged him. He
was kept chained at my door. All the kingdom beheld him. Afterwards I
crucified him at Arbela.' So says the tablet of Darius Hystaspes. But
what could Darius have done 'by the grace of Ahriman'?
[10] Cf. Rev. v. 6 and xii. 15.
[11] 'Prayer and Work.' By Octavius B. Frothingham. New York, 1877.
[12] 'Lucifero, Poema di Mario Rapisardi.' Milano, 1877.
[13] E quanto ebbe e mantiene a l'uom soltanto Il deve, a l'uom che
d'oqui sue destino O prospero, o maligno, arbitro e solo.
'Whatever he (God) had, he owed to man alone, to man who, for good
or ill, is sole arbiter of his own fate.'--Rapisardi's Lucifero.
[14] The following abridgment mainly follows that of James Freeman
Clarke in his 'Ten Great Religions.'
[15] White or Snowy Mountain. Cf. Alp, Elf, &c.
[16] 'Elias shall first come and restore all things.'
[17] That this satirical hymn was admitted into the Rig-Veda shows
that these hymns were collected whilst they were still in the hands
of the ancient Hindu families as common property, and were not yet
the exclusive property of Bráhmans as a caste or association. Further
evidence of the same kind is given by a hymn in which the expression
occurs--'Do not be as lazy as a Bráhman.'--Mrs. Manning's Ancient and
Mediæval India, i. 77. In the same work some particulars are given of
the persons mentioned in this chapter. The Frog-satire is translated
by Max Müller, A. S. L., p. 494.
[18] 'Arichandra, the Martyr of Truth: A Tamil Drama translated into
English by Mutu Coomâra Swâmy, Mudliar, Member of Her Majesty's
Legislative Council of Ceylon,' &c. London: Smith, Elder, &
Co. 1863. This drama, it must be constantly borne in mind, in nowise
represents the Vedic legend, told in the Aitereya-Bráhmana, vii. 13-18;
nor the puranic legend, told in the Merkandeya-Purána. I have altered
the spelling of the names to the Sanskrit forms, but otherwise follow
Sir M. C. S.'s translation.
[19] Siva; the 'lord of the world,' and of wealth. Cf. Pluto, Dis,
Dives.
[20] Thes. Heb., p. 94.
[21] Heb. Handw., p. 90.
[22] Or Jahveh. I prefer to use the best known term in a case where
the more exact spelling adds no significance.
[23] This, the grandest of all the elohistic names, became the nearest
Hebrew word for devils--shedim.
[24] Even his jealous command against rivals, i.e., 'graven images,'
had to be taken along with the story of Laban's images (Gen. xxxi.),
when, though 'God came to Laban,' the idolatry was not rebuked.
[25] It is not certain, indeed, whether this Brightness may not have
been separately personified in the 'Eduth' (translated 'testimony'
in the English version, Exod. xvi. 34), before which the pot of manna
was laid. The word means 'brightness,' and Dr. Willis supposes it may
be connected with Adod, the Phoenician Sun-god (Pentateuch, p. 186).
[26] It is important not to confuse Satan with the Devil, so far as the
Bible is concerned. Satan, as will be seen when we come to the special
treatment of him required, is by no means invariably diabolical. In
the Book of Job, for example, he appears in a character far removed
from hostility to Jehovah or goodness.
[27] Name ist Schall und Rauch, Umnebelnd Himmelsgluth.--Goethe.
[28] 'Targum to the Prophets,' Jonathan Ben Uzziel. See Deutsch's
'Literary Remains,' p. 379.
[29] See pp. 46 and 255. The episode is in Mahábhárata, I. 15.
[30] Related to the Slav Kvas, with which, in Russian folklore,
the Devil tried to circumvent Noah and his wife, as related in
chap. xxvii. part iv.
[31] In Sanskrit Adima means 'the first;' in Hebrew Adam (given
almost always with the article) means 'the red,' and it is generally
derived from adamah, mould or soil. But Professor Max Müller (Science
of Religion, p. 320) says if the name Adima (used, by the way, in
India for the first man, as Adam is in England) is the same as Adam,
'we should be driven to admit that Adam was borrowed by the Jews from
the Hindus.' But even that mild case of 'driving' is unnecessary,
since the word, as Sale reminded the world, is used in the Persian
legend. It is probable that the Hebrews imported this word not knowing
its meaning, and as it resembled their word for mould, they added
the gloss that the first man was made of the dust or mould of the
ground. It is not contended that the Hebrews got their word directly
from the Hindu or Persian myth. Mr. George Smith discovered that Admi
or Adami was the name for the first men in Chaldean fragments. Sir
Henry Rawlinson points out that the ancient Babylonians recognised two
principle races,--the Adamu, or dark, and the Sarku, or light, race;
probably a distinction, remembered in the phrase of Genesis, between
the supposed sons of Adam and the sons of God. The dark race was the
one that fell. Mr. Herbert Spencer (Principles of Sociology, Appendix)
offers an ingenious suggestion that the prohibition of a certain sacred
fruit may have been the provision of a light race against a dark one,
as in Peru only the Yuca and his relatives were allowed to eat the
stimulating cuca. If this be true in the present case, it would still
only reflect an earlier tradition that the holy fruit was the rightful
possession of the deities who had won in the struggle for it.
Nor is there wanting a survival from Indian tradition in the story
of Eve. Adam said, 'This now is bone of my bone, and flesh of my
flesh.' In the Manu Code (ix. 22) it is written: 'The bone of woman is
united with the bone of man, and her flesh with his flesh.' The Indian
Adam fell in twain, becoming male and female (Yama and Yami). Ewald
(Hist. of Israel, i. 1) has put this matter of the relation between
Hebrew and Hindu traditions, as it appears to me, beyond doubt. See
also Goldziher's Heb. Mythol., p. 326; and Professor King's Gnostics,
pp. 9, 10, where the historic conditions under which the importation
would naturally have occurred are succinctly set forth. Professor
King suggests that Parsî and Pharisee may be the same word.
[32] Gen. vi. 1, 2, 4.
[33] vi.-xi. pp. 3-6. See Drummond's 'Jewish Messiah,' p. 21.
[34] See vol. i. p. 255.
[35] Phil. Trans. Ab. from 1700-1720, Part iv. p. 173.
[36] Gen. xxi. 6, 7. The English version has destroyed the sense by
supplying 'him' after 'borne.' Cf. also verses 1, 2. The rabbins
were fully aware of the importance of the statement that it was
Jehovah who 'opened the womb of Sara,' and supplemented it with
various traditions. It was related that when Isaac was born, the
kings of the earth refused to believe such a prodigy concerning even
a beauty of ninety years; whereupon the breasts of all their wives
were miraculously dried up, and they all had to bring their children
to Sara to be suckled.
[37] Fortieth Parascha, fol. 37, col. 1. The solar--or more correctly,
so far as Sara is concerned, lunar--aspects of the legend of Abraham,
Sara, and Isaac, however important, do not affect the human nature with
which they are associated; nor is the special service to which they
are pressed in Jewish theology altered by the theory (should it prove
true) which derives these personages from Aryan mythology. There seems
to be some reason for supposing that Sara is a semiticised form of
Saranyú. The two stand in somewhat the same typical position. Saranyú,
daughter of Tvashtar ('the fashioner'), was mother of the first human
pair, Yama and Yami. Sara is the first mother of those born in a new
(covenanted) creation. Each is for a time concealed from mortals;
each leaves her husband an illegitimate representative. Saranyú gives
her lord Savarná ('substitute'), who by him brings forth Manu,--that
is 'Man,' but not the original perfect Man. Sara substitutes Hagar
('the fleeting'), and Ishmael is born, but not within the covenant.
[38] Gen. iii. 14. Zerov. Hummor, fol. 8, col. 3. Parascha
Bereschith. It is said that, according to Prov. xxv. 21, if thy
enemy hunger thou must feed him; and hence dust must be placed for
the serpent when its power over man is weakened by circumcision.
[39] Parascha Bereschith, fol. 12, col. 4. Eisenmenger, Entdeckes
Judenthum, ii. 409.
[40] Hist. Arabûm.
[41] Entdeckes Judenthum.
[42] This legend may have been in the mind of the writer of the Book
of Revelations when (xii. 14) he describes the Woman who received
wings that she might escape the Serpent. Lilith's wings bore her to
the Serpent.
[43] Inferno, ix. 56-64.
[44] She was a Lybian Queen beloved by Zeus, whose children were
victims of Hera's jealousy. She was daughter of Belus, and it is
a notable coincidence, if no more, that in Gen. xxxvi. 'Bela' is
mentioned as a king of Edom, the domain of Samaël, who married Lilith.
[45] The martial and hunting customs of the German women, as well
as their equality with men, may be traced in the vestiges of their
decline. Hexe (witch) is from hag (forest): the priestesses who carried
the Broom of Thor were called Hagdissen. Before the seventeenth
century the Hexe was called Drud or Trud (red folk, related to
the Lightning-god). But the famous female hunters and warriors of
Wodan, the Valkyries, were so called also; and the preservation of
the epithet (Trud) in the noble name Gertrude is a connecting link
between the German Amazons and the political power so long maintained
by women in the same country. Their office as priestesses probably
marks a step downward from their outdoor equality. By this route,
as priestesses of diabolised deities, they became witches; but many
folk-legends made these witches still great riders, and the Devil was
said to transform and ride them as dapplegrey mares. The chief charge
against the witches, that of carnal commerce with devils, is also
significant. Like Lilith, women became devils' brides whenever they
were not content with sitting at home with the distaff and the child.
[46] Mr. W. B. Scott has painted a beautiful picture of Eve gazing up
with longing at a sweet babe in the tree, whose serpent coils beneath
she does not see.
[47] 'Records of the Past,' iii. p. 83. See also i. p. 135.
[48] 'Chaldean Genesis,' by George Smith, p. 70.
[49] Copied in 'Chald. Gen.,' p. 91. As to the connection of this
design with the legend of Eden, see chap. vii. of this volume.
[50] 'Chaldean Genesis,' pp. 62, 63.
[51] Ib., 97.
[52] 'Records of the Past,' ix. 141.
[53] Anu was the ruler of the highest heaven. Meteors and lightnings
are similarly considered in Hebrew poetry as the messengers of the
Almighty. (Psalm civ. 4, 'Who maketh his ministers a flaming fire,'
quoted in Heb. i. 7.)
[54] Im, the god of the sky, sometimes called Rimmon (the
Thunderer). He answers to the Jupiter Tonans of the Latins.
[55] The abyss or ocean where the god Hea dwelt.
[56] The late Mr. G. Smith says that the Chaldean dragon was
seven-headed. 'Chaldean Genesis,' p. 100.
[57] 'Records of the Past,' vii. 123.
[58] 'Records of the Past,' x. 127.
[59] See i. pp. 46 and 255. Concerning Ketef see Eisenmenger,
ii. p. 435.
[60] Isaiah xiv. It may appear as if in this personification of a
fallen star we have entered a different mythological region from that
represented by the Assyrian tablets; but it is not so. The demoniac
forms of Ishtar, Astarte, are fallen stars also. She appears in Greece
as Artemis Astrateia, whose worship Pausanias mentions as coming from
the East. Her development is through Asteria (Greek form of Ishtar),
in whose myth is hidden much valuable Babylonian lore. Asteria was said
to have thrown herself into the sea, and been changed into the island
called Asteria, from its having fallen like a star from heaven. Her
suicide was to escape from the embraces of Zeus, and her escape from
him in form of a quail, as well as her fate, may be instructively
compared with the story of Lilith, who flew out of Eden on wings
to escape from Adam, and made an effort to drown herself in the Red
Sea. The diabolisation of Asteria (the fallen star) was through her
daughter Hecate. Hecate was the female Titan who was the most potent
ally of the gods. Her rule was supreme under Zeus, and all the gifts
valued by mortals were believed to proceed from her; but she was
severely judicial, and rigidly withheld all blessings from such as
did not deserve them. Thus she was, as the searching eye of Zeus, a
star-spy upon earth. Such spies, as we have repeatedly had occasion
to mention in this work, are normally developed into devils. From
professional detectives they become accusers and instigators. Ishtar
of the Babylonians, Asteria of the Greeks, and the Day-star of the
Hebrews are male and female forms of the same personification: Hecate
with her torch (hekatos, 'far-shooting') and Lucifer ('light-bringer'
on the deeds of darkness) are the same in their degradation.
[61] 'Paradise Lost,' i. 40-50.
[62] And foremost rides Prince Rupert, darling of fortune and of war,
with his beautiful and thoughtful face of twenty-three, stern and
bronzed already, yet beardless and dimpled, his dark and passionate
eyes, his long love-locks drooping over costly embroidery, his graceful
scarlet cloak, his white-plumed hat, and his tall and stately form. His
high-born beauty is preserved to us for ever on the canvas of Vandyck,
and as the Italians have named the artist 'Il Pittore Cavalieresco,'
so will this subject of his skill remain for ever the ideal of Il
Cavaliere Pittoresco. And as he now rides at the head of this brilliant
array, his beautiful white dog bounds onward joyously beside him,
that quadruped renowned in the pamphlets of the time, whose snowy
skin has been stained by many a blood-drop in the desperate forays of
his master, but who has thus far escaped so safely that the Puritans
believe him a familiar spirit, and try to destroy him 'by poyson and
extempore prayer, which yet hurt him no more than the plague plaster
did Mr. Pym.' Failing in this, they pronounce the pretty creature to be
'a divell, not a very downright divell, but some Lapland ladye, once by
nature a handsome white ladye, now by art a handsome white dogge.'--A
Charge with Prince Rupert. Col. Higginson's 'Atlantic Essays.'
[63] Isa. lxiii. 1-6.
[64] Fol. 84, col. 1.
[65] Maarecheth haëlahuth, fol. 257, col. 1.
[66] Gesenius, Heb. Lexic.
[67] Hairiness was a pretty general characteristic of devils;
hence, possibly, the epithet 'Old Harry,' i.e., hairy, applied to
the Devil. In 'Old Deccan Days,' p. 50, a Rakshasa is described as
hairy:--'Her hair hangs around her in a thick black tangle.' But the
beard has rarely been accorded to devils.
[68] Buslaef has a beautiful mediæval picture of a devil inciting
Cain to hurl stones on his prostrate brother's form.
[69] Forty-one Eastern Tales.
[70] The contest between the agriculturist and the (nomadic) shepherd
is expressed in the legend that Cain and Abel divided the world between
them, the one taking possession of the movable and the other of the
immovable property. Cain said to his brother, 'The earth on which thou
standest is mine, then betake thyself to the air;' but Abel replied,
'The garments which thou wearest are mine, take them off.'--Midrash.
[71] Sale's Koran, vii. Al Araf. Iblis, the Mussulman name for the
Devil, is probably a corruption of the word diabolus.
[72] Noyes' Translation.
[73] Eisenmenger, Entd. Jud. i. 836.
[74] Job. i. 22, the literal rendering of which is, 'In all this Job
sinned not, nor gave God unsalted.' This translation I first heard
from Dr. A. P. Peabody, sometime President of Harvard University, from
whom I have a note in which he says:--'The word which I have rendered
gave is appropriate to a sacrifice. The word I have rendered unsalted
means so literally; and is in Job vi. 6 rendered unsavory. It may,
and sometimes does, denote folly, by a not unnatural metaphor; but in
that sense the word gave--an offertory word--is out of place.' Waltonus
(Bib. Polyg.) translates 'nec dedit insulsum Deo;' had he rendered
tiphlah by insalsum it would have been exact. The horror with which
demons and devils are supposed to regard salt is noticed, i. 288.
[75] Gesenius so understands verse 17 of chap. xiv.
[76] The much misunderstood and mistranslated passage, xix. 25-27
(already quoted), is certainly referable to the wide-spread belief
that as against each man there was an Accusing Spirit, so for each
there was a Vindicating Spirit. These two stood respectively on the
right and left of the balances in which the good and evil actions of
each soul were weighed against each other, each trying to make his
side as heavy as possible. But as the accusations against him are
made by living men, and on earth, Job is not prepared to consider a
celestial acquittal beyond the grave as adequate.
[77] 'The Kingdom of Heaven Taken by Prayer.' By William Huntington,
S.S. This title is explained to be 'Sinner Saved,' otherwise one
might understand the letters to signify a Surviving Syrian.
[78] Num. xxii. 22.
[79] 1 Sam. xxix. 4.
[80] 2 Sam. xix. 22.
[81] 1 Kings ii. 9.
[82] 1 Kings v. 4.
[83] 1 Kings xi. 14.
[84] 1 Kings xi. 25.
[85] Zech. iii.
[86] Cf. Rev. vii. 3.
[87] 'The Sight of Hell,' prepared, as one of a 'Series of Books for
Children and Young Persons,' by the Rev. Father Furniss, C.S.S.R.,
by authority of his Superiors.
[88] M. Anquetil Du Perron's 'Zendavesta et Vie de Zoroastre.'
[89] As given in Mr. Alabaster's 'The Wheel of the Law' (Trübner &
Co., 1871). In the Apocryphal Gospels, some of the signs of nature's
joy attending the birth of Buddha are reported at the birth of Mary
and that of Christ, as the pausing of birds in their flight, &c. Anna
is said to have conceived Mary under a tree, as Maia under a tree
brought forth Buddha.
[90] 'Mara, or Man (Sanscrit Màra, death, god of love; by some authors
translated 'illusion,' as if it came from the Sanscrit Màya), the
angels of evil, desire, of love, death, &c. Though King Mara plays
the part of our Satan the tempter, he and his host were formerly
great givers of alms, which led to their being born in the highest
of the Deva heavens, called Paranimit Wasawatti, there to live more
than nine thousand million years, surrounded by all the luxuries of
sensuality. From this heaven the filthy one, as the Siamese describe
him, descends to the earth to tempt and excite to evil.'--Alabaster.
[91] Some say Djemschid, others Guenschesp, a warrior sent to hell
for beating the fire.
[92] Leben Jesu, ii. 54. The close resemblance between the trial
of Israel in the wilderness and this of Jesus is drawn in his own
masterly way.
[93] A passage of the Pesikta (iii. 35) represents a conversation
between Jehovah and Satan with reference to Messias which bears a
resemblance to the prologue of Job. Satan said: Lord, permit me to
tempt Messias and his generation. 'To him the Lord said: You could
have no power over him. Satan again said: Permit me because I have
the power. God answered: If you persist longer in this, rather would
I destroy thee from the world, than that one soul of the generation
of Messias should be lost.' Though the rabbin might report the trial
declined, the Christian would claim it to have been endured.
[94] In his fresco of the Temptation at the Vatican, Michael Angelo
has painted the Devil in the dress of a priest, standing with Jesus
on the Temple.
[95] 'Idols and Ideals.' London: Trübner & Co. New York: Henry Holt &
Co. In the Essay on Christianity I have given my reasons for this
belief.
[96] 'Paradise Regained,' ii.
[97] 'Henry Luria; or, the Little Jewish Convert: being contained in
the Memoir of Mrs. S. T. Cohen, relict of the Rev. Dr. A. H. Cohen,
late Rabbi of the Synagogue in Richmond, Va.' 1860.
[98] 'Heroes and Hero-worship,' iv.
[99] 'Sartor Resartus.' London: Chapman & Hall, 1869, p. 160.
[100] 'The American Scholar.' An Oration delivered before the Phi
Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge (Massachusetts), August 31, 1837. By
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
[101] The relations of this system to those of various countries are
stated by Professor King in his work 'The Gnostics and their Remains.'
[102] In the Architectural Museum, Westminster, there is an old
picture which possibly represents the hairy Adam.
[103] Josephus; 'Wars of the Jews,' vi. 1.
[104] Those who wish to pursue the subject may consult Plutarch,
Philo, Josephus, Diog. Laertius; also Eisenmenger, Wetstein, Elsner,
Doughtæi, Lightfoot, Sup. Relig., &c.
[105] See 'Supernatural Religion,' vol. i. ch. 4 and 5, for ample
references concerning these superstitions among both Jews and
Christians.
[106] 'Saducismus,' p. 53.
[107] 'Eastern Morning News,' quoted in the 'National Reformer,'
December 17, 1877.
[108] Much curious information is contained in the work already
referred to, 'L'Eau Benite au Dix-neuvième Siècle.' Par Monsignor
Gaume, Protonotaire Apostolique. Paris, 1866. It is there stated that
water escaped the curse; that salt produces fecundity; that devils
driven off temporarily by the cross are effectually dismissed by
holy water; that St. Vincent, interrupted by a storm while preaching,
dispersed it by throwing holy water at it; and he advises the use of
holy water against the latest devices of the devil--spirit-rapping. It
must not, however, be supposed that these notions are confined to
Catholics. Every element in the disquisition of Monsignor Gaume is
represented in the region where his church is most hated. Mr. James
Napier, in his recent book on Folklore, shows us the Scotch hastening
new-born babes to baptism lest they become 'changelings,' and the
true meaning of the rite is illustrated in a reminiscence of his
own childhood. He was supposed to be pining under an Evil Eye, and
the old woman, or 'skilly,' called in, carefully locked the door,
now unlocked by her patient, and proceeded as follows:-- 'A sixpence
was borrowed from a neighbour, a good fire was kept burning in the
grate, the door was locked, and I was placed upon a chair in front of
the fire. The operator, an old woman, took a tablespoon and filled
it with water. With the sixpence she then lifted as much salt as it
would carry, and both were put into the water in the spoon. The water
was then stirred with the forefinger till the salt was dissolved. Then
the soles of my feet and the palms of my hands were bathed with this
solution thrice, and after these bathings I was made to taste the
solution three times. The operator then drew her wet forefinger
across my brow--called scoring aboon the breath. The remaining
contents of the spoon she then cast right over the fire, into the
hinder part of the fire, saying as she did so, 'Guid preserve frae a'
skaith.' These were the first words permitted to be spoken during the
operation. I was then put in bed, and, in attestation of the charm,
recovered. To my knowledge this operation has been performed within
these forty years, and probably in many outlying country places it
is still practised. The origin of this superstition is probably to be
found in ancient fire-worship. The great blazing fire was evidently an
important element in the transaction; nor was this a solitary instance
in which regard was paid to the fire. I remember being taught that
it was unlucky to spit into the fire, some evil being likely shortly
after to befall those who did so. Crumbs left upon the table after
a meal were carefully gathered and put into the fire. The cuttings
from the nails and hair were also put into the fire. These freaks
certainly look like survivals of fire-worship.' It may be well here
to refer the reader to what has been said in vol. i. on Demons of
Fire. The Devil's fear of salt and consequently of water confirmed
the perhaps earlier apprehension of all fiery phantoms of that which
naturally quenches flame.
[109] We here get a clue to the origin of various strange ceremonies by
which men bind themselves to one another. Michelet, in his 'Origines
du Droit Français,' writes: 'Boire le sang l'un de l'autre, c'etait
pour ainsi dire se faire même chair. Ce symbole si expressif se trouve
chez un grand nombre de peuples;' and he gives instances from various
ancient races. But, as we here see, this practice is not originally
adopted as a symbol (no practices begin as symbols), but is prompted
by the belief that a community of nature is thus established, and a
community of power over one another.
[110] 'Principles of Sociology,' i. ch. xix. Origen says, that a
man eats and drinks with demons when he eats flesh and drinks wine
offered to idols. (Contra Cels. viii. 31.)
[111] Dr. James Browne's 'History of the Highlands,' ed. 1855, i. 108.
[112] 'Aurea Legenda.' The story, as intertwined with that of the
discovery of the true cross by the Empress Helena, was a fruitful
theme for artists. It has been painted in various versions by Angiolo
Gaddi in S. Croce at Florence, by Pietro della Francesca at Arezzo,
and in S. Croce in Ger. at Rome are frescoes celebrating Helena in a
chapel named from her, but into which persons of her sex are admitted
only once a year.
[113] To the 'Secular Chronicle,' February 11, 1877.
[114] Psalm lv.
[115] Jer. xxv. 38; xlvi. 16; l. 16.
[116] Isaiah xi. 2, 3.
[117] The more fatal aspect of the dove has tended to invest the
pigeon, especially wild pigeons, which in Oldenburg, and many other
regions, are supposed to bode calamity and death if they fly round
a house.
[118] Sir Nathaniel Wraxall's Memoirs.
[119] Matt. xii. 31.
[120] Mark iii. 28.
[121] I have before me an account by a christian mother of the death
of her child, whom she had dedicated to the Lord before his birth,
in which she says, 'A full breath issued from his mouth like an
etherial flame, a slight quiver of the lip, and all was over.'
[122] 'Serpent poison.' It is substantially the same word as the
demonic Samaël. The following is from Colonel Campbell's 'Travels,'
ii. p. 130:--'It was still the hot season of the year, and we were
to travel through that country over which the horrid wind I have
before mentioned sweeps its consuming blasts; it is called by the
Turks Samiel, is mentioned by the holy Job under the name of the East
wind, and extends its ravages all the way from the extreme end of the
Gulf of Cambaya up to Mosul; it carries along with it flakes of fire,
like threads of silk; instantly strikes dead those that breathe it,
and consumes them inwardly to ashes; the flesh soon becoming black
as a coal, and dropping off the bones. Philosophers consider it as
a kind of electric fire, proceeding from the sulphurous or nitrous
exhalations which are kindled by the agitations of the winds. The only
possible means of escape from its fatal effects is to fall flat on the
ground, and thereby prevent the drawing it in; to do this, however,
it is necessary first to see it, which is not always practicable.'
[123] The 'Sacred Anthology,' p. 425. Nizami uses his fable to
illustrate the effect of even an innocent flower on one whom conscience
has made a coward.
[124] Nothing is more natural than the Triad: the regions which may
be most simply distinguished are the Upper, Middle, and Lower.
[125] Bhàgavàt-Gita.
[126] Gulistan.
[127] Acts ii.
[128] Compare Gen. vi. 3. Jehovah said, 'My breath shall not always
abide in man.'
[129] Among the many survivals in civilised countries of these notions
may be noticed the belief that, in order to be free from a spell it is
necessary to draw blood from the witch above the breath, i.e., mouth
and nostrils; to 'score aboon the breath' is a Scottish phrase. This
probably came by the 'pagan' route; but it meets its christian kith and
kin in the following story which I find in a (MS.) Memorial sent to the
House of Lords in 1869 by the Rev. Thomas Berney, Rector of Bracon Ash,
Diocese of Norwich:--'I was sent for in haste to privately baptize
a child thought to be dying, and belonging to parents who lived 'on
the Common' at Hockering. It indeed appeared to be very ill, and its
eyes were fixed, and remarkably clouded and dull. Having baptized,
I felt moved with a longing desire to be enabled to heal the child;
and I prayed very earnestly to the Lord God Almighty to give me faith
and strength to enable me to do so. And I put my hands on its head
and drew them down on to its arms; and then breathed on its head
three times, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I held
its arms and looked on it anxiously, its face became exceedingly
red and dark, and as the child gradually assumed a natural colour,
the eyes became clear again; and then it gently closed its eyes in
sleep. And I told the mother not to touch it any more till it awoke;
but to carry it up in the cradle as it was. The next morning I found
the child perfectly well. She had not touched it, except at four in
the morning to feed it, when it seemed dead asleep, and it did not
awake till ten o'clock.' This was written by an English Rector, and
dated from the Carlton Club! The italics are in the original MS. now
before me. The importance that no earthly hand should profanely touch
the body while the spirit was at work in it shows how completely
systematised is that insanity which consists of making a human mind
an arena for the survival of the unfittest.
[130] Luke xxii. 31.
[131] Amos ix. 8, 9.
[132] 1 Cor. v. 5.
[133] 2 Cor. xi. 13.
[134] 1 John iv. 2, 3.
[135] Polycarp, Ep. to Philippians, vii.
[136] 2 Thess. ii.
[137] 2 Peter ii. 15.
[138] John xvii. 12.
[139] 'But,' says Professor King (Gnostics, p. 52), 'a dispassionate
examiner will discover that these two zealous Fathers somewhat beg
the question in assuming that the Mithraic rites were invented as
counterfeits of the Christian Sacraments; the former having really been
in existence long before the promulgation of Christianity.' Whatever
may have been the incidents in the life of Christ connected with
such things, it is certainly true, as Professor King says, that these
'were afterwards invested with the mystic and supernatural virtues,
in a later age insisted upon as articles of faith, by succeeding
and unscrupulous missionaries, eager to outbid the attractions of
more ancient ceremonies of a cognate character.' In the porch of
the Church Bocca della Verita at Rome, there is, or was, a fresco of
Ceres shelling corn and Bacchus pressing grapes, from them falling
the elements of the Eucharist to a table below. This was described
to me by a friend, but when I went to see it in 1872, it had just
been whitewashed over! I called the attention of Signor Rosa to
this shameful proceeding, and he had then some hope that this very
interesting relic might be recovered.
[140] Op. iv. 511. Col. Agrip. 1616.
[141] For full details of all these superstitions see Eisenmenger
(Entd. Jud. li. Armillus); D'Herbelot (Bib. Orient. Daggiel);
Buxtorf (Lexicon, Armillus); Calmet, Antichrist; and on the same
word, Smith; also a valuable article in M'Clintock and Strong's
Cyc. Bib. Lit. (American).
[142] Deutsch, 'Lit. Remains.' Islam.
[143] Weil's 'Biblical Legends.'
[144] Eisenmenger, ii. 60.
[145] See vol. i. pp. 58 and 358.
[146] 'Zoroastrische Studien,' pp. 138-147. With which comp. Spiegel,
Transl. of Avesta, III. xlvii.
[147] 'Studies in the Hist. of the Renaissance.' Macmillan.
[148] 'Chald. Genesis,' by George Smith, p. 84.
[149] This text was engraved by Mrs. Rose Mary Crawshay on a tomb
she had erected in honour of her humble neighbour, Mr. Norbury, who
sought knowledge for its own sake. Few ancient scriptures could have
supplied an inscription so appropriate.
[150] Mr. Baring-Gould, quoting this (from Anastasius Sinaita, Hodêgos,
ed. Gretser, Ingolst. 1606, p. 269), attributes this shining face of
Seth to his previous character as a Sun-god. ('Old Test. Legends,'
i. 84.)
[151] King's 'Gnostics,' p. 53, n.
[152] Tertullian's phrase, 'The Devil is God's Ape,' became popular at
one time, and the Ape-devil had frequent representation in art--as,
for instance, in Holbein's 'Crucifixion' (1477), now at Augsburg,
where a Devil with head of an ape, bat-wings, and flaming red legs
is carrying off the soul of the impenitent thief. The same subject
is found in the same gallery in an Altdorfer, where the Devil's face
is that of a gorilla.
[153] S. Cyp. ap. Muratori, Script. it. i. 295, 545. The
Magicians used to call their mirrors after the name of this
flower-devil--Fiorone. M. Maury, 'La Magie,' 435 n.
[154] This whole subject is treated, and with ample references,
in M. Maury's 'Magie,' p. 41, seq.
[155] 'La Sorcière.'
[156] Dasent's 'Norse Tales,' Introd. ciii.
[157] 'Chips,' ii.
[158] 'Chester Plays,' 1600.
[159] 'Declaration of Popish Impostures,' 1603.
[160] So Shakespere, 'The Devil damn thee black.'
[161] In an account, 1568, we find:--'pay'd for iij li of heare
ijs vjd.'
[162] The Directions for the 'Castle of Good Perseverance,' say:
'& he þt schal pley belyal, loke þt he have guñe powdr breñng in
pypysih's hands & i h's ers & i h's ars whãne he gothe to batayle.'
[163] This notion was widespread. I have seen an ancient Russian
picture in which the Devil is dancing before a priest who has become
drowsy over his prayer-book. There was once a Moslem controversy
as to whether it was fair for pilgrims to keep themselves awake for
their prayers by chewing coffee-berries.
[164] 'Liber Revelationum de Insidiis et Versutiis Dæmonum adversus
Homines.' See Reville's Review of Roskoff, 'The Devil,' p. 38.
[165] See M. Maury's 'Magie,' p. 48.
[166] The history has been well related by a little work by Dr. Albert
Réville: 'Apollonius of Tyana, the Pagan Christ.' Chatto & Windus.
[167] Sinistrari names Luther as one of eleven persons whom he
enumerates as having been begotten by Incubi, 'Enfin, comme l'ecrit
Codens, cité par Maluenda, ce damné Hérésiarque, qui a nom Martin
Luther.'--'Démonialité,' 30.
[168] Glanvil's 'Saducismus.'
[169] King Lear, iii. 4. Asmodeus and Mohammed are, no doubt, corrupted
in these names, which are given as those of devils in Harsenet's
'Declaration of Popish Impostures.'
[170] 'A Discourse of Witchcraft. As it was acted in the Family of
Mr. Edward Fairfax, of Fuystone, in the county of York, in the year
1621. Sibi parat malum, qui alteri parat.'
[171] W. F. Poole, Librarian of Chicago, to whom I am indebted for
a copy of Governor Thomas Hutchinson's account of 'The Witchcraft
Delusion of 1692,' with his valuable notes on the same.
[172] The delicacy with which these animals are alluded to rather
than directly named indicates that they had not lost their formidable
character in Elfdale so far as to be spoken of rashly.
[173] Glanvil, 'Saducismus Triumphatus,' p. 170.
[174] Porphyry, ap. Euseb. v. 12. The formula not preserved by
Eusebius is supposed by M. Maury ('Magie,' 56) to be that contained
in the 'Philosophumena,' attributed to Origen:--'Come, infernal,
terrestrial, and celestial Bombo! goddess of highways, of cross-roads,
thou who bearest the light, who travellest the night, enemy of the
day, friend and companion of darkness; thou rejoicing in the baying
of dogs and in shed blood, who wanderest amid shadows and over tombs;
thou who desirest blood and bearest terrors to mortals,--Gorgo, Mormo,
moon of a thousand forms, aid with a propitious eye our sacrifices!'
[175] 'The Devil,' &c., p. 51.
[176] Scheible's 'Kloster,' 5, 116. Zauberbücher.
[177] Bayard Taylor's 'Faust,' note 45. See also his Appendix I. for
an excellent condensation of the Faust legend from the best German
sources.
[178] Tertull. ad Marcion, iii. 18. S. Ignatii Episc. et Martyr ad
Phil. Ep. viii. 'The Prince of this world rejoices when any one denies
the cross, for he knows the confession of the cross to be his ruin.'
[179] See his 'Acta,' by Simeon Metaphrastus.
[180] I have been much struck by the resemblance between the dumpy
monkish dwarf, in the old wall-picture of Auerbach's Cellar, meant for
Mephistopheles, and the portrait of Asmodeus in the early editions
of 'Le Diable Boiteux.' But, as devils went in those days, they are
good-looking enough.
[181] Shelley's Translation.
[182] Bayard Taylor's Translation. Scene iv.
[183] See Lavater's Physiognomy, Plates xix. and xx., in which
some artist has shown what variations can be made to order on an
intellectual and benevolent face.
[184] 'Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart.' Von Dr. Adolf
Wuttke, Prof. der Theol. in Halle. Berlin: Verlag von Wiegand &
Grieben. 1869.
[185] 'Histoire de France et des Choses Mémorables,' &c.
[186] The universal myth of Sleepers,--christianised in the myth
of St. John, and of the Seven whose slumber is traceable as far
as Tours,--had a direct pagan development in Jami, Barbarossa,
Arthur, and their many variants. It is the legend of the Castle of
Sewingshields in Northumberland, that King Arthur, his queen and
court, remain there in a subterranean hall, entranced, until some one
should first blow a bugle-horn near the entrance hall, and then with
'the sword of the stone' cut a garter placed there beside it. But
none had ever heard where the entrance to this enchanted hall was,
till a farmer, fifty years since, was sitting knitting on the ruins
of the castle, and his clew fell and ran downwards through briars
into a deep subterranean passage. He cleared the portal of its weeds
and rubbish, and entering a vaulted passage, followed the clew. The
floor was infested with toads and lizards; and bats flitted fearfully
around him. At length his sinking courage was strengthened by a dim,
distant light, which, as he advanced, grew gradually brighter, till all
at once he entered a vast and vaulted hall, in the centre of which a
fire, without fuel, from a broad crevice in the floor, blazed with a
high and lambent flame, that showed all the carved walls and fretted
roof, and the monarch and his queen and court reposing around in a
theatre of thrones and costly couches. On the floor, beyond the fire,
lay the faithful and deep-toned pack of thirty couple of hounds; and
on a table before it the spell-dissolving horn, sword, and garter. The
shepherd firmly grasped the sword, and as he drew it from its rusty
scabbard the eyes of the monarch and his courtiers began to open,
and they rose till they sat upright. He cut the garter, and as
the sword was slowly sheathed the spell assumed its ancient power,
and they all gradually sank to rest; but not before the monarch had
lifted up his eyes and hands and exclaimed--
O woe betide that evil day
On which this witless wight was born,
Who drew the sword--the garter cut,
But never blew the bugle horn.
Terror brought on loss of memory, and the shepherd was unable to give
any correct account of his adventure, or to find again the entrance
to the enchanted hall.--Hodgson's 'Northumberland.'
[187] This great discussion between the animals and sages is given in
'The Sacred Anthology' (London: Trübner & Co. New York: Henry Holt &
Co.). It is a very ancient story, and was probably written down at
the beginning of the christian era.
[188] It is a strange proof of the ignorance concerning Hindu religion
that Jugernath, raised in a sense for reprobation of cruelty to
man and beast, should have been made by a missionary myth a Western
proverb for human sacrifices!
[189] St. Olaf = Stooley = Tooley.
[190] High bloweth Heimdall His horn aloft; Odin consulteth Mimir's
head; The old ash yet standing Yggdrasill To its summit is shaken,
And loose breaks the giant.--Voluspa.
[191] 'Rigveda,' x. 99.
[192] 'Zoolog. Myth.,' ii. 8, 10, &c.
[193] 'The Mahawanso.' Translated by the Hon. George Turnour, Ceylon,
1836, p. 69.
[194] It was an ancient custom to offer a stag on the high altar of
Durham Abbey, the sacrifice being accompanied with winding of horns, on
Holy Rood Day, which suggests a form of propitiating the Wild Huntsman
in the hunting season. On the Cheviot Hills there is a chasm called
Hen Hole, 'in which there is frequently seen a snow egg at Midsummer,
and it is related that a party of hunters, while chasing a roe,
were beguiled into it by fairies, and could never again find their
way out.'--Richardson's 'Borderer's Table-Book,' vi 400. The Bridled
Devil of Durham Cathedral may be an allusion to the Wild Huntsman.
[195] In the pre-petrified era of Theology this hope appears
to have visited the minds of some, Origen for instance. But by
many centuries of utilisation the Devil became so essential to the
throne of Christianity that theologians were more ready to spare God
from their system than Satan. 'Even the clever Madame de Staël,'
said Goethe, 'was greatly scandalised that I kept the Devil in
such good-humour. In the presence of God the Father, she insisted
upon it, he ought to be more grim and spiteful. What will she say
if she sees him promoted a step higher,--nay, perhaps, meets him in
heaven?' Though, in another conversation with Falk, Goethe intimates
that he had written a passage 'where the Devil himself receives grace
and mercy from God,' the artistic theory of his poem could permit
no nearer approach to this than those closing lines (Faust, II.) in
which Mephistopheles reproaches the 'case-hardened Devil' and himself
for their mismanagement. To the isolated, the not yet humanised,
intellect sensuality is evil when senseless, and its hell is folly.
[196] 'Demonialite,' 60-62, &c. We may hope that this learned man,
during his tenure of office under the Inquisition, had some mercy
for the poor devils dragged before that tribunal.
[197] 'Reverberations.' By W. M. W. Call, M.A., Cambridge. Second
Edition. Trübner & Co., 1876.
[198] The Holy Grail was believed to have been fashioned from the
largest of all diamonds, lost from the crown of Satan as he fell
from Heaven. Guarded by angels until used at the Last Supper, it was
ultimately secured by Arthur's knight, Percival, and--such is the
irony of mythology--indirectly by the aid of Satan's own son, Merlin!
[199] See Mr. J. A. Froude's article in 'Fraser's Magazine,' Feb. 1878,
'Origen and Celsus.'
[200] Mr. W. W. Lloyd's 'Age of Pericles,' vol. ii. p. 202.
[201] Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the R. A. S., 1865-6: Art. on
'Demonology and Witchcraft in Ceylon,' by Dundris de Silva Gooneratne
Modliar.
[202] Euripides, 'Medea,' 574.
[203] 'Paradise Lost,' x. 860.
[204] Herodotus, 'Clio,' 7-14, 91.
[205] 'Expression of the Emotions.' By Charles Darwin. London: Murray,
1872. Chapter IV.
[206] The giving of Eve's name to Noah's wife is not the
only significant thing about this Russian tradition and its
picture. Long-bearded devils are nowhere normal except in the
representations by the Eastern Church of the monarch of Hell. By
referring to p. 253 of this volume the reader will observe the
influences which caused the infernal king to be represented as
counterpart of the Deity. As this tradition about Noah's wife is
suggestive of a Gnostic origin, it really looks as if the Devil in
it were meant to act the part which the Gnostics ascribed to Jehovah
himself (vol. ii. p. 207). The Devil is said in rabbinical legends to
have seduced the wives of Noah's sons; this legend seems to show that
his aim was to populate the post-diluvial world entirely with his own
progeny, in this being an Ildabaoth, or degraded edition of Jehovah
trying to establish his own family in the earth by the various means
related in vol. i. chap. 8.
[207] 'Nischamath Chajim,' fol. 139, col. 2.
End of Project Gutenberg's Demonology and Devil-lore, by Moncure Daniel Conway