Part 149 (1/2)

[554:2] This would give us the story of Christ Jesus, and other Angel-Messiahs; Saviours of men.

[554:3] This would give us the stories of spellbound maidens, who sleep for years.

[554:4] This is Hercules and his counterparts.

[554:5] This again is Hercules.

[554:6] This would depend upon whether his light was obscured by clouds, or not.

[554:7] This again is Hercules.

[554:8] This is Apollo, Siva and Ixion.

[554:9] Rev. G. W. c.o.x.

[555:1] Who has not heard it said that the howling or whining of a dog forebodes death?

[555:2] Bunce: Fairy Tales, Origin and Meaning.

[556:1] Quoted by Bunce: Fairy Tales.

[557:1] See Bunce: Fairy Tales, p. 34.

[558:1] ”The _Sun_,” said _Gaugler_, ”speeds at such a rate as if _she_ feared that some one was pursuing her for her destruction.” ”And well she may,” replied _Har_, ”for he that seeks her is not far behind, and she has no way to escape but to run before him.” ”And who is he,” asked _Gaugler_, ”that causes her this anxiety?” ”It is the _Wolf_ Skoll,”

answered _Har_, ”who pursues the Sun, and it is he that she fears, for he shall one day overtake and devour her.” (Scandinavian _Prose Edda_.

See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 407). This Wolf is, as we have said, a personification of _Night_ and _Clouds_, we therefore have the almost universal practice among savage nations of making noises at the time of eclipses, to frighten away the monsters who would otherwise devour the Sun.

[558:2] Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 103.

[559:1] Tylor: Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 308.

[559:2] Muller: The Science of Religion, p. 65.

[559:3] c.o.x: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 1.

[560:1] As the hand of Hector is clasped in the hand of the hero who slew him. There, as the story ran, the lovely Helen ”pardoned and purified,” became the bride of the short-lived, yet long-suffering Achilleus, even as Iole comforted the dying Hercules on earth, and Hebe became his solace in Olympus. But what is the meeting of Helen and Achilleus, of Iole and Hebe and Hercules, but the return of the violet tints to greet the Sun in the _West_, which had greeted him in the East in the morning? The idea was purely physical, yet it suggested the thoughts of trial, atonement, and purification; and it is unnecessary to say that the human mind, having advanced thus far, must make its way still farther. (c.o.x: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 822.)

[560:2] The black storm-cloud, with the flames of lightning issuing from it, was the original of the dragon with tongues of fire. Even as late as A. D. 1600, a German writer would ill.u.s.trate a thunder-storm destroying a crop of corn by a picture of a dragon devouring the produce of the field with his flaming tongue and iron teeth. (Baring-Gould: Curious Myths, p. 342.)

[561:1] M. Breal, and G. W. c.o.x.

[562:1] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 59.

[562:2] Ibid.

[562:3] Ibid. p. 181.

[562:4] Book iv. ch. i. in Anac., vol. i. p. 137.

[562:5] P. 6.