Part 36 (2/2)

[801] _The Golden Bough_, Second Edition (London, 1900), iii. 312: ”The custom of leaping over the fire and driving cattle through it may be intended, on the one hand, to secure for man and beast a share of the vital energy of the sun, and, on the other hand, to purge them of all evil influences; for to the primitive mind fire is the most powerful of all purificatory agents”; and again, _id._ iii. 314: ”It is quite possible that in these customs the idea of the quickening power of fire may be combined with the conception of it as a purgative agent for the expulsion or destruction of evil beings, such as witches and the vermin that destroy the fruits of the earth. Certainly the fires are often interpreted in the latter way by the persons who light them; and this purgative use of the element comes out very prominently, as we have seen, in the general expulsion of demons from towns and villages. But in the present cla.s.s of cases this aspect of fire may be secondary, if indeed it is more than a later misinterpretation of the custom.”

[802] _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 311 _sqq_.

[803] See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 254 _sqq_.

[804] Manilius, _Astronom_. v. 206 _sqq._:

”_c.u.m vero in vastos surget Nemeaeus hiatus, Exoriturque Canis, latratque Canicula flammas Et rabit igne suo geminatque incendia solis, Qua subdente facem terris radiosque movente_” etc.

Pliny, _Naturalis Historic_ xviii. 269 _sq_.: ”_Exoritur dein post triduum fere ubique confessum inter omnes sidus ingens quod canis ortum vocamus, sole partem primam leonis ingresso. Hoc fit post solst.i.tium XXIII. die. Sentiunt id maria et terrae, multae vero et ferae, ut suis locis diximus. Neque est minor ei veneratio quam descriptis in deos stellis accendique solem et magnam aestus obtinet causam_.”

[805] _Specimens of Bushman Folklore_ collected by the late W.H.I.

Bleek, Ph.D., and L.C. Lloyd (London, 1911), pp. 339, 341. In quoting the pa.s.sage I have omitted the brackets which the editors print for the purpose of indicating the words which are implied, but not expressed, in the original Bushman text.

[806] ”The sun is a little warm, when this star appears in winter”

(Editors of _Specimens of Bushman Folklore_).

[807] ”With the stick that he had held in the fire, moving it up and down quickly” (Editors).

[808] ”They take one arm out of the kaross, thereby exposing one shoulder blade to the sun” (Editors).

[809] See above, pp. 161, 162 _sq._ On the wheel as an emblem of the sun, see J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] ii. 585; A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gottertranks_*[2] (Gutersloh, 1886), pp.

45 _sqq._; H. Gaidoz, ”Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la roue,” _Revue Archeologique_, iii. Serie, iv. (1884) pp. 14 _sqq._; William Simpson, _The Buddhist Praying Wheel_ (London, 1896), pp. 87 _sqq._ It is a popular Armenian idea that ”the body of the sun has the shape of the wheel of a water-mill; it revolves and moves forward. As drops of water sputter from the mill-wheel, so sunbeams shoot out from the spokes of the sun-wheel” (M. Abeghian, _Der armenische Volksglaube_, Leipsic, 1899, p. 41). In the old Mexican picture-books the usual representation of the sun is ”a wheel, often brilliant with many colours, the rays of which are so many bloodstained tongues, by means of which the Sun receives his nourishment” (E.J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_, Oxford, 1892, i. 521).

[810] Above, p. 169.

[811] Ernst Meier, _Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebrauche aus Schwaben_ (Stuttgart, 1852), p. 225; F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 240; Anton Birlinger, _Volksthumliches aus Schwaben_ (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1861-1862), ii. 57, 97; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 510.

[812] Compare J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 521; J.W. Wolf, _Beitrage zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Gottingen und Leipsic, 1852-1857), ii. 389; Adalbert Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gottertranks_*[2] (Gutersloh, 1886), pp. 41 _sq._, 47; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 521. Lindenbrog in his Glossary on the Capitularies (quoted by J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 502) expressly says: ”The rustics in many parts of Germany, particularly on the festival of St. John the Baptist, wrench a stake from a fence, wind a rope round it, and pull it to and fro till it catches fire. This fire they carefully feed with straw and dry sticks and scatter the ashes over the vegetable gardens, foolishly and superst.i.tiously imagining that in this way the caterpillar can be kept off. They call such a fire _nodfeur_ or _nodfyr_, that is to say need-fire.”

[813] Above, pp. 144 _sq._, 147 _sq._, 155, 169 _sq._, 175, 177, 179.

[814] J. Grimm, _Deutsche Mythologie_,*[4] i. 509; J.W. Wolf, _Beitrage zur deutschen Mythologie_, i. 117; A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers_,*[2] pp. 47 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, p. 521; W.E.

Kelly, _Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore_ (London, 1863), p. 49.

[815] A. Kuhn, _Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gottertranks_*[2]

(Gutersloh, 1886), p. 47.

[816] Above, p. 179.

[817] F. Panzer, _Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie_ (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. 240, -- 443.

[818] Above, p. 177.

[819] Above, pp. 187 _sq._

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