Demonology and Devil-lore Part 53

[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 pa.s.sed 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 (ChIRoN) 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 Parna.s.sus (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 G.o.ds welcome at Athens where the attempt to produce our modern Offenbach's Belle Helene recently caused a theatrical riot?

[213] Wuttke. 'Volksaberglaube,' 18.

[214] Schleicher, 'Litauische Marchen,' 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 G.o.d, 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, 'Gotter,' 287.

[218] Freia-Holda, the Teutonic G.o.ddess 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 Legende des Siecles.'

[227] Bruce relates of the Abyssinians that a serpent is commonly kept in their houses to consult for an augury of good or evil. b.u.t.ter 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 pa.s.sage--'b.u.t.ter 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 G.o.d 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 Inst.i.tute 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] aesch. 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, Lah.o.r.e, vol. i. part iii. Trubner & 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.