Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites Part 1

Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites.

by John Nettin Radcliffe.

FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES.

A belief in the supernatural has existed in all ages and among all nations.

To trace the origin of this belief, the causes of the various modifications it has undergone, and the phases it has a.s.sumed, is, perhaps, one of the most interesting researches to which the mind can be given,--interesting, inasmuch as we find pervading every part of it the effects of those pa.s.sions and affections which are most powerful and permanent in our nature.

So general is the belief in a supreme and over-ruling Power, possessing attributes altogether different from and superior to human powers, and bending these and the forces of nature to its will, that the thought has been entertained by many that it is inborn in man. Such a doctrine is, however, refuted by an acquaintance with the inlets and modes of obtaining knowledge; by the fact that reason is necessary to its discovery; and by its uselessness.[1] "There are neither innate ideas nor innate propositions; but there is an innate power of understanding that shows itself in primitive notions, which, when put into speech, are expressed in propositions, which propositions, decomposed, produce, under the influence of abstraction and a.n.a.lysis, distinct ideas."[2]

Others have a.s.serted and maintained that man derives his knowledge of the existence of Deity, and, consequently, of the supernatural, from the exercise of reason upon himself and his own powers by self-reflection.

If he reflects upon the wonderful power of liberty and free-will which he possesses, on his relation to surrounding beings and things, and particularly on his imperfect, limited, and finite powers, it is argued that the ant.i.thetical proposition of infinite must of necessity be admitted. "I cannot have the idea of the finite and of imperfection without having that of perfection and of infinite. These two ideas are logically correlative."[3] Or if man extends his reasoning powers to the study or the contemplation "of the beauty, the order, the intelligence, the wisdom, and the perfection displayed throughout the universe; and as there must of necessity be in the cause what is witnessed in the effect, you reason from nature to its author, and from the existence of the perfection of the one you conclude the existence and perfection of the other."[4]

But many theologists maintain that the knowledge of a Deity, and of the existence of supernatural beings, is derived solely from revelation; and stern and prolonged have been the struggles in this country between the upholders of the rival tenets.

That no idea of a Deity, such as that which the Christian entertains, is to be found among the vague and undefined notions of supernatural power which are contained in the mythologies of pagan nations; that even the conceptions of Plato are to be summed up in the phrase "the unknown G.o.d;" and that the perfect idea of the G.o.dhead is to be derived solely from Scripture, can be satisfactorily shown. But the conclusion sought to be established from this, that all our ideas of the supernatural are derived from this source, does not necessarily follow.

The postulate that man can derive a knowledge of the supernatural from the exercise of his mental powers alone, cannot either be affirmed or denied, but it is not improbable.

Perhaps the nearest approach to correctness which we are as yet capable of on this subject is as follows:--

After the creation of man, G.o.d revealed himself. The perfect knowledge of the Deity thus obtained, was perpetuated by a fragment of the human race, notwithstanding the baneful effects of the fall; and at the epoch of the deluge, the solitary family which escaped that mighty cataclysm, formed a centre from which anew the attributes and powers of the G.o.dhead were made known in all their truth and purity. But again sin prevailed, and with the exception of one race, who alone treasured the true knowledge of the Deity, mankind lost by degrees the pure faith of their fathers; and as they receded from the light, the idea of the G.o.dhead became obscured, and in the progress of time well nigh lost, and the vague and imperfect ideas of a supernatural Power derived from tradition, prompted to a terror and awe of some invisible yet mighty influence, unknown and inexplicable, but which was manifested to man in the more striking objects and the incomprehensible phenomena of nature, which were regarded and worshipped as the seats of this unknown Power, forming the substratum of those wonderful systems of mythology which have characterised successive eras and races.

"Once," writes Plato, referring to the earlier traditions of the Greeks, "one G.o.d governed the universe; but a great and extraordinary change taking place in the nature of men and things, infinitely for the worse (for originally there was perfect virtue and perfect happiness on earth), the command then devolved on Jupiter, with many inferior deities to preside over different departments under him."[5]

To state the influence which each of the elements indicated above--tradition and reason--have had in the development of mythology, is doubtless impossible.

The existence of the first element, _tradition_, is, to those who admit the truth of Scripture, undeniable, and it gives a clue to the elucidation of the leading principle in the belief in those G.o.ds, daemons, fiends, sprites, &c., which, summed up, have const.i.tuted the objects of worship of different nations.

I. As in the course of generations the pristine revelation of the G.o.dhead to man became obscured, and a vague and traditionary belief alone remained,--the conceptions, the thoughts and imaginations of each generation being implanted in the succeeding one, and influencing it by the force of habit, education, and authority,--man, impressed with an imperfect notion of a supernatural Power, and ignorant of the forces of the material world, on seeking to unfold the source of those changes which he beheld in the budding forth of spring, the fervid beauty of summer, the maturity of autumn, and the stern grandeur of winter, conceived that the wonderful phenomena ever going on around him owed their origin and effects to the influence of supernatural agency, and marking their apparent dependence upon the sun and other orbs in s.p.a.ce, he offered adoration to those luminaries. But when he still further a.n.a.lysed the changes occurring on the surface of the globe, and comprehended the influence of the more palpable forces and elements, and the inexhaustible variety and seeming disconnectedness of the phenomena which he witnessed, incapable of otherwise solving the mysteries which surrounded him, he deemed each as the work of a potent and indwelling Spirit.[6]

Thus man concluded that he was surrounded by a world of supernatural beings, of different powers, attributes, and pa.s.sions. The sun and moon, the planets and stars, were conceived to be the abodes of spiritual existences; and the effects caused by those orbs which more immediately influence our earth, were considered as the indications of the powers of their respective deities. So also the air, its clouds and currents; the ocean, with its mighty progeny of lakes and rivers; and the earth, its hills, dales, and organic forms, were peopled with incorporeal beings.

Every object of beauty shadowed forth the operations of a beneficent Spirit; while devastating storms, barren places and deserts, and the convulsions of nature, betokened the malignancy of daemons or fiends.

According as a country's surface is harsh, rugged, barren, and storm-tossed, or clothed with lovely verdure and basking in the rays of a fervid sun, so do we find the princ.i.p.al characters of its mythology; stern, gigantic, and fierce G.o.ds or daemons, or spirits more kind towards man, and full of beauty and grace. The pa.s.sions and affections of man, for the same reasons, were considered to be under the sway of supernatural beings; in short, every operation of nature in the organic or inorganic, in the mental or physical worlds, was deemed an indication of the existence of a supernatural Being which ruled and governed it.[7]

These powers in the progress of time were personified and represented as possessed of pa.s.sions and propensities similar to those of man; for the same finite and imperfect reason which had concluded that they dwelt in the phenomena they were supposed to explain, also deemed, being unable to conceive any higher type of existence than was seen in man himself, that they differed simply in degree of power, and were alike subject to those appet.i.tes and pa.s.sions which characterised humanity.

This source of belief in spiritual existences is found dominant in the systems of mythology of all nations; and as it arises from causes which are inherant in man, it can easily be understood why there is so great a similarity in the primary mythological conceptions of different races.

The mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome furnish a very perfect ill.u.s.tration of the influence which this cause has exercised in the development of the belief in supernatural beings, and no better method of ill.u.s.tration can be adopted, than a sketch of the physical signification of the princ.i.p.al deities, and cla.s.ses of deities, of those countries.

The primitive religion of the Greeks and Romans would appear to have consisted in the worship of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism):--the t.i.tans are nearly all personifications of the celestial orbs. Subsequently, their mythology a.s.sumed a more physical character, and the offspring of Cronos (Saturn, _time_), or the personifications of the firmament, atmosphere, sea, &c., formed the leading deities of the more developed system of religion, and the reign of Jupiter commenced.

In this system, the G.o.d Jupiter is symbolical of the upper regions of the atmosphere (_aether_). Euripides writes:--

"The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold, See it with soft embrace the earth enfold; This own the chief of deities above, And this acknowledge by the name of Jove."[8]

At a later period this G.o.d was conceived to represent the soul of the world, diffused alike through animate and inanimate nature; or, as Virgil poetically describes it in the aeneid--(Book vi.):

"The heaven and earth's compacted frame, And flowing waters, and the starry flame, And both the radiant lights, one common soul Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.

This active mind infused through all the s.p.a.ce, Unites and mingles with the mighty ma.s.s.

Hence man and beasts the breath of life obtain, And birds of air, and monsters of the main."

The G.o.d Apollo signifies the sun,--his prophetic power being symbolical of its influence in dispelling darkness; his knowledge of medicine and healing, signifies the influence of that luminary in revivifying and restoring the powers of organic life; his skill in music is symbolical of the central position of the sun among the seven planets, and its making harmony with them; and the harp upon which this G.o.d is depicted as playing, is furnished with seven strings, in emblem of the seven planets. _Pan_ represents the universal world, and he is the emblem of fecundity. Hence this G.o.d is depicted in his upper part as a man, in his lower parts as a beast; "because the superior and celestial part of the world is beautiful, radiant and glorious, as the face of this G.o.d, whose horns resemble the rays of the sun, and the horns of the moon. The redness of his face is like the splendour of the sky; and the spotted skin that he wears is an image of the starry firmament. In his lower parts he is s.h.a.gged and deformed, which represents the shrubs, and wild beasts, and trees of the earth below. His goat's feet signify the solidity of the earth; and his pipe of seven reeds, that celestial harmony which is made by the seven planets. He has a shepherd's hook, crooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies the turning of the year into itself."[9]

The G.o.ddess _Cybele_ was symbolical of the earth; _Juno_, of the air--the link between earthly and heavenly natures; _Vulcan_, of fire; _aeolus_, of the winds; _Diana_, of the moon; _Neptune_, of the sea; _Rusina_, of the country; _Ceres_, of the fruits of the earth; _Collina_, of the hills; _Vallonia_, of the valleys; _Silva.n.u.s_, of the woods, which teemed also with inferior deities--_satyrs_ and _fauns_; _Seia_ presided over all seed; _Flora_, flowers; _Proserpina_ cherished the corn when it had sprung above the earth; _Volasia_ folded the blade round it ere the beard broke out; _Nodosus_ watched over the joints and knots of the stalk; _Patelina_ governed the opened ear; _Lactusa_ took charge when it became milky; _Matura_ guarded and conducted it to maturity; _Hostilina_ presided over the crop; and _Tutelina_, over the cutting.

_Nymphs_, G.o.ddesses of lovely form, and light and airy beauty, sported about the earth; a _Dryad_ presided over every tree; a _Hamadryad_ was born, lived, and died with each oak; _Oreads_ dwelt on the mountains; _Napeae_, in the groves and valleys; _Lemoniads_, in the meadows and fields; _Nereiads_, in the ocean; _Naiads_, at the fountains; _Fluviales_, by the rivers: and _Lirinades_, by lakes and ponds.

_Vesta_ presided over the vital heat of the body; _Ja.n.u.s_ opened the gate of life to infant man; _Opis_ a.s.sisted him when he came into the world; _Nascio_ presided over the moment of birth; _Cunia_ watched over the cradle, and while he lay and slept; _Vagita.n.u.s_, or _Vatica.n.u.s_, took care while the infant cried; _Rumina_ presided while the child sucked the breast; _Potina_ guarded the infant drinking; _Educa_ watched over it while it received food; _Ossilago_ "knit its bones" and hardened its body; _Carna_ presided over the safety of the inward parts; the G.o.ddess _Nundina_ had charge of the child on the ninth day--the day of purification; _Statilinus_ taught the infant to stand and walk, and preserved it from falling; _Fabulinus_ looked after the child when it began to speak; _Paventia_ preserved it from fright; _Juventus_ protected the beginning of youth; _Agenoria_ excited man to action; _Strenua_ encouraged him to behave bravely on all occasions; _Stimula_ urged him to extraordinary exertions; _Horta_ exhorted him to n.o.ble actions; _Quis_ gave peace and quietude; _Murcia_ rendered man lazy, idle, and dull; _Adeona_ protected him in his outgoings and incomings; _Vibilia_ guarded wanderers; _Vacuna_ protected the lazy and idle; _Fessonia_ refreshed the weary; _Meditrina_ healed injuries; _Vitula_ presided over and gave mirth; _Volupia_ governed pleasures; _Orbona_ was a G.o.ddess supplicated that she might not leave parents dest.i.tute of children; _Pellonia_ drove away enemies; _Numeria_ endued men with the power of casting numbers; _Sentia_ gave just and honourable sentiments; _Augerona_ removed anguish from the mind; and _Consus_ presided over good counsels.

_Virtue_ also was worshipped as a G.o.ddess; and the several species of virtue were considered each as emanating from some G.o.dlike power, and _Faith_, _Hope_, _Justice_, _Piety_, _Peace_, _Fidelity_, _Liberty_, and _Money_, were worshipped as good deities; while, on the other hand, _Envy_, _Contumely_, _Impudence_, _Calumny_, _Fraud_, _Discord_, _Fury_, _Fame_, _Fortune_, _Fever_, and _Silence_, were supplicated as evil deities.

_Minerva_ was symbolical of wisdom and chast.i.ty; _Mercury_, of eloquence--speech; _Venus_ of ungovernable pa.s.sions and desire; _Saturn_, time; _Momus_, mockery; _Silenus_, jesting; _Mars_, war; and _Bacchus_, wine. The _Muses_ each represented an accomplishment. Thus, _Calliope_ presided over epic poetry; _Clio_, history; _Erato_, elegy and amorous song; _Thalia_, comedy, gay, light, and pleasing song; _Melpomene_, tragedy; _Terpsich.o.r.e_, dancing; _Euterpe_, music; _Polyhymnia_, religious song; and _Urania_, the knowledge of celestial events.

_Themis_ taught mankind what was honest, just, and right; _Astraea_ was the G.o.ddess of justice; _Nemesis_ punished vice, rewarded virtue, and taught mankind their duty.

Every action of man, both in his collective and individual capacity--everything in relation to his household and domestic affairs--was also conceived to be governed by supernatural powers, which were cla.s.sed under the names of _Penates_ and _Lares_.

The _Penates_, as may well be imagined, were almost numberless, but they may be divided into three cla.s.ses: 1st, those which presided over kingdoms and provinces; 2nd, those which presided over cities only; and 3rd, those presiding over houses and families. To instance to what an extent this belief was carried, a penate named _Ferculus_ looked after the door; the G.o.ddess _Cardua_ after the hinges; and _Limentius_ protected the threshold.

The _Lares_ were of human origin, and they presided also over houses, streets, and ways. Subsequently their power was extended to the country and the sea.

To each person was also a.s.signed two deities, termed _genii_. These spirits were subsidiary to the G.o.ds already mentioned, it being one of their duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The genii differed in nature and disposition, and were divided into two cla.s.ses--the _good_ and the _bad_. The _good genius_ excited men to all actions of honour and virtue; the _evil genius_ excited him to all manner of wickedness.

The Greeks termed these genii _daemons_, either from the terror and dread they created when they appeared, or from the wise answer they returned when consulted as oracles.

The ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience and by the effects of the evil pa.s.sions, were attributed to three supernatural powers termed the _Furies_--_Alecto_, _Tisiphone_, and _Megaera_--who became symbolical of the avengers of wickedness; and lastly, Night, Sleep, and Death--_Nox_, _Mors_, and _Somnus_--were elevated among the G.o.ds.

This brief sketch will serve to show the leading principle entering into the formation of the Grecian and Roman mythology--a mythology containing more than 30,000 G.o.ds; and it will ill.u.s.trate how every hidden power of nature as well in the organic as the inorganic world; and how every equally inexplicable operation of the human mind was referred, for an explanation, to the influence of a supernatural power, which in the progress of time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed in such a form as best set forth the effects it was conceived to produce.

This source of the belief in the supernatural, as we have already stated, will be found to have prevailed among all nations; hence their primary mythological conceptions are one and the same, modified by the difference of climate, habits, &c.

Thus, of the G.o.ds of the ancient Britons--_Belin_, _Plennyd_, or _Granwyn_, possessed the attributes of, and was the same with, Apollo; _Gwydion_, or _Teutath_, had all the attributes of Mercury; _Daronwy_, _Taranwy_, or _Taranis_, the thunderer, of Jove; _Anras_, or _Andraste_, of Bellona; _He-us_, _Hesus_, _Hugadarn_, or _Hu-ysgwn_, united the characters of Bacchus and Mars; _Ked_ and _Keridwen_ answered to Ceres; _Llenwy_ to Proserpine; _Olwen_ and _Dwynwen_ to Venus; and _Neivion_ to Neptune.[10]

In the Scandinavian mythology the princ.i.p.al G.o.ds are personifications of physical and mental powers. _Odin_, the most powerful of the three beings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses the attributes of Mercury; and according to Finn Magnusen, _Vili_ is the personification of light; _Ve_, of fire. The two ravens which are depicted as sitting constantly upon the shoulders of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of the princ.i.p.al G.o.ds, we find that _Thor_ is symbolical of thunder; _Baldur_ of the sun; _Njord_ rules over the winds, sea, &c.; _Frey_ is the G.o.d of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth; _Tyr_, of war; _Bragi_, of wisdom and poetry; _Vidar_, of silence; _Forseti_, of law and justice; _Loki_ is the personification of evil; _Frigga_ is the G.o.ddess of the earth; and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the past, and the future, healing, chast.i.ty, abundance, love, courtesy, wisdom, and every form and pa.s.sion and power of nature which the Scandinavians had separated and distinguished, each had its special and worshipped G.o.d.

The original worship of the Hindoos[11] was directed to the heavenly bodies, the elements, and natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers, which form the princ.i.p.al part of the Vedas, or sacred writings, the firmament, the sun, moon, fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most frequently addressed. These writings inculcate the worship of the elements and planets, and differ from the more recent and legendary poems which teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In the Sanhita of the Rig-veda, the invocations which it contains are chiefly addressed to the deities of fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons, the sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present at the sacrifices, or are appealed to for wealth or for their several beneficial qualities.

The personified attributes of _Brahma_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_, signifying respectively creation, preservation, and destruction, are due to a later and more refined era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior deities ranking next in order to the _Trimurti_, and termed _Lokapalas_, are all personifications of natural objects and powers. Thus _Indra_ is the G.o.d of, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder, lightning, storm, and rain; _Agni_, of fire; _Yama_, of the infernal regions; _Surya_, of the sun; _Varuna_, of water; _Parana_, of wind; _Kuvera_, of wealth; and _Soma_, or _Chandra_, of the moon.

The celebrated line which it is enjoined should be repeated without intermission, and which is the most holy pa.s.sage in the Vedas, reads literally, "Let us meditate on the adorable light of Savitri (the sun--the divine ruler); may it guide our intellects." This, it is a.s.serted, is addressed to the sun as the symbol of a divine and all-powerful being, and it is regarded as a proof of the monotheism of the Vedas. This explanation is, however, considered by some to be far from satisfactory, and to offer greater difficulties than the text ever can when taken in a natural light.

The creed of Buddha contains similar traces of elemental worship. The five Buddhas and the five Bodhisattwas would appear to be personifications of the princ.i.p.al natural elements and phenomena.

In Persian mythology we find a similar deification of natural phenomena.

In the creed of Zoroaster, which was a modification of pre-existing beliefs, there is an eternal almighty Being, _Zernane Akherene_ (illimitable, uncreated time), who created _Ormuzd_ (light, goodness); and _Ahrimann_ (darkness, evil). Ormuzd created the universe, and the genii, or deities of light, of whom there are three cla.s.ses.