Zoological Mythology Volume I Part 12

[303] Mogest du reich an Rindern sein wie (der Sohn) de Athvyanischen (clanes); _Khorda Avesta_, xl. 4, Spiegel's version.

[304] Soll ich zum Himmel aufsteigen, soll ich in die Erde kriechen?

Darauf entgegnete Ahura Mazda: Schone Ashi, vom Schopfer geschaffene!

steige nicht zum Himmel auf, krieche nicht in die Erde; gehe du hieher in die Mitte der Wohnung eines schonen Konigs; _Khorda Avesta_, x.x.xiii. 59, 60, Spiegel's version.--Cfr. x.x.xiv. 3, and following, where are celebrated the handsome husband of the beautiful Ashis and his rich kingdom.

[305] Die Stierkopfkeule in der Rechten schwingend; Schack, _Heldensagen von Firdusi_, iv. 2.--Cfr. viii. 9.

[306] Die Donnerwolke bin ich, die Blitzeskeule schleudert; Schack, _Heldensagen von Firdusi_, v. 5.

[307] Die Diwe (the demons) pflegen um Mittagszeit zur Ruhe sich zu legen; das ist die Stunde sie zu besiegen. Nicht eher schreitet Rustem zu der That, bis sich die Sonne hoch erhoben hat; _Schack, Heldensagen von Firdusi_, v. 5.

[308] Ist's Rustem? ist es nicht die Sonne, die durch Morgenwolken bricht? _Schack, Heldensagen von Firdusi_, vii. 2.

[309] Indeed, this undertaking seems to the ferryman himself so supernatural, that he says these cannot be called men: "In Wahrheit, Menschen kann man sie nicht heissen." _Schack, Heldensagen von Firdusi_, x. 27.

[310] Cfr. Spiegel's _Die Alexandersage bei den Orientale_, Leipzig, 1851; and Zacher's _Pseudocallisthenes, Forschungen zur Kritik und Geschichte der altesten Aufzeichnung der Alexandersage_, Halle, 1867.

[311] Georg Rosen's version, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1858, 2 vols.

[312] Bernhard Julg's version, Innsbruck, 1867-1868.

[313] i. 5.

[314] i. 6.

[315] _Tuti-Name_, i. 7.

[316] _Tuti-Name_, i. 13.

[317] _Tuti-Name_, i. 14.--Cfr. Afana.s.sieff, _Narodnija ruskija skaski_, vi. 23.

[318] iii. 27.

[319] ii. 17.

[320] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 19.

[321] ii. 21.

[322] ii. 28.

[323] This story was current in Italy as early as the fifteenth century, having been related to her son by the mother of the philosopher and man of letters Pontano, as I find from his biography, published last year by Professor Tallarigo (Sanseverino-Marche).

[324] ii. 21.

[325] _Tuti-Name_, ii. 25.

[326] ii. 24.

[327] ii. 26.

[328] ii. 28.

[329] ii. 29.

[330] ii. 29.

[331] Cfr. also the chapter on the Hog, where we shall expound the myths and legends relating to disguises.

[332] Cfr. also the chapters on the Lion and the Fox.

[333] Cfr. on the story of Perrette, an interesting essay of Professor Max Muller in the _Contemporary Review_, 1870.

[334] Radloff, _Proben der Volkslitteratur der Turkischen Stamme sud-Sibiriens_.

[335] Professor Schiefner has already compared with this pa.s.sage a story published by Ahlquist in his _Versuch einer Mokscha-Mordwinischen Grammatik_, p. 97.

[336] Kasan, 1836, quoted by Professor Schiefner in the introduction to the _Proben_, &c., of Radloff.

[337] Cfr., for the meaning of this myth, the chapter which treats of the Hare.

[338] _Rune_, 7.--Cfr. Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, Petersburg, 1862, and the French translation of the _Kalevala_, published in 1867 by Leouzon le Duc.

[339] I find combined in the _Kleinere Schriften_ of Castren (p. 25) the same _Ukko_ with the word _Kave_ (_Kave Ukko_). I would with diffidence ask the learned Finnish philologists, whether, as _Ukko_ is a Finnish form of the deity whom the Hindoos called Indras, and as the hero protected by Indras, the hero in whom Indras is reproduced, is called in the Vedic (and Iranian) tradition _Kavya Ucana_, or even _Ucana Kavis_, the words _Kave Ukko_ may not have some relation to the name given to the Vedic and Iranian hero?

[340] Vainamoinen, alt und wahrhaft, konnt durch ihn die Eiche fallen; _Kal._ 24, in Castren's _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 233.

[341] Nur aus Trauer ward die Harfe, nur aus k.u.mmer sie geschaffen; harten Tagen ist die Wolbung, ist das Stammholz zu verdanken, nur Verdruss spannt ihre Saiten, andre Muhsal macht die Wirbel; _Kanteletar_, i., quoted by Castren in the _Kleinere Schriften_, p. 277.

[342] The origin of the bad and poor mythical iron, described in the _Kalevala_, is one of these: the mythical iron is the cloudy or tenebrous sky. The description is original, but the myths to which it refers are known to Indo-Europeans; as, for instance, the honey which becomes poison.

[343] _Ehsthnische Marchen_ aufgezeichnet von Fried. Kreuzwald, aus dem Ehsthnischen, ubersetzt von F. Lowe, with notes by A. Schiefner and R. Kohler, Halle, 1869.

[344] This is the phenomenon which occurs in the winter solstice on Christmas Eve and that of New Year's Day, in which we pa.s.s from one year to another; in one night we become older by a year.

[345] In a popular Swedish song, the maiden Gundela, who plays marvellously upon the harp, and, in order to play it, demands the king to marry her, is also a shepherdess.--Cfr. _Schwedische Volkslieder der Vorzeit_, ubertragen von Warrens, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1857.

[346] Cfr. the note of F. Lowe, ill.u.s.trating this pa.s.sage, in his version of the collection of Kreuzwald, pp. 144 and 145.--[This is also a myth of easy interpretation, if I am not mistaken: at evening, the sun loses his rays; the lion, the hero, loses his nails; these nails are picked up by the demoniacal monster, who forms out of them a hat (the gloom of night, or the clouds), by which the wearer has the gift of seeing without being seen. The magician who sees with his eyes shut is an interesting variation of this subject.]

[347] A similar ant.i.thesis is found in a Hungarian proverb, communicated to me by my learned friend Count Geza Kunn, together with other notices of Hungarian beliefs relating to animals. This proverb is as follows: "Even the black cow's milk is white." The black cow is spoken of in two other Hungarian proverbs; one says, "The black cow has not trodden upon his heel," meaning that no misfortune has happened to him; it is the usual vulnerable heel, the heel of Achilles, the posterior part, for which is subst.i.tuted sometimes, as we shall see in the chapter on the Fox and the Serpent, the tail or extreme hind part. Another proverb is, "In the dark all cows are black;" but it does not seem to have any mythical importance.

SECTION IV.

THE BULL AND THE COW IN SLAVONIC TRADITION.

SUMMARY.