Zoological Mythology Volume Ii Part 9

Even the wife of the king of the monkeys is named Tara, or, properly, the star. Thus there seems to exist between the monkey and the star the same relation as between the bear and the star, a new argument to vindicate the ident.i.ty of the two animals in mythology.

[155] Priya tash?ani me kapir vyakta vy adudushat ciro nv asya ravisha? na suga? dushk?ite bhuva? vicvasmad indra uttara?; str. 5.

[156] i. 2628.

[157] iii. 75.

[158] iv. 5.

[159] v. 2, vii. 39.

[160] v. 3.

[161] _Ramay._ v. 4, v. 5.

[162] v. 55.

[163] _Ramay._ iv. 12, v. 6.--The monkey on the sea is also to be found in a Greek apologue, but the subject is somewhat different. A monkey, which during a tempest had been washed from a ship, and tossed about upon the stormy waves under the promontory of Attica, is mistaken by a dolphin for a man; the dolphin, having great affection for the race to which he presumed he belonged, takes him up and carries him towards the sh.o.r.e. But before letting him touch firm ground, he asks him whether he is an Athenian; the monkey answers that he is of ill.u.s.trious birth; the dolphin asks if he knows the Piraeus; the monkey, thinking that it is a man's name, answers that he is a great friend of his; upon which the dolphin, indignant at having been deceived, lets the monkey fall again into the sea.

[164] _Ramay._ v. 56.

[165] v. 8.

[166] v. 37.

[167] _Ramay._ v. 56.

[168] v. 50.--In the _Pancatantram_, v. 10, it is said, on the contrary, that monkeys possess the virtue of healing the wounds of horses that have been scalded or burned, as the sun of morning chases the darkness away. According to a variety of this story contained in the _Tuti-Name_, i. 130, the bite of a monkey can be cured only by the blood of the very monkey who had inflicted it.

[169] A?natakulacile 'pi priti? kurvanti vanara? atmarthe ca na rodanti; Bohtlingk, _Indische Spruche_, 107.

[170] v. 36.

[171] i. 266.

[172] ?iksho na vo maruta? cimiva? amo dadhro gauriva bhimayu? _?igv._ v. 56, 3.

[173] Ami ya ?iksha nihitasa ucca; _?igv._ i. 24, 10.

[174] _Ramay._ i. 60-62.

[175] vi. 46.

[176] vi. 6.

[177] v. 59.

[178] v. 25.

[179] This story, with some variations, was already known in the sixteenth century: "Demetrius Moschovitarum legatus Romam missus, teste Paulo Jovio (quoted by Aldrovandi), narravit proximis annis viciniae suae agricolam quaerendi mellis causa in praegrandem et cavam arborem superne desiliisse, eumque profundo mellis gurgite collo tenus fuisse immersum et biduo vitam solo melle sustinuisse, c.u.m in illa solitudine vox agricolae opem implorantis ad viatorum aures non perveniret. Tandem hic, desperata salute, ursae beneficio extractus evasit, nam hujus ferae ad mella edenda more humano in arboris civitatem se demittentis, pellem tergoris manibus comprehendit et inde ab ursa subito timore exterrita et retrocedente extractus fuit."--The bear is also celebrated in Kriloff's fables as an eater of honey.--In an apologue of Abstemius, the bear, when searching for honey, is stung by a bee; he avenges himself by destroying the honeycombs, but the swarms of bees fly upon him, and sting and torment him on every side; the bear then complains that by not having known how to support a small evil he had drawn upon himself a very grave one.--The pears of the Italian proverb in connection with the bear also refer to hydromel or to honey. The Italian proverbs are as follows: "Dar le pere in guardia all' orso" (to give the pears to be guarded by the bear); "Chi divide la pera (or il miele) all' orso ne ha sempre men che parte" (he who divides the pear (or the honey) with the bear, always has less than a part, that is, the bear eats it all), and "L'orso sogna pere" (the bear dreams of pears). To catch the bear is the same as to be inebriated; the bear, in fact, is, in the legends, often inebriated himself with honey, as the Vedic Indras with the ambrosia, and as Balaramas in the spirituous liquor contained in the fissure of a tree (_Vish?u-P._ v. 25). The sun in the cloud or in the rainy or wintry season drinks more than necessary. Cfr. also Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, p. 182.

[180] In the fifteenth story of _Afana.s.sieff_, the bear revenges himself upon an old man who had cut off one of his paws with a hatchet; the bear makes himself a paw from the wood of a linden-tree, takes the old man and the old woman by surprise in their house and devours them. In the nineteenth story of the fourth book, the bear allies himself with the fox lamed by the peasant, and with the gadfly that the peasant had placed behind the straw, in order to revenge himself upon the peasant, who, promising to cover him with spots like the horse, had struck him here and there on the body with a red-hot axe, so that the bones were left bare. This fable is perhaps connected with the Hindoo superst.i.tion that the burns of a horse are cured by means of a monkey. As to the wooden paws, they are doubtless the branches of the cloudy or nocturnal forest. In the _Edda_ of Somund it is said that the Alfes are accustomed to call the trees the beautiful arms; we already know the meaning of the boy with the golden hand.

[181] In the tenth story of the third book of _Afana.s.sieff_, Nadzei, the son of a virgin who is the daughter of a priest, makes himself formidable by cutting down the forest and drawing, without a.s.sistance, out of the forest the bear that destroyed the cats.

[182] In a description of the last Sunday of the Roman carnival of the thirteenth century, in Du Cange, _s. v. Carnelevarium_, we read: "Occidunt ursum, occiditur diabolus, id est, temptator nostrae carnis."--In Bohemia it is still the custom at the end of the carnival to bring the bear,--that is, a man disguised as a bear, with straw, who goes round to ask for beer (or hydromel, which takes the place of the mythical honey or ambrosia). The women take the straws to put them into the place where the hens lay their eggs, to make them lay better.

In Suabia the straw bear is accused of having killed a blind cat, and therefore condemned, with all formality, to death, after having had, before his death, two priests to console him; on Ash-Wednesday the bear is solemnly buried.--Cfr. Reinsberg von Duringfeld, _Das festliche Jahr_.--The poet Hans Sachs, quoted by Simrock, covers with a bear's skin two old women who are to be presented to the devil.

[183] Cfr., moreover, _Afana.s.sieff_, ii. 33.--In a popular Norwegian story, the fox makes the bear catch fish with his tail, which is frozen in the water.

[184] _Afana.s.sieff_, v. 2.

[185] viii. 10.

[186] iv. 13.

[187] i. 6.

[188] Concerning the bear's sleep, it is interesting to read the curious information furnished by Aldrovandi (_De Quadr. Dig. Viv._ i.): "Devorant etiam ursi ineunte hyeme radices nomine n.o.bis adhuc ignotas, quibus per longum temporis spatium cibi cupiditas expletur et somnus conciliatur. Nam in Alpibus Helveticis aiunt, referente Gesnero, vaccarum pastorem eminus vidisse ursum, qui radicem quemdam manibus propriis effossam edebat, et post ursi discessum, illuc se transtulisse; radicemque illam degusta.s.se, qui postmodum tanto somni desiderio affectus est, ut se continere non potuerit, quin in via stratus somno frueretur." The bear, as a nocturnal and wintry animal, must of necessity conciliate sleep.

[189] Cfr. _Afana.s.sieff_, vi. 5.--According to h.e.l.lenic tradition, Paris and Atalanta were nourished with the milk of a she-bear.

[190] Cfr. _Afana.s.sieff_, v. 27, v. 28.--According to Cardano, to meet with a bear's cub just born indicated a change of fortune for the better.

[191] Cfr. the work of Schade, _Die Sage von der Heiligen Ursula_. She is also to be found among the _Leggende del Secolo Decimoquarto_, published at Florence by Signor Del Lungo (Barbera, publisher).

[192]

"... il parle, on l'entend, il sait danser, baller Faire des tours de toute sorte Pa.s.ser en des cerceaux."

--_La Fontaine, Fables_, ix. 3.

In _La Fontaine_, the monkey is again identified with the a.s.s, as a judge on the tribunal between the wolf and the fox, and afterwards as dressed in the skin of the dead lion. In the fourth fable of the eleventh book, La Fontaine makes the monkey M.A. narrate the story of the _asinus asinum fricat;_ in the second fable of the twelfth book the monkey scatters the miser's treasure, as in Hindoo tradition it spoils the sacrificial offerings.

[193] Cfr. Aldrovandi, _De Quadr. Dig. Viv._

CHAPTER XII.

THE FOX, THE JACKAL, AND THE WOLF.

SUMMARY.

Lopacas, lopacika.--The jackal takes in Hindoo tradition the place of the fox.--What the fox represents in mythology, and why the jackal is his mythical equivalent.--Double aspect of the mythical fox, in connection with the c.o.c.k and in connection with the wolf, turned towards the day and towards the night, now friendly, now hostile to the hero.--The fox deceives all the other animals, in order to have all the prey to itself.--The fox is the monster's enemy.--The blue jackal.--The inquisitive jackal.--The avenging jackal.--The astute fox; the woman more cunning than the fox.--The fox's skin.--The b.u.t.tered tail of the jackal.--The fox eats the honey, the b.u.t.ter, or the cake belonging to the wolf, and then accuses him.--The fox sends the wolf to fish.--The fox eats the woman whom he had promised to bring to life.--The fox as a mourner.--The peasant ungrateful to the fox.--"Cauda de vulpe testatur."--The fox eats the bear; the bird feeds the fox, and afterwards draws it in among the dogs.--Former hospitality is to be forgotten.--The fox as the cat's wife.--The round cheese of the myth is the moon.--The fox steals the fishes.--The fox is of every profession.--The grateful fox enriches the poor hero.--King Fire and Queen Loszna.--The house of the fox and that of the hare.--The fox deceives the c.o.c.k; the c.o.c.k deceives the fox.--The fox's tail in the beaks of the chickens.--The fox's malice; the ideal of a prince according to Macchiavelli; fox and serpent.--The fox cheats almost all the animals; it does not, however, succeed in cheating the other foxes, and sometimes not even the lion.--The Catholic Church furnishes new types for the legend of the fox.--Union of the fox with the wolf.--Diverse nature of the wolf.--The red wolf.--The thieving wolf.--The wolf (or the devil) and the fishes; the fish in shallow water.--The dog and the wolf.--The wolf as a shepherd.--Wolf's belly.--The good wolf and the good maiden.--The son of the wolf understands the language of birds.--The she-wolf as a nurse; she-wolves and strumpets.--Disguises in a wolf's skin.--Wolf-hunter.--The wolf's shadow.--Wolves that chastise in the name of G.o.d; sanctified wolves.--The dead wolf; the wolf's skin.--Diabolical wolves.--The white wolf.--Wulfesheofod.--Ysengrin.--The wolf sings psalms.--The cunning of the wolf.--The wolf's tail.--The dwarf in the wolf's body; the dwarf in the wolf's sack.--The she-wolf at Rome.--Dante's she-wolf.

The fox is scarcely spoken of once in the _?igvedas_ by the name of lopacas (alopex), as penetrating to the old Western lion; this word (like _lopakas_, which is interpreted in the Petropolitan Dictionary as "a kind of jackal") seems to mean properly "the destroyer" (according to Professor Weber, _Aasfresser_). The Sansk?it language also gives us the diminutive _lopacika_, which is interpreted as the female of a jackal and as the fox (vulpecula). The legendary fox, however, is generally represented in Hindoo tradition by the jackal, or _canis aureus_ (s?igalas, krosh?ar, gomayus, as a shouter). The fox is the reddish mediatrix between the luminous day and the gloomy night: the crepuscular phenomenon of the heavens taking an animal form, no form seemed more adapted to the purpose than that of the fox or the jackal, on account of their colour and some of their cunning habits: the hour of twilight is the time of uncertainties and of deceits. Professor Weber[194] supposes that all the cunning actions attributed to the jackal in Hindoo fables were taken on loan from the fox of h.e.l.lenic fables. We must certainly a.s.sign no undue importance to the expressions _vancakas_ and _m?igadhurtakas_ (the cheater of animals), given in Hindoo lexicons to the jackal, inasmuch as these lexicons are not of very remote antiquity; but at the same time we must confess, that the cunning of the fox has been exaggerated by popular superst.i.tion as much as the stupidity of the a.s.s, for a mythical reason, and from tradition, far more than by the observation of exceptional habits in these animals, which could easily be identified in mythology, in which, as I have already observed, some few gross and accidental similarities are enough to cause the same phenomena to be represented by animals of a very different genus. Thus the hairy reddish bodies of the bear and the monkey, and certain postures which they a.s.sume in common, are enough to make us understand how they are sometimes subst.i.tuted for each other in legends; for the same reason, to the monkey and to the bear are attributed some of the enterprises for which the legendary fox is celebrated. How much greater, therefore, must have been the confusion which arose between the _canis vulpes_ (the reddish fox) and the _canis aureus_ (or jackal), animals which agree in showing themselves towards night, in feeding upon little animals, in having skins of the same colour, who have very bright eyes, and several other zoological characteristics in common?