[232] Viçvarûpo vâi tvâshṭraḥ purohito devânâm âsît svasriyo 'surâṇâm tasya trîṇi çirshâny asant—Indras tasya vaǵram âdâya çîrshâny aćhinad yat somapânam—Brahma-hatyam upâ 'griḥṇat—Tam bhûtâny abhy akroçan brahmahann iti; Tâittirîya Saṁhitâ, ed. Weber. ii. 5, 1-6.
[233] vii. 5, 28.
[234] Sa tasya khañgena mahâçirâṅsi kapiḥ samas tâṁ sukuṇḍalâṁ kruddhaḥ praćiććheda tadâ hanûmâns ṭvâshṭrâtmaǵasyeva çirânsi çakrah; Râmây. vii. 50.
[235] Râmây. vii. 10.
[236] Mbh. i. 4990.—Cfr. also the three phallical and solar brothers of the story of Çunaḥçepas (him with the luminous tail or phallus).
[237] i. 4775.
[238] Balaṁ nâgasahasrasya yasmin kuṇḍe pratishṭhitaṁ yâvatpivati bâlo 'yaṁ tâvad asmâi pradîyataṁ—ekoććhvâsâttataḥ kuṇḍaṁ danaḥ; Mbh. i. 5030, 5032.—A similar legend is found again in the third book of the Mahâbhâratam, under the form of an impenetrable forest, in which the king of the serpents envelops Bhîmas.
[239] Mbh. i. 4777.
[240] i. 5300-5304.
[241] i. 680-828.
[242] Tam kliçyamânamindro 'paçyatsa vaǵraṁ presḥayâmâsa—gaććhâsya brâhmaṇasya sâhâyyaṁ kurusveti—atha vaǵram daṇḍakâshṭhamanupraviçya tadvilamadârayat; Mbh. i. 794-795.
[243] In a legend of the Tibetan Buddhists, referred to by Professor Schiefner in his interesting work, Ueber Indra's Donnerkeil (St Petersburg), 1848, we find two valiant heroes who, upon Mount Gṛidhrakûṭa (the vulture's peak), strive, in presence of their master, to lift the vaǵram (that is, the arm in the form of a wedge, the lever-rod, the thunderbolt of Indras), but in vain; Vaǵrapâṇis alone succeeds in lifting the vaǵram with his right hand. Râmas makes a similar trial of strength in the Râmâyaṇam, when he lifts and breaks in pieces a bow, which no one had before been able even to move.
[244] Cfr. the following chapter.
[245] i. 2772-2783.
[246] To the myth of the ravished earrings is almost always joined, even in the popular tales, the story of the horse, which is always especially referred to the Açvinâu, as that of the bull to Indras. In the Puranic legends, Kṛishṇas receives from the earth the earrings of Aditis (whom we already know to be a cow), whilst he frees the princesses from the infernal Narakas.—Cfr. the Vishṇu Purâṇa, v. 29.
[247] v. 17.
[248] Cfr. the chapters which treat of the Wolf, the Fox, and the Serpent; and also the foregoing discussion on the Vedic riddles, where the sun is called anipadyamânas.
[249] Ahaṁ ǵalaṁ kimuńćâmi praǵânâm hitakâmyayâ; Mbh. i. 3317.
[250] iii. 23, 24.
[251] Dadarça râǵâ tâm tatra kanyâmagniçikhâmiva; Mbh. i. 3294.
[252] Mbh. i. 3379-3394
[253] Mbh. i. 3435-3545.
[254] Mbh. i. 4193-4211.
[255] Mbh. i. 4211-4216.
[256] We shall find the lame goat in the chapter which treats of the Lamb and the Goat.
[257] 1908.
[258] v. 12.
[259] The word badhiras means here the crooked, the crippled one, and not the deaf (from the root badh or vadh, to wound, to cut); the more so that here the name of the blind man's companion is Mantharakas, a word which properly means the slow one. The curved line and the slow line correspond; and the curved one, who cannot stand upright, may be the hunchback just as well as the cripple, the crooked, the lame.—Cfr. The chapter on the Tortoise.
[260] For the incident of the hunchback who betrays the blind man, in the same popular tale, cfr. next chapter.
[261] i. 6527.
[262] Sâudâminîva ćâbhreshu tatrâevântaradhîyata; Mbh. i. 6557.
[263] Tasminnṛipatiçârdûle pravishṭe nagaraṁ punaḥ pravavarsha sahasrâkshaḥ çasyâni ǵanayanprabhuḥ; Mbh. 6629, 6630.
[264] i. 6651-6772.
[265] The hundred daughters of King Kuçanabhas, and of the nymph Ghṛitâći, who walks in curdled milk, recalling to us the mythical cow.—Cfr. Râmây. i. 35.
[266] Cfr. Virgil, Ænëid, I. 65-75, where Juno gives the nymph Deiopea to Æolus.
[267] Anquetil du Perron, Zendavesta, ii. p. 545.
[268] Misit itaque Deus justissimus citissime Angelum Behman quasi esset fumus (jubendo): Ito et bovem rubrum accipiens mactato in nomine Dei qui prudentiam dat; eumque coquito in aceto veteri, et cave accurate facias, allio ac rutâ, superadditis; et in nomine Dei ex olla effundito: deinde coram eo adpone ut comedat. Cumque portiunculam panis in íllud friasset, Diabolus ille maledictus inde aufugit, abiit, evanuit et disparuit, nec deinde, illum aliquis postea vidit; Sadder, p. 94.—The Russian peasants still believe that a household devil, the damavoi, enters into the stable, who, during the night, mounts on horses and oxen and makes them sweat and grow lean.—Cfr. also, on the Damavoi, Ralston's Songs of the Russian people, London, 1872, pp. 119-139.
[269] Cfr. Spiegel's Avesta, vol. ii.; Einleitung, vii.
[270] Cfr. Spiegel's Avesta, vol. ii. 21.
[271] x. 11.
[272] xxix.
[273] Cfr. Spiegel's Avesta, vol. ii. p. 8.
[274] xix. 99-101. Professor Spiegel translates "Mit dem Hunde, mit Entscheidung, mit Vieh, mit Stärke, mit Tugend, diese bringt die Seelen der Reinen über den Harabezaiti hinweg: über die Brücke Chinvat bringt sie das Heer der himmlischen Yazatas."
[275] Cows and calves, as a funeral gift, are spoken of in the Khorda Avesta, li. 15, Spiegel's version.
[276] Cfr. also the Tistrya with a whole eye of the Khorda Avesta of Spiegel, p. 9, and all the Tistar Yast in the Khorda Avesta, xxiv. If Tistar is the moon, Tistrya would appear to perform the same duties as the good fairy—that is, of showing, by means of her good eyes, her good eyesight, and her splendour, the way to the lost heroes. The Hindoo cow of Vasishṭhas, which yields every good thing, and which then fights in the clouds against Viçvâmitras, would sometimes appear to be the moon veiled by the rainy cloud; thus we can explain the rain-giving character of the star Tistrya, which, according to the Bundehesh, by raining ten days and ten nights, destroyed the monsters of dryness created by the demon Ag̃ro-maiṇyus.
[277] xxxix. 1.
[278] xvii. 25.
[279] Spiegel's version, p. 149.—Cfr. the three litanies for the body and soul of the cow, in the fragments of the same vol. p. 254.
[280] Khorda Avesta, Spiegel's version, Einl. x.
[281] Spiegel's version, p. 4.
[282] These are the exact terms used by Spiegel:—"Dieser opferte der frühere Vifra-navâza, als ihn aufrief der siegreiche, starke Thraetaona, in der Gestalt eines Vogels, eines Kahrkâça. Dieser flog dort während dreier Tage und dreier Nächte hin zu seiner eigenen Wohnung, nicht abwärts, nicht abwärts gelangte er genährt. Er ging hervor gegen die Morgenröthe der dritten Nacht, der starken, beim Zerfliessen der Morgenröthe und betete zur Ardvî Çûra, der fleckenlosen; Ardvî Çûra, fleckenlose! eile mir schnell zu Hülfe, bringe nun mir Beistand, ich will dir tausend Opfer mit Haoma und Fleisch versehene, gereinigte, wohl ausgesuchte, bringen hin zu dem Wasser Ragha, wenn ich lebend hinkomme zu der von Ahura geschaffenen Erde, hin zu meiner Wohnung. Es lief herbei Ardvî Çûra, die fleckenlose, in Gestalt eines schönen Mädchens, eines sehr kräftigen, wohlgewachsenen, aufgeschürzten, reinen, mit glänzendem Gesichte, edlen, unten am Fusse mit Schuhen bekleidet, mit goldnem Diadem auf dem Scheitel. Diese ergriff ihm am Arme, bald war das, nicht lange dauerte es, dass er hinstrebte kräftig zu von Ahura geschaffenen Erde, gesund, so unverletzt als wie vorher, zu seiner eignen Wohnung;" Khorda Avesta, pp. 51, 52.
[283] Welche zuerst den Wagen fährt; Khorda Avesta, Spiegel's version, p. 45.
[284] Professor Spiegel says, however, "Vom Aufgang der Sonne bis Tagesanbruch," which in a note he explains, "Vom Sonnenaufgang bis Mitternacht," which it appears to us cannot stand scrutiny, any more than the conclusion inferred from this, that the sacrifice was to be made "den ganzen Tag hindurch." Zarathustra would not have been obliged to ask the precise time at which to sacrifice to the goddess, if she was to answer him in such a general way. What occasion is there to pray in midday, in full daylight, that the darkness may be dispersed?—If there be any equivoque, it can only be, in my opinion, in the rather frequent exchange of the maiden Aurora and the fairy Moon.
[285] Cfr. Khorda Avesta, Spiegel's version, pp. 7, 27.
[286] xix. 52.
[287] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Cock.
[288] Cfr. Khorda Avesta, Spiegel's version, Einl. xxv., and all the important Mirh Yast, or collection of hymns in honour of Mithra, in the Khorda Avesta, xxvi.
[289] Cfr. Khorda Avesta, Spiegel's version, Einl. xxxiii., and the Bahrâm Yast in the Khorda Avesta, xxx. 7, Spiegel's version. It is then that he says of himself, "As to strength, I am the strongest." Further on it is said that strength belongs to the bull (or the cow).
[290] In a hymn, Indras even calls himself Uçanâ, with the added denomination of kavis; Ahaṁ kaviruçanâ: Ṛigv. iv. 26, 1.
[291] Vendidad, xxii. 11.
[292] Chap. ix.
[293] Cfr. Farvardin Yast in the Khorda Avesta, xxix. 30, Spiegel's version.
[294] Cfr. Khorda Avesta, Spiegel's version, Einleit. xxxiv., and the Râm Yast in the Khorda Avesta, xxxi. 40.—The 57th strophe appears to be a real Vedic hymn to the Marutas; the wind is celebrated as the strongest of the strong, the swiftest of the swift, having arms and ornaments of gold, a golden wheel and a golden chariot; his golden shoes and his girdle of gold besides show his sympathy and relation with the Ardvî Çûra Anâhita, who, in the form of aurora, is referred to in the 55th strophe.
[295] Cfr. Khorda Avesta, p. lxix.
[296] Cfr. ibid. p. lxi.
[297] Denn Verethraghna, der von Ahura geschaffene, hält die Hände zurück der furchtbaren Kampfesreihen, der verbündeten Länder und der mithratrügenden Menschen, er umhüllt ihr Gesicht, verhüllt ihre Ohren, nicht lässt er ihre Füsse ausschreiten, nicht sind sie mächtig; Khorda Avesta. xxx. 63, Spiegel's version.
[298] Cfr. the Mihr Yast in the Khorda Avesta, xxvi. 128, 129.
[299] Cfr. ibid.
[300] Urvâksha is also called the accumulator; Khorda Avesta, xl. 3, Spiegel's version.
[301] Khorda Avesta, p. 155.
[302] Khorda Avesta, xxxiii., Spiegel's version.
[303] Mögest du reich an Rindern sein wie (der Sohn) de Athvyânischen (clanes); Khorda Avesta, xl. 4, Spiegel's version.
[304] Soll ich zum Himmel aufsteigen, soll ich in die Erde kriechen? Darauf entgegnete Ahura Mazda: Schöne Ashi, vom Schöpfer geschaffene! steige nicht zum Himmel auf, krieche nicht in die Erde; gehe du hieher in die Mitte der Wohnung eines schönen Königs; Khorda Avesta, xxxiii. 59, 60, Spiegel's version.—Cfr. xxxiv. 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 ältesten Aufzeichnung der Alexandersage, Halle, 1867.
[311] Georg Rosen's version, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1858, 2 vols.
[312] Bernhard Jülg'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. Afanassieff, 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 Müller in the Contemporary Review, 1870.
[334] Radloff, Proben der Volkslitteratur der Türkischen Stämme süd-Sibiriens.
[335] Professor Schiefner has already compared with this passage 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 Kâvya Uçanâ, or even Uçanâ Kavis, the words Kave Ukko may not have some relation to the name given to the Vedic and Iranian hero?
[340] Väinämöinen, alt und wahrhaft, konnt durch ihn die Eiche fällen; Kal. 24, in Castren's Kleinere Schriften, p. 233.
[341] Nur aus Trauer ward die Harfe, nur aus Kummer sie geschaffen; harten Tagen ist die Wölbung, ist das Stammholz zu verdanken, nur Verdruss spannt ihre Saiten, andre Mühsal 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 Märchen aufgezeichnet von Fried. Kreuzwald, aus dem Ehsthnischen, übersetzt von F. Löwe, with notes by A. Schiefner and R. Köhler, 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 pass 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, übertragen von Warrens, Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1857.
[346] Cfr. the note of F. Löwe, illustrating this passage, 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 antithesis 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 substituted 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.
[348] These last have already been translated into English, and illustrated, by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A. The Narodnija Skaski sabrannija selskimi ućiteliami, isdanie A. A. Erlenwein (Moskva 1863), and the more voluminous N. Aphanasieva, Narodnija ruskija skaski, Isd. 2 (Moskva 1860, 1861), have not thus far been translated into other European languages. I have therefore thought fit to make copious quotations from them as well for the use of Western readers, as on account of the real importance of their mythical contents, whilst awaiting the publication of the competent work which Mr Ralston is expressly preparing upon Russian songs.
[349] iii. 8805, and following.
[350] Afanassieff, ii. 29.
[351] iv. 45.
[352] This subject is already given in Æsop's Fables, in the twenty-first fable (ed. Del Furia, Florence, 1809): the man prays to a wooden idol (xülinon theon) that it may make him rich; the statue does not answer; he breaks it to pieces, and gold comes out of it.
[353] Seventeenth story.
[354] Cfr. also in Afanassieff, the story, v. 19.
[355] Cfr. also, for the variations, the twenty-second of Erlenwein, and iii. 24, of Afanassieff.
[356] Story 54.
[357] Cfr. the first story of my collection of the Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia, Torino, A. F. Negro, 1869. I am also acquainted with a Piedmontese variation, differing but little from this Tuscan story.
[358] In the story, ii. 27, of the collection of Afanassieff, the beautiful princess, near the sea, combs the youngest son of the Tzar, who goes to sleep.
[359] Cfr. the chapter on the Goat.
[360] v. 37.
[361] v. 50.
[362] v. 9.
[363] In Lafontaine, Fables, vii. 1, the animal sacrificed is the ass.
[364] Afanassieff, iv. 20-22.—In a Lithuanian song, which describes the nuptials of animals, the bull appears as a woodcutter or woodman.—Cfr. Uhland's Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage, iii. 75.
[365] Afanassieff, v. 6.
[366] Cfr. the chapter which treats of the Wolf.
[367] Afanassieff, v. 41.
[368] Afanassieff, iv. 1.—In another variation of the same myth, which we have already referred to in the Vedic hymns, the birds come, on the contrary, out of a horse.
[369] v. 54.
[370] Cfr. Afanassieff, v. 54, and the chapters on the Fish and the Eel.
[371] I read in the travels of Olearius in Persia during the year 1638, French translation: "Les Persans disent que la montagne de Kilissim a une telle propriété que tous ceux qui y montent n'en descendent point; que le schach Abas obligea un jour un de ses chasseurs, en lui promettant une grosse somme d'argent, à monter sur cette montagne, et qu'il y monta effectivement, l'ayant fait connoître par le feu qu'il alluma; mais qu'il n'en descendit point, et que l'on ne sçait point ce qu'il devint avec son chien, qu'il menait avec lui."
[372] Afanassieff, iv. 9.—In the well-known English story of Jack and the Bean-stalk, it is the giant who is killed by the fall from heaven, when Jack cuts the bean-stalk close to the ground.
[373] Afanassieff, iv. 7.—Cfr. the chapter on the Fox.
[374] Afanassieff, v. 12, and vi. 2.—Cfr. the chapters on the Goat, the Fox, the Wolf, and the Duck, where other episodes of this legend are found again.—In the twelfth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff, the old man goes up to heaven to call God to account for the peas that He has taken from the top of the pea-plant; God gives him in exchange stockings of gold and garters of silver.
[375] Cfr. also v. 24.
[376] v. 55.—Cfr. also vi. 22.—Cfr. the Contes et Proverbes Populaires recueillis en Armagnac, par Bladé (Paris, 1867), where the foolish and lazy one occurs again under the name of Joan Lou Pigre.
[377] Cfr. also the two variations in Afanassieff, vi. 25.