44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



the light which comparative mythology is able to throw upon them, 

 we find that what at first seemed only childish fables are really de- 

 graded fragments of the religion of our forefathers, and as such they 

 are surely worthy of the attention of their descendants. 



In the infancy of mankind almost every system of mythology in- 

 cluded the worship or veneration of animals. In one land the deity 

 was a bull, in another it was a serpent, in yet another it was a bird ; 

 and in lands like India and Egypt almost every known animal was 

 either an incarnated deity or demon. The same reasons that caused 

 the animal to be deified and worshiped would, in a short time, sur- 

 round its worship with numberless myths and legends, that would be 

 remembered long after the occasion that called them into existence 

 had been forgotten. As an instance of this, we need only cite the 

 return of the Israelites in the desert of Sinai to the worship of the 

 golden calf the image of the Apis god of the Egyptians they jarob- 

 ably being no more aware that under this eidolon was represented the 

 sun-god in the zodiacal sign Taurus than were the mass of the Egyp- 

 tians themselves. Still another reason why these myths and legends 

 would remain long after their real meaning had been foi'gotten, is due 

 to the metaphoric nature of all early languages ; and this cause would 

 act still more strongly if the various shades of meaning of each meta- 

 phorical term were not limited by accurate writing. Brinton says the 

 Algonquins, who translated " Michabo " into " The Great Hare," lost 

 by a false etymology a great part of their religion, the true meaning 

 of the term undoubtedly being, " The Spirit of the Light " or " The 

 Dawn." * 



The great storehouse of myth and fable for all the Indo-European 

 nations is the sacred books of the Hindoos ; and it is here, among the 

 religious beliefs of these old Nature-worshipers recorded away back in 

 the morning of time, that we should first look for myths concerning 

 the crow. In this curious pantheism all nature was divided into two 

 opposing principles : the one containing all that was bright and life- 

 giving and beneficent for mankind devas ; the other including all 

 that was dark and malignant and destructive demons. Among 

 these malignant powers of nature, we find frequent mention made of 

 the crow, and usually associated with such ill-omened animals as the 

 wolf and the owl. De Gubernatis says that in the Vedic hymns the 

 term " vrikas " may mean both wolf and crow ; f but we find that, 

 though the wolf and the crow were equivalent in many respects, and 

 were both enemies to the devas or bright gods, yet the wolf was 

 ahcays demoniacal, while the crow in some of its aspects was benig- 

 nant ; and when the sun-god had finished his daily battle with drag- 

 ons and monsters, and had sunk into the sleep of death, the crow bore 

 him on his pinions down into the dismal land of darkness and the 



* Brinton, "Myths of the New World," pp. 178, 179. 



"I- Angelo de Gubernatis, " Zoological Mythology," vol. ii, p. 250. 



