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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



which I have not found quoted in the exhaustive 

 work on "Ancient Cults of Forest and Field," * 

 recently published by one of the most painstak 

 ing and judicious of living comparative mytholo- 

 gists, Dr. Wilhelm Mannhardt, of Dantzic. To it 

 may be safely referred all serious students of the 

 subjects on which it throws a copious and steady 

 light. It is a work which no mycologist's libra- 

 ry should be without. But as the two volumes 

 comprise more than a thousand pages of stiff read- 

 ing, they are not likely (although provided, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Mannhardt's most laudable custom, 

 with copious indexes) to become familiar to the 

 general reader. It may be worth while, there- 

 fore, to give a summary of their contents, a rapid 

 survey of the great field of thought over which 

 they range. But first a few words about the au- 

 thor. 



As a child (he tells us in a charming sketch 

 of his intellectual life, prefixed to the second vol- 

 ume of the present work), long confinement to a 

 couch gave him the leisure of reading such works 

 as introduced him to the land of classic fable and 

 " the fair humanities of old religion." Later on in 

 healthier boyhood, during long hours spent in the 

 greenwood or by the resounding shore, he became 

 rapt in the study of Milton, Ossian, and the North- 

 ern Sagas and Eddas. Then came the eager perusal 

 of Grimm's " German Mythology," and the fate of 

 his life was decided. Becoming in 1851 a student 

 in the University of Berlin, he flung himself into 

 the study of mythology. The best-known result 

 of his labors is his " Germanic Myths," a most 

 valuable work, although he now frankly admits 

 that many of its doctrines are erroneous ; for he 

 is not now so enthusiastic a disciple of the 

 " storm-myth " school of Kuhn and Schwartz as 

 he then was. Neither does he altogether agree 

 with the " solar-myth " school ; having been led, 

 by long and patient study, to the wise conclusion 

 that it is useless to attempt to find any single 

 " Key to all the Mythologies." After filling for 

 some time a professorial chair at Berlin, he was 

 compelled, by a return of bad health, to give up 

 lecturing, and to retire to the secluded post of 

 city librarian at Dantzic. Thence he has followed 

 with unchanging interest the discoveries in As- 

 syrian and Accadian mythology, which have 

 thrown so much light upon the early stages of 



i " Wald- und Feldkulte," 2 vols. Berlin, 1875-'T7 

 (Gebruder Borntrager). Ed. Eggers. The volumes are 

 published separately. Vol. i. is entitled " Der Baum- 

 kultus," etc., and vol ii., "Antike Wald- und Feld- 

 kulte, aus Nordeuropaischer Ueberlieferung erlau- 

 tert." 



Hellenic religious thought. At the same time 

 his residence on the shores of the Baltic has en- 

 abled him to study, under exceptionally advan- 

 tageous circumstances, the remains of ancient 

 Lettish and Lithuanian mythology ; a fact to 

 which some of the most interesting portions of 

 his present work bear witness, as well as the 

 valuable but little-known volume he not long ago 

 published on "The Lettish Sun- Myth." In trav- 

 els also to Holland, Sweden, and the Baltic prov- 

 inces of Russia, he has collected much informa- 

 tion ; and, during the wars with Denmark, Aus- 

 tria, and France, he had frequent opportunities 

 of talking with prisoners successively sent from 

 many parts of Europe to Dantzic, and of obtain- 

 ing from them many a curious custom, legend, or 

 song. Of late years his studies have chiefly been 

 directed to all that illustrates ancient faiths in 

 spirits connected with the growth of herbs, corn, 

 and trees. Some time ago he published, as 

 specimens of his work, a small book on "The 

 Corn-Wolf," and another on " Corn-Demons." ' 

 But they were received by "a auite death-like 

 silence on the part of the native press — merely a 

 few kindly words from abroad, and the sympathy 

 shown by the Universities of Berlin and Vienna, 

 encouraged him to proceed. Even the first vol- 

 ume of the present work was received in the 

 same discouraging manner in Prussia. Let us 

 trust that the reception of the completed work 

 may be one more in keeping with its great merits. 



From the earliest times of which we know any- 

 thing, men have been inclined to find resem- 

 blances between human and tree life. In many 

 cosmogonies these are closely connected, as in 

 the Iranian account of how the first human pair 

 grew up as a single tree, the fingers or twigs of 

 each one folded over the other's ears, till the time 

 came when they were separated, and infused by 

 Ahuramazda with distinct human souls. By the 

 inhabitants of almost every land, trees were sup- 

 posed to be sentient beings, and survivals of 

 that belief linger on at the present day. Thus 

 in some places trees are informed when their 

 owner dies, in others wood-cutters beg a sound 

 tree's pardon before they fell it. Not only did 

 and does a belief prevail that spirits dwell be- 

 tween the tree-stem and its bark, and that there- 

 fore the barking as well as the felling of a tree 

 may dislodge demons capable of doing mischief, 

 but there was a widely-spread belief that trees 



1 The Roggenwolf and Korndamonen. The latter 

 word sounds better than its English equivalent, which 

 is open to misapprehension. 



