WORSHIP OF ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. 103 



the light-pictures formed by the aurora borealis of the polar 

 countries ; and it is not surprising that the Greenlanders see in 

 them a dance of spirits. Even in countries farther south, where 

 the intensity of the phenomenon is greatly reduced, the aurora 

 borealis has given rise to the most fantastic legends. An Eng- 

 lish writer of the sixteenth century represented the phenomenon 

 as an " aggregation of brilliant arches whence issue fortified cit- 

 ies, swords, and warriors in order of battle ; then jets of radia- 

 tions in every direction, clouds and combats, in which the victors 

 pursue the vanquished, while others fly around in a surprising 

 fashion." 



Echo passes nearly everywhere as the voice of a superhuman 

 power. Lander relates that on the Niger his boatmen offered 

 libations to an echo. When the traveler asked them the reason 

 for it, they answered : "Do you not hear the fetich?" It is also 

 conceivable that the existence of a voice should cause a belief in 

 some one who speaks. The fact that this mysterious voice lim- 

 its itself to repeating the words that are sent to it, has induced 

 the fancy that the spirit has particular reasons for acting in this 

 way, and it is in support of such reasons that myths, like that of 

 Echo and others, have been given form. 



The rainbow is one of the atmospheric phenomena that have 

 been most generally personified. Peoples of almost every part of 

 the world have made of it a living and terrible monster whose 

 most venial offense is that of drinking up the waters of springs 

 and ponds. This belief is found among the Burmese, Zulus, 

 Indians of Washington Territory, ancient Mexicans, and FinnSj 

 and exists among the popular fancies of the Slavs and Germans, 

 and some of the French populations. The Zulus and the Karens 

 of Burmah imagine that the rainbow spreads sickness and death. 

 The Karens, when they see one, say to their children : " The rain- 

 bow has come down to drink ; do not play, for fear that harm 

 may come to you!" Very singularly, too, the street boys in 

 Volhynia run away, crying, " Run, it will drink you up ! " In 

 Dahomey, the rainbow is regarded as a heavenly serpent, Danh, 

 which insures happiness. The modern Greeks hold it to be a 

 beneficent but just and severe hero ; they say that any one who 

 jumps over a rainbow will change sex at once ; but this saying, 

 which is also current in Alsace, is only a picturesque way of in- 

 dicating the impossibility of transforming a man into a woman, 

 or a woman into a man. The Delians offered cakes to the rain- 

 bow, and the Peruvians put its image on the walls of their tem- 

 ples. The Caribs considered its appearance on the sea a favor- 

 able presage ; but on the earth its influence was pernicious, and 

 they hid from its view. It was personified by a viper. 



A considerable number of peoples give the personified a coex- 



