146 ReceJit Earthquakes. [March 20, 



children are told that the shaking is due to the movement of a fish 

 which is buried beneath their country, and in Japan we find references 

 to this fish in the pictorial art, glyptic art, literature, and everyday 

 conversation, all of which would be unintelligible, if we did not know 

 the story of the earthquake fish. In other countries, the subterranean 

 creature will be a pig, a tortoise, an elephant, or some other animal. 

 The most interesting myths, however, relate to underground person- 

 ages. The 45 Grecian Titans, who were of gigantic stature and of 

 proportionate strength, were confined in the bowels of the earth. • 

 According to the poets the flames of Etna proceeded from the breath 

 of Enceladus, and when he turned his weary side the whole island of 

 Sicily was shaken to its foundations. Neptune was not only a god of 

 the oceans, rivers and fountains, but with a blow of his trident he 

 could create earthquakes at pleasure. The worship of Neptune was 

 established in almost every part of the Grecian world. The Livians 

 in particular venerated him, and looked upon him as the first and 

 greatest of the gods. The Palici were born in the bowels of the earth 

 and were worshipped with great ceremonies by the Sicilians. In a 

 superstitious age the altars of the Pahci were stained with the blood 

 of human sacrifices. In Roman mythology, two very familiar deities 

 are Pluto and Vulcan. These and a host of other deities, the outcome 

 of imagination, excited by displays of seismic and volcanic activity, we 

 meet with every day in picture galleries, in museums, in literature, 

 and in our daily papers. The fact that we are enjoined not to make 

 any graven image of that which is in the earth beneath suggests that 

 in the time of Moses a certain form of worship called for some 

 correction. Over and above adding a clause to the decalogue large 

 earthquakes have in very many ways affected religions. After the 

 earthquake which shook England on April G, 1580, the then Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury drew up a form of prayer which was approved 

 by the Privy Council, and ordered by them to be read in all dioceses 

 in the Kingdom. In the world there are many instances of reUgious 

 services being held on the anniversary of an earthquake, it being re- 

 garded as an exhibition of God's vengeance upon a wicked people. 

 The belief that earthquakes are signs or warnings owes its origin in 

 part to prophecies in the Bible, where for example, we read that 

 " there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes " as portend- 

 ing future calamities. Earthquakes have led to the abohtion of op- 

 pressive taxation, the abolition of masquerades, the closing of theatres, 

 and even to the alteration in fashions. A New England paper, of 

 1727, tells us that " a considerable town in this province has been so 

 far awakened by the awful providence in the earthquake that the 

 women have generally laid aside their hooped petticoats." 



[J.M.] 



