DEVIL DEVIL FISH. 



657 



new, as good or bad, but merely as exercising a sa- 

 lutary or injurious influence. In the latter case, they 

 were looked upon as punishing spirits, without inimi- 

 cal or wicked purpose. Seeva, the judging and de- 

 stroying god of the Indian mythology, is a symbol of 

 the great power of nature, which is alternately bene- 

 ficial and injurious, but in itself neither good nor evil. 

 The doctrine of Zoroaster, who adopted an evil prin- 

 ciple, called Ahrvman, opposed to the good principle, 

 and served by several orders of- inferior spirits (in or- 

 der to explain the existence of evil in this world), 

 spread the belief in such spirits among the people. 

 The Greek mythology did not distinguish with the 

 same precision between the good and bad spirits. 

 The Titans, it is true, struggled against the gods, but 

 not for any merely moral reason, and the gods are 

 not represented as patterns of pure morality. The 

 cacodemons of the Greek mythology, as, for instance, 

 the Furies, always appear more in the cliaracter of 

 punishing than of malignant spirits. On the contrary, 

 Hecate, the goddess of the lower world and of en- 

 chantment, and the LamJae, corresponding to the 

 witches of the modern popular belief, have more of 

 what we understand under the diabolical character. 

 Typhon, who partakes in the fete of the Titans, pro- 

 perly belongs to the Egyptian mythology, in which he 

 appears as the origin of evil, under the figure of a 

 horrid monster. Similar to him is Beekebub, or Beel- 

 zebul, who, from the mythology of Western Asia, 

 was introduced into the belief of the Hebrews. But 

 as the captivity of the Hebrews in Babylon had in 

 many respects a decisive influence upon their way of 

 thinking and prevailing notions, by the acquaintance 

 which they there acquired with the ideas of the Chal- 

 deans, the idea of the devil, as the principle of evil, 

 resembling Ahriman, first appeared among the Jews 

 after that captivity. He is called Satanas, in Greek, 

 2<a/2oXflf, the fiend, destroyer, antagonist. The 

 word devil is derived from $i/3oAos. This Satan, 

 however, is to be distinguished from the one in the 

 book of Job. The latter is no fiend, but the accuser 

 before the throne of the Almighty, and belongs to the 

 heavenly servants of God. 



All the conceptions of evil spirits, which had been 

 entertained before the Christian era the impure 

 Beelzebub, whose breath scattered pestilence ; Belial, 

 the prince of hell; Saniael, the seducer and destroyer ; 

 Lucifer (the Phosphoros of the Greeks), who lives in 

 the fire ; Asmodeus, the devil of marriage were 

 now amalgamated with that idea of the evil principle, 

 which the Jews had acquired in Babylon. Thus the 

 Jewish doctrine of evil spirits and their chief was de- 

 veloped. Insane persons, and patients suffering from 

 nervous diseases, which manifest themselves by epi- 

 leptic fits, were considered as subject to his influ- 

 ence ; and people suffering under such diseases were 

 said to " have a devil." The founder of the Chris- 

 tian religion not only did not contradict this doctrine, 

 but tirade use of it in the instruction of the people, 

 according to several passages of the New Testament. 

 Yet the whole doctrine received from the New Testa- 

 ment a new character ; for the devil and his auxiliary 

 spirits are represented there as originally created 

 good, but as having fallen from virtue, and the favour 

 of God, owing to ambition, or other evil dispositions. 

 The Satan of the New Testament is a rebel against 

 God. Endowed with the intellect and power of an- 

 gels, he uses them since his tall to entangle men in 

 sin, and obtain power over them. He is " the prince 

 of the world " (St John, xii. 31), the Antichrist, be- 

 cause he constantly opposes the great work of salva- 

 tion. But, though he succeeds in effecting the per- 

 dition of individuals, yet his own damnation, and the 

 eternal victory of good over evil, are certain. The 

 same is taught in Zoroaster's doctrine ; yet his devil 



was evil from eternity. Some early sects, as the Ma- 

 nichseans, likewise gave to Satan existence from eter- 

 nity ; yet this idea was never adopted by the Chris- 

 tians at large. 



The doctrine of the New Testament, however, soon 

 became blended with numerous fictions of human 

 imagination, with the various superstitions of different 

 countries, and the mythology of the pagans. In Italy, 

 Greece, and Germany, this last element was, and to 

 a certain degree still is, blended with the idea of the 

 devil. The gods of the ancients became evil spirits, 

 seeking every opportunity to injure mankind. The 

 excited imagination of hermits, in their lonely re- 

 treats, sunk as they were in ignorance and unable to 

 account for natural appearances, frequently led them 

 to suppose Satan visibly present ; and innumerable 

 stories were told of his appearance, and his attributes 

 distinctly described. Among these were horns, a 

 tail, a cloven foot, &c. The writings of the fathers 

 of the church, also, contain several passages respect- 

 ing the appearance of the devil. The sign of the cross 

 was considered as a safeguard against him, and cru- 

 cifixes were erected on many spots, as, for instance, 

 cross-ways, where he was supposed to be most likely 

 to present himself. In most works or appearances of 

 an extraordinary character, the devil was supposed 

 to be concerned. How many a dam, bridge, &c., 

 has been built in one night, with his assistance ! and 

 every one knows that the monks made the people 

 believe that Faustus invented the art of printing by 

 the help of Satan. , 



In consequence of the cures which Christ and his 

 apostles performed on the possessed, the early church 

 believed in a power, connected with the consecra. 

 tion of priests, to drive out evil spirits ; and as early 

 as the third century, particular officers of the church 

 were appointed for this purpose ; they were called 

 exorcists, and are to this day the second of the lower 

 orders in the Latin church. The Catholics say, the 

 church employed such inferior ministers for this busi- 

 ness, in order to show the contempt which it enter- 

 tained towards demons (see Dictionnaire de Theologie, 

 Toulouse, 1817, article Exorciste;) but this does not 

 agree with the numberless legends of the power of 

 the devil. (See Exorcism.) The belief in evil 

 spirits, witches, &c., was, in the 17th century, so com- 

 mon, that they became the objects of judicial process. 

 (See Witches.) It cannot be said that the reforma- 

 tion directly overturned this belief. Luther once 

 threw an ink-stand at the devil, who interrupted him 

 when he was engaged in translating the Bible ; and, 

 even to this day, the black spot is shown on the wall in 

 his room in the Wartburg. The trials of witches, in the 

 seventeenth century, took place in Protestant countries, 

 as well as in C atholic ones. With the progress of the 

 natural sciences, however, in the eighteenth century, 

 many wonderful phenomena became explained, and 

 less was heard of the devil. Our limits will not allow 

 us to give a statement of the opinions of different 

 Christian sects respecting evil spirits. 



DEVIL-FISH ; the popular name of a large spe- 

 cies of ray (q. v.), which is occasionally captured on 

 the coasts of America. During gales of. wind, or 

 from strong currents, these immense fish are driven 

 into shoal water, and, being unable to extricate them- 

 selves, fell an easy prey to the vigilance of the 

 fishermen, who obtain considerable quantities of oil 

 from their livers. The peculiar arrangement of the 

 two lateral appendages to the head, has induced na- 

 turalists to erect a subgenus, expressly for the recep- 

 tion of these marine monsters, which has been called 

 cephaloptera, in allusion to the wings, or processes. 



In size, the species of this subgenus exceed all others 

 of the family, individuals frequently measuring six- 

 \ teen feet from the angles of the body. 

 2 T 



