21 THE ARREST OF ENQUIRY 59 



and incense.' In his Hibbert Lectures Sir John Rhys 

 refers to churches dedicated to Notre Dame in virtue 

 of legends of discovery of images of the Virgin on 

 the spot. These were usually of wood, which had 

 turned black in the soil. Such a black ' Madonna ' was 

 found near Grenoble, in the commune of La Zouche. 

 Then, in the titles of the new deities, Middleton cor- 

 rectly sees those of the old The Queen of Heaven 

 reminds him of Astarte or Mylitta ; the Divine Mother 

 of the Magna Mater, the 'great mother' of Oriental 

 cults. In other attributes of Mary, lineal descendant 

 of Isis, there survive those of Venus, Lucina, Cybele, 

 or Maria. He gives amusing examples of myths and 

 misreadings through which certain ' saints ' have a 

 place in the Roman Calendar. He apparently knew 

 nothing of the strange confusion by which Buddha 

 appears therein under the title of Saint Josaphat ; 

 but he tells how, by misinterpretation of a boundary 

 stone, (Praefectu-) S. Viarum, an overseer of high- 

 ways, became S. Viar ; how S. Veronica secured canon- 

 isation through a blunder over the words Vera Icon : 

 still more droll, how hagiologyincludesboth a mountain, 

 a mantel, and an exclamation. For example, Alleluia, 

 i.e. 'Praise Jehovah,' became, in popular legend, a living 

 person, and there was, in the thirteenth century, an 

 office for his burial performed at Septuagesima ! 



The marks of hands or feet on rocks, said to be 

 made by the apparition of some saint or angel, call 

 to mind ' the impression of Hercules' feet on a stone 

 in Scythia ' ; the picture of the Virgin, which came 

 from heaven, suggests the descent of Numa's shield 

 ' from the clouds ' ; that of the weeping Madonna the 

 statue of Apollo, which Livy says wept for three 



