THE STORIES n 



intent that she should thereby become pregnant ; and 

 " the very noble bishop Finnacha " was the result. 1 



But not merely animal and vegetable substances, 

 even stones have been described as fructifying women. 

 We have already found an instance of this in the 

 traditions of the north-western tribes of Canada. 

 The Aztecs too attributed the birth of their famous 

 god Quetzalcoatl to a precious green stone, identified 

 by Captain Bourke with the turquoise, but perhaps 

 rather jade, which his mother Chimalma found one day 

 and swallowed. 2 A pearl fell into the bosom of a girl 

 and she swallowed it, as the Chinese tell, with the 

 result that a boy was born (according to one version, 

 from her breast) who afterwards became the ' great 

 emperor Yu. 3 In the extreme north-east of Asia in a 

 lower stage of culture than the Chinese or the Aztecs, 

 the Koryaks report similar incidents. For example, 

 two incautious ladies, we are told, found an arrow and 

 ate it. Thereafter one of them gave birth to a son 

 with five fingers, and the other to a daughter with 

 only three. 4 In India the Jain Kathdko$a, or Treasury 

 of Stories, relates that a female servant who had 

 become a devout convert having died, "her soul was 

 conceived again " by Java the wife of King Vijaya- 

 varman. " At that moment the Queen saw a flaming 

 fire enter her mouth. The next morning she told the 

 King, who said : * Queen, you will have a truly 



1 Silva Gad. ii. 19, 23, translating MS. in the British Museum. 

 Stories of dreams of this kind are common as an alternative to the 

 more materialistic concept. The dreams of Athelstan's mother and 

 Cyrus' mother are the best-known examples of a numerous class. 



2 Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 590, quoting Mendieta. 

 8 De Charencey, 202. 



* Jochelson, Jesup Exped. vi. 214. 



