26 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



Phaethon named Born-to-be-the-Sun was begotten by 

 the sun's suddenly shining on the small of a woman's 

 back. 1 A hero of the Skidi Pawnee of the plains was 

 the offspring not of the sun but of a passing meteor 

 that flashed upon a maiden at night while her father 

 and mother were standing on guard beside her. 2 

 In Egypt Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, was 

 believed to have been begotten by a blaze of light 

 descending from heaven (according to Plutarch, from 

 the moon) upon the cow which was to become his 

 dam. 3 



Analogous to this method of impregnation is the 

 glance of a divine or quasi-divine being. To this cause 

 in Kirghiz tradition was ascribed the birth of the 

 famous Genghis Khan. 4 According to orthodox belief 

 in India Parvati, the consort of Siva, was conceived 

 by a look and spit forth upon the world. The 

 Brahmans have a legend whereby the Musahar, a 

 Dravidian jungle-tribe in the eastern part of the 

 United Provinces, descend from a maiden who waited 

 on a certain hermit. Siva visited the hermit in 

 disguise and his eye fell on the girl. From that 

 glance she became pregnant, and the twin children, 

 boy and girl, whom she bore were the ancestors of the 

 Musahar. 6 Similar incidents are reported in legends 

 from Further India and the Marquesas. 6 The culture- 



1 Boas and Hunt, Jesup Exped. x. 80. 



2 Dorsey, Skidi Pawnee, 307. 



3 Herod, iii. 28; Mela, i. 9; ^Elian, De Nat. Anim. xi. 10 ; 

 Plut. De hide, 43. 4 Radloff, iii. 82. 



5 Crooke, Tribes and Castes, iv. 16, quoting Calcutta Rev. Ixxxvi. 

 J 5- 



De Charencey, 210, citing Father Giov. Fil. Marini ; Southey, 

 Commonpl. Book, iv. 41, quoting Picart ; Ellis. Polyn. Res. i. 262. 



