JoxE 29, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



387 



British weather there shall be at one place within such 

 district no rain at all, in another an abundance of rain ; 

 therefore, whether the forecast says rain or no rain, it may 

 be refuted by one place or the other. Where 1 live, for 

 example, it is commonly the case at about this time of the 

 year that refreshing showers may be seen falling on the 

 ridge of Dollis Hill, about a mile distant, while my garden, 

 and those of my neighbours, are starving from drought. 



There are, on the other hand, times when the whole 

 island is under one great pall of cloud, or enjoying con- 

 tinuous sunshine. The weather predictions of the Meteoro- 

 logical office, as recorded in the newspapers, are then 

 almost invariably correct. 1 think it would be far better 

 if the predictions of rain, cloud, and sunshine were limited 

 to these periods, even though the newspapers should cease 

 to quote them in consequence, and the picnicing interests 

 be alienated. The shipping interests would still be 

 equally well served, and those of science somewhat better, 

 while the office itself would hold a higher position than 

 under its present exposure to tlippant criticisms, based 

 upon failure in the prediction of contradictory variations 

 of local meteorological details by critics whose acquaint- 

 ance with the daily reports of the Meteorological Office is 

 limited to the fragment copied by the newspapers, which 

 usually omits the most important elements of the report — 

 viz., the barometric gradient and the wind curves — for the 

 sufficient reason that their readers cannot understand them. 



I should add that the establishment of the general 

 reliablility of Buys Ballot's law has supplied an important 

 supplement to Osier's method of forecast. This law is 

 that (in the Northern hemisphere) if you know the baro- 

 metric gradient and stand with your left hand towards the 

 region of low barometer and right to high, the wind will 

 blow against your back, not quite squarely, but a little on 

 the right side. The barometric gradient is obtainable by 

 telegraphic intelligence of the state of the barometer at 

 different meteorological stations, whereby a line may be 

 drawn from the highest barometer to the lowest, or along 

 the slope of this gradient. Like Osier's method, it only 

 tells directly of the winds, liut indirectly and doubtfully of 

 sunshine, cloud, and rain. 



Herr F. Schkll, of Grund, has described some obser- 

 vations recently made in the course of mining work in the 

 Hartz Mountains, on the distance through which sounds 

 are transmitted in rock. In a horizontal direction the 

 firing of shots at the face of a cross-cut has been heard 

 in a cross-cut driven toward it, the face of which was 

 447 ft. distant from it A level was driven on a vein at a 

 depth of 538 ft below the surface, and happened to strike 

 187 ft. distant in a horizontal direction below a stamp-mill 

 dropping stamps weighing 330 lb. The dropping of the 

 stamps on the surface could be distinctly heard in the 

 heading below, which, in a direct line, the hypothenuse of 

 a right-angled triangle, was separated by 571 ft. of rock. 



The Raihiynj Review (Chicago) quotes from the Picayune 

 a description of a remarkable creosoted trestle which the 

 New Orleans and Xorth-Eastem Railway is building 

 across Lake Pontchartrain. It will be 21/, miles long, 5| 

 miles of which will be over the lake. Of this portion of 

 the work the piling has been driven for 2} miles, and one 

 mile is completed. The piles average GO ft in length, and 

 are driven in for about 40 ft The whole structure is 

 exceedingly substantial, and is said to be a most perfect 

 specimen of trestle work. Some idea of the magnitude of 

 the undertaking may be gathered from the fact that the 

 quantity of timber required, besides the piles, will be over 

 15,000,000 ft 



THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF MYTH. 



By Edwaud Clodd. 



ALTHOUGH in the Vedic hyinns the features of the 

 primitive nature-myth reappear again and again, 

 Indra himself boasting, " I slew Vritra, O Maruts, with 

 might, having grown strong with my own vigour ; I who 

 hold the thunderbolt in my arms, I have made these all- 

 brilliant waters to flow freely for man," we find an approach 

 in them to some conception of that spiritual conllict of 

 which the physical conflict was so complete a symbol. 

 Indra, as victor, is an object of adoration and invested 

 with purity and goodness ; Vritra, as the enemy of men, is 

 an object of dread, and invested with malice and evil. 



But while in the Zend-Avesta, the Scriptures of the old 

 Iranian religion, the struggle between Thraetaona and the 

 three-headed serpent Azhi-Dahaka (in which names are 

 recognisable the Traitana and Ahi of the Veda and the 

 Feridum and Zohak of Persian epic) is narrated, the normal 

 idea is dominant throughout. The theme is not the attack 

 of the sun-god to recover stolen milch cows from the 

 dragon's cave, but the battle between Ormuzd, the .Spirit 

 of Light, and Ahriman, the Spirit of Darkness. The one 

 seeks to mar the earth which the other has made. Into 

 the fair paradise, Airayana-VaejO, " a delightful spot," as 

 the Avesta calls it, " with good waters and trees," and into 

 other smiling lands which Ormuzd has blessed, Ahriman 

 sends " a mighty serpent .... strong, deadly frost .... 

 buzzing insects, and poisonous plants .... toil and 

 poverty," and, worse than all, "the curse of unbelief."* 

 Between these two spiritual powers and their armies of 

 good and bad angels the battle rages for supremacy in the 

 universe for possession of the citadel of Mansoul. 



Early in the history of the Aryan tribes there had arisen 

 a quarrel between the Brahminic and Iranian divisions. 

 The latter had become a quiet-loving, agricultural people, 

 while the former remained marauding nomads, attacking 

 and harassing their neighbours. In their plundering in- 

 roads they invoked the aid of spells and sacritiees, otlering 

 the sacred soma-juice to their gods, and nerving themselves 

 for the fray by deep draughts of the intoxicating stuff. 

 Not only they, but their gods as well, thereby became 

 objects of hatred to the peaceful Iranians, who forswore 

 all worship of freebooter's dieties, and transformed these 

 dcvas of the old religion into demons. That religion, as 

 common to the Indo-European race, was polytheistic, 

 a worship of deities each ruling over some department 

 of nature, but a worship exalting now one, now another 

 god, be it Indra, or Varuna, or Agni, according to the 

 indications of the deity's supremacy, or according to the 

 mood of the worshipper. As remarked by -lacob Grimm, 

 " the idea of the devil is foreign to all primitive religions,'' 

 obviously because in all primitive thought evil and good 

 are alike regarded as the work of deities. In the Old 

 Testament, Yahweh is spoken of as the author of both ; t 

 the angels, whether charged with weal or woe, are his 

 messengers. In the " Iliad," Zeus dispenses both : — 



" Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood. 

 The source of evil one, the other good ; 

 From thence tlie cnp of mortal man he fills, 

 Blessings to these, to those distribute ills, 

 To most, he mingles both. "J 



and 'tis a far way from this to the loftier conception of 

 Euripides : " If the gods do evil, then are they no gods 



* Haig's " Essays on the Parsis," tr. Vendidad, pp. 225, ff. 

 + Cf. Isaiah xlv. 7; 1 Kings, xxii. 21-23. 

 X Iliad, Book xxiv, p. 603 ff., Amos iii. 6. 



