April 1, 1887.] 



♦ KNOWLKDGK ♦ 



125 



so whether we " describe animals by habitat " or by 

 structui-e." * In fact this description by habitat profiteth 

 nothing. Carl Vogt compares the flight of Archifopteri/x in 

 some measure with that of Galeopithecus. The precise 

 character of its sternum is not yet decided. It is very 

 questionable, however, whether Moses, if inspired to inform 

 us that bird-life commenced a day before beast-life, would 

 have described it (we may ignore Professor Mar.sh's highly- 

 problematically-avian permian parent of a hypothetically- 

 volant absolutely - unknown triassic progenitor of the 

 dubiousl^'-carinate Archaopteryx), as "fowl that may fly 

 above the earth in the open firmament of heaven ; " or 

 whether Mr. Gladstone would speak of such creatures as 

 members of the " air-population." Moses had better have 

 written of the feathered tribes ! 



Finally, let us bear this in mind. Had Mr. Gladstone 

 judiciously abstained from referring to the Manual, the 

 treatise, and the monograph, and ignored Archoiopteryx and 

 its undiscovered avian ancestors as he ignores Microlesfcs, 

 though the logic of his advocacy might have been enhanced 

 in merit, his case would none the less have failed, it 

 being far from a " demonstrated conclusion and establLshed 

 fact of natural science " that '• fowl that fly above the earth 

 in the open firmament of heaven " were in existence a day, or 

 an hour, befoi'O the advent of the Uutheria — whom we will 

 venture to identify with " the higher or ordinary mammals." 



The Juniority of Man as against Mammals. — Mr. Glad- 

 stone wants to know how the juniority of man comes to be 

 set down in Genesis i. Prof. Huxley Ls supposed to have 

 affirmed as probable that man came last of all animal species. 

 The singularity of Mr. Gladstone's inqiairy consists in the 

 fact that he has taken scrupulous care to explain and insist 

 that the ilosaic mention of a class on a particular day 

 referred only to some members of that class. Seeing, as he 

 thought, an opportunity to interpret Genesis literally for 

 once, the delusion that every species of beast had been fully 

 evolved before man's creation is eagerly seized upon. Of 

 course beast-life commenced before the human period, but 

 this degi-ee of concordance is now too meagi-e. In fact, Mr. 

 Gladstone has one rule for birds as a class, and one rule for 

 beasts as a class ; also, as we previously saw, one rule for 

 Ai-ch(Eopferi/.v, another for Microlestes. 



All I have to add to this section of the controversy is the 

 remark that, unless we accept some such theory as that of 

 Mr. S. E. B. Bouverie-Pusey (in Permatience and Evolu- 

 tion), avowedly arrived at by guessing, that evolution 

 operated until a recent geological period, and has since 

 ceased, it is improbable that man came last of all species. 

 For, as Alfred Eussel Wallace pointed out, his bodOy evolu- 

 tion waned when intellect became dominant; whereas nothing 

 analogous has interrupted specific diflerentiation amongst 

 wild animals. 



MYTHS OF NIGHT AND WINTER. 



By •' Stella 0(cipe.ns." 

 (Continued from p. 113.) 

 E have considered a few of the most popular 

 myths with regard to night and winter in 

 European countries. Let us now cross 

 over to the Western Continent and observe 

 the myths on this subject which prevail 

 among the Xorth American Indians. 



Glooskap, according to the Passama- 



"juoddy Indians, once sailed in his stone canoe far away, no one 

 knew where, but beyond the sea. He will return some day. 



* Unless the liatitie long antedated the Carinatw. The former 

 may have produced some of the footprints. ( V. Dr. Henry Wood- 

 ward, Proceedings Gcoliirjixts Associatwii, February 1886, pp. 368-G9.) 



Some say he went to the west. He lives in a very great, a 

 very long wigwam, and he always makes arrows. One side 

 of the lodge is full of arrows now. When it is all quite 

 full, he will come forth at a new twilight of the gods, exter- 

 minate the Ljlesinani, and establish an eternal happy 

 hunting-ground. Glooskap is deliberately preparing tor 

 such a fight, thus resembling the solar warriors in the 

 Norse traditions. Glooskap is now living in a Norse-like 

 Asa-heim ; but there is to come a day when all the arrows 

 will be ready, and he will come forth and sla}' all the wicked. 

 Here, again, Norse mythology is identical with the Indian. 

 A day will come when there will be a great final war and 

 death of heroes, and after all a new world : — 



Then shall another come, yet mightier, 

 Although I dare not his name declare. 

 Few may see further forth 

 Than when Odin meets the wolf.* 



(" Hyndluloid," p. 62.) 



This idea of Glooskap returning recalls the expected return 

 of Barbarossa, King Arthur, the Three Tells, and other 

 great heroes who are to return some day. On the occasion 

 of a visit of Henry II. to Wales, the Welsh bards recited 

 a poem relating to King Arthur. It told how the latter 

 stt forth his trusty knights— 



On conscious Camlan's crimsoned banks. 

 By Modred's faithless guile betrayed. 

 Beneath a Saxon spear to bleed ! 



King Arthur is wounded, and all unseen an elfin queen 

 throws her mantle of ambrosial blue over the hero : — 



And bade her spirits bear him far, 

 In Slerlin's agate-axled car, 

 To her green isles enamelled steep, 

 Far in the navel of the deep. 



She waved an opiate wand o'er his brow, and to the sound 

 of soft music closed her magic curtains round : — 



There renewed the vital spring. 

 Again he reigns a mighty king. 



Some day he will return to Britain to resume his ancient 

 sceptre : — ■ 



Once more in old heroic pride 



His barbed courser to bestride; 



His knighlly table to restore, 



And brave the tournaments of yore. 



As another instance of the expected return of a hero, 

 we have the Swiss legend of William Tell. This skilful 

 archer, who shot the apple oft" his son's head, is no other 

 than the last reflection of the sun, according to Dr. Dasent. 

 " Constrained for awhile to obey the powers of the tyrants 

 (cold and darkness), he at last escapes, like the skilful oar.s- 

 man Dagon, traverses the tempestuous sea of night, and 

 leaps at daj'break in freedom on shore. He destroys the 

 oppressor who kept him in bondage. But the sim, like 

 Siegfried, Sigurd, and the Sleeping Beauty, is not invulner- 

 able, and, being betrayed, is bound by the frost giants or 

 slain by the demons of darkness. Thus ' Allfadir,' really no 

 other than Odin, who himself must perish, and whom at 

 the day of doom the wolf, the Fenriswolf, was to swallow 

 at one gulp." f And, again, we have among the Swiss 

 legends "the tradition of the Three Tells. "The three 

 founders of the Helvetic confederacy are thought to sleep in 

 a cavern near the Lake of Lucerne. The herdsmen call 

 them the Three Tells, and say they lie there in their antique 

 garb in quiet slumber, and, when Switzerland is in her 

 utmost need, they will awaken and regain the liberties of 

 the land." 



Thus we see that the mysterious disappearance of a great 



* " Algonquin Legends." Leland, p. 133. 



t " Chips from a German Workshop." Max Miiller, p. 191, and 

 p. 232. 



