Dec. 26, 188i.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



527 



savage, in the presence of recurring light and darkness, of 

 the clouds lifting and dispersing before the sunrise, has his 

 legend of a time when this was not so, but when heaven 

 and earih were closed in, one upon the other, till some hero 

 thrust them apart. And, to his rude intelligence, the con- 

 ception of night as a devouring monster might easily "start 

 the notion of other swallowing and disgorging beings." 

 This is, however, subordinate to the explanation which Mr. 

 Lang's method gives. " Just as the New Zealander had 

 conceived of heaven and earth as at one time united, to the 

 prejudice of their children, so the ancestors of the Greeks 

 had believed in an ancient union of heaven'and earth. Both 

 by Greeks and Maoris, heaven aud earth were thought of 

 as living persons, with human parts and passions. Their 

 union was prejudicial to their children, and so the children 

 violently separated their parents.* 



E.c uno disce omiies. Such rational explanation of the 

 irrational element in the myth of Cronus is equally appli- 

 cable and conclusive in regard to myth all the world over, 

 nor to myth alone, but to the old theologies in which the 

 gods are associated with animals and worshipped under 

 their forms. Of this Mr. Lang finds pertinent illustrations 

 in Apollo, among whose many names is Smintheus, which 

 may be rendered " Mouse Apollo," or " Apollo, Lord of 

 Mice." Some of the Greek gods were sculptured with 

 animal heads, although more often the images of the 

 animals consecrated to them were placed in their hands, or 

 the creatures themselves were kept in the inner sanctuary. 

 So striking was the contrast between the insignificant mice, 

 and the glorious, powerful sun-god A|jo11o, that the connec- 

 tion of the two jiuzzltd the Greeks, and was accounted 

 for in divers ways. The mouse was said to be endowed with 

 the gift of projihecy, and was in consequence associated with 

 the god who possessed wisdom as great as that of Zeus him- 

 self Or, as Welbeck suggests, Apollo, as prototype of the 

 Pied Piper of Hameliu, had freed the land from a plague of 

 vermiu, for deliverance from whose ravages the German 

 peasants crowd their churches to this day. Of course, the 

 solar theorist's, " darkening counsel by words without 

 knowledge," see in the presence of the mouse in ancient 

 shrines of the sun-god a further proof of polyonomy. But 

 space must not be wasted on more than this bare reference, 

 since the explanation which Mr. Lang suggests, although 

 only as conjectural, seems conclusive. Seeking for 

 parallel illustrations in both the Old and New World, 

 their value increasing with the square of the distance, 

 he finds the most striking one in the ancient Peru- 

 vian religion. The dynasty of the Incas boasted of 

 descent from the sun, and the worship of that orb 

 became the State religion, but, like Christianity with 

 _ Paganism, it so far tolerated the older animal- worship 

 which it supplaijted as to collect the tribal animal gods 

 into its temples, so that side by side with the Master of 

 Life and the Sun were creatures small and great. "Just 

 as in Peru the tribes adored ' vile and filthy ' animals ; 

 just as the solar worshi|) of the Incas subordinated these; 

 just as the huacas of the beasts remained in the temples 

 of the Peruvian Sun ; so, we believe, the tribes along the 

 Mediterranean coast had at some very remote pre historic 

 period their animal pacarissas. These were subordinated 

 to the religion (to some extent solar) of Apollo, and the 

 huacas, or animal idols, survived in Apollo's temples."t 

 That is to say, Apollo as mouse-god is totemic. The 

 barbarous ancestors of the Greeks believed, as do bar- 

 barous races still, in their descent from animals or 

 plants, known as their totem — a belief which profoundly 

 affects their social relations and customs, preventing 



* Pp. 49, 50. 



t Page 107- 



unions between sexes of the same totem-name, and 

 the eating of the creature from which descent is claimed. 

 Of the belief in their mouse-ancestry among primitive 

 Greek tribes, proofs occur both in place-names and badges, 

 and although there is an alternative explanation of the con- 

 secration of mice to Apollo as votive ofierings, it can 

 scarcely be entertained in face of the corroborative evidence 

 of like survivals in remote religions, and among different 

 races. Of these survivals another and very curious example 

 is the use of the same instrument in the Bacchic customs 

 attending the worship of Dionysus, and in barbaric ritual 

 This instrument consists of a piece of wood sharpened at 

 both ends, to one of which string is fastened. Twisted 

 about the finger and whirled round and round, it makes 

 a booming din dear to the noise-loving boys, by whom it 

 was known as the " bull-roarer." But among botli ancient 

 and modern barbarians it acquired a sacred and magic 

 character. It is found in use at this day among barbaric 

 tribes in both hemispheres as a signal summoning the men 

 together for performance of certain mysterious and secret 

 celebrations, and at the same time waving ofl' the women 

 under pain of death. Mr. Lang cites evidence of its use in 

 the Dionysiac mysteries from classic and patristic authori- 

 ties, and draws the conclusions which the anthropologist 

 must endorse — that, if we find so easily-invented an instru- 

 ment as the " bull-roarer " in the mysteries of the most 

 civilised of ancient peoples, the most probable explanation is, 

 that the Greeks retained both the mysteries, the bull-roarer, 

 the habit of bedaubing the initiate, the torturing of boys, 

 the sacred absurdities, the antics with serpents, the dances 

 and the like, from the time when their ancestors were in 

 the savage condition.* Space does not allow other than 

 meagre reference to the chapters on " Star Myths,' the 

 " Divining Eod," and the " Moly and Maudragora." In 

 the first of these the names of stars (the finding of which 

 was to the old lady a greater marvel than the ascertainment 

 of their constitutions and distances), both singly and in 

 groups, retained on our celestial charts and globes, con- 

 stellations in which we can see no likeness of anything in 

 heaven above or earth beneath, are shown to be the 

 survivals of savage conceptions of the heavenly bodies as 

 living beings. In the latter of these chapters the lingering 

 superstitions in virtue, arid even consciousness, residing in 

 sticks and grotesque-looking objects, are illustrated witb 

 abundance of apposite fact. 



The chapter entitled " A Far-Travelled Tale " should be 

 read in conjunction with Mr. Long's introduction to 

 " Grimm's Stories,"! as dealing with the intricate and 

 interesting subject of the mode of diffusion of tales wide- 

 spread as the myth of Jason. For behind that subject lies 

 the larger question of the movements and intermixture of 

 races, upon which the possession of legends common to 

 them all may throw light. 



SOME BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. 



Tables and Memcrranda for Mechanics, Engineers, Archi- 

 tects, d-c. By Francis Smith. (London : Crosby Lock- 

 wood & Co. 1885.) — Into a tiny volume 2| in. long, 

 1| in. -wide, and | in. thick, Mr. Smith has contrived to 

 pack an enormous amount of information, of daily and even 

 hourly use among those for whom it is intended. Weights, 

 measures, " quantities " of all descriptions, surveying, 

 trigonometry, agricultural memoranda, rules and memo- 

 randa in connection with steam-engines and boilers, knots 

 and splices, and even " useful suggestions in cases of acci- 

 dent or illness," are a few of the multifarious subjects 



* p. 77. 

 t rid." 



Grimm's Household Stories.'' 2 vols. Bell & Sons. 



