INTRODUCTION. 3 



size and ferocity. Apart from this, most early mytho- 

 logies bear testimony to a primeval and widely-spread 

 belief in the mystical or sacred character of various of 

 the more conspicuous animals with which each aboriginal 

 people might happen to be familiar. Not only were 

 particular animals endowed by popular consent with 

 special qualities, good or evil, but specially human attri- 

 butes were commonly ascribed to them, or they were 

 even regarded as the companions or the representatives 

 of particular deities. 



That this association of certain animals with early 

 religious beliefs was, however, of comparatively late 

 growth, is shown conclusively by the fact that, as a 

 general rule, these primitive myths have a distinctly 

 local colouring; the animals regarded as sacred or 

 symbolic by each people being commonly those indi- 

 genous to the region inhabited by that people. Thus, the 

 animals regarded with special veneration, or associated 

 with special deities, among the nations of Central and 

 Northern Europe, are such as the bear, the wild boar, and 

 the wolf; while among the peoples of warmer regions 

 similar supernatural qualities are ascribed to the elephant, 

 the lion, the panther, and the peacock. That there is, 

 nevertheless, some common ground for such beliefs is 

 attested by the fact that the same animals are sometimes 

 found to have been credited with some hidden significance 

 among races now widely remote from one another. 

 Thus, to give a single example, the goose or, it may 

 be, the swan is mixed up in various ways with the folk- 

 lore or religious myths of the Hindus, the Romans, the 

 Greeks, and the Northern European races generally. The 



