256 Life in Autumn Storm 



and, while the sea's is one and universal, there is its 

 own aspect and temper in every stream. The river 

 springs visibly into life when it sweeps down with 

 sustained and directed purpose under the autumn 

 rains. The flood-crest tearing round the bend, with 

 a tree's limb tossed before it, is one of the most 

 moving of all natural scenes. It is this phase in 

 the life of the river which made it natural for ancient 

 peoples to regard it in the image of a beast in its 

 onrush. To Mediterranean peoples the river-god 

 was horned and voiced like a bull, while in Scotland, 

 Wales, and Ireland the word for the wild boar in 

 the old languages is still the name of many mountain 

 torrents. Once thus personified, the river-god might 

 smile, or bring gifts, or woo, though more commonly 

 he slept ; but the root of his nature was the fierce- 

 ness of the flooded stream. In Homer's story of how 

 the river-god Scamander fought against Achilles 

 as he slaughtered the Trojans in his bed, it was the 

 choking of his clear channels with human bodies 

 that first stirred his wonder and resentment ; but, 

 once awakened, he arose for battle as the tradi- 

 tional stream in flood. Elsewhere there is a sense 

 of ambush, yet more sinister to man, about the slow 

 current of deeper streams ; so, in the grim Nor- 

 thumbrian lines, when Tweed chides Till for his 

 stillness, Till answers back that for " ae man ye 

 droon, I droon twa." 



Yet in spite of the occasional menace of the 

 swollen flood, the replenishment of the streams 

 and pools in autumn is the visible promise of fer- 

 tility in the year to come. Only a profuse rainfall 



