September 11, 1896.] 



SCmNGE. 



329 



ing to have tlie word pugnacious in botli its 

 proximal and distal extremities. 



This illustrates the principle of attraction 

 in language whereby words without mean- 

 ing to the users tend to be modified into 

 forms which at least appear intelligible. 



It is said that when asparagus was intro- 

 duced into England the peasants immedi- 

 ately called it ' sparrow-grass/ and went on 

 to explain the reason it was called sparrow- 

 grass was because the sparrows ate the red 

 berries. 



This illustrates the second step of the 

 process. The word is first attracted into a 

 form which has a meaning, and in its turn 

 this meaning requires a justification, and 

 this the meaning itself quickly suggests. 



The peasant was not disturbed by, or did 

 not observe, the fact that the sparrows do 

 not eat the red berries. This would have 

 been to have risen to the ' verification of 

 hypothesis ' — an indefensible encroachment 

 on the terrain of the British philosopher. 



I propose to trace the history of several 

 myths which have their origin in remarka- 

 ble geological phenomena, for I hardly need 

 to say that I do not use the word myth in 

 the modern fashion of newspaper English, 

 as a false report, a canard, in short, a news- 

 paper story ; but as meaning a history, 

 treasured and hallowed in the literary and 

 religious archives of an ancient folk, of some 

 startling or impressive event, that, in the 

 stimulating environment of poetry and per- 

 sonification, has completed a long evolution, 

 which disguises entirely its original, — 



' ' Has suffered a sea-change 

 Into something new and strange," 



SO that, in fact,its study is paleontological. 

 I propose to speak of the Chimsera, or the 

 poetry of petroleum ; of the Niobe, or the 

 tragic side of calcereous tufa ; of Lot's wife, 

 or the indirect religious effect of clifi" erosioQ, 

 and of Noah's flood, or the possibilities of 

 the cyclone and the earthquake wave work- 

 ing in harmony. 



THE CHIMERA. 



The myth of the Chimfera is told, in its 

 earliest form, in a quaint old translation of 

 Hesiod, who, according to the Marbles of 

 Paros, lived about nine centuries before the 

 Christian Era. 



" From the same parents sprang Chimsera dire, 

 From whose black nostrils issued flames of fire ; 

 Strong and of size immense ; a monster she 

 Rapid in flight, astonishing to see ; 

 A lion's head on her large shoulders grew, 

 The goats and dragons terrible to view ; 

 A lion she before in mane and throat. 

 Behind a dragon, in the midst a goat ; 

 Her Pegasus the swift subdued in flight 

 Backed by Bellerophon, a gallant knight. 

 From Orthus and Chimsera, foul embrace, 

 Is Sphinx derived, a monster to the race." 



The same story is told a little later by 

 Homer* with more grace of diction. 



" And Glaucus in his turn begot 

 Bellerophon, on whom the gods bestowed 

 The gifts of beauty and of manly grace. 

 But Proetus sought his death; and mightier far, 

 From all the coasts of Argos drove him forth. 



***** 

 To Lycia, guarded by the gods, he went; 

 But when he came to Lycia and the stream 

 Of Xanthus, there with hospitable rites 

 The king of wide-spread Lycia welcomed him. 

 Nine days he feasted him, nine oxen slew ; 

 But with the tenth return of rosy morn 

 He questioned him and for the tokens asked 

 He frona his son-in-law, from Proetus bore 

 The token's fatal import understood. 

 He bade him first the dread Chimsera slay, 

 A monster sent from heav'n — not human born. 

 With head of lion and a serpent's tail. 

 And body of a goat, and from her mouth 

 There issued flames of fiercely-burning fire. 

 Yet her, confiding in the gods, he slew. 

 Next with the valiant Solymi he fought 

 The fiercest fight he ever undertook ; 

 Thirdly the women-warriors he overthrew. 

 The Amazons. ' ' 



It will be seen here that Bellerophon, 

 like Hercules or St. George, is a profes- 

 sional wandering slayer of dragons. His 



*Iliad., VI., 180 ; Earl Derby's Translation, VI., 

 184-216. 



