1881.] Dr. Mitra— Origin of Myth about Kerleros. 97 



object of the prohibition by saying that night is the time for sleep and 

 day for work, and since the wane represents the night of the Pitris, and the 

 southern course of the sun the night of the Devas, offerings at those times 

 are not received by them. Most Smritikaras have quoted these verses as 

 authorities. 



With these elements at hand the construction of the myth would be 

 perfectly intelligible, and the course of its development would be easily 

 accounted for. That such was really the case it would be impossible 

 in the present state of our information to assert with absolute certainty ; 

 but that the theory affords a natural and consistent solution of a very 

 puzzling question, I am disposed to fancy, will be generally admitted. 

 Were it otherwise, still there would be little to undo the explana- 

 tion here attempted. It is not necessary to look for entire and 

 absolute consistency in all the details of the story. Neither Hindu nor 

 Greek Mythology was a system designed to be consistent in all its parts. 

 The fables took their rise from various causes, under different circumstan- 

 ces, to elaborate particular facts or ideas, impressive sights or vivid impres- 

 sions, play on words or poetical thoughts, and gradually they came to be 

 digested, very crudely at best, as a system. Or, as Max Muller very aptly 

 says, " there were myths before there was Mythology, and it is in this, 

 their original and unsystematic prevalence, that we may hope to discover 

 the genuine and primitive meaning of every myth". (" Chips" II, p. 

 147.) The question is, did the first germ of the story proceed from 

 a very obtrusive fact, a funeral, which was afterwards worked out into a 

 story, or a mere poetical idea, from the first start ? and all I contend for is, 

 that the former branch of the alternative appears more likely to be true than 

 the latter. 



Mr. Westland remarked on the fanciful nature of the two derivations 

 given by the learned doctor, one of which would make Kerberos mean 

 " The darkness of Erebus" and the other " the temple of Light". He 

 objected to Hercules, himself a solar myth, being-clothed with flesh and 

 made to appear as an actual reformer of funeral customs. He also pointed 

 out that whether the solar-myth theory was right or wrong, nothing in the 

 learned doctor's paper came in proof or in disproof of it ; inasmuch as that 

 paper was devoted to shewing the origin of the idea of the dog himself, 

 whereas the Solar-myth theory only pretended to shew how the dog, having 

 been originated, was clothed with certain attributes. 



Dr. Mitra explained that the derivations were not his own, but obtained 

 from leading authors, and that the mythical character of Hercules did not 

 in any way affect the question at issue. The attempt was to resolve one 

 or more myths into their primary elements and not to preserve their entity. 



