6io THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



MEDIEVAL CEEATION MYTHS 



By Professor B. K. EMERSON 



AMHERST COLLEGE 



THEEE is perhaps more reserve than formerly in assuming the 

 westward wandering of great hordes out of Asia, but, whether 

 the peoples have or have not migrated, the myths certainly have, and 

 all through western Asia and southern Europe the old biblical stories 

 are strongly blended with dualistic traits that have all the ear marks 

 of Iran. As the light conquers the darkness and ushers in the day, 

 so the darkness conquers the light and ushers in the night. Thus 

 Ormuzd and Ahriman are equal to the confines of eternity and God 

 and Satanael become equal in the blended stories. 



Of the many variations of these creation myths which have taken 

 root especially among Slavic peoples in the Caucasus, across southern 

 Eussia and the Balkans, I have wilfully chosen those parts which have 

 a geological flavor, and illustrate or parody, in quaint and naive man- 

 ner, many earth forms or earth-forming processes. 



I owe most of this material to Oscar Dahnhardt, 1 who has collected 

 many medieval stories of the creation of curious interest. In north and 

 west Eussia, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the " Eoll of the 

 Divine Books " tells how, while there was still neither heaven nor earth, 

 the Sea of Tiberias existed, solitary and alone, and it was shoreless. 



The story is continued thus in Ukraine (p. 55) : 



As God would create the world, he spoke to the oldest of his angels, 

 Satanael, with whom he wandered over the sea, and bade him dive to the bottom 

 and bring him up a handful of sand. As he grasped the sand he should say, 

 " I seize thee, Earth, in the name of the Lord ! " But as Satanael came to the 

 bottom the wicked thought came to him, and he said, " In the Lord's and in 

 my name ! " But as he arose again the sand ran out of his hand and he brought 

 up nothing. 



The Lord, who noticed what had happened, bade him dive again and forbade 

 him to use his own name. He did this, nevertheless, and again brought up 

 nothing. Only the third time he left out his own name and brought up sand 

 in his open hand. God took it; went out over the sea and scattered it upon the 

 waters and it became land. 



But Satanael licked his hand and said, " I will keep back just a little 

 and also make land." And God asked him if he had any sand and he 

 answered, " No ! " 



Now God blessed the earth in all four directions and it began to grow. 

 But the earth that Satanael had in his mouth began to grow also and became 

 so great that his lips stretched apart. 



1 " Sagen zum Alten Testament." 



