Modern Mythology
Much more might be said on a book of nearly 900 pages. Many points might be taken, much praise (were mine worth anything) might be given; but I have had but one object, to defend the method of anthropology from a running or dropping fire of criticism which breaks out in many points all along the line, through Contributions to the Science of Mythology. If my answer be desultory and wandering, remember the sporadic sharpshooting of the adversary! For adversary we must consider Mr. Max Müller, so long as we use different theories to different results. If I am right, if he is wrong, in our attempts to untie this old Gordian knot, he loses little indeed. That fame of his, the most steady and brilliant light of all which crown the brows of contemporary scholars, is the well-earned reward, not of mythological lore nor of cunning fence in controversy, but of wide learning and exquisitely luminous style.
I trust that I have imputed no unfairness, made no charge of conscious misrepresentation (to accidents of exposition we are all liable), have struck no foul blow, hazarded no discourteous phrase. If I have done so, I am thereby, even more than in my smattering of unscholarly learning, an opponent more absolutely unworthy of the Right Hon. Professor than I would fain believe myself.
APPENDIX A: The Fire-walk in Spain
One study occasionally illustrates another. In examining the history of the Earl Marischal, who was exiled after the rising of 1715, I found, in a letter of a correspondent of d’Alembert, that the Earl met a form of the fire-walk in Spain. There then existed in the Peninsula a hereditary class of men who, by dint of ‘charms’ permitted by the Inquisition, could enter fire unharmed. The Earl Marischal said that he would believe in their powers if he were allowed first to light the fire, and then to look on. But the fire-walkers would not gratify him, as not knowing what kind of fire a heretic might kindle.
APPENDIX B: Mr. Macdonell on Vedic Mythology
Too late for use here came Vedic Mythology, from Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie, 198 by Mr. A. Macdonell, the representative of the historic house of Lochgarry. This even a non-scholar can perceive to be a most careful and learned work. As to philological ‘equations’ between names of Greek and Vedic gods, Mr. Macdonell writes: ‘Dyaus=Ζευς is the only one which can be said to be beyond the range of doubt.’ As to the connection of Prometheus with Sanskrit Pramantha, he says: ‘Προμηθευς has every appearance of being a purely Greek formation, while the Indian verb math, to twirl, is found compounded only with nis, never with pra, to express the art of producing fire by friction.’ (See above, p. 194.) If Mr. Macdonell is right here, the Greek myth of the fire-stealer cannot have arisen from ‘a disease of language.’ But scholars must be left to reconcile this last typical example of their ceaseless differences in the matter of etymology of names.
1
Chips, iv. 62.
2
Chips, iv. p. xxxv.
3
Chips, iv. pp. vi. vii.
4
Ibid. iv. p. xv.
5
Cults of the Greek States, ii. 435-440.
6
Chips, iv. p. xiv.
7
Chips, iv. p. xiii.
8
Suidas, s.v. τελμισσεις; he cites Dionysius of Chalcis, B.C. 200.
9
See Goguet, and Millar of Glasgow, and Voltaire.
10
Translated by M. Parmentier.
11
See ‘Totemism,’ infra.
12
Longmans.
13
M. R. R. i. 155-160.
14
Tylor’s Prim. Cult. i. 145.
15
Turner’s Samoa, p. 219.
16
Gill’s Myths and Songs, p. 79.
17
M. R. R. ii. 160.
18
Metam. i. 567.
19
Grimm, cited by Liebrecht in Zur Volkskunde, p. 17.
20
Primitive Culture, i. 285.
21
Op. cit. i. 46-81.
22
M. R. R. i. 160.
23
Erratum: This is erroneous. See Contributions, &c., vol. i. p. 6, where Mr. Max Müller writes, ‘Tuna means eel.’ This shows why Tuna, i.e. Eel, is the hero. His connection, as an admirer, with the Moon, perhaps remains obscure.
24
Phonetically there may be ‘no possible objection to the derivation of Απολλων from a Sanskrit form, *Apa-var-yan, or *Apa-val-yan’ (ii. 692); but, historically, Greek is not derived from Sanskrit surely!
25
Mythologische Forschungen, p. 275.
26
Baumkultus, p. 297. Berlin: 1875.
27
Antike Wald– und Feldkulte, p. 257. Referring to Baumkultus, p. 297.
28
Oriental and Linguistic Studies, second series, p. 160. La Religion Védique, iii. 293.
29
1, viii. cf. i. 27.
30
Riv. Crit. Mensile. Geneva, iii. xiv. p. 2.
31
Custom and Myth, p. 3, citing Revue de l’Hist. des Religions, ii. 136.
32
M. R. R. i. 24.
33
Revue de l’Hist. des Religions, xii. 256.
34
Op. cit. p. 253.
35
Op. cit. xii. 250.
36
P. 104, infra.
37
Revue de l’Hist. des Religions, xii. 259.
38
M. R. R. i. 25.
39
Rev. xii. 247.
40
M. R. R. i. 24.
41
Rev. xii. 277.
42
Rev. xii. 264.
43
M. R. R. i. 44, 45.
44
Custom and Myth, p. 51.
45
Rev. xii. 262.
46
Odyssey, book ix.
47
C. and M. p. 56.
48
W. u. F. K. xxiii.
49
M. R. R. i. 23.
50
W. u. F. K. xvii.
51
Golden Bough, 1. ix.
52
περιελθειν δρομω την κωμην. Dionys. i. 80.
53
Pausanias, viii. 25.
54
Myth. Forsch. p. 244.
55
Iliad, xx. 226.
56
Myth. Forsch, p. 265
57
September 19, 1875. Myth. Forsch. xiv.
58
For undeniable solar myths see M. R. R. i. 124-135.
59
Op. cit. p. xx.
60
Folk Lore Society.
61
Von einem der vorzüglichsten Schiriftgelehrten, Annana, in klassischer Darstellung aufgezeichneten Märchens, p. 240.
62
Custom and Myth.
63
See Preface to Mrs. Hunt’s translation of Grimm’s Märchen.
64
P. 309.
65
x. 17. Cf. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, v. 277.
66
As the Sun’s wife is Dawn, and leaves him at dawn, she is not much of a bedfellow. As Night, however, she is a bedfellow of the nocturnal Sun.
67
M. R. R. i. 58-81.
68
See Robertson Smith on ‘Semitic Religion.’
69
See Sayce’s Herodotus, p. 344.
70
See Rhys’ Rhind Lectures; I am not convinced by the evidence.
71
Academy, September 27, 1884.
72
Anth. Rel. p. 405.
73
Plantagenet, Planta genista. – A. L.
74
See M. R. R. ii. 56, for a criticism of this theory.
75
Religion of the Semites, pp. 208, 209.
76
Die Religionen, p. 12.
77
Anth. Rel. p. 122.
78
Dalton.
79
Strabo, xiii. 613. Pausanias, i. 24, 8.
80
Crooke, Introduction to Popular Religion of North India, p. 380.
81
C. and M. p. 115.
82
Contributions, ii. 687.
83
Evidence in G. B. i. 325, 326.
84
Compare Liebrecht, ‘The Eaten God,’ in Zur Volkskunde, p. 436.
85
Cf. G. B. ii. 17, for evidence.
86
M. R. R. ii. 232.
87
G. B. ii. 90-113.
88
In Encyclop. Brit. he thinks it ‘very probable.’
89
i. 200.
90
M. R. R. ii. 142, 148-149.
91
R. V. iv. 18, 10.
92
G. B. ii. 44-49.
93
G. B. ii. 33.
94
Plutarch, Quæst. Rom. vi. McLennan, The Patriarchal Theory, p. 207, note 2.
95
G. B. ii. 337.
96
See G. B. ii. 332-334.
97
Religion of the Semites, p. 118.
98
G. B. ii. 337, 338.
99
Custom and Myth, p. 235.
100
M. R. R. ii. 327.
101
Op. cit. ii. 329.
102
Lectures on Science of Language, Second Series, p. 41.
103
M. R. R. ii. 336.
104
Anthropological Religion.
105
M. R. R. i. 171-173.
106
Ibid. i. 172.
107
Anth. Rel. p. 180.
108
‘Totemism,’ Encyclop. Brit.
109
M. R. R. ii. 333.
110
Ibid. ii. 335.
111
M. R.. R.. i. 96, 127; ii. 22, 336.
112
Greek Etym. Engl. transl. i. 147.
113
Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte, p. 431.
114
Gr. Etym. i. 150.
115
M. R. R. ii. 142.
116
ii. 210. Cf. Oldenberg in Deutsche Rundschau, 1895, p. 205.
117
R. V. iv. 18, 10.
118
Aglaophamus, i. 700.
119
Custom and Myth, i. 29-44. M. R. R. ii. 260-273.
120
Custom and Myth, pp. 212-242.
121
Culte des Fétiches, 1760.
122
Codrington, Journal Anthrop. Inst., Feb. 1881.
123
C. and M. p. 230, note.
124
Rochas, Les Forces non définies, 1888, pp. 340-357, 411, 626.
125
Revue Bleue, 1890, p. 367.
126
De Brosses, p. 16.
127
C. and M. p. 214.
128
M. R. R. i. 327.
129
Lectures on the Science of Language, 2nd series, p. 41.
130
M. R. R. ii. 327 and 329.
131
M. R. R. ii. 324.
132
Paris: Œuvres, 1758, iii. 270.
133
M. R. R. ii. 324.
134
I have no concern with his criticism of Mr. Herbert Spencer (p. 203), as I entirely disagree with that philosopher’s theory. The defence of ‘Animism’ I leave to Dr. Tylor.
135
Meyer, 1846, apud Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 432.
136
My italics.
137
M. R. R. ii. 208-221.
138
Ibid. ii. 209.
139
M. R. R. ii. 218.
140
De Dianæ Antiquissima apud Græcos Natura, p. 76. Vratislaw, 1881.
141
De Diane Brauron, p. 33. Compare, for all the learning, Mr. Farnell, in Cults of the Greek States.
142
M. R. R. i. x.
143
Life in California, pp. 241, 303.
144
Religion of the Semites, p. 274.
145
See also Mr. Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. 90-94; and Robertson Smith, op. cit. pp. 416-418.
146
Apostolius, viii. 19; vii. 10.
147
Melanesians, p. 32.
148
Samoa, p. 17.
149
M. R. R. ii. 33.
150
See also Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. 92.
151
M. R. R. ii. 208.
152
M. R. R. ii. 209.
153
Custom and Myth, ‘Star Myths.’
154
L. Preller, Röm. Myth. p. 239, gives etymologies.
155
Æn. xi. 785.
156
A. W. F. p. 328.
157
Dionys. Halic. iii. 32.
158
Hist. Nat. vii. 2.
159
Æn. xi. 784.
160
Æn. xi. 787.
161
Serv. Æn. vii. 800.
162
Authorities in A. F. W. K. p. 325.
163
Herabkunft, p. 30.
164
Pausanias, viii. 385.
165
A. W. F. K. xxii. xxiii.
166
Janus, pp. 44-49.
167
Home, the medium, was, or affected to be, entranced in his fire tricks, as was Bernadette, at Lourdes, in the Miracle du Cierge.
168
The photograph referred to is evidently taken from a sketch by hand, and is not therefore a photograph from life. – EDITOR. The original photograph was hereon sent to the editor and acknowledged by him. – A. L.
169
Procès, Quicherat, ii. 396, 397
170
Introduction to Popular Religion and Folk-Lore in Northern India, by W. Crookes, B.A., p. 10.
171
Iamblichus, De Myst. iii. 4.
172
Folk-Lore, September 1895.
173
Quoted by Dr. Boissarie in his book, Lourdes, p. 49, from a book by Dr. Dozous, now rare. Thanks to information from Dr. Boissarie, I have procured the book by Dr. Dozous, an eye-witness of the miracle, and have verified the quotation.
174
Predvestniki spiritizma za posleanie 250 lyet. A. M. Aksakoff, St. Petersburg, 1895. See Mr. Leaf’s review, Proceedings S. P. R. xii. 329.
175
Prim. Cult. i. 138.
176
Journal of Anthrop. Institute, x. iii.
177
Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 42.
178
Relations, 1637, p. 49.
179
Abor. of Victoria, i. 429.
180
Dalton, op. cit.
181
Codrington, Journal Anthrop. Institute, x. iii. For America, compare Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1674, p. 13.
182
The connection between the Moon and the Hare is also found in Sanskrit, in Mexican, in some of the South Sea Islands, and in German and Buddhist folklore. Probably what we call ‘the Man in the Moon’ seemed very like a hare to various races, roused their curiosity, and provoked explanations in the shape of myths.
183
Hahn, Tsuni-Goam, p. 150.
184
Codrington, op. cit, p. 304.
185
Codrington, op. cit.
186
Bastian, Heilige Sage.
187
Primitive Culture, i. 336.
188
Kuhn, Die Herabkunft der Feuers und der Göttertranks. Berlin, 1859.
189
Herabkunft, pp. 16, 24.
190
Dupret, Paris, 1886. Translation by M. Parmentier.
191
Pliny, Hist. Nat. xiii. 22. Bent. Cyclades.
192
Servius ad Virg., Eclogue vi. 42.
193
Australian Legendary Tales. Nutt: London, 1897. Mrs. Parker knows Australian dialects, and gives one story in the original. Her tribes live on the Narran River, in New South Wales.
194
Bosquet, La Normandie Merveilleuse. Paris, 1845.
195
Journal Anthrop. Institute, November, 1884.
196
Odyssey, v. 488-493.
197
References for savage myths of the Fire-stealer will be found – for the Ahts, in Sproat; for the tribes of the Pacific coast, in Bancroft; for Australians in Brough Smyth’s Aborigines of Victoria.
198
Trübner, Strasburg, 1897.
