BOOK The greedy is employed by the African magician, when he has kindled a fire from which rises a dense smoke and vapour, and the instantaneous effect, as of the lightning, is the discovery of a way into the depths of the earth. In the tale of Ahmed and the Peri Banou, the Schamir or Sassafras is again an arrow which, when shot by the hand of the prince, travels so far as to become invisible, as the lightnings shine from the east and give light to the uttermost west. Following its course, he comes to a great mountain, and finds the arrow just where an opening in the rocks shows him a door by which he descends into a place of unimaginable splendour. Here he is greeted by the queen of this magnificent domain, who calls him by his name, and having convinced him of her knowledge of all his actions by recounting incidents of his past life, offers herself to him as his bride. With her he dwells in happiness and luxury, until, driven by a yearning to see his home and his father once more, he beseeches the benignant being to suffer him to go, and at length obtains his wish after promising, like true Thomas in the myth of Ercildoune, that he will soon return. This beautiful Peri with her vast treasures and her marvellous wisdom is but a reflexion of the wise Kirkê and Medeia, or of the more tender Kalypso, who woos the brave Odysseus in her glistening cave, until she is compelled to let the man of many sorrows go on his way to his wife Penelopê. She is, in short, the Venus of the Horselberg or Ercildoune (the hill of Ursula and her eleven thousand Virgins), for the names are the same, and the prince Ahmed is Tanhaüser, or Thomas the Rimer, wooed and won by the Elfland queen. It is obvious that for the name of the flower which is to open the cave or the treasure-house might be substituted any magical formula, while the lightning-flash might be represented by the lighting of a miraculous taper, the extinguishing of which is followed by a loud crashing noise. With these modifications the myth at once assumes the form of the Spanish legend of the Moor's Legacy, as related by Washington Irving. In this delightful tale we have all the usual incidents of features-the buried treasures-the incantation which has "such virtue that the strongest bolts and bars, nay, the adamantine rock itself, will yield before it "-the wonderful taper by whose light alone the incantation can be read-the opening of the secret places of the earth while the taper continues to burn-the crash with which the gates close when the light is gone. All these features are so skilfully fitted into the modern Alhambra legend, as fairly to hide key, with which he unlocks the earth, of light."-Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, 96. THE LIGHTNING. the origin of the story, until we apply the right key to the lock. No sooner is this done than the myth is as clearly revealed as the treasure of the robbers' cave on pronouncing the word "Sesame." Of the real meaning of the tale, Irving doubtless knew nothing; but he has preserved it as faithfully as the hymn-writer adhered to the spirit of the myth of Hermes. "The scroll was produced" (the sassafras or sesame), "the yellow waxen taper lighted" (the flash of the yellow lightning), "the earth trembled and the pavement opened with a thundering sound." While the taper burns, the Moor and the water-carrier load the panniers of their ass with costly treasures; but when they have satisfied themselves, the costliest still remain untouched, and the greedy Alcalde, having in vain prayed them to bring up these also, descends with his griping retainers still lower into the vault. "No sooner did the Moor behold them fairly earthed, than he extinguished the yellow taper" (the darkness closes in after the flash of lightning), "the pavement closed with the usual crash, and the three worthies remained buried in its womb." Doubtless, when reduced to their primitive elements, these tales may seem poor and monotonous enough; but the marvellous powers of growth which these germs possess have seldom been more clearly exhibited than in the folk-lore which has yielded the legends of the Forty Thieves, the Peri Banou, Allah-ud-deen, and the Legacy of the Moor, with the German stories of Simeli Mountain and the Glass Coffin.1 443 CHAP. IV. Once more, the light flashing from the dim and dusky storm- Mediæval cloud becomes the Hand of Glory, which, taken from a dead spells. man, aids the medieval treasure-seeker in his forbidden search, whether in the depths of the earth or after his neighbour's goods; nor have we far to seek in much older writings for the very same image without its repulsive transformation. The hand of glory is the red light of Jupiter, with which he smites the sacred citadels; and with this we may compare the myth of the golden hand of Indra Savitâr. In this story the office of Schamir is discharged by a goat, suggesting a comparison with the Aigis of Athenê (see p. 250). The beast thrusts his horns with such force that, like the 2 lightning, it splits the rocks open and 2 Horace, Od. i. 2. BOOK Vayu and Boreas and the Maruts. CHAPTER V. THE WINDS. SECTION I.-VAYU AND THE MARUTS. THE god of the bright heaven, who is known as Dyu, Indra, and Agni, is also called Vayu, a name denoting, it would seem, simply the gentler movements of the air, which are expressed by the sweet pipings of the Greek Pan and the soft breathings of the Latin Favonius. As such, he comes early in the morning to chase away the demons, and the Dawns weave for him golden raiment.' He is drawn by the Nirjuts, and has Indra for his charioteer. With some he was, along with Agni and Sûrya, supreme among the deities. "There are only three deities, according to the Nairuktas (etymologists) Agni whose place is on earth; Vayu or Indra whose place is in the atmosphere; and Sûrya whose place is in the sky.' The blustering rage of the Greek Boreas and the more violent moods of Hermes are represented by the crowd of Maruts, or stormwinds, who attend on Indra and aid him in his struggle with his great enemy Vritra. Of these beings it is enough to say, that the language used in describing their functions is, if possible, more transparent than that of the poem known as the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. They overturn trees and destroy forests, they roar like lions and are as swift as thought, they shake the mountains and are clothed with rain. They are borne on tawny-coloured horses; they are brothers, "of whom no one is the elder, no one the younger." They are born selfluminous with the spotted deer, the spears, the daggers, the glittering ornaments. These spears and daggers are the lightnings, and the spotted deer are seen in the spotted lynxes who play round. Phoibos as he pipes to the flocks of Admêtos. The worshipper hears the cracking of their whips in their hands as they go upon their After the mightiest exploits they assume again, "according to way. 1 Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part iv. p. 337; H. H. Wilson, R. V. S. iii. 209; 59. Muir, Skr. Texts, part iv. p. 57. Eurip. 1k. 579. THE MARUTS AND HERMES. V. 445 their wont the form of new-born babes,"1 a phrase which exhibits the CHAP. germ, and more than the germ, of the myth of Hermes returning like a child to his cradle after tearing up the forests. Their voice is louder than that of Stentor. "Whither now?" asks the poet. "On what errand of yours are you going, in heaven not on earth? Where are your cows sporting? From the shout of the Maruts over the whole space of the earth men reeled forward." "2 "They make the rocks to tremble; they tear asunder the kings of the forest," like Hermes in his rage. "Lances gleam, Maruts, upon your shoulders, anklets on your feet, golden cuirasses on your breasts, and pure (waters shine) on your chariots lightnings blazing with fire glow in your hands, and golden tiaras are towering on your heads." In the traditions of Northern Europe these furious Maruts become the fearful Ogres, who come tearing along in their ships (the clouds), while the wind roars and growls after them, and who, after desperate conflicts, are vanquished by Shortshanks in the Norse tale. The ogre of this story carries with him "a great thick iron club," which sends the earth and stones flying five yards in the air at each stroke. ers, or But pre-eminently, as the name denotes, the Maruts are the The Crushcrushers or grinders; and thus, as made to share in the deadly strife Grinders. between Indra and Vritra, they assume an exclusively warlike character. The history of the root which furnishes this name has been already traced, and has linked together the Greek war-god Arês, the gigantic Aloadai and Moliones, the Latin Mars and Mors, and the Teutonic Thor Miölnir. They are the children of Rudra, worshipped as the destroyer and reproducer, for these functions were blended by the same association of ideas which gave birth to the long series of correlative deities in Aryan mythology. "Adorned with armlets, the Maruts have shone like the skies with their stars; they have glittered like showers from the clouds, at the time when the prolific Rudra generated you, Maruts, with jewels on your breasts, from the shining udder of Prisni.” 6 Among the monstrous overgrowths of wild fancies in the later Rudra. Hindu literature we find some of the more prominent attributes of the cognate Greek deity ascribed to Rudra in his character as Father BOOK of the Winds. II. Hindu and Greek myths of the wind. The story Like the Asvins and Agni, like Proteus, Phoibos, and the other fish-gods, Rudra can change his form at will. "Father of the Maruts, may thy felicity extend to us: exclude us not from the light of the sun. "Thou, Rudra, art the chiefest of beings in glory. Thou, wielder of the thunderbolt, art the mightiest of the mighty. "Where, Rudra, is thy joy-dispensing hand? Firm with strong limbs, assuming many forms, he shines with golden ornaments."1 Like Hermes, Rudra is worshipped as the robber, the cheat, the deceiver, the Master Thief. The mocking laughter of the wind as it passes on after wreaking its fury could not fail to suggest the same ideas in the most distant lands. As we might expect, Rudra, like Siva, whose gracious name was a mere euphemism to deprecate his deadly wrath, at length eclipses Indra, as Indra had put Dyaus and Varuņa into the background, and he becomes associated most closely with that phallic worship which seemingly found but little favour in the true Vedic age.3 SECTION II. HERMES. The character of the more gentle Vayu, who comes with the blush of early morning, carries us to the strange legend of Hermes ; and we have to see how the phrases which yielded but a slight harvest of myth in the East grew up in the West into stories enriched by an exquisite fancy, while they remained free from the cumbrous and repulsive extravagances of later Hindu mythology, and how true to the spirit of the old mythical speech and thought is the legend of that son of Zeus, who was born early in the morning in a cave of the Kyllenian hill, who at noon played softly and sweetly on his harp, and who at eventide stole away the cattle of Phoibos.* Rising from his cradle (so the story runs), the babe stepped forth of Hermes. from the cave, and found a tortoise feeding on the grass. Joyously seizing his prize, he pierced out its life with a borer, and drilling holes in the shell, framed a lyre with reed canes, a bull's hide, and 1 H. H. Wilson, R. V. S. ii. 289. 3 Dr. Muir fully admits the scantiness Hymn to Hermes, 17, 18. The sudden growth of Hermes, followed by an equally rapid return to his infantile shape and strength, explains the story of the Fisherman and the Jin in the Arabian Nights. This tale is substantially the same as Grimm's story of the Spirit in the Bottle. The bottle in the one case, the jar in the other, represents the cradle to which Hermes comes back after striding like a giant over heaths and hills, as well as the cave of Aiolos and the bag of winds which he places in the hands of Odysseus. |