Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-05-10

4
= hand behind them -
q In the Middle Ages the hand of glory va
C used, just like the divining-rOdj for the de
y lection of buried treasures.
I Here, then, we have a large and notle.
? group of obicctS-the fOrked rod of ash o
,, hazel, the springv7o-t, and the luck flower
a leaves, worms, stones, rings, and dead men
s bands which are for the most part compe
i tett to open the way into cavernous rocks
5 and which ali aSre5 IN pointing out bidder
d wealth. We find. moreover, tha3 meny 0
T these charmed objects carried about b,
e birds, and that some of them possess, in ad
: dltIon to their generic properties. the spe-
Il chic power OF benumbing peOtle's senses
e What, now, is the common origin OF thi
e whole group of superstitions And since
0 mythology has been shown to be the result
r OF primeval attempts to explain the phenom-
! eha of nature, what natural phenomenon
could ever have given rire to 30 many seem
ingly wanton conceptions? Hopeless rs the
problem may at first sight seem, it has nev-
; erthcle9s been sl9ed In his great treatise
on g." The descent OF Fire, . Ur Kuhn has
shown that all these legends and traditions
are descended from primitive myths explana
; tory Of the lightning and the storm-cloud 7
To US, who are nourished from childhood
on the truths revealed by science, the sky is
known to be merely an optical appearance
due to the partial absorption OF the solar
rays in passing through thi ck stratum of
atmospheric air the clouds are known 70 be
large masses OF watery vapor, which descend
IN raln-drops when sufficiently cJndens ed /;
and the lightning is known to he a fash Of
light accompanying au electric discharge
But these conceptions are extremely recon
dite, and have been attained only through
centuries OF bhilo90phl7ing and after careful
10 observation and laborious experiment.. To
the untaught mind Of n child or Of an unclv-
ilized man, it seems far more natural and
| plausible to regard the sky as i solid dome
Of blue crystal, the clouds as snowy noun
talns, OF perhaps even as ei1n.s or angels,
/ the lightning as a flashing dart or fcry
serpent. In point Of fact, we find that the
conceptions actually entertained are often
far more grotesque than these can rccol-
lect once framing the hypothesis that the
flaming clouds of sunset were transient ap-
partitions, yolchsated Us by way of warning,
OF that burning CalTanIstlc hell with which
my childish Imagination had ieen nnwisely
terrified and | have known Of four year
old boy whe thought that the snowy clouds
Of MONDAY were the white robes Of the an.
gels hung out to dry in the sun. 7 Ny lit
, tie daughter is anxious to know whether il
is necessary to take balloon in order to get
to the place where God lives or whether the
same end can be accomplished by going to
the horizon and crawling up .he sky s the
Mohammedan of old was working at the
same problem when he called the rainbow
the bridge Es-Slrat, over which souls must
pass on their way To heaven. According to
the ancient jew, the sky was a solid plate.
hammered out by the gods, and spread over
the earth in order To keep up the ocean over
head but the plate was full of little win
dows, which were opened whenever it he
Fr.ss 30
With equal plausibility the Greek reVresen-
ted the rainy sky a. sieve 10 which the
daughters Of DInaDs were yaiuiy trying q
draw water while t3 the Hindu the rain
clouds were celestial cattle milkod by the
wlnd-god. In primitive Aryan lore. the sky
was itself blue sea. and the clouds were
ships sailing over it and an English legend
tells how one Of these ships once caught It's
anchor on a gravestone IN the churchvard,
TO the great astOnishment OF the people who
were coming out oil church Charon'- ferry
boat WAS one OF these vessels. and another
was Odin golden ship, in which the souls
of slain heroes were conveyed u Nalhalla.
Hence il was once the Scandinavian practice
10 bury the dead in boats and 10 Altmark
a penny is still placed ia the mouth of the
corpse, that it may have the means of pay
ing it's fare To the ghostiy ferrynan 10
such vessel driited the Lady Of Shalott on
her fatal voyage and Of similar nature was
the dusky barge, d" dark as "a iuneral-scarf
from stem to stern. IN which Arthur was
received by the black hooded q Ieens.s
But the fact that natural phenomenon
was explained in one way did Mt hinder it
from being Explained in dozen other ways
The fact that the sun was generally regarded
az an all-conqueriug hero did not prevent its
being called an egg, an apr .e, or a frog
squattiug on the waters, or lXIon's wheel.
Or the eye Of Polyphemos, or the stone of
SisyphOs, which was no sooner pushed up To
the zenith than it rolled down t. the hori.
zon 80 the sky was not only "a crystal dome,
)r celestial ocean, bot it was also tie Ale
ian land through which Bcilcraph0n wan
jered, tire country Of the L,tus-caters. or
again the realm of the Graai beyond the
twilight and final was per-onIhed and
wOIshIgC1 a. DvIus or NaTuua, the y cdIc
prototypes ot the OR, ck /eus and Ourancs.
The clouds. too had many other rcpr, scnta-
-lves besides ships and cows. In tuture
PAPER it vii be shown that they oere some
times It egarded a. angels or hours at pres
mt It more nearly concerns us To know that
they appear. Throughout all Aryan mythol-
)gy under the form Of birds. Ii used 70 lie ,
4 matter Of hopeless wonder to me that /
Aladdin innocent request for rJo'7 egg To
bang in the dome of his palace should have
been regarded as crime worthy Of punish a
nent by the loss OF tie wonderful lamp
he obscurest part of the whole affair beng {
5erhaps the JInnI's passionate al u-iou to {
.he egg as his master e Wretch dost thou G
command me to bring thee my master, and a
rang him up in the midst of this vaultcd e
lone e? - Buc the incident Is to some extent
cleared of its mystery when We learn that
he roc . egg is the bright sun, and that the S
.oc itself is the rushing storm-cloud which. /
n the tale Of Sindbad haunts the sparkling O
tarrv frmament, symbUliZed as a valley OF i
liamonds."' According 70 one Arabic au- /
hority, the length Of its wings is ten thou t
and athoms Bat in European tradition t
t dwindles from these huge dimensions % a
be size Of an eagle, raven, or a woodpeck- e
r. Among the birds enumerated by Kuhn b
md others as representing the stOrm-clOud r
re likewise the wren or - kinglet - (Frcnch :
oiteEeD the OWL sacred 10 A.hene the L
uckoo, stork, and sparrow and the red t.
,reasted robin, whose name Robert was G
originally an eIithet Of the lightning-god r
Thor. In certain parts Of France 1t is still o
believed that the robbing of a wrcn's nest r
Henderson, Folklore ofthc Northern Counties :
+ England p. 2o2
Kuhn, Die Herabsunft de- Fcucr- uud de- tot
eruanks. Berlin, lsj9. q
Still in North Germany docs the peasant say !,
u thunder that The angels are playing skittles +
loft and Of the snow, tha thcy are ehakinG mp me
III ie'tNc 'H'4t4i'lr i'Diih tl
\ crew Olives, p. l12. .,
- The Polynesians imagine that the ky de 4
cends at the horizon and encloses The earth. !
they call foreigners p0pai1ngi, or " heaven
ursters,' As having broken IN from another world
ntside."-MaX Muller, Chips, II. 2Js. n
See Kelly, Indo European Folklore, p. 10: -
rho states also that IN Bengal the Gauows burn
heir dead in a small boat placed on top OF the fu-
eral-plle
In their character Of cows also, the clouds were I
egarded as psychopomp- and hence II is stnl el
opular superstition that a COW breaking into the d
ard fOretOkens a death IN the family. ~