The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-02
THE FOLKLORE OF MICE
CURIOUS FABLES CONCERNING THEM
FROM A NUMBER OF SOURCES.
The Chinese Regard the Ancient Mas
tOdcn as a Species OF Mice Not
withdrawing Their Size.
London Standard.

AHsAA LtAL A[6EtA1 ~ NhC
ates them with rats. But one recalls a few
cases not uninteresting. A Bohemian legend
declares that they were created by the dew
IL. whereupon Benefcence produced the
cat. When Noah received a pair of them
into the ark they straightway began to
gnaw a hole through the bottom, ~instigated
by their unholy parent; water was pouring
I'm when the serpent, with admirable pres
ence of mind, stopped the leak with his
head. We should conclude that mice are
specially destructive in Bohemia, and so 1t
proves to be. Both the white and gray va
rleties flourish there, but the former is
thought inoffensive. When harvests are rip
ening the peasants anxiously catch a white
mouse. put it in a comfortable box upon
the windowsill, feed and pet it and call it
1.-The luck Of the house" If satisfied with
these attentions the animal will Danish all
its gray kinsfolk from the vicinity.
In that very interesting island of Bali,
also, where Brahmanism and Buddhism in
extricably mingled, survive, while all the
populations round have long been Moslem,
some fortunate mice receive like honor.
The Balls catch a pair, clothe them in white
linen, and set them in a public place, where
all the inhabitants of the village bow down
before them; then they release the prison.
ers and straightway, with an easy con-
science, trap and kin every mouse that can
be found, for they are terribly destructive
in the rice fields. Mr.. Fraser cites an old
Greek charm in 9TH Golden Bough,' which
is worth quoting: Take a paper and
write" it says, 81 adjure you, We mice now
present, neither to iniure me nor to let
others do so. L give you yonder field (speci-
flying one not far Off, and if ever 1 catch
you here | swear by the mother of the
gndG will ta1r xyn1 into GpNan ninNaG >
Write this, and fix the paper on an unheWn
stone in your field, taking care that the
writing lies uppermost." Thus a man di-
rected all his mice to a neighbours property
IS some villa residents at the present day
pitch their snails over the garden wall.
That proceeding has sometimes led most re-
spectacle householders into the police court,
frequently into direct QuarrelS, as in the
grand instance of Goblet and the learned
DIR. Douce. Perhaps if Greek law reports
were eXtant it would prove that this charm
had caused some discomfort to men if not
to mice.
SAVED BY MICE.
Certain Rajput clans regard the small
creature with pious veneration for its serv-
ices to the hero Moosh Varma-that is,
m-ouse-cave-who was protected by an army
of mice when his mother deserted him Just
born. Herodotus tells the Egyptian legend
of the destruction of Sennacherib's host-it
is one Of the few stories collected by the
father of history in his travels, which
some Psychologists allow to pass without a
sneer at the poor mans ignorance. Sethon.
priest of Vulcan was warned by a dream
when Sennacherib approached. He took a
body of mechanics to Potassium, upon the
frontier, and encamped them there, but no
soldiers. The Assyrian came down, as we
know, like a wolf on the fold, but Sethon
did not quail. During the night field mice
gathered in their thousands and gnawed
the DOWStrlngS. the QliVeTS tba handles of
the shields. Next morning the good priest
sailed out with his mechanics and slaugh-
tered the helpless warriors. For a witness
thereof "a stone statue of Sechon was set
up in the Temple of Vulcan, with a mouse
In his hand and the inscription, 'Whosoever
looks on me let him revere the GODS And
Herodotus saw it there, or may have done.
for If we remember rightly, Professor Sayce
makes him visit Potassium. But there were
statues, with which the mouse was associ-
ated. Mr.. Andrew Lang has glanced at the
case or Apollo TlmintheuS in his Custom
n Myth" In this instance, the sun god
was recognized as the archer who smote
men with pestilence. He had a mouse in his
mana or under his foot upon the tripod be-
side him. Mice were fed in the temple, and
at one place in the Troad, Delian says,
white mice dwell beneath the altar" AL
lusions in the Assyrian records leave no
doubt that Sennacherib met with a great
disaster on his Egyptian campaign. Both
mouse with peStilence-that is, it was an
emblem of the destroying god. So did the
GHIAiSllueSs Wfen they suffered after carry
ing OF the ark they sent it back with five
golden boils and five golden mice '.as a tres
pass offering. to the Lord of Israeli This
was ages before the Assyrian invasion. A
perplexing allusion occurs in Isaiah. where
IT Is SAID, that wicked Jews purify and
sanctify themselves, eating swine flesh and
the abominat1on and the mouse"
CHINESE REASONING.
One might venture tc assert. speaking hui
manly, that it passes the wit of man to
trace an intimate connection betwixt a
mouse and a mammoth-not by poetic Ii
cense or figure of speech, but in plain fact.
But who shall limit the ingenuity of the
Chinaman? He has succeeded, and perhaps
1t is not his most wonderful feat in that
line, though vastly creditable. The Chinese
have been aware for an indefinite number
of ages that the cliffs overhanging great
rivers in Siberia contain the bodies of some
monstrous animals. In times when they
We're more enterprising than now. it seems
to have been a common practice to fit out
expeditions for gathering the ivory. These
people noticed that the carcasses made
their appearance after heavy rains. either
imbedded in the clay or lying at the waters
edge, obviously washed out of it, They con-
cluded that the beasts lived under the earth.
and they named them Feu-shu-"digging
mice"-or shu-men-'mother of mice. The
great Encyclopedia Kang-fu gives a full
description. The Feu-Shu, it saws. is a crea-
N%N vas
or the Northern sea, resembling the COM
mon rat at all points except size, which is
incredible. 1t dwells I'm caverns far from
the water, and accordingly it has to bore
through the earth whenever it wants to
drink. Instinct generally guides it safe to
the bottom of a river, when it takes its
MI and returns; but sometimes. by an err
IoheouS calculation, it directs the tunnel
too high, and energies in the bank above.
and then the hunters find its body half in
and half out of the soil.
me encyclopedia quotes one still more
venerable book called Shin-Shin, which re-
ports that people not infrequently catch
sight of the Feu-shu at dawn disporting it
self after drinking; it vanishes with amaz-
ing rapidlty. No doubt the was
common In those remote ages. For the rest.
It's flesh Is excellent eating and its teeth
are as white as the tusk of the elephant
win FOUND the same notion under like cir
curnStdnceS i'll the Parana region. Fossil
Mastodons are wonderfully common in
those parts, and the natives have satisfied
themselves, by a similar train of reasoning.
that they were a colossal species of biZc5-
cha, the small rabbit whose holes stud the
Pampas. Inc same fancy, perhaps, explains
a very old legend common among the
m4rlhern u1Des OF Indians in America.
IheSe people assert that the dormouse was
once the largest of animals-"when il stood
up IL looked ike a mountain" A hero of
epic. whose name we must respectfully
omit by, reason OF a constitutional inability
10 fecollect words OF more than ten sVIla-
bles-once yielded to a momentarv Impulse
ana caught the sun in a moose. The aston
tshed luminary appealed to heaven and
earth. Grave inconvenience followed in
both spheres. The poor moon was dis
tracted. No power human or divine ven
tured to challenge the polysyllabic hero mn
I'll the dormouse stepped forward-urged as
the story tells, by a noble consciousness Of
its duty as biggest of created things n st1c-
Qaa1ans hHf taking fha sun int q.