The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-29
THE MILKY WAY.
Legends of the Dog and the Cow as
Guides Thereon.

IN theSe days, when the daily news
paper rarely goes to press without pub
LEGATION of one or several items of In
terest relative to scientific discovery
or lost historic fact, the readers there
of may, like the great Alexander. sigh
that ere long prospectively there will
be few worlds OF knowledge left to con-
quer.
AS pioneers in a highly extolled CIV
ilization of science which can almost
chain the winds and coeree the ele-
ments. we have admittedly learned
much. gained much, done much. Yet.
after all, there are mental powers and
capabilities in which. skin for skin.
the brown savage" is our equal.
Even more. some of the keenest in
tellects of our day have found in the
study of the savage their great life
work.
DIR. DnniaI Brinton's Work.
We of Philadelphia may Justly feel
proud of the record of DR.. Daniel
Brinton, whose death last year was
deeply mourned by the scholars Of the
Old World, for TO them he was as the
light, illuminating the primitive culture
Of our so-ca1led New World. Now
that Prof. Max Muller, chief of Euro
pean ethnophilogists, has followed him
along "the path OF the dead" the won
derful imaginative faculty Of the saw
age, which SO deeply impressed these
two men and many. many brilliant
followers, seems suitable object for
our strong thoughts.
imaginative Savage.
Facts now explain away all phenome-
ma of nature: we are ensheathed in a
panoply of facts: our world is govern
ed by material comfort and facts.
The telescope has brought the plan
cts, the stars to closest vision. and we
know all about the actualities of the
Milky Way.
SO does and did primitive man--but
with vast difference--for the mystery
Of the heavens was over his rude soul,
and we in our arrogance of knowledge
fall far short of his unconscious rever-
ence.
Beauty of Indian Myths.
Why remain ignorant of another fact
of which we may we'll be proud7 The
myths developed among the native
races of America have a range and
vigor and beauty scarcely rivaled else
where In the mythology of the world"
SO writes one of the chief English au-
thorities.
The life after death occupied their
thoughts as IL does ours; and for them
the road thereto lay by the Milky Way.
The Winnebagos call IL THE Path of
the Dead" the Iroquois believe that
the soul goes upward and westward
along its path. and then a beauteous
plain is reached where people rest UNI
der the trees, the birds sing in the
branches, the flowers and fruit invite
to be plucked.
The Oils call IL THE Way OF the
Spirits" and other tribes believe 1t is
The Path OF the Master Spirit" and
the Road of Souls" lighted up by
camp fires.
The Basutos, of whom we have heard
much lately, call 1t the Way of the
God" the Sfamese say II is the Road
Of the Sacred White Elephant"
Road of the Birds.
Among people whose ways SAVIOR
more or less If Oriental imagery we find
that most beautiful of all is the Lith-
uanian's Road of the Birds" for the
souls Of the good fly away free and
happy as do the birds, and at the end
of the way they find perpetual peace
and join in the chorus of happy song
sters.
The Turk calls IL THE Pilgrims
Road" along which travel those who
have duly kept the fasts, abstained
from wine and paid their respects at
Mecca.
Persians and Syrians compare It
to a straw road" ffecked by scraps
of straw dropped from the carrying
nets.
In Spain IL was the Road to San
tiago," and we have gone along It's
way and seized the prize at the end
thereof!
waiting street.
Our English forefathers up to
Chauncey's day. and for a century at
forwards, called IL Waiting Street. The
early Saxon Waetlinga street stretched
from Dover to Wales. through London.
and now only a mere alley near ST.
Paul's is all that is left in the city.
and very few. indeed, connect 1t now
with the Galaxy in the Heavens.
Hence illumination comes with Chau-
GERS lines:
10 there (quod he). cast up thine
eye;
So yondir. 10. the Galaxie.
The whiche men clepe the Milky Way,
For it is white, and some parfay.
Ycallin ii han Watiynge strete."
The Faithful Dog.
We think and speak Of the loneliness
Of death. of the soul going out into the
darkness and the dree. Not so did
primitive man. The dog, faithful COM
panion and friend; the COW, greatest
of animal benefactors, never desert
him. Only few of the many stories
can be given, sufficiently widespread,
however, to prove the universally of
such faith.
Yama, born of the lightning, was the
first Aryan to reach another world;
and, lonely there, sent the winds to
earth, under guise of the dog, to guide
men across the Milky Way to his bliss
full home, which Is guarded by two
fcur-eyed dogs.
To this day the parsees of Bombay
bring a dog into every death bed. that
the closing eyes may find comfort i'm
thought OF future guide. and when
young mother and child are dying
two dogs guard the bed. At the end
of the way stands the bridge Tchina-
vat, where unclean spirits claim each
new arrival, and the guides and Yama's
dogs fight, and even prevail when
righteous soul seeks entrance into
Yama's home.
1t is this old belief in the dog as
messenger and guide which accounts
for the well-known superstition Of a
dogs howl being a death omen.
Dogs can see Hela and her ghosts.
to, and the existence of spectral dogs
Is implicitly believed in by English
peasants to this day.
Death Hon ds.
We hear Of them by many names
Heath or Yeth hounds; He'll hounds;
Danish dogs; I'm Wales there are Cwn
Annwn in Isle of Man. Mantle dogs.
and all over the North Gabriel hounds.
Hence WordsWorth's allusion TO the old