GUBERNATI ZOOLOGIC YTHO GR 705 .G93 V. 2 2 + ARTES 1817 LIBRARY VERITAS SCIENTIA IDHIUNIUCHUM OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LE PLURIBUS UNUM TUEBOR SI-QUÆRIS-PENINSULAM AMŒNAM. CIRCUMSPICE Reading Room THE GIFT OF Mrs. F. W. Kelsey 1 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CÓMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY OR THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS BY ANGELO DE GUBERNATIS, E C 4- PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ISTITUTO DI STUDII SUPERIORI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO, AT FLORENCE FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PHILOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE DUTCH INDIES IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II. LONDON TRÜBNER & CO., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW 1872 [All rights reserved] GR 705 693 012940535 V. 2 anymo Transf. GL-Stacks 6-13-61 Reference Room Gift M. F. W. Kelsey 6-29-32 CONTENTS. Part First. THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH. (Continued.) CHAPTER V. THE HOG, THE WILD BOAR, AND THE HEDGEHOG, THE DOG, L CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. THE CAT, THE WEASEL, THE MOUSE, THE MOLE, THE SNAIL, THE ICHNEUMON, THE SCORPION, THE ANT, THE LOCUST, AND THE GRASSHOPPER, • PAGE 1 17 41 CHAPTER VIII. Q THE HARE, THE RABBIT, THE ERMINE, AND THE BEAVER, 76 • CHAPTER IX. THE ANTELOPE, THE STAG, THE DEER, AND THE GAZELLE, THE ELEPHANT, CHAPTER X. • 83 91 CHAPTER XI. THE MONKEY AND THE BEAR, 96 CHAPTER XII. THE FOX, THE JACKAL, AND THE WOLF, 121 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. THE LION, THE TIGER, THE LEOPARD, THE PANTHER, AND THE CHAMELEON, THE SPIDER, BIRDS, CHAPTER XIV. Part Second. THE ANIMALS OF THE AIR. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. THE HAWK, THE EAGLE, THE VULTURE, THE PHOENIX, THE HARPY, THE STRIX, THE BAT, THE GRIFFON, AND THE SIREN, CHAPTER III. THE WREN, THE BEETLE, AND THE FIREFLY, CHAPTER IV. THE BEE, THE WASP, THE FLY, THE GNAT, THE MOSQUITO, THE HORSEFLY, AND THE CICADA, • CHAPTER V. THE CUCKOO, THE HERON, THE HEATHCOCK, THE PARTRIDGE, THE NIGHTINGALE, THE SWALLOW, THE SPARROW, AND THE НООРОЕ, CHAPTER VI. THE OWL, THE CROW, THE MAGPIE, AND THE STORK, PAGE 153 162 167 180 207 215 225 · 243 CHAPTER VII. THE WOODPECKER AND THE MARTIN, 264 • CHAPTER VIII. THE LARK AND THE QUAIL, 273 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER IX. PACE THE COCK AND THE HEN, • CHAPTER X. THE DOVE, THE DUCK, THE GOOSE, AND THE SWAN, THE PARROT, · CHAPTER XI. ('HAPTER XII. THE PEACOCK, . 279 294 320 • • 323 Part Third. THE ANIMALS OF THE WATER. CHAPTER I. FISHES, AND PARTICULARLY THE PIKE, THE SACRED FISH OR FISH OF ST PETER, THE CARP, THE MELWEL, THE HERRING, THE EEL, THE LITTLE GOLDFISH, THE SEA-URCHIN, THE LITTLE PERCH, THE BREAM, THE DOLPHIN, AND THE WHALE, THE CRAB, THE TORTOISE, CHAPTER II. 329 354 CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. THE FROG, THE LACERTA VIRIDIS, AND THE TOAD, CHAPTER V. THE SERPENT AND THE AQUATIC MONSTER, • CONCLUSION, • 360 371 A 388 + • 421 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY; OR THE LEGENDS OF ANIMALS. First Part. THE ANIMALS OF THE EARTH. CHAPTER V. THE HOG, THE WILD BOAR, AND THE HEDGEHOG. SUMMARY. The hog as a hero disguise. The disguises of the hero and of the heroine.-Ghoshâ, the leprous maiden.-The moon in the well. Apâlâ cured by Indras.-Apâlâ has the dress of a hog.-Godhâ, the persecuted maiden in a hog's dress.-The hogs eat the apples in the maiden's stead.-The meretricious Circe and the hogs.— Porcus and upodaras.-The wild boar god in India and in Persia. -Tydous, the wild boar.-The wild boar of Erymanthos.-The wild boar of Meleagros.-The Vedic monster wild boar.--The dog and the pig.-Puloman, the wild boar, burned.-The hog in the fire. The hog cheats the wolf.-The astute hedgehog.- The hegehog, the wild boar, and the hog are presages of water. The porcupine and its quills; the comb and the dense forest.— The ears and the heart of the wild boar.-The wild boar and the hog at Christmas.-The devil a wild boar.-The heroes killed by the wild boar.-The tusk of the wild boar now life-giving, now deadly; the dead man's tooth.-The hero asleep; the hero be- come a eunuch; the lettuce-eunuch eaten by Adonis, prior to his being killed by the wild boar. VOL. II. A 2 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. THE hog, as well as the wild boar, is another disguise of the solar hero in the night-another of the forms very often assumed by the sun, as a mythical hero, in the darkness or clouds. He adopts this form in order sometimes to hide himself from his persecutors, sometimes to exterminate them, and sometimes on account of a divine or demoniacal malediction. This form is some- times a dark and demoniacal guise assumed by the hero; on which account the poem of Hyndla, in the Edda, calls the hog a hero's animal. Often, however, it repre- sents the demon himself. When the solar hero enters the domain of evening, the form he had of a handsome youth or splendid prince disappears; but he himself, as a general rule, does not die along with it; he only passes into another, an uglier, and a monstrous form. The black bull, the black horse, the grey horse, the hump-backed horse, the ass, and the goat, are all forms of the same disguise with which we are already acquainted. The thousand-bellied Indras, who has lost his testicles; Argunas, who disguises himself as a eunuch; Indras, Vishņus, Zeus, Achilleüs, Odin, Thor, Helgi, and many other mythical heroes, who disguise themselves as women; and the numerous beautiful heroines who, in mythology and tradition, disguise themselves as bearded men, are all ancient forms under which was represented the passage of either the sun or the aurora of evening into the dark- ness, cloud, ocean, forest, grotto, or hell of night. The hero lamed, blinded, bound, drowned, or buried in a wood, can be understood when referred respectively to the sun which is thrown down the mountain-side, which is lost in the darkness, which is held fast by the fetters of the darkness, which plunges into the ocean of night, or which hides itself from our sight in the nocturnal forest. The illumined and illuminating sun, when it ceases to shine THE MYTH OF APÂLÅ. 3 in the dark night, becomes devoid of sight, devoid of in- telligence, and stupid. The handsome solar hero becomes ugly when, with the night, his splendour ceases; the strong, red, healthy, solar hero, who pales and grows dark in the night, becomes ill. We still say in Italy that the sun is ill when we see it lose its brightness, and, as it were, grow pale. In the 117th hymn of the first book of the Rigvedas, the Açvinâu cure the leprous daughter of Kakshîvant, Ghosha, who is growing old without a husband in her father's house, and find her a husband; the Açvinâu deliver the aurora from the darkness of night, and marry her.¹ In the eightieth hymn of the eighth book of the Rigvedas, the same myth occurs again with relation to Indras, and in a more complete form. We have already remarked, in the first book of the Rigvedas, the maiden Apâlâ who descends from the mountain to draw water, and draws up the somas (ambrosia, or else the moon, whence, as it seems to me, the origin of the double Italian proverb, "Pescare, or mostrare la luna nel pozzo,” to fish up, or show the moon in the well, which was afterwards corrupted to indicate one who says, or narrates, what is untrue or impossible), and takes it to Indras, the well- known drinker of ambrosia (here identified with the moon, or somas). Indras, contented with the maiden, con- sents, as she is ugly and deformed, to pass over the three heavenly stations, that is, to pass over his father's head, her vast breast and her bosom.2 In the last strophe of the hymn quoted above, Indras makes a luminous robe, 1 Cfr. the chapter on the Duck, the Goose, the Swan, and the Dove. 2 Imâni trîni vishṭapâ tânîndra vi rohaya çiras tatasyorvarâm âd idam ma upodare. 4 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. 1 a skin of the sun, for Apâlâ, who has been thrice purified, by the wheel, by the chariot itself, and by the rudder of Indras's chariot. And the same myth occurs once more in a clearer and more complete form in a legend of the Brihaddevatá. Apâlâ beseeches Indras, loved by her, to make for her a beautiful and perfect (faultless, unim- peachable) skin. Indras, hearing her voice, passes over her with wheel, chariot, and rudder; by three efforts, he takes off her ugly skin. Apâlâ then appears in a beautiful one. In the skin thus stript off there was a bristle (çalyakaḥ); above, it had a hirsute appearance; below, it resembled the skin of a lizard.2 The bristle or thorn upon the skin of Apâlâ is naturally suggestive of the hedgehog, the porcupine, the wild boar, and the bristly hog. The aurora, as the Vedic hymn sings, shines only at the sight of her husband; thus Apâlâ, of the ugly or 1 Khe rathasya khe 'nasaḥ khe yugasya çatakrato apâlâm indra trish pûtvy akrinoḥ sûryatvaćam. 2 Sulomâm anavadyâñgîm kuru mâm çakra sutvaćâm Tasyâs tad vaćanam çrutvâ prîtas tena purandarah Rathachidrena tâm indraḥ çakaṭasya yugasya ća Prakshipya niçćakarsha tris tataḥ sâ sutvaćâ 'bhavat Tasyâm tvaći vyapetâyâm sarvasyâm çalyako 'bhavat Uttarâ tv abhavad godhâ krikalâças tvag uttamâ. Godha seems to signify he who has the form of a hair (go, among its other meanings, has that of hair). As an animal, the dictionaries also recognise in the godhâ a lizard. But perhaps we may also trans- late it by toad or frog; we could thus also understand the fable of the frog which aspires to equal the ox. I observe, moreover, to ex- emplify the ease with which we can pass from the ox to the frog, and from the frog to the lizard, how in the Russian story of Afanassieff, ii. 23, a beautiful princess is hidden in a frog; in Tuscan and Pied- montese stories and in Sicilian superstitions, in a toad. In the stories of the Pentamerone, the good fairy is a lacerta cornuta (a horned lizard). Ghoshâ, too, has for its equivalent in Sanskrit, karkaṭaçṛiñgî, which means a horned shrimp. In other varieties the young prince is a he-goat or a dragon. THE LEPROUS MAIDEN-CINDERELLA. 5 the hog's skin, and Ghoshâ, the leprous maiden, become splendid and healthy by the grace of their husband. Thus Cinderella, or she who has a dress of the colour of ashes, or of a grey or dark colour, like the sky of night (in Russian stories Cinderella is called Cernushka, which means little black one, as well as little dirty one), appears exceedingly beautiful only when she finds herself in the prince's ball-room, or in church, in candlelight, and near the prince: the aurora is beautiful only when the sun is near. 1 In the twenty-eighth story of the sixth book of Afanassieff, the maiden persecuted by her father and would-be seducer, who wishes to marry her, because he thinks her as beautiful as her mother (the evening aurora is as beautiful as the morning aurora), covers herself with a hog's skin, which she takes off only when she marries a young prince. In another story of White Russia,2 we have, instead, the son of a king persecuted by his father, who is constrained to quit his father's house with a cloak made of a pig's skin. In an unpublished story of the Monferrato, the contents of which Dr Ferraro has com- municated to me, the girl persecuted by her step-mother is condemned to eat in one night an interminable number of apples; by means of two hog's bristles, she calls up a whole legion of pigs, who eat the apples in her stead. As to the rudder of Indras's chariot in the lower bosom of Apâlâ, it would seem to me to have a phallic signification. Indras may have cured Apâlâ by marrying her, as the Açvinâu, by means of a husband, cured the leprous Ghoshâ, who was growing old in her father's house. In the tenth story of the Pentamerone, the king 1 For the persecuted maiden in connection with the hog or hogs, cfr. also the Pentamerone, iii. 10. 2 Afanassieff, v. 38. 6 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. of Roccaforte marries an old woman, believing he is espousing a young one. He throws her out of the window, but she is arrested in her fall by a tree, to which she clings; the fairies pass by, and make her young again, as well as beautiful and rich, and tie up her hair with a golden ribbon. The aged sister of the old woman who has grown young again (the night) goes to the barber, thinking that the same result may be attained simply by having her skin removed, and is flayed alive. For the myth of the two sisters, night and aurora, the black maiden and she who disguises herself in black, in grey, or the colour of ashes, consult also the Pentamerone, ii. 2. According to the Italian belief, the hog is dedicated to St Anthony, and a St Anthony is also celebrated as the protector of weddings, like the Scandinavian Thor, to whom the hog is sacred. The hog symbolises fat; and therefore, in the sixteenth Esthonian story, the hog is eaten at weddings. The companions of Odysseus, transformed by the mere- tricious enchantress Circe, with the help of poisonous herbs, into filthy hogs, care only to gratify their bodily appetites, whence Horace, in the second of the first book of the Epistola- "Sirenum voces, et Circes pocula nosti, Quæ si cum sociis stultus cupidusque bibisset Sub domina meretrice fuisset turpis et excors Vixisset canis immundus, vel amica luto Sus." The hog, as one of the most libidinous of animals, is sacred to Venus; for this reason, according to the Pytha- gorian doctrines, lustful men are transformed into hogs, and the expression "pig" is applied to a man given over to every species of lust. In Varro¹ we read :-"Nuptia- rum initio, antiqui reges ac sublimes viri in Hetruria in 1 De Re Rustica, ii. 4. * THE RUDDER OF INDRAS. ་ 7 conjuctione nuptiali nova nupta et novus maritus pri- mum porcum immolant; prisci quoque Latini et etiam Græci in Italia idem fecisse videntur, nam et nostræ mulieres, maximæ nutrices naturam, qua fœminæ sunt, in virginibus appellant porcum, et græce choiron, signifi- cantes esse dignum insigni nuptiarum." The rudder of Indras, which passes over the upodaras (or lower bosom) of Apâlâ, is illustrated by this passage in Varro. As to the wild boar, its character is generally demon- iacal; but the reason why the Hindoo gods were invested with this form was in a great degree due to equivocation in language. The word vishnus means he who penetrates; on account of its sharp tusks, in a Vedic hymn,' the wild boar is called vishņus, or the penetrator. Hence, pro- bably, by the same analogy, in another hymn, Rudras, the father of the Marutas, the winds, is invoked as a red, hirsute, horrid, celestial wild boar,² and the Marutas are invoked when the thunderbolts are seen in the form of wild boars running out from the iron teeth and golden wheels; that is, carried by the chariot of the Marutas, the winds, who also are said to have tongues of fire, and eyes like the sun. Vishņus himself, in the Rigvedas, at the instigation of Indras, brings a hundred oxen, the 1 3 ¹ Rigv. i. 61, 7. 4 2 Divo varâham arusham kapardinaṁ tveshim rûpam namasâ ni hvayâmahe; Ṛigv. i. 114, 5. 3 Paçyan hiranyaćakrân ayodanshṭrân vidhâvato varâhân; Ṛigv. i. 88, 5. 4 Agnigiḥvâ manavaḥ sûraćakshasaḥ; Rigv. i. 89, 7.-In the Edda, the chariot of Frey is drawn by a hog. The head of the mythical hog is luminous. In the twenty-eighth story of the second book of Afanassief, Ivan Durák obtains from the two young heroes, who miraculously appear to him, three marvellous gifts, i.e., the hog with golden bristles, the buck with golden horns and tail, and the horse with mane and tail also of gold. 8 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. milky gruel, and the destroying wild boar.¹ Therefore Indras himself loves the shape of a wild boar, which, in the Avesta, is his alter ego. Verethraghnas assumes the same form. We know that the sun (sometimes the moon), in the form of a ram or he-goat, thrusts and pushes against the cloud, or the darkness, until he pierces it with his golden horns; and so Vishņus, the penetrator, with his sharp golden tusks (thunderbolts, lunar horns, and solar rays), puts forth such great strength in the darkness and the cloud that he bursts through both, and comes forth luminous and victorious. According to the Pâuranic traditions, Vishnus, in his third incarnation, when killing the demon Hiranyâkshas (or him of the golden eye), drew forth or delivered the earth from the waters (or from the ocean of the damp and gloomy night of the winter).2 According to the Râmâyaṇam, 3 1 Viçvet tâ vishṇur âbharad urukramas tveshitaḥ çatam mahishân kshîrapakam odanam varâham indra emusham; Rigv. viii. 66, 10.— In the Thebaid of Statius (v. 487), Tydœus, too, is dressed in the spoils of a wild boar— "Terribiles contra setis, ac dente recurvo, Tydea per latos humeros ambire laborant Exuviæ, Calydonis honos." 2 According to other fables, the three persons of the Trinity at one time disputed as to who had the pre-eminence. Brahmân, who, from the summit of the lotus where he was seated, saw nothing in the universe, believed himself the first of creatures. He descended into the stem of the lotus, and finding at last Nârâyaņas (Vishnus) asleep, he asked him who he was. "I am the first-born," replied Vishņus; Brahmân disputed this title and dared even to attack him. But during the struggle, Mahâdeva (Çiva) threw himself between them, crying, " It is I who am the first-born. Nevertheless I will recognise as my superior him who is able to see the summit of my head or the sole of my feet." Vishņus (as hidden or infernal moon), transforming himself into a wild boar, pierced through the ground and penetrated to the infernal regions, where he saw the feet of Mahadeva. The latter, on his return, saluted him as the first-born of the gods; Bournouf, L'Inde Française. 3 ii. 119. THE MONSTER WILD BOAR. 9 Indras took the form of a wild boar immediately after his birth. The Arcadian wild boar of Mount Erymanthus is familiar to the reader. Heraklês killed it in his third labour, in the same way as Vishņus in the third of his incarnations became a wild boar; Ovid describes him very elegantly in the eighth book of the Metamorphoses— "Sanguine et igne micant oculi, riget horrida cervix; Et setæ densis similes hastilibus horrent. Stantque velut vallum, velut alta hastilia setæ, Fervida cum rauco latos stridore per armos Spuma fluit, dentes æquantur dentibus Indis, Fulmen ab ore venit frondes afflatibus ardent." The wild boar of Meleagros is a variety of this very monster; it is, therefore, not without reason that when Hêraklês goes to the infernal regions, all the shades flee before him, except those of Meleagros and Medusa. Meleagros and Hêraklês resemble each other, are identi- fied with each other; as to Medusa, we must not forget that the head of the Gorgon was represented upon the ægis of Zeus, that Gorgon is one of the names given to Pallas, and that the Gorgons, and especially Medusa, are connected with the garden of the Hesperides, where the golden apples grow which Heraklês loves. In the sixty-first hymn of the first book of the Rigvedas, the god, after having eaten and drunk well, kills, with the weapon stolen from the celestial black- smith Tvashṭar, the monster wild boar, who steals that which is destined for the gods. In the ninety-ninth hymn of the tenth book of the Rigvedas, Tritas (the third brother), by the strength which he has received from 1 1 Asyed u mâtuḥ savaneshu sadyo mahah pitum papivâń ćarv annâ mushayad vishnuḥ paćatam sahîyâm vidhyad varâham tiro adrim astâ; str. 7. ΙΟ ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. Indras, kills the monster wild boar.¹ In the Taittiriya Brahmanam, we find another very interesting passage. The wild boar keeps guard over the treasure of the demons, which is enclosed within seven mountains. Indras, with the sacred herb, succeeds in opening the seven mountains, kills the wild boar, and, in conse- quence, discovers the treasure." In the fifty-fifth hymn of the seventh book of the Rigvedas, the hog and the dog lacerate and tear each other to pieces in turns; the dog and the pig are found in strife again in the Esopian fable. 3 In the Mahabharatam,* Puloman assumes the form of a wild boar to carry off the wife of Bhrigus; she pre- maturely gives birth to Cyavanas, who, to avenge his mother, burns the wild boar to ashes. The thunderbolt tears through the cloud, the sun's ray (or the lunar horn) breaks through the darkness. In the popular Tuscan story, the stupid Pimpi kills the hog, by teasing and torment- ing it with the tongs, which he has made red-hot in the fire. In the ninth of the Sicilian stories collected by Laura Gonzenbach, the girl Zafarana, throwing three hog's bristles upon the burning embers, causes the old prince, her husband, to become young and handsome again; it is ever the same lucid myth (a variety of Apâlâ). Thus, in the first Esthonian story, the prince, by eating pork (or in the night forest), acquires the faculty of under- 1 Asya trito nv ogasâ vṛidhâno vipâ varâham ayoagrayâ han; str. 6. 2 Varahoyam vamamoshah saptanâm girînâm parastâd vittam vedyam asurânâm vibharti, sa darbhapingûlam (pińgalam?) uddhṛitya, sapta girîn bhittvâ tam ahanniti, already quoted by Wilson, Rigv. San. i. 164. Cfr. the chapter on the Woodpecker. 3 Tvam sûkarasya dardṛihi tava dardartu sûkarah; str. 4.-The dog in relation with the hog occurs again in the two Latin proverbs: "Canis peccatum sus dependit," and "Aliter catuli longe olent, aliter sues." 4 i. 893. THE CUNNING HOG AND THE HEDGEHOG. II . standing the language of birds; the hero acquires malice, if he has it not already; he becomes cunning, if he was previously stupid; we therefore also find in a story of Afanassieff, the wolf cheated, first by the dog, then by the goat, and finally by the hog, who nearly drowns him. The wolf wishes to eat the hog's little ones; the hog requests him to wait under a bridge, where there is no water, whilst he goes, as he promises, in the meantime to wash the young porkers; the wolf waits, and the hog goes to let off the water, which, as it passes under the bridge, puts the wolf's life in danger. Hence the belief noticed by Aristotle, that the hog is a match for the wolf, and the corresponding Greek fables. This prudence is found carried to the highest degree in the hedgehog. The Arabs are accustomed to say that the champion of truth must have the courage of the cock, the scrutiny of the hen, the heart of the lion, the rush of the wild boar, the cunning of the fox, the prudence of the hedge- hog, the swiftness of the wolf, the resignation of the dog, and the complexion of the naguir.2 A verse attributed to Archilokos says:- “Poll' oid' alôpêx, all' echinos en mega,' "" which passed into the proverb: "One knavery of the hedgehog is worth more than many of the fox." In the Aitarey. Br., the hedgehog is said to be born of the talon of the rapacious hawk. In the Æsopian fables, the wolf comes upon a hedgehog, and congratulates himself upon his good luck; but the hedgehog defends itself. The wolf flatters it and beseeches it to lay down its arms, but it answers that it is imprudent to do so 2 Daumas, La Vie Arabe, xv. 1 iv. 13. ³ iii. 3, 26. 12 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. "" while the danger of fighting remains. Hence the com- mon belief that the wolf is afraid of the hedgehog; hence the proverb, "It is very easy to find the hedgehog, but very difficult to hold it." In a fable of Abstemius, the hedgehog appears as an enemy, not only of the wolf, but also of the serpent; it pricks the viper which has taken refuge in its den. Then the viper begs it to go out, but it answers, "Let him go out who cannot stay.' The hedgehog has the appearance of a little wild boar; and as an enemy of the wolf and of the serpent, it appears to me to combine in one the dwarf Vishnus and the wild boar Vishņus, the exterminator of monsters, who, as we know, almost always assume, in Hindoo mythology, the form of a wolf or a serpent. And inas- much as Vishņus, like Indras, is a thundering and rain- giving god, in his character of sun in the cloud, or nightly and autumnal moon, the hedgehog, too, is believed to pre- sage wind and rain. The wild boar, when dreamed of, is, according to Artemidoros, quoted by Aldrovandi,' an omen of tempest and rain deluge. To this, refers also the fable spoken of by Ælianos and Pliny concerning the hogs car- ried off by the pirates, which make the ship sink. The cloud-hogs are evidently represented by this myth. The porcupine seems to be an intermediate form between the hedgehog and the wild boar. According to the popular belief, the ashes of a dead porcupine are, when scattered on the head, an excellent remedy against baldness, and a hair-restorative. And inasmuch as it is difficult to make the porcupine's quills fall, I read in Aldrovandi,² that women "Ad discriminandos capillos, ut illos conservent illæsos, aculeis potius hystricum, quam acubus utuntur." This information derived from 1 Cfr. Aldrovandi, De Quadrup. Digit. Viv. ii. 2 Ibid. MYTHICAL COMBS.-SACRIFICIAL HOGS. 13 Aldrovandi is interesting, as enabling us to understand a not uncommon circumstance in Russian stories. The hero and heroine who flee from the monster that pursues them have received from a good magician or a good fairy the gift of a comb, of such a nature that when thrown on the ground it makes a dense thicket or impenetrable forest arise, which arrests the pursuer's progress.¹ This is a reminiscence of the porcupine with the thick-set quills, of the bristly wild boar, of the gloomy night or cloud itself, of the horned moon, which hides the fugi- tive solar hero and heroine from the sight of the pursuer. 2 Notwithstanding this, the hog and the wild boar generally play in Indo-European tradition a part resembling that of the scape-goat and of the ass souffre- douleur. In the Pańcatantram, the ears and the heart of the credulous ass, torn by the lion, are eaten. In Babrios, the rôle of the ass is sustained by the stag (which is often in myths a variation of the foolish hero). In the Gesta Romanorum, the wild boar loses, by his silliness, first one ear, then the other, then his tail; at last he is killed, and his heart eaten by the cook. In Germany, it is the custom, as it formerly was in England, to serve up at dinner on Christmas Day an ornamented boar's head, no doubt as a symbol of the gloomy monster of lunar winter killed at the winter solstice, after which the days grow always longer and brighter. For the same reason, the common people in Germany often go to sleep 1 Cfr. Afanassieff, v. 28. Ixxxiii., quoted by Benfey in his Einleitung to the Pańćatantram. The fable is taken from the thirtieth of Avianus, where the wild boar loses his two ears and is then eaten, but the cook (who represents in tradition the cunning hero) has taken its heart to eat it :- "Sed cum consumpti dominus cor quæreret Apri Impatiens, fertur (cor) rapuisse coquus." 14 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. on Christmas Day in the pig-sty, hoping to dream there; this dream is a presage of good luck. The new sun is born in the sty of the winter hog; even the Christian Redeemer was born in a stable, but instead of the hog it was the ass, its mythical equivalent, that occupied it. For this reason, too, the devil often assumes in German superstition the form of a monstrous boar, which the hero kills.¹ The wild boar is also described as an aversier (or demon) in the romance of Garin le Loherain 2 — "Voiés quel aversier, Grant a le dent fors de la gueule un piet Mult fu hardis qui a cop l'atendié.” The author of Loci Communes says that Ferquhar II., king of Scotland, was killed by a wild boar; other writers tell us, on the contrary, that his death was caused by a wolf; but we already know how, in the myth, wolf and wild boar are sometimes equivalent the one to the other. In the same way as Vishnus changed himself into a wild boar, and the hog was sacred to the Scandinavian Mars, so was the wild boar sacred to the Roman and Hellenic Mars; and even Mars himself assumed the shape of a monstrous lunar wild boar in order to kill the young Adonis, beloved of Venus. There is no god or saint so perfect but has once in his life committed a. fault, as there is not a demon so wicked as not to have done good at least once. The adversaries exchange parts. In Servius, it is with a wild boar's tusk that the bark is cut off the tree in which Myrrha, pregnant with 1 In Du Cange, too, "aper significat diabolum; Papias M. S. Bitur. Ex illo Scripturæ: 'Singularis aper egressus est de silva.'" silva.'”—Cfr. also Uhland's Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage, iii. 141, et seq. 2 ii. 220, et seq., quoted by Uhland. LIFE-GIVING AND DEATH-DEALING TUSK. 15 Adonis after her incest with her father, shuts herself up (we have above seen, on the contrary, Indras who opens with an herb the hiding-place of the wild boar, in order to kill it). We here have again the incestuous father, the girl in the wooden dress, the forest, the penetrating tusk of the wild boar which bursts through the forest of night, and enables the young hero to come forth, whom he kills in the evening out of jealousy. In the ancient popular belief of Sweden, too, the wild boar kills the sun whilst he is asleep in a cavern and his horses grazing. Notice, moreover, the double character of the tusk of the nocturnal lunar wild boar; in the morning it is a life-giving tusk, which enables the solar hero to be born; in the evening it is a death-dealing one; the wild boar is alive during the night, and the darkness is split open by the white tooth of the living wild boar. The lunar wild boar or hog is sacrificed, it is killed at morn, in the nuptials of the solar hero. The tooth of this dead wild boar, in the evening, causes the death of the young hero or heroine, or else transforms them into wild beasts. In popular fairy tales the witch, feigning a wish to comb the head of the hero or the heroine, thrusts into his or her head now a large pin, now a dead man's tooth, and thus deprives them of life or human form. This is a reminiscence of the tusk of the cloudy, nocturnal, or wintry wild boar who kills the sun, or metamorphoses him, or puts him to sleep. To represent the evening sun asleep, a curious par- ticular is offered us in the myth of Adonis. It is well- known that doctors attribute to the lettuce a soporific virtue, not dissimilar to that of the poppy. Now, it is interesting to read in Nikandros Kolophonios, quoted by Aldrovandi, that Adonis was struck by the wild boar after having eaten a lettuce. Ibykos, a Pythagorcan poet, 16 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. calls the lettuce by the name of eunuch, as it is that which puts to sleep, which renders stupid and impotent; Adonis who has eaten the lettuce is therefore taken from Venus by the lunar wild boar, being eunuch and incapable. The solar hero falls asleep in the night, and becomes a eunuch, like the Hindoo Argunas, when he is hidden; and otherwise, the sun becomes the moon. 1 CHAPTER VI. THE DOG. SUMMARY. Why the myth of the dog is difficult of interpretation.-Entre chien et loup.-The dog and the moon.—The bitch Saramâ; her double aspect in the Vedâs and in the Ramayanam; messenger, consoler, and infernal being.—The dog and the purple; the dog and the meat; the dog and its shadow; the fearless hero and his shadow ; the black monster; the fear of Indras.-The two Vedic dogs; Sârameyas and Hermês.-The favourite dog of Saramâ; the dog that steals during the sacrifice; the form of a dog to expiate crimes committed in former states of existence; relative Hindoo, Pythagorean and Christian beliefs.-The dog Yamas.-The dog demon that barks, with the long bitter tongue.-The red bitch towards morning a beautiful maiden during the night.-The intestines of the dog eaten.—The hawk that carries honey and the sterile woman.-Dog and woodpecker.-The dog carries the bones of the witch's daughter.-The dog-messenger brings news of the hero.-The nurse-bitch.-The dog and his collar; the dog tied up; the hero becomes a dog.—The dog helps the hero.- The branch of the apple-tree opens the door.-The dog tears the devil in pieces.-The two sons of Ivan think themselves dog's sons.- The intestines of the fish given to be eaten by the bitch.—Ivan the son of the bitch, the very strong hero, goes to the infernal regions. Dioscuri, Kerberos, funereal purifying dogs of the Per- sians; the penitent dog; the two dogs equivalent to the two Açvinâu.-The luminous children transformed into puppies; relative legends; the maiden whose hands have been cut off obtains golden hands; branches of trees, hands, sons born of a tree; the myth compared and explained in the Vedic hymns, with the example of Hiranyahastas; the word vadhrimati.-The demoniacal dog.-The strength of the mythical dog.-Monstrous VOL. II. B 18 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. dogs.-The dog Sirius.-To swear by the dog or by the wolf. A dog is always born among wolves.-The dog dreamed of.- Double appearance of the dog; the stories of the king of the assassins and of the magician with seven heads.-St Vitus invoked in Sicily whilst a dog is being tied up.-The dog of the shepherd behaves like a wolf among the sheep.-The dog as an instrument of chastisement; the expressions to lead the dog and the igno- minious punishment of carrying the dog.—The dogs that tear in pieces; the death caused by the dog prognosticated; the dogs Sirius and Kerberos igneous and pestilential; the incendiary dog of St Dominic, the inventor of pyres for burning heretics, and the dog of the infected San Rocco. THE myth of the dog is one of those of which the interpretation is more delicate. As the common dog stays upon the doorstep of the house, so is the mythical dog generally found at the gate of the sky, morning and evening, in connection with the two Açvinâu. It was a fugitive phenomenon of but an in- stant's duration which determined the formation of the principal myth of the dog. When this moment is past, the myth changes its nature. I have already referred to the French expression, "entre chien et loup," as used to denote the twilight; the dog precedes by one instant the evening twilight, and follows by one instant that of morning it is, in a word, the twilight at its most luminous moment. Inasmuch as it watches at the gates of night, it is usually a funereal, infernal, and formidable animal; inasmuch as it guards the gates of day, it is generally represented as a propitious one; and as we ¹ 1 Leukophôs; a verse of Vilkelmus Brito defines it in a Latin strophe given in Du Cange- "Tempore quo neque nox neque lux sed utrumque videtur;" and further on- (6 Interque canem distare lupumque." According to Pliny and Solinus, the shadow of the hyena makes the dog dumb, i.e., the night disperses the twilight; the moon vanishes. THE THREE DOGS. 19 have seen that, of the two Açvinâu, one is in especial relation with the moon, and the other with the sun, so, of the two dogs of mythology, one is especially lunar, and the other especially solar. Between these two dogs we find the bitch their mother, who, if I am not mis- taken, represents now the wandering moon of heaven, the guiding moon that illumines the path of the hero and heroine, now the thunderbolt that tears the cloud, and opens up the hiding-place of the cows or waters. We have, therefore, thus far three mythical dogs. One; menacing, is found by the solar hero in the evening at the western gates of heaven; the second, the more active, helps him in the forest of night, where he is hunting, guides him in danger, and shows him the lurking-places of his enemies whilst he is in the cloud or darkness; the third, in the morn- ing, is quiet, and found by the hero when he comes out of the gloomy region, towards the eastern sky. Let us now examine briefly these three forms in Hindoo mythology. I have said that the mythical bitch appears to me sometimes to represent the moon, and sometimes the thunderbolt. In India, this bitch is named Saramâ, properly she who walks, who runs or flows. We are accustomed to say of the dog that it barks at the moon, which the popular proverb connects with robbers. The dog that barks at the moon,' is perhaps the same dog that barks to show that robbers are near. In the 108th hymn of the tenth book of the Rigvedas, we have a dramatic scene between the misers or thieves (the Panayas) and the bitch Saramâ, the messenger of Indras, who wishes for their treasures. In order to come to 1 The dog was sacred to the huntress Diana, whom we know to be the moon, hence the Latin proverb, "Delia nota canibus." 2 Indrasya dûtir ishitâ carâmi maha ićhantî paņayo nidhîn vaḥ; str. 2. 20 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. 2 them, she traverses the waters of the Rasâ (a river of hell); the treasure that is hidden in the mountain con- sists of cows, horses, and various riches; the Panayas wish Saramâ to stay with them as their sister, and to enjoy the cows along with them; Saramâ answers that she does not recognise their brotherhood, inasmuch as she is already the sister of Indras, and the terrible Añgirasas.¹ In the sixty-second hymn of the first book, the bitch Saramâ discovers the cows hidden in the rock, and receives in recompense from Indras and the Añgirasas nourishment for her offspring; then men cry out, and the cows bellow. Going towards the sun, in the path of the sun, Saramâ finds the cows. When Indras splits the mountain open, Saramâ shows him first the waters.* Having previously seen the fissure in the mountain, she showed the way. The first she guided rapidly, the band of the noisy ones having previously heard the noise." This noise may refer either to the waters, the sounding rivers (nadâs, nadîs), or the lowing cows (gavas). Now, this bitch that discovers the hiding-places, inasmuch as she breaks through the darkness of night, seems to be the moon; inasmuch as she breaks through the cloud, she seems to be the thunderbolt. The secret of this 1 Rasâyâ ataram payânsi; str. 2.—Ayam nidhiḥ sarame adribudhno gobhir açvebhir vasubhir nyṛishṭaḥ; str. 7.-Svasâram tvâ kṛiņavâi mâ punar gâ apa te gavâm subhage bhagâma; str. 9.-Nâham veda bhrâtritvam no svasṛitvam indro vidur añgirasaç ćaghorâh; str. 10. 2 Indrasyâñgirasâm ćeshțâu vidat saramâ tanayâya dhâsim brihas- patir bhinad adrim vidad gâḥ sam usriyâbhir vâvaçanta naraḥ; str. 3. 3 Ritam yatî saramâ gâ avindat.-Ritasya pathâ saramâ vidad gâh; Ṛigv. v. 45, 7, 8. 4 Apo yad adrim puruhûta dardar âvir bhuvat saramâ pûrvyaṁ te ; Rigv. iv. 16, 8. 5 Vidad yadî saramâ rugņam adrer mahi pâthaḥ pûrvyaṁ sadhryak kaḥ agram nayat supady aksharânâm acha ravam prathamâ gânatî gât; Rigv. iii. 31, 6. THE BITCH SARAMA. 3 21 equivoque lies in the root sar. In the Rigvedas, we have seen Saramâ disdaining to pass for the sister of the thieves or the monsters; in the Râmâyaṇam,¹ the wife of one of the monsters, of the very brother of Râvaņas the robber, is called Saramâ, and takes, instead of the monster's part, that of Râmas and Sîtâ the ravished wife. We have already several times seen the moon as a beneficent cow, as a good fairy, or as the Madonna. Saramâ (of which Suramâ, another benignant rakshasî, is probably only an incorrect form2), the consoler of Sîtâ, who announces prophetically her approaching deliverance by her husband Râmas, appears to me in the light of another impersonation of the moon. It is on this account that Sîtâ³ praises Saramâ as a twin- sister of hers (sahodarâ), affectionate, and capable of traversing the heavens, and penetrating into the watery infernal regions (rasâtalam).* The benignant sister of Sîtâ can only be another luminous being; she is the good sister whom the maiden of the Russian story, persecuted by her incestuous father, in Afanassieff, finds in the subterranean world, where she is consoled and assisted in escaping from the power of the witch; she is the The moon is the luminous form of the gloomy sky of night, or of the funereal and infernal region; whilst its two luminous barriers in that sky, in the east and in the west, are morning and evening aurora; the luminous forms of the cloudy sky are lightning and thunderbolts. And it is from one of these luminous mythical forms that the Greeks, according to Pollux, quoted by Aldrovandi, made of the dog the inventor of purple, which the dog of Hêraklês was the first to bite. moon. 1 vi. 9. 2 v. 62. 4 Cfr. the Vedic text above quoted. 3 vi. 10. 22 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. The dog of the Æsopian fable,¹ with meat in its mouth, is a variation of this myth. The red sky of evening appears purple in the morning, and in the evening as the meat that the dog lets fall into the waters of the ocean of night. In the Pańcatantram, we have instead the lion of evening (the evening sun), who, seeing in the fountain (or in the ocean of night) another lion (now the moon, now his own shadow, the night, or the cloud), throws himself into the water to tear him to pieces, and perishes in it. The hare (the moon) is the animal which allures the famished lion of evening to perish in the waters. The two sons of the bitch Saramâ preserve several of their mother's characteristics. Now they are spoken of together as Sârameyâu; now they are mentioned together, but distinct from one another; now one alone of them, the most legitimate, by the name of Sârameyas, whose identity with the Greek Hermês or Hermeias has already been proved by Professor Kuhn. Saramâ in connection with the Panayas, merchants or thieves, and Saramâ as the 1 In the Tuti-Name, instead of the dog with the bone or piece of meat, we have the fox. The dog who sees his shadow in the water; the fearless hero who, in Tuscan stories, dies when he sees his own shadow; the black monster (the shadow) who, in numerous stories, presents himself instead of the real hero to espouse the beautiful princess, carry our thoughts back to Indras, who, in the Rigvedas, after having defeated the monster, flees away over the rivers, upon seeing something which is probably the shadow of Vṛitras, killed by him, or his own shadow. In the Aitar. Brâhm. iii. 2, 15, 16, 20, this flight of Indras is also recorded, and it is added, that Indras hides himself, and that the Pitaras (ie., the souls of the departed) find him again. Indras thinks that he has killed Vritras, but really has not killed him; then the gods abandon him; the Marutas alone (as dogs friendly to the bitch Saramâ) remain faithful to him. The monster killed by Indras in the morning rises again at eve. According to other Vedic accounts, Indras is obliged to flee, stung by remorse, having committed a brâhmanicide. THE DOGS AS GUARDIANS OF TREASURES. 23 divine messenger, gives us the key to the legend of Mercury, god of thieves and merchants, and messenger of the gods. In a Vedic hymn we find described with great clear- ness the two dogs that guard the gates of hell, the monsters' dwelling, or the kingdom of the dead It prays for one departed, "that he may be able to pass safely beyond the two dogs, sons of Saramâ, having four eyes, spotted, who occupy the right path, and to come to the benignant Manes" (for there are also the malignant ones, or Durvidatrâḥ); these dogs are called "the very fierce guardians, who watch the road, observing men, have vast nostrils, are long-winded, and very strong, the messengers of Yamas;" they are invoked "that they may cause to enjoy the sight of the sun, and give a happy life. "1 But the Rigvedas itself already shows us the two sons of the bitch Saramâ, as the two who look in turns (one after the other), whom Indras must put to sleep.2 One, however, of the two sons of Saramâ is especially invoked and feared, the Sârameyas par excellence. The Vedic hymn speaks of him as he who returns (punaḥsaras), and represents him as "luminous, with reddish teeth, that shine like spears, in the well-rooted gums," and implores him to sleep, or "to bark only at the robber, or at the thief, not at the singers of hymns in honour of Indras."3 The bitch Saramâ is passionately fond of her . ¹ Ati drava sârameyâu çvânâu ćatarakshâu çabalâu sâdhunâ pathâ athâ pitṛînt suvidatrân upehi-Yâu te çvânâu yama rakshitârâu caturakshâu pathirakshî nṛićakshasâu-Urûṇasâv asutṛipâ udumbalâu yamasya dûtâu ćarato ganâñ anu-Tâv asmabhyam driçaye sûryâya punar dâtâm asum adyeha bhadram; Rigv. x. 14, 10–12. 2 Ni shvâpaya mithûdriçâu; Rigv. i. 29, 3.-The Petropolitan Dictionary explains the word mith. by "abwechselend sichtbar." 3 Yad arguna sarameya dataḥ piçañga yaćhase viva bhrâganta rishtaya upa srakveshu bapsato ni shu svapa; stenam râya sârameya taskaram vâ punaḥsara stotrîn indrasya râyasi kim asmân dućhunâyase ni shu svapa; Rigv. vii. 55, 2, 3. 24 ZOOLOGICAL MYTHOLOGY. son; 2 in recompense for her discovery of the cows of Indras, she demands nourishment for her son, which nourishment the commentator explains to be the milk of the liberated cows; the first rays of the morning sun and the last r