THE VARIOUS CLASSES OF MYTH

[1]Of course 'departmental' gods may possess many attributes, some of these entirely foreign to their character-in-chief, and drafted upon it by the circumstances of myth, politics, or amalgamation with other forms.

[1]Of course 'departmental' gods may possess many attributes, some of these entirely foreign to their character-in-chief, and drafted upon it by the circumstances of myth, politics, or amalgamation with other forms.

[2]Of course these deities may have an animistic origin; indeed, they certainly do have, so that the idea of sacrifice will not seem novel.

[2]Of course these deities may have an animistic origin; indeed, they certainly do have, so that the idea of sacrifice will not seem novel.

[3]As I have shown elsewhere (p. 95), Professor Rendel Harris has brought a good deal of proof in favour of a hypothesis that Apollo was the god of an apple cult; but it was not as such that he was known to the later Greeks, whatever he may have been originally—an instance, if such were needed, that the solar story finds its way into the myths of gods of all types.

[3]As I have shown elsewhere (p. 95), Professor Rendel Harris has brought a good deal of proof in favour of a hypothesis that Apollo was the god of an apple cult; but it was not as such that he was known to the later Greeks, whatever he may have been originally—an instance, if such were needed, that the solar story finds its way into the myths of gods of all types.

[4]The study of these eponymous animal-gods will one day certainly throw a flood of light upon the obscure question of the origin of totemism.

[4]The study of these eponymous animal-gods will one day certainly throw a flood of light upon the obscure question of the origin of totemism.

[5]See the illuminating remarks of Professor Rendel Harris upon this goddess in hisAscent of Olympus, pp. 56sqq.

[5]See the illuminating remarks of Professor Rendel Harris upon this goddess in hisAscent of Olympus, pp. 56sqq.

Myths can to a large extent be classified, and most important myths may be grouped under one of the following heads:

Creation myths (creation of the earth and man).Myths of the origin of man.Flood myths.Myths of a place of reward.Myths of a place of punishment.Sun myths.Moon myths.Hero myths.Beast myths.Myths to account for customs or rites.Myths of journeys or adventures through the Underworldor place of the dead.Myths regarding the birth of gods.Fire myths.Star myths.Myths of death.Food of the dead formula.Myths regarding taboo.'Dismemberment' myths (in which a god is dismembered).Dualistic myths (the good god fighting the bad).Myths of the origin of the arts of life.Soul myths.

The first five classes are treated in this volume, in separate chapters or otherwise, according to their importance. Sun myths have already been dealt with individually, as haveculture-hero or hero myths,[1] moon myths, beast myths, ritual myths, and birth of gods myths, which leaves for discussion in this chapter fire myths, star myths, myths of death, myths regarding taboo, 'dismemberment' myths, and dualistic myths.

FIRE MYTHS

Fire myths are of two descriptions: those which relate to the destruction of the world by fire and those which tell how fire was stolen from heaven by a demigod, hero, or supernatural bird or other animal. Of the first class it is surprising what a large proportion come from the American continent. In the Old World we have the Jewish idea of a universal conflagration of the 'last day' (not unknown to the childhood of the present generation), the Norse belief that fire should end the heavens and the earth, and (according to Seneca) the Roman idea that some such fate would ultimately overtake the world of men and things; but it is to America that we must go for really striking and picturesque myths of the destruction of the earth by fire in whole or part. Thus the Arawaks of Guiana tell of a dreadful scourging by fire sent upon them by the Great Spirit Aimon Kondi, from which the survivors escaped by taking refuge in underground caverns. Monan, the creator of the Brazilian Indians, vexed with mankind, resolved to destroy the world by fire, and would have succeeded had not Irin Magé, a crafty wizard, extinguished the flames by a heavy rain-storm. The Aztecs at the end of each cycle of fifty-two years dwelt in dread lest the period for the destruction of the earth by fire had at last arrived, and the Peruvians believed that following an eclipse the world would be wrapped in devouring flames. In North America the Algonquin Indians believe that at the last day Michabo will stamp his foot upon the earth, and lo! flames will spring up and devour it. A similar belief was held by the Pueblo Indians and the ancient Maya of Central America.

FIRE-STEALING MYTHS

Another class of fire myth is that in which a supernatural being, usually a bird, steals fire from Heaven and brings it to earth for the benefit of mankind. The best-known example of this type of myth is that which recounts how Prometheus brought fire from Olympus in a hollow cane or tube. As has been shown elsewhere in this volume, the myth is almost universal, and the reader is referred to the comparative table at the end of this chapter.

STAR MYTHS

The numerous star myths, the general character of which is of fairly uniform type throughout the world, deal less with single stars than with groups of stars. Where Heaven is the original theatre of creation and the ancestor-land to which the spirits of the forefathers return, as stars, the constellations are, so to speak, the illustration of the cosmogonic legend, the images of objects, animals, persons, which appear therein. Other constellations are formed by their readily perceived similarity to objects and persons, and a myth is invented in explanation. These things are brought into connexion with one another and woven into a narrative, in which one idea gives rise to others. The conception and meaning of such pictures is naturally very varied among individual races, but on the other hand very similar where the characteristic forms and groupings of the constellations must suggest the same or related ideas to independent observers. The constellations which belong to this class are, for example, Orion, the Cross, the Pleiades, the Great Bear, and the Milky Way. Ideas of the Pleiades as heaps of grain, swarms of small animals, birds, bees, kids, or groups of people playing, are universal. But nowhere is the star myth so original or striking as in South America, and as the constellation legends of that sub-continent are but little known, we shall furnish the reader with some account of them in preference to the more hackneyed star tales of Europe and Asia. The Pleiades are thus wheat among the Bakairi, dwarf-parrots among the Moxos and Karayas, bee-swarmsamong the Tupi, and other tribes. Only among the Makusi in the south is a parallel to be found to the widely spread North American myth which supposes the Pleiades to be children carried off to Heaven while playing in a dance. The Southern Cross is very variously treated. The idea of its being the tracks of an emu seems to be limited to South America, but is very widespread there, for example, among the Bororos and Karayas, inhabitants of the steppe districts. As the four outstanding stars of the Cross lie in the Milky Way, one may identify the four-eyed jaguar which in the Yurakare myth escapes the vengeance of the hero Tin, and, calling upon the moon, is raised to Heaven. The Milky Way, as the most prominent appearance in the darkened heavens at night, receives universal attention, but has given rise to the most diverse traditions. Like the Bushmen and other Africans, the Bororos and Karayas believe that the Milky Way is an ash-track. This, as well as the guanaco track of the Patagonians, resembles the 'Path of the Gods' of the Romans, the bird-track of the Esthonians, and the 'Jacob's ladder' of the medieval church, while the Milky Way seems to be considered as a path of souls by some of the Bolivian nations. Its conception as a stream or lake has not been definitely traced in South America. On the other hand, it appears that its peculiar branching formation caused it to be likened to a tree, and this belief finds expression in the Arawak legend of the world-tree of Akawiro, which bore not only all known fruits and plants, but also all organic beings. Among the central Caribs of the Bakairi it is a hollow tree-stem, such as is used among them as a drum, its roots spreading southward and apart from each other. In its neighbourhood the first acts of the mythical twin-heroes Keri and Kame were performed, and among the Caribs even to this day are co be seen living animals which originally issued from its trunk.

The distinctly circumscribed, sharply defined shape of Orion is compared by the Indian with familiar objects of a rhomboidal form, or similar shaped animals. The Bakairi see in this constellation a dried stack of manioc, the Karayas a beetle, the Ipurinas a turtle, and so on. In myths he appears first in connexion with the neighbouring star-groups of the Pleiadesand Hyades (Aldebaran). He then becomes among the Indians a mighty hunter who follows a female, our Pleiades, as Orion in the Greek legends pursues the daughters of Pleion, with whom he had fallen in love, until they are changed by Zeus into a swarm of doves. So in the legend of the Caribs of Guiana the hunter Seriko goes after his faithless wife Wailya, whom the Tapir (Hyades group) had taken away from him.

The wifely relationship of the Pleiades with the Indian Orion is also met with under the sign of Seuci (Tupi), Ceiguce (Amazonia), though it cannot be said that the idea can solely be ascribed to the Tupi. The myth tells how a girl of the kindred Uaupe race (Tariana or Temiana) flees her village in order to escape from the local marriage customs and enters the house of a Yacami chief who takes her to wife. She brings forth two eggs, from which a boy and girl are hatched, both ornamented with stars. The girl, decked with seven stars, is Seuci; the boy, Pinon, is girdled with a star-serpent, and perhaps Orion's belt. The children return home with their mother, where the boy secures recognition by the performance of prodigies, such as the slinging of giant stones.

MYTHS OF DEATH AND TABOO

Myths of death are obviously ætiological—that is, manufacturedad hoc, to account for death, usually regarded by primitive peoples as an unnatural event, due to magic or the breaking of a taboo or the neglect of some ritual act. Thus death was let loose upon the world by the breaking of the taboo or prohibition which had been placed upon the opening of Pandora's box. The apple myth of Adam and Eve bears similar evidences of the idea of taboo. An Australian myth recounts how a woman approaches a forbidden tree and thus meets her doom. Several myths relate how death came into the world through the agency of Night—obviously a connexion of mortality with the phenomenon of sleep. Thus a Polynesian myth tells how Mani tried to pass through Night, but a little bird sang and awakened the night-monster, who ate Mani up. In Southern India it is believed that "the death-snake bites while God sleeps." A Central African story tells that whensleep was unknown in the world a woman offered to teach a man how to sleep. She held her victim's nostrils so hard that he could not breathe, but died.

Taboo myths of importance are not so numerous as might be supposed. Perhaps the chief is the tale of Cupid and Psyche. In its later form the bride was forbidden to look upon her husband, but her curiosity overcame her fear and she beheld his face, with dire results. This myth is, of course, a legacy from an age when for various reasons it was taboo for a woman to see her husband for some time after her marriage, just as it is to-day among certain African peoples, the 'reasons' being to neutralize the dangers supposed to be attendant upon the matrimonial state. Akin to this is the name-taboo, found in the story of Lohengrin, whose bride is not permitted to ask the name and rank of her lord and master, the reason being that the real name, like the soul, is part of one's personality and that it is dangerous for any other person to know it, a pseudo-name being commonly employed among many savage races. Thus, if the names of certain evilly disposed supernatural beings are known and pronounced their power disappears, as in the well-known stories of Tom-tit-tot and Rumplestiltskin.

THE DISMEMBERMENT MYTH

It has been thought that such dismemberment myths as those of Osiris, Dionysus, and Demeter, the Algonquin Lox, and the Polynesian Tangoroa have their origin in a primitive custom, the dismemberment of a human victim, who was buried in the corn-fields and supposed to renew his life in the harvest following his burial. It is considered that such a practice gave birth to the myth of Osiris in Egypt and became symbolic of resurrection. The practice is probably connected in some manner with the almost universal savage custom of preserving the bones of the dead for the owner, who at some future period will desire to claim them.

DUALISM

Dualism is the belief in opposing good and evil deities, and is found in connexion (1) with such peoples as have advancedfar on the path of theological thought and progress, (2) with races whose original beliefs have been sophisticated by those of more civilized peoples. A good example of the first is the widely known Persian myth of Ormuzd and Ahriman. The second class is well illustrated by the myth of Joskeha and Tawiscara, already alluded to in dealing with sophisticated myths.

COMPARATIVE TABLES OF MYTHS

The following tables have been compiled for the purpose of bringing together the most important types of myth and indicating their geographical incidence. It is not pretended that these are in any way exhaustive, but much care has been taken in their compilation and it is hoped that they will assist the student of myth as a ready reference to parallels.

BIRTH OF GODS MYTHSGreeks.Zeus, Poseidon, Pluto, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, children of Cronus. All but Zeus were swallowed by their father when infants and all disgorged by him at one time full grown.Perseus, son of Zeus and Danaë.The Dioscuri (Zeus visits their mother Leda as a swan).Vedas.Agni, both son and father of the gods—son of Heaven and earth—begotten by the sky, the clouds, and the dawn—born among men, in Heaven and in the waters.Algonquins. Manibozho, born of a virgin.Hurons. Joskeha, born of a virgin.Mexicans. Quetzalcoatl, born of a virgin; Uitzilopochtli (ball of feathers falls from heaven into his mother's breast).Peruvians. Viracocha, born of a virgin.Thlinkeets(N.W. America). Yetl's mother by advice of friendly dolphin swallows pebble and sea-water.Uapès(Brazil). Jurapari (his mother drinks fermented liquor).BEAST MYTHS. Beasts and birds are credited with divine or semi-divine attributes.Greeks.Io as a cow chased into Egypt by gad-fly sent by Hera.Amphitryon chases the Cadmean fox with the Athenian dog. Bellerophon slays the Chimæra with the help of Pegasus. The Centaurs.Caribs(Antilles). The ibis.Chinooks(Colombia River). Blue Jay.Aschochimi Indians(California). The coyote.Thlinkeet Indians. Yetl the raven.Australians. Pund-jel the eagle-hawk.Ahts Indians(Vancouver Island). Tootah, the thunder-bird, universal mother.Banks Islanders. Marawa the spider.Tinneh or Déné Indians(Hare-skins). Miraculous dog is creator.DUALISTIC MYTHS(the good god combating the bad god). This idea is very general, being found practically all over the world. The creator of all good things is constantly thwarted by the evil spirit or principle, who, for every good and beautiful thing that the beneficent god makes, produces a corresponding evil.Egyptians.Osiris and Set or Apep. Ra (light and goodness) and Apep (darkness and evil).Babylonians. Merodach and Tiawath.Persians. Ormuzd and Ahriman.Greeks.Zeus and Typhon.Apollo and Python.Perseus and the Gorgon.Teutons(Scandinavia).Thor and Loki.Sigurd and Fafnir.Hindus. Indra and Ahi or Vritra.Hottentots. Gaunab (bad) and Tsui-Goab (good).Algonquin Indians.Michabo or Manibozho and the prince of serpents.Great Manitou, whose heart is the sun, made men.His wife, the moon, brought disease and death to the race.Glooskap and Malsum.Huron Indians. Joskeha and Tawiscara.Incas(Peru). Piguerão (day) and Apocatequil (night).Iroquois Indians. Enigorio and Enigohatgea (Good Mind and Bad Mind).Thlinkeet Indians. Yetl and Khanukh.Tupi-Guarani(Brazil). Aricoute (darkness) and Tamandare (light).Australians. Pund-jel, the eagle-hawk (good) and the Crow (bad).Pentecost Islanders. Tagar (good) and Suque (bad).Banks Islanders. Qat and Tangaro Lologong (the Fool).DISMEMBERMENT MYTHS. In which a god or demigod is torn to pieces and the parts widely scattered and afterward collected.Egyptians. Osiris and Isis.Greeks.Orpheus and Eurydice.Dionysus and Demeter.Medea and Pelias.Finns(Kalevalaepic). Lemminkainen and his mother.Rumanians. Frounse Werdye and Holy Mother Sunday.Russians. Morevna and Koshchei.Bushmen. Moon cut down by sun; piece left grows.Antis Indians(Brazil). See Spence,Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology, p. 43.Algonquins. The demon Lox.Caribs. Story of their ancestor.Dindje. Crow killed by the Navigator.Pawnee Indians. Pa-hu-ka-tawa.Zuñi Indians. Woman beloved by the sun becomes the mother of twins.Madagascar. Ibonia, joiner together and life-giver.Polynesians. Tangaroa and Mani.CREATION MYTHS. In these there is nearly always a vast world of waters, over which broods the creative agency, who by a spoken word, force of thought (will-power), or by sheer physical labour creates the earth, or, more often, raises it from the midst of the watery abyss.Babylonians. Bel or Merodach forms Heaven and earth from the two halves of the body of Tiawath.Persians. Ormuzd (Ahura Mazda), father and creator.Greeks. Uranus (Heaven-Father) and Gæa (Earth-Mother) beget all things.Teutons(Scandinavia). Ginnungagap, the gulf existent. World made from body of the giant Ymir.Finns (Kalevalaepic). Eagle hatches the land.Hindus. Brahma, in his avatar as the boar, raised the earth on his tusks from out the waters and then began his work of creating.Japanese. Izanagi and Izanami (creative pair).Bushmen. Cagn (the praying mantis) created the world.Zulus. Unkulunkulu (the great ancestor-creator).Ahts Indians(Vancouver Island). Quawteaht was the 'framer of all things.'Algonquin Indians. Michabo or Manibozho, the Great Hare, creates all things.Arawaks(Guiana). Aluberi (from Alin 'He who makes').Athapascan Indians. Yetl, the omnipotent raven, descended to the ocean from Heaven, and the earth rose.Incas(Peru). Ataguju is creator of all things.Iroquois Indians. Divine woman falls on turtle (earth).Mexicans. Tonacatecutli breathes and divides the waters of the heavens and earth.Navaho Indians. Ahsonnatli 'the Turquoise Hermaphrodite' creates Heaven and earth.Oregon Indians. Coyote is creator.Peruvians. Mama-cocha (the whale), 'Mother Sea,' was the mother of mankind.Pawnees. Ti-ra-wa or A-ti-us (Atius Tirawa) is creator.Papagos Indians(Gulf of California). Coyote or prairie-wolf acts as creator.Kiche Indians. Nothing but the sea and sky, stillness and darkness. Nothing but the Maker and Moulder, the Hurler, the Bird-serpent. Under sea, covered with green feathers, slept the mothers and the fathers. Hurakan passes over the abyss, calls "Earth," and land appears.Tacullies(British Columbia). Say earth is mud spat out of mouth of a pre-existing musk-rat.Tinneh or Déné Indians. The dog is creator.Tzentals(Chiapas). Alaghom or Iztat Ix, she who brings forth Mind—the mother of Wisdom—creatrix of the mental or immaterial part of nature.Zuñi Indians(New Mexico). Awonawilona creates the world.(See chapter on cosmogony.)MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF MAN. These are closely allied to the creation myths. Man is usually made out of clay or the 'dust of the earth' by a supernatural being, who sometimes moistens the clay with his or her own blood or sweat, and imparts to it 'the breath of life.' There is sometimes a prior creation of wooden men, who are found wanting.Greeks. Prometheus makes man and woman, Deucalion and Pyrrha.Hindus. Brahma or Prajapati makes man.American Indians(generally). Man is evolved from coyotes, beavers, apes, or issued from caves.Aztecs. After the destruction of the world Xolotl descends to Mictlan and brings a bone of the perished race. The gods sprinkle this with blood and from it emerge the progenitors of the present race.Hurons. Joskeha makes men.Karaya Indians(Brazil). Kaboi led their ancestors from the Underworld.Peruvians. Apocatequil digs up men from the Underworld with a golden spade.Kiches(Central America). The gods in council create man. At first they make wooden men, the remainder of whom turn into monkeys. They then create the present race from yellow and white maize.Zuñi Indians. Janauluha leads men from the Underworld to the world of day.Bushmen. Men came out of a cave.Zulus. Men came out of beds of reeds.Australians. Pund-jel makes two men from clay, one with straight and one with curly hair (bark). He dances round them and breathes life into them.Australians(Dyiere). Men came out of wattle-gum tree.Maoris(New Zealand). Tiki makes man of clay.Polynesians(Mangaians). The woman of the abyss makes man by tearing from her right side a piece of flesh, which becomes Vatea, father of gods and men.Melanesians. Qat makes man.MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF HEROESBabylonians. Story of Sargon.Hebrews. Story of Moses.Greeks.Perseus, son of Danaë. His father Zeus descended in a shower of golden rain.Heracles, son of Zeus, who deceives the mother of Heracles by pretending to be Amphitryon, her absent husband.Romans. Story of Romulus.Celts. Sagas and romances of Arthur, Merlin, and Beowulf.Indians. Saga of Rama, inRamayana.Mexicans. Uitzilopochtli, myth of his birth.Kiches. Hun-Apu and Xbalanque in thePopol Vuh.Peruvians. Ataguju, the creator, begets Guamansuri, who seduces a woman, who gives birth to two eggs. From these emerged Apocatequil and Piguerão. Apocatequil was prince of evil and the most respected hero of the Peruvians.(See also Culture Myths for other examples.)MYTHS OF FIRE-STEALING. In which a supernatural being—usually a bird—steals fire from Heaven and brings it to earth for the benefit of mankind.Greeks. Prometheus.Vedas. Matarisvan.Bretons. Golden-crested wren.Normandy Peasantry. The wren.Ahts Indians(Vancouver Island). Quawteaht.Athapascan Indians(N.W. America). Yetl the raven.Cahrocs and Navaho Indians. The coyote.Murri Tribe(Gippsland, Australia). Man who became a bird.Thlinkeets(N.W. America). Yetl the raven.New Zealanders. Mani.Andaman Islanders. A bird.CULTURE MYTHS. MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE ARTS OF LIFE. A god or culture-hero teaches man the useful arts. The outstanding figures in such myths are:Egyptians. Osiris.Babylonians. Oannes.Greeks. Prometheus, Bacchus, Cadmus.Celts(Irish). Nuada of the Silver Hand.Teutons(Scandinavia). Wieland the Smith.Japanese. Okikurimi.Bushmen(South Africa). Cagn.Zulus. Unkulunkulu.Algonquins. Michabo or Manibozho.Antis Indians(Brazil). Son of Ulé.Arawaks. Kamu.Carayas. Kaboi.Caribs. Tamu (grandfather).Cherokees. Wasi.Chiapas. Votan.Hurons. Joskeha.Maya(Yucatan). Itzamna, Kukulcan.Mexicans. Quetzalcoatl.Orinoco Tribes. Amalivaca.Paraguayans. Zumé.Peruvians. Manco Ccapac; Viracocha arises from the depthsof Lake Titicaca on a civilizing mission.Toltecs. Hueymactzin.Australians. Pund-jel.Melanesians. Qat.TABOO MYTHS. Myths which relate the existence of, origin of, and necessity for certain taboos or forbidden things.Hebrews. Adam, Eve, and the eating of the apple.Greeks.The myth of Cupid and Psyche.Actæon turned into a stag for observing Artemis whenbathing.Teutons(Scandinavia). Lohengrin and Elsa (name taboo).Ningphos(Bengal). Think they became mortal by bathing in tabooed water.Australians. Death introduced by woman going to tabooed tree.MYTHS OF DEATH. To account for death, regarded by some savage races as unnatural. Usually some custom or taboo is supposed to have been broken, or some ritual neglectedor mismanaged, and death has followed. The reasons given by the different races are as follows:Greeks. Death comes from lifting cover off Pandora's box.Hindus. Yama is pioneer to the Otherworld.Southern India. Death (snake) bites men while God sleeps. God makes dog drive away snake; thus dogs howl at approach of death.Ningphos(Bengal). Think they became mortal through bathing in tabooed water.Bushmen. The mother of the little hare is dead. The moon strikes the hare on its lip, splitting it in two, and tells it that its mother is really dead and will not live again as the moon does.Hottentots. The moon sends the hare to men to tell them that they will live again as he (the moon) does, but the hare forgets the message and tells men that they will surely die, for which mistake the moon burns a hole in his lip.Namaquas. The hare and the moon's mother.Central Africans. Sleep unknown; woman offers to teach man how to sleep; holds his nostrils; man never wakes; dying made easy.Hurons. Atænsic (the moon) destroys the living,Australians. Woman goes near a forbidden tree.New Zealand. Mani was not properly baptized.Fiji Islanders. The moon desired that men should die and live again like herself, but the rat opposed this, and so men die as rats do.Polynesians. Mani tries to pass through Night, a little bird sings, night awakes, snaps up Mani, and "so men die."Banks Islanders. Qat, Mate, Panoi, and Tangaro the Fool. Tangaro the Fool is set to watch the path taken by Death, that men may avoid it, but makes the mistake of pointing to men the path to Hades as that of the path of the upper world. So men have, perforce, to follow this road to Panoi and the dead.Pentecost Islanders. Tagar makes man die for live days only and live again, but Suque causes them to die for ever.Solomon Islanders. Koevari resumes cast-off skin.SOUL MYTHS, (1) In which the idea is found that a person's life, heart, or soul may be separated from him as alife-token or life-index, and that so long as this is kept safe or remains concealed, its owner is immortal. (2) Other myths dealing with the passage of the soul to the Otherworld.Egyptians. Story of the two brothers.Hebrews. Samson and Delilah.Greeks.Meleager and the firebrand.Misus, King of Megara, and his purple hair.Souls ferried across the Styx by Charon.Romans. Silvia and the son of Mars.Yorkshiremen. 'Brig o'Dread, nae braider than a thread.'Mohammedans. Reach Paradise across bridge composed of a single hair.Cingalese. Story of Thossakin, King of Ceylon, who kept his soul in a box when he went to war with Rama.Ainu(Japan). The 'inao.'Tinneh or Déné Indians. Etwa-eke and his stone hatchet.Malays. Tree-trunk across boiling lake to 'Island of Fruits.'Eskimos. Kujanguak and his life-lock (hair).Universal. Belief in birth-trees.FIRE MYTHS. In which the world is destroyed by fire.Romans. Seneca (seeNatur. Questiones, iii, cap. 27).Hebrews. Bible belief.Teutons(Scandinavia). The "Völuspá": "The sun shall grow dark, the land sink in the waters, the bright stars be quenched, and high flames climb Heaven itself."Algonquins. Michabo will stamp his foot, flames will devour the earth and only a chosen few (probably one pair) be left to re-people the new earth.Arawaks(Guiana and N. Brazil). Aimon Kondi.Aztecs. Extinguished every fire on last night of each cycle of fifty-two years. Then priests made new fire by friction. If this failed the end of the world had come.Maya. World to be destroyed by ravening fire and the gods with it.Peruvians. Amantas taught that some day an eclipse would veil the sun for ever, and earth, moon, and stars be wrapped in devouring flame.Tupi-Guarani(Brazil). Monan, Irin Magé.FLOOD MYTHS. A great deluge in which Heaven or the earth or both Heaven and earth are submerged in water and all living things drowned with the exception of one individual or family favoured by the god or gods.Egyptians. Tem, Temu, Atem, Atmu.Babylonians. Ut-Napishtim, the Babylonian Noah.Hebrews. Noah.Persians. Yima.Greeks. Deucalion and Pyrrha.Teutons(Scandinavia). Bergelmir and Ymir.Hindus. Manu, son of the sun-god Vivasvat.Ahts Indians(Vancouver Island). Wispohahp.Algonquin Indians. Michabo or Manibozho.Antis Indians(Brazil). Yurukares.Arawaks. Sigu, Marerewana.Aschochimi Indians(California). Coyote.Caribs(Antilles). The ibis.Hare Indians. Kunyan 'the intelligent,'Mexicans. Atonatiuh (the Water-Sun) descends upon the earth.Muyscas(Bogota). Chia or Chin, the moon, floods earth out of spite.Peruvians. Re-creation after deluge at Tiahuanaco.Tupi-Guarani(Brazil), Monan, Irin Magé.MYTHS OF A PLACE OF REWARD(the celestial garden of God).Country or RacePlace of RewardEgyptiansAaluPersiansAlburzGreeksThe Elysian FieldsRomansThe Fortunate IslesCeltsThe Otherworld beyond or beneaththe sea. Tir-nan-og, Avalon, etc.Teutons(Scandinavia)ValhallaVedasAgni (or Pushan) conducts the soulsto the abodes of blissBuddhistsNirvanaAmerican IndiansHappy hunting grounds(generally)AztecsTlalocan 'the east, the terrestrialParadise.' Tamoanchan, in the westCaribsBraves feast in happy islands servedby Arawak slavesTonga IslandersIsland Paradise of BolotuMYTHS OF A PLACE OF PUNISHMENTCountry or RaceName of place ofpunishmentName of presidingDeity or DeitiesEgyptiansAmentiOsirisBabyloniansSheol or AraluAllatu or NergalGreeksTartarus, HadesPluto and PersephoneCeltsAnnwnTeutons(Scandinavia)HelHelLadaks(Tibet border)Bad men becomemarmotsJapaneseLand of YomiEruma-oCaribs'Bad' men (i.e.cowards) becomeslaves to Arawaksin barren landbeyond the mountainsGallinomero,'Bad' men becomeCalifornian IndianscoyotesGuatemalans(Kiches)XibalbaHun-Came andVucub-CameMexicansMictlanMictlantecutli andMictecaciuatlPeruviansÇupayMYTHS OF JOURNEYS OR ADVENTURES THROUGH THE UNDERWORLD OR PLACE OF THE DEADEgyptians.Osiris.Babylonians. Descent of Ishtar through the Underworld.Greeks.Orpheus and Eurydice.Persephone and Pluto.Psyche.The punishment of the Danaides.Alcestis is allowed to return from the Underworld.Bacchus brings his mother Semele from the Underworld to Olympus.Medieval Britain. The Harrying of Hell.Japanese. Izanagi descends into Hades in search of his wife Izanami.Chinooks(N.W. America). Blue Jay in the Supernatural Country.Kiches of Guatemala. Adventures of Hun-Apu and Xbalanque in thePopol Vuh.FOOD OF THE DEAD FORMULA. An individual 'dies' or is kidnapped, proceeds to the Otherworld, and, having partaken of the food there, is unable to return to earth.Babylonians. Adapa loses his chance of becoming immortal by refusing the food and drink of life offered him by Anu, as he feared it was the food of the dead of which he had been warned by his father Ea.Greeks. Persephone.Finns. In theKalevala.Chinooks(North American Indians, N.W. coast). Found in shamanistic practice.SUN MYTHS. The principal figures in sun myths are the following:Egyptians. Ra and Horus.Accadians. Amar-utuki or Amar-uduk.Babylonians. Merodach and Shamash.Greeks. Apollo (Helios) and Phaethon.Celts. Lug.Hindus, Agni.Aztecs. Piltzintecutli.MOON MYTHS. These are closely associated with flood myths. In many of the Indian myths deluges are said to have been caused by the moon falling on the earth. She is nearly always held to be the goddess of water, dampness, dews, rain, and fogs. Moon and water are both mythical mothers of the human race.Egyptians. Isis. All maladies were traced to her anger.Babylonians. Sin, the moon-god.Greeks. Selene.Romans. Diana or Luna.Algonguins. Moon, night, death, cold, sleep, and water (same word).Aztecs. Constantly confounded Citatli and Atl (moon and water). Painted moon two colours—beneficent dispenser of harvests and offspring, goddess of night, dampness, cold, ague, miasma, and sleep; the twin of Death. Also known as Metztli, Yohualticitl, or Teciztecatl.Brazilian Indians. Mothers shield infants from rays which are said to cause sickness.Hidatsa. Midi is both moon and water.Hurons. Atænsic is the moon (also water).Muyscas. Chia the moon floods earth out of spite.Peruvians. Mama Quilla.Bushmen. Sun cuts moon down by degrees, but leaves a piece from which a new complete moon grows, and so on.STAR MYTHS. In both primitive and later myths the stars are metamorphosed men, women, or beasts; in some cases ancestors, in others gods. The belief that the good at death become stars is very widely spread.Egyptians. Plutarch was shown Isis and Osiris in the sky.Babylonians. Many gods are represented by stars. Babylonianastrology favoured the evolution of gods into planets.Greeks. The Pleiades are young girls.Castor and Pollux are young men.Hindus. Prajapati and his daughter become constellations.Bushmen. Metamorphosed men.American(Chinook Indians, N.W. Coast). Aqas Xenas Xena.Indians(North American). Ursa Major is a bear.Mexicans. Quetzalcoatl becomes a planet—our Venus.Peruvians. Beasts, anthropomorphic gods, and stars areconfounded together.Eskimos. Regard stars as ancestors.**Australians. The Pleiades are young girls.**South American star myths have not been added to this list as full reference has been made to them in the text.MYTHS TO ACCOUNT FOR CUSTOMS OR RITES(ætiological myths), such as the general belief that water is the mother of all things. This accounts for sacred fountains, lakes, and rivers, baptism, etc. A few examples only can be given.Greeks. Myth of Dionysus and Pentheus, to explain festival of the former. See Euripides,The Bacchæ.A-Kikuyus(Bantu tribe, E. Africa). To explain sacrifices to Ngai (rain-god).Todas(Southern India). To explain why the sacred dairyman sacrifices calf to Notirzi.Blackfeet Indians. To explain sun-dance.Pawnee Indians. To explain skull-dance, buffalo-dance, bear-dance (dramatized myths).Wiradthuri tribes(Australia). Dhuramoolun and the bull-roarer.Almost universal. Belief in ghosts accounts for funeral rites to prevent ghosts' return.

BIRTH OF GODS MYTHS

Greeks.

Zeus, Poseidon, Pluto, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, children of Cronus. All but Zeus were swallowed by their father when infants and all disgorged by him at one time full grown.

Perseus, son of Zeus and Danaë.

The Dioscuri (Zeus visits their mother Leda as a swan).

Vedas.

Agni, both son and father of the gods—son of Heaven and earth—begotten by the sky, the clouds, and the dawn—born among men, in Heaven and in the waters.

Algonquins. Manibozho, born of a virgin.

Hurons. Joskeha, born of a virgin.

Mexicans. Quetzalcoatl, born of a virgin; Uitzilopochtli (ball of feathers falls from heaven into his mother's breast).

Peruvians. Viracocha, born of a virgin.

Thlinkeets(N.W. America). Yetl's mother by advice of friendly dolphin swallows pebble and sea-water.

Uapès(Brazil). Jurapari (his mother drinks fermented liquor).

BEAST MYTHS. Beasts and birds are credited with divine or semi-divine attributes.

Greeks.

Io as a cow chased into Egypt by gad-fly sent by Hera.Amphitryon chases the Cadmean fox with the Athenian dog. Bellerophon slays the Chimæra with the help of Pegasus. The Centaurs.

Caribs(Antilles). The ibis.

Chinooks(Colombia River). Blue Jay.

Aschochimi Indians(California). The coyote.

Thlinkeet Indians. Yetl the raven.

Australians. Pund-jel the eagle-hawk.

Ahts Indians(Vancouver Island). Tootah, the thunder-bird, universal mother.

Banks Islanders. Marawa the spider.

Tinneh or Déné Indians(Hare-skins). Miraculous dog is creator.

DUALISTIC MYTHS(the good god combating the bad god). This idea is very general, being found practically all over the world. The creator of all good things is constantly thwarted by the evil spirit or principle, who, for every good and beautiful thing that the beneficent god makes, produces a corresponding evil.

Egyptians.

Osiris and Set or Apep. Ra (light and goodness) and Apep (darkness and evil).

Babylonians. Merodach and Tiawath.

Persians. Ormuzd and Ahriman.

Greeks.

Zeus and Typhon.Apollo and Python.Perseus and the Gorgon.

Teutons(Scandinavia).

Thor and Loki.Sigurd and Fafnir.

Hindus. Indra and Ahi or Vritra.

Hottentots. Gaunab (bad) and Tsui-Goab (good).

Algonquin Indians.

Michabo or Manibozho and the prince of serpents.Great Manitou, whose heart is the sun, made men.His wife, the moon, brought disease and death to the race.Glooskap and Malsum.

Huron Indians. Joskeha and Tawiscara.

Incas(Peru). Piguerão (day) and Apocatequil (night).

Iroquois Indians. Enigorio and Enigohatgea (Good Mind and Bad Mind).

Thlinkeet Indians. Yetl and Khanukh.

Tupi-Guarani(Brazil). Aricoute (darkness) and Tamandare (light).

Australians. Pund-jel, the eagle-hawk (good) and the Crow (bad).

Pentecost Islanders. Tagar (good) and Suque (bad).

Banks Islanders. Qat and Tangaro Lologong (the Fool).

DISMEMBERMENT MYTHS. In which a god or demigod is torn to pieces and the parts widely scattered and afterward collected.

Egyptians. Osiris and Isis.

Greeks.

Orpheus and Eurydice.Dionysus and Demeter.Medea and Pelias.

Finns(Kalevalaepic). Lemminkainen and his mother.

Rumanians. Frounse Werdye and Holy Mother Sunday.

Russians. Morevna and Koshchei.

Bushmen. Moon cut down by sun; piece left grows.

Antis Indians(Brazil). See Spence,Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology, p. 43.

Algonquins. The demon Lox.

Caribs. Story of their ancestor.

Dindje. Crow killed by the Navigator.

Pawnee Indians. Pa-hu-ka-tawa.

Zuñi Indians. Woman beloved by the sun becomes the mother of twins.

Madagascar. Ibonia, joiner together and life-giver.

Polynesians. Tangaroa and Mani.

CREATION MYTHS. In these there is nearly always a vast world of waters, over which broods the creative agency, who by a spoken word, force of thought (will-power), or by sheer physical labour creates the earth, or, more often, raises it from the midst of the watery abyss.

Babylonians. Bel or Merodach forms Heaven and earth from the two halves of the body of Tiawath.

Persians. Ormuzd (Ahura Mazda), father and creator.

Greeks. Uranus (Heaven-Father) and Gæa (Earth-Mother) beget all things.

Teutons(Scandinavia). Ginnungagap, the gulf existent. World made from body of the giant Ymir.

Finns (Kalevalaepic). Eagle hatches the land.

Hindus. Brahma, in his avatar as the boar, raised the earth on his tusks from out the waters and then began his work of creating.

Japanese. Izanagi and Izanami (creative pair).

Bushmen. Cagn (the praying mantis) created the world.

Zulus. Unkulunkulu (the great ancestor-creator).

Ahts Indians(Vancouver Island). Quawteaht was the 'framer of all things.'

Algonquin Indians. Michabo or Manibozho, the Great Hare, creates all things.

Arawaks(Guiana). Aluberi (from Alin 'He who makes').

Athapascan Indians. Yetl, the omnipotent raven, descended to the ocean from Heaven, and the earth rose.

Incas(Peru). Ataguju is creator of all things.

Iroquois Indians. Divine woman falls on turtle (earth).

Mexicans. Tonacatecutli breathes and divides the waters of the heavens and earth.

Navaho Indians. Ahsonnatli 'the Turquoise Hermaphrodite' creates Heaven and earth.

Oregon Indians. Coyote is creator.

Peruvians. Mama-cocha (the whale), 'Mother Sea,' was the mother of mankind.

Pawnees. Ti-ra-wa or A-ti-us (Atius Tirawa) is creator.

Papagos Indians(Gulf of California). Coyote or prairie-wolf acts as creator.

Kiche Indians. Nothing but the sea and sky, stillness and darkness. Nothing but the Maker and Moulder, the Hurler, the Bird-serpent. Under sea, covered with green feathers, slept the mothers and the fathers. Hurakan passes over the abyss, calls "Earth," and land appears.

Tacullies(British Columbia). Say earth is mud spat out of mouth of a pre-existing musk-rat.

Tinneh or Déné Indians. The dog is creator.

Tzentals(Chiapas). Alaghom or Iztat Ix, she who brings forth Mind—the mother of Wisdom—creatrix of the mental or immaterial part of nature.

Zuñi Indians(New Mexico). Awonawilona creates the world.

(See chapter on cosmogony.)

MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF MAN. These are closely allied to the creation myths. Man is usually made out of clay or the 'dust of the earth' by a supernatural being, who sometimes moistens the clay with his or her own blood or sweat, and imparts to it 'the breath of life.' There is sometimes a prior creation of wooden men, who are found wanting.

Greeks. Prometheus makes man and woman, Deucalion and Pyrrha.

Hindus. Brahma or Prajapati makes man.

American Indians(generally). Man is evolved from coyotes, beavers, apes, or issued from caves.

Aztecs. After the destruction of the world Xolotl descends to Mictlan and brings a bone of the perished race. The gods sprinkle this with blood and from it emerge the progenitors of the present race.

Hurons. Joskeha makes men.

Karaya Indians(Brazil). Kaboi led their ancestors from the Underworld.

Peruvians. Apocatequil digs up men from the Underworld with a golden spade.

Kiches(Central America). The gods in council create man. At first they make wooden men, the remainder of whom turn into monkeys. They then create the present race from yellow and white maize.

Zuñi Indians. Janauluha leads men from the Underworld to the world of day.

Bushmen. Men came out of a cave.

Zulus. Men came out of beds of reeds.

Australians. Pund-jel makes two men from clay, one with straight and one with curly hair (bark). He dances round them and breathes life into them.

Australians(Dyiere). Men came out of wattle-gum tree.

Maoris(New Zealand). Tiki makes man of clay.

Polynesians(Mangaians). The woman of the abyss makes man by tearing from her right side a piece of flesh, which becomes Vatea, father of gods and men.

Melanesians. Qat makes man.

MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF HEROES

Babylonians. Story of Sargon.

Hebrews. Story of Moses.

Greeks.

Perseus, son of Danaë. His father Zeus descended in a shower of golden rain.

Heracles, son of Zeus, who deceives the mother of Heracles by pretending to be Amphitryon, her absent husband.

Romans. Story of Romulus.

Celts. Sagas and romances of Arthur, Merlin, and Beowulf.

Indians. Saga of Rama, inRamayana.

Mexicans. Uitzilopochtli, myth of his birth.

Kiches. Hun-Apu and Xbalanque in thePopol Vuh.

Peruvians. Ataguju, the creator, begets Guamansuri, who seduces a woman, who gives birth to two eggs. From these emerged Apocatequil and Piguerão. Apocatequil was prince of evil and the most respected hero of the Peruvians.

(See also Culture Myths for other examples.)

MYTHS OF FIRE-STEALING. In which a supernatural being—usually a bird—steals fire from Heaven and brings it to earth for the benefit of mankind.

Greeks. Prometheus.

Vedas. Matarisvan.

Bretons. Golden-crested wren.

Normandy Peasantry. The wren.

Ahts Indians(Vancouver Island). Quawteaht.

Athapascan Indians(N.W. America). Yetl the raven.

Cahrocs and Navaho Indians. The coyote.

Murri Tribe(Gippsland, Australia). Man who became a bird.

Thlinkeets(N.W. America). Yetl the raven.

New Zealanders. Mani.

Andaman Islanders. A bird.

CULTURE MYTHS. MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE ARTS OF LIFE. A god or culture-hero teaches man the useful arts. The outstanding figures in such myths are:

Egyptians. Osiris.Babylonians. Oannes.Greeks. Prometheus, Bacchus, Cadmus.Celts(Irish). Nuada of the Silver Hand.Teutons(Scandinavia). Wieland the Smith.Japanese. Okikurimi.Bushmen(South Africa). Cagn.Zulus. Unkulunkulu.Algonquins. Michabo or Manibozho.Antis Indians(Brazil). Son of Ulé.Arawaks. Kamu.Carayas. Kaboi.Caribs. Tamu (grandfather).Cherokees. Wasi.Chiapas. Votan.Hurons. Joskeha.Maya(Yucatan). Itzamna, Kukulcan.Mexicans. Quetzalcoatl.Orinoco Tribes. Amalivaca.Paraguayans. Zumé.Peruvians. Manco Ccapac; Viracocha arises from the depthsof Lake Titicaca on a civilizing mission.Toltecs. Hueymactzin.Australians. Pund-jel.Melanesians. Qat.

TABOO MYTHS. Myths which relate the existence of, origin of, and necessity for certain taboos or forbidden things.

Hebrews. Adam, Eve, and the eating of the apple.

Greeks.

The myth of Cupid and Psyche.Actæon turned into a stag for observing Artemis whenbathing.

Teutons(Scandinavia). Lohengrin and Elsa (name taboo).

Ningphos(Bengal). Think they became mortal by bathing in tabooed water.

Australians. Death introduced by woman going to tabooed tree.

MYTHS OF DEATH. To account for death, regarded by some savage races as unnatural. Usually some custom or taboo is supposed to have been broken, or some ritual neglectedor mismanaged, and death has followed. The reasons given by the different races are as follows:

Greeks. Death comes from lifting cover off Pandora's box.

Hindus. Yama is pioneer to the Otherworld.

Southern India. Death (snake) bites men while God sleeps. God makes dog drive away snake; thus dogs howl at approach of death.

Ningphos(Bengal). Think they became mortal through bathing in tabooed water.

Bushmen. The mother of the little hare is dead. The moon strikes the hare on its lip, splitting it in two, and tells it that its mother is really dead and will not live again as the moon does.

Hottentots. The moon sends the hare to men to tell them that they will live again as he (the moon) does, but the hare forgets the message and tells men that they will surely die, for which mistake the moon burns a hole in his lip.

Namaquas. The hare and the moon's mother.

Central Africans. Sleep unknown; woman offers to teach man how to sleep; holds his nostrils; man never wakes; dying made easy.

Hurons. Atænsic (the moon) destroys the living,

Australians. Woman goes near a forbidden tree.

New Zealand. Mani was not properly baptized.

Fiji Islanders. The moon desired that men should die and live again like herself, but the rat opposed this, and so men die as rats do.

Polynesians. Mani tries to pass through Night, a little bird sings, night awakes, snaps up Mani, and "so men die."

Banks Islanders. Qat, Mate, Panoi, and Tangaro the Fool. Tangaro the Fool is set to watch the path taken by Death, that men may avoid it, but makes the mistake of pointing to men the path to Hades as that of the path of the upper world. So men have, perforce, to follow this road to Panoi and the dead.

Pentecost Islanders. Tagar makes man die for live days only and live again, but Suque causes them to die for ever.

Solomon Islanders. Koevari resumes cast-off skin.

SOUL MYTHS, (1) In which the idea is found that a person's life, heart, or soul may be separated from him as alife-token or life-index, and that so long as this is kept safe or remains concealed, its owner is immortal. (2) Other myths dealing with the passage of the soul to the Otherworld.

Egyptians. Story of the two brothers.

Hebrews. Samson and Delilah.

Greeks.

Meleager and the firebrand.Misus, King of Megara, and his purple hair.Souls ferried across the Styx by Charon.

Romans. Silvia and the son of Mars.

Yorkshiremen. 'Brig o'Dread, nae braider than a thread.'

Mohammedans. Reach Paradise across bridge composed of a single hair.

Cingalese. Story of Thossakin, King of Ceylon, who kept his soul in a box when he went to war with Rama.

Ainu(Japan). The 'inao.'

Tinneh or Déné Indians. Etwa-eke and his stone hatchet.

Malays. Tree-trunk across boiling lake to 'Island of Fruits.'

Eskimos. Kujanguak and his life-lock (hair).

Universal. Belief in birth-trees.

FIRE MYTHS. In which the world is destroyed by fire.

Romans. Seneca (seeNatur. Questiones, iii, cap. 27).

Hebrews. Bible belief.

Teutons(Scandinavia). The "Völuspá": "The sun shall grow dark, the land sink in the waters, the bright stars be quenched, and high flames climb Heaven itself."

Algonquins. Michabo will stamp his foot, flames will devour the earth and only a chosen few (probably one pair) be left to re-people the new earth.

Arawaks(Guiana and N. Brazil). Aimon Kondi.

Aztecs. Extinguished every fire on last night of each cycle of fifty-two years. Then priests made new fire by friction. If this failed the end of the world had come.

Maya. World to be destroyed by ravening fire and the gods with it.

Peruvians. Amantas taught that some day an eclipse would veil the sun for ever, and earth, moon, and stars be wrapped in devouring flame.

Tupi-Guarani(Brazil). Monan, Irin Magé.

FLOOD MYTHS. A great deluge in which Heaven or the earth or both Heaven and earth are submerged in water and all living things drowned with the exception of one individual or family favoured by the god or gods.

Egyptians. Tem, Temu, Atem, Atmu.Babylonians. Ut-Napishtim, the Babylonian Noah.Hebrews. Noah.Persians. Yima.Greeks. Deucalion and Pyrrha.Teutons(Scandinavia). Bergelmir and Ymir.Hindus. Manu, son of the sun-god Vivasvat.Ahts Indians(Vancouver Island). Wispohahp.Algonquin Indians. Michabo or Manibozho.Antis Indians(Brazil). Yurukares.Arawaks. Sigu, Marerewana.Aschochimi Indians(California). Coyote.Caribs(Antilles). The ibis.Hare Indians. Kunyan 'the intelligent,'Mexicans. Atonatiuh (the Water-Sun) descends upon the earth.Muyscas(Bogota). Chia or Chin, the moon, floods earth out of spite.Peruvians. Re-creation after deluge at Tiahuanaco.Tupi-Guarani(Brazil), Monan, Irin Magé.

MYTHS OF A PLACE OF REWARD(the celestial garden of God).

MYTHS OF A PLACE OF PUNISHMENT

MYTHS OF JOURNEYS OR ADVENTURES THROUGH THE UNDERWORLD OR PLACE OF THE DEAD

Egyptians.Osiris.

Babylonians. Descent of Ishtar through the Underworld.

Greeks.

Orpheus and Eurydice.Persephone and Pluto.Psyche.The punishment of the Danaides.Alcestis is allowed to return from the Underworld.Bacchus brings his mother Semele from the Underworld to Olympus.

Medieval Britain. The Harrying of Hell.

Japanese. Izanagi descends into Hades in search of his wife Izanami.

Chinooks(N.W. America). Blue Jay in the Supernatural Country.

Kiches of Guatemala. Adventures of Hun-Apu and Xbalanque in thePopol Vuh.

FOOD OF THE DEAD FORMULA. An individual 'dies' or is kidnapped, proceeds to the Otherworld, and, having partaken of the food there, is unable to return to earth.

Babylonians. Adapa loses his chance of becoming immortal by refusing the food and drink of life offered him by Anu, as he feared it was the food of the dead of which he had been warned by his father Ea.

Greeks. Persephone.

Finns. In theKalevala.

Chinooks(North American Indians, N.W. coast). Found in shamanistic practice.

SUN MYTHS. The principal figures in sun myths are the following:

Egyptians. Ra and Horus.Accadians. Amar-utuki or Amar-uduk.Babylonians. Merodach and Shamash.Greeks. Apollo (Helios) and Phaethon.Celts. Lug.Hindus, Agni.Aztecs. Piltzintecutli.

MOON MYTHS. These are closely associated with flood myths. In many of the Indian myths deluges are said to have been caused by the moon falling on the earth. She is nearly always held to be the goddess of water, dampness, dews, rain, and fogs. Moon and water are both mythical mothers of the human race.

Egyptians. Isis. All maladies were traced to her anger.Babylonians. Sin, the moon-god.Greeks. Selene.Romans. Diana or Luna.Algonguins. Moon, night, death, cold, sleep, and water (same word).Aztecs. Constantly confounded Citatli and Atl (moon and water). Painted moon two colours—beneficent dispenser of harvests and offspring, goddess of night, dampness, cold, ague, miasma, and sleep; the twin of Death. Also known as Metztli, Yohualticitl, or Teciztecatl.Brazilian Indians. Mothers shield infants from rays which are said to cause sickness.Hidatsa. Midi is both moon and water.Hurons. Atænsic is the moon (also water).Muyscas. Chia the moon floods earth out of spite.Peruvians. Mama Quilla.Bushmen. Sun cuts moon down by degrees, but leaves a piece from which a new complete moon grows, and so on.

STAR MYTHS. In both primitive and later myths the stars are metamorphosed men, women, or beasts; in some cases ancestors, in others gods. The belief that the good at death become stars is very widely spread.

Egyptians. Plutarch was shown Isis and Osiris in the sky.Babylonians. Many gods are represented by stars. Babylonianastrology favoured the evolution of gods into planets.Greeks. The Pleiades are young girls.Castor and Pollux are young men.Hindus. Prajapati and his daughter become constellations.Bushmen. Metamorphosed men.American(Chinook Indians, N.W. Coast). Aqas Xenas Xena.Indians(North American). Ursa Major is a bear.Mexicans. Quetzalcoatl becomes a planet—our Venus.Peruvians. Beasts, anthropomorphic gods, and stars areconfounded together.Eskimos. Regard stars as ancestors.**Australians. The Pleiades are young girls.**

South American star myths have not been added to this list as full reference has been made to them in the text.

MYTHS TO ACCOUNT FOR CUSTOMS OR RITES(ætiological myths), such as the general belief that water is the mother of all things. This accounts for sacred fountains, lakes, and rivers, baptism, etc. A few examples only can be given.

Greeks. Myth of Dionysus and Pentheus, to explain festival of the former. See Euripides,The Bacchæ.

A-Kikuyus(Bantu tribe, E. Africa). To explain sacrifices to Ngai (rain-god).

Todas(Southern India). To explain why the sacred dairyman sacrifices calf to Notirzi.

Blackfeet Indians. To explain sun-dance.

Pawnee Indians. To explain skull-dance, buffalo-dance, bear-dance (dramatized myths).

Wiradthuri tribes(Australia). Dhuramoolun and the bull-roarer.

Almost universal. Belief in ghosts accounts for funeral rites to prevent ghosts' return.

The efforts of man to account for his existence and that of the world in which he lives—in a word, for the origin of Heaven and earth and all that is in them—are among the most deeply interesting manifestations of human mental activity and progress. To his speculations the science of comparative mythology has given the name cosmogony (Greekcosmos, 'world,' andgignesthai,'to be born'), of which the best literal translation is 'world-birth.'

Before speculating upon the reason for the similarity between cosmogonic myths in all parts of the globe, or how far they have been coloured one by another or sophisticated by modern culture, we shall find it profitable to study the chief creation tales themselves, so that when we come to discuss their likeness or unlikeness we shall be well furnished with examples in support of the views we adopt. This course is wise in the study of tradition; for unless the student is well furnished and abundantly fortified with 'instances,' he will never thoroughly apprehend the greater issues of traditional science, never fully grasp its spirit.

Some one has said that quotations are "ready armour, offensive and defensive," and the simile might well be employed of 'instances' in folklore and mythology, where the ability to cite copious parallels is of the highest assistance in argument.

With this in view, then, we shall look at the most important of those tales which relate to the creation of the world and man before analysing them.

INDIAN CREATION STORIES

India furnishes manifold ideas concerning the origin of the universe and man. At the first, says theRig-Veda, there was neither non-entity nor entity, and all was water wrapped in gloom. "Then desire (Karma) arose in it, which was the primal germ of mind ... the bond between entity and non-entity." The following hymn from theRig-Veda,[1]the vigorous translation of which is by the late Dr Muir, gives some account of the process:

There was neither aught nor naught, nor air, nor sky beyond.What covered all? Where rested all? In watery gulf profound?Nor death was then, nor deathlessness, nor change of night and day.The One breathed calmly, self-sustained; naught else beyond it lay.Gloom, hid in gloom, existed first—one sea, eluding view.That One, a void in chaos wrapt, by inward fervour grew.Within it first arose desire, the primal germ of mind,Which nothing with existence links, as sages searching find.The kindling ray that shot across the dark and drear abyss—Was it beneath? or high aloft? What bard can answer this?There fecundating powers were found, and mighty forces strove—A self-supporting mass beneath, and energy above.Who knows, who ever told, from whence this vast creation rose?No gods had then been born—who then can e'er the truth disclose?Whence sprang this world, and whether framed by hand divine or no—Its lord in heaven alone can tell, if even he can show.

This hymn is among the earliest speculations of the Hindus regarding cosmogonic phenomena, and its pious conclusion did not satisfy the cravings of future still more inquisitive generations. In thePurusha Saktaof theRig-Veda, admittedly of considerably later origin than the above composition, the following creation myth is found:

"Purusha has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. On every side enveloping the earth, he overpassed (it) by a space of ten fingers. Purusha himself is this whole (universe), whatever has been and whatever shall be. He isalso lord of immortality, since (or when) by food he expands. All existences are a quarter of him, and three-fourths of him are that which is immortal in the sky. With three-quarters Purusha mounted upward. A quarter of him was again produced here. From him was born Viraj; and from Viraj, Purusha. When the gods performed a sacrifice, with Purusha as the oblation, the spring was its butter, the summer its fuel, and the autumn its (accompanying) offering. From that universal sacrifice sprang the Rich and Saman verses, the metres and the Yajush; from it sprang horses and all animals with two rows of teeth, kine, goats, and sheep. When (the gods) divided Purusha, into how many parts did they cut him up? The Brahman was his mouth, the Rajanya was made his arms, the being (called) Vaisya was his thighs, and the Sudra sprang from his feet. The morn sprang from his soul (manas), the sun from his eye, Indra and Agni from his mouth, and Vaya from his breath. From his navel arose the air, from his head the sky, from his feet the earth, from his ear the (four) quarters; in this manner (the gods) formed the worlds."

Now follows an extract from theSatapatha Brahmana,which gives the words used at the creation: "(Uttering) 'bhuh', Prajapati generated this earth. (Uttering) 'bhuvah,' he generated the air; and (uttering) 'svah,' he generated the sky. This universe is co-extensive with these worlds. Saying bhuh,' Prajapati generated the Brahman; (saying) 'bhuvah,' he generated the Kshattra; (and saying) 'svah,' he generated the Vis. All this world is as much as the Brahman, Kshattra, and Vis. (Saying) 'bhuh,' Prajapati generated himself; (saying) 'bhuvah,' he generated offspring: (saying) 'svah,' he generated animals. This world is so much as self, offspring, and animals."

TheTaittiriya Brahmanasays, "This entire (universe) has been created by Brahma," and gives an account of the creation of the Asuras, Pitris (or fathers), and gods. "Prajapati desired 'May I propagate.' He practised austerity. His breath became alive. With that breath (asu) he created Asuras. Having created the Asuras, he regarded himself as a father. After that he created the fathers (pitris). That constitutes the fatherhood of the fathers. Having created the fathers, he reflected. Afterthat he created men. That constitutes the manhood of men. He who knows the manhood of men becomes intelligent. To him, when he was creating men, day appeared in the heavens. After that he created the gods."

TheSatapatha Brahmanarelates the creation of men and animals. "Prajapati was formerly this (universe) only. He desired: 'Let me create food, and be propagated.' He formed animals from his breaths, a man from his soul, a horse from his eye, a bull from his breath, a sheep from his ear, a goat from his voice. Since he formed animals from his breaths, therefore men say: 'The breaths are animals,' The soul is the first of breaths. Since he formed a man from his soul, therefore they say: 'Man is the first of the animals and the strongest.' The soul is all the breaths; for all the breaths depend upon the soul. Since he formed man from his soul, therefore they say: 'Man is all the animals'; for all these are man's."

In another passage this Brahmana gives quite a different account. Purusha, as the soul of the universe, was alone. Hence "he did not enjoy happiness. He desired a second. He caused this same self to fall asunder into two parts. Thence arose a husband and wife. From them men were born. She reflected: 'How does he, after having produced me from himself, cohabit with me? Ah! let me disappear!' She became a cow, and the other a bull; from them kine were produced. The one became a mare, the other a stallion; the one a she-ass, the other a male-ass. From them the class of animals with undivided hoofs was produced. The one became a she-goat, the other a he-goat; the one an ewe, the other a ram. From them goats and sheep were produced. In this manner pairs of all creatures whatsoever, down to ants, were created."

The Puranas are very minute and specific as regards the facts of creation. Indeed the first book of theVishnu Puranais largely taken up with accounts of the cosmogonic process. According to this venerable script Brahma first existed in the form of Purusha (spirit) and Kalu (time). "Next proceeded two other forms, the discreet and indiscreet; and Kala (time) was the last. These four—Pradhana (primary or crudematter), Purusha (spirit), Vyakta (visible substance), and Kala (time)—in their due proportions, are the causes of the production of the phenomena of creation, preservation, and destruction. The supreme Brahma, the supreme soul, the substance of the world, the lord of all creatures, the universal soul, the supreme ruler Hari (Vishnu), of his own will having entered into matter and spirit, agitated the mutable and immutable principles, the season of creation having arrived, in the same manner as fragrance affects the mind from its proximity merely, and not from any immediate operation upon mind itself; so the supreme influenced the elements of creation."

After giving an account of the creation, or rather the evolution of the elements, theVishnu Puranagoes on to say: "Then (the elements) ether, air, light, water, and earth, severally united with the properties of sound, and the rest existed as distinguishable according to their qualities as soothing, terrific, or stupefying; but possessing various energies, and being unconnected, they could not without combination create living beings, not having blended with each other. Having combined, therefore, with one another, they assumed, through their mutual association, the character of one mass of entire unity; and from the direction of spirit, with the acquiescence of the indiscrete principle, intellect, and the rest, to the gross elements inclusive, formed an egg, which gradually expanded like a bubble of water. This vast egg, compounded of the elements, and resting on the waters, was the excellent natural abode of Vishnu in the form of Brahma; and there Vishnu, the lord of the universe, whose essence is inscrutable, assumed a perceptible form, and even he himself abided in it in the character of Brahma. Its womb, vast as the mountain Meru, was composed of the mountains; and the mighty oceans were the waters that filled its cavity. In that egg were the continents and seas and mountains, the planets and divisions of the universe, the gods, the demons, and mankind.

"Affecting then the quality of activity, Hari the lord of all, himself becoming Brahma, engaged in the creation of the universe. Vishnu, with the quality of goodness and of immeasurable power, preserves created things through successiveages, until the close of the period termed a Kalpa; when the same mighty deity, invested with the quality of darkness, assumes the awful form of Rudra, and swallows up the universe. Having thus devoured all things, and converted the world into one vast ocean, the supreme reposes upon his mighty serpent couch amidst the deep: he awakes after a season, and again, as Brahma, becomes the author of creation."

EGYPTIAN CREATION MYTHS

Turning to ancient Egypt, that dark ocean of myth and mystery, we find in papyrus 10,188, housed in the British Museum, an account of the origin of things written for a priest of Panopolis, called Nes-Amsu, about the year 312 B.C. This papyrus contains many things, chiefly of magical import, but its interest for us is that it introduces two varying accounts of the Egyptian idea of the creation, both of which are a little vague and obscure. In the first, the god Neb-er-tcher, a form of Ra the sun-god, tells how, through his godlike might, all things came into being. Taking upon himself the shape of Khepera, the deity symbolizing creation, he made himself and other "new things," in fact, a whole world, "out of his mouth." The place where he performed this feat was the watery abyss of Nu, from which certain considerations lead us to suppose he took hismaterials. Says Khepera:

"I found no place there (in Nu) whereon I could stand. I worked a charm upon my own heart. I laid a foundation in Maa. I made every form. I was one by myself, I had not emitted from myself the god Shu, I had not spit out from myself the goddess Tefnut. There was no other being who worked with me."

Thus Khepera alone was creator; nor did he have any solid surface to stand upon during the performance of his creative act. To remove the difficulty he worked a charm upon, or made a foundation in, his own heart—that is, by some magical act he found a foothold in the abyss while he produced all things. "There came into being multitudes of things from the things of what was produced"—that is, the objects which had emanated from Khepera continued the work of creation of their ownaccord. Khepera then produced the god and goddess Shu and Tefnut. Men and women then appeared from his tears. The sun was manufactured from an eye of the god, as was the moon. Plants and creeping things began to grow and move on the surface of the earth, so that they cannot have been included in the original 'things' created by the god. Finally Shu and Tefnut produced the pantheon of the elder gods, and these deities multiplied offspring in the earth.

OSIRIS AS CREATOR

The second version of the creation myth which the papyrus contains makes Osiris take the place of Khepera, or Neb-er-tcher. He is described as thepautet pautti, or the very essence of primeval matter, and the source of all created things. Osiris utters his own name as a word of power, and "forthwith came into being under the form of things which were created." Like Neb-er-tcher, he took the form of Khepera as proper to the act of creation. "I came into being," he says, "from primeval matter, and I appeared under the form of multitudes of things from the beginning. Nothing existed at that time, and it was I who made whatsoever was made. I was alone, and there was no other being who worked with me in that place. I made all the forms under which I appeared by means of the god-soul which I raised up out of Nu, out of a state of inertness." Thus we here have the 'god-soul' existent in a quiescent condition in the watery abyss of Nu, awaiting the magic call of Osiris. The next point in which the second account differs from the first is the making of man, made, it states, after the reptiles and creeping things.

Thus in these Egyptian creation myths we have a primeval watery mass peopled by a self-begotten and self-existent god who, uttering his own name as a spell, straightway came into existence, then awakened the slumbering soul of the abyss into activity, and by the utterance of magic words created a place or foundation upon which he could stand. Having done this, he proceeded to the creation of other gods, the light, human beings, vegetation, and creeping things. Of birds, beasts, and stars we find nothing in the myth, which is one of the earliestEgyptian conceptions of the creation of the world and of mankind.[2]

But as new races entered Egypt as immigrants or conquerors, other myths descriptive of the creation process arose and flourished side by side. There was, for example, that of Ptah, a potter, pictured in the ancient drawings as shaping the world-egg, the 'cosmic egg,' upon his wheel. He is said, in connexion with Khnemu, to have carried out the active work of creation at the command of Thoth. Khnemu was also regarded as the personification of creative force, who formed the cosmic egg from the Nile mud and shaped man on his potter's wheel; and there were others, all more or less akin.

EGYPTIAN IDEAS REGARDING THE SKY

The earlier Egyptians regarded the sky as a flat metal plate or slab, each end of which rested upon a mountain, the mountain of sunrise, Bakhau, and the mountain of sunset, Manu. In the late Pyramid texts the sky is rectangular, each corner resting upon a pillar. In still later times those four pillars were looked upon as the sceptres of the gods who presided over the four quarters of heaven. At a comparatively late date the idea arose that the sky required support in the centre as well as at its angles, and the god who acted as central prop was called Heh. In another myth the heavens were shaped like a man's head, with the sun and moon for eyes, and hair supporting the sky.

Another Egyptian idea of the sky is that the goddess Nut, who personified the upper regions, formed the vault of the heavens by arching her body over the earth and resting her weight upon her hands and feet. Sometimes the god Shu stands beneath, as if to support her. Over her body are scattered the stars. She was alluded to as 'the Lady of Heaven,' and is uniformly painted blue in imitation of the sky she represented.

THE BABYLONIAN ACCOUNTS OF CREATION

The principal version of the Babylonian account of creation is preserved in the 'Seven Tablets of Creation' now in theBritish Museum, and originally part of the library of Assurbanipal at Nineveh. In this epic we find two primeval deities, Apsu and Tiawath, personifications of the great abyss, and their son, Mummu. The gods are created, Anu, En-lil, and Ea, but their 'ways' are displeasing to Apsu and Tiawath, who rebel. The original male deities speedily succumb to the power of the new gods. Tiawath creates a host of grisly monsters and carries on unrelenting war against the enemy, but in terrific combat with Marduk or Merodach she is annihilated. She is cut in twain, and from one half of her body Merodach forms the heavens. He divides the upper waters from the lower, makes dwellings for the gods, creates the sun, moon, and stars, and ordains their courses. At this juncture a portion of the account (Tablet V) is missing, but in the next slab Merodach is said to have been decapitated, and with his own blood and bone to have made man. Berosus, a priest of Merodach, who lived in the third century B.C., wrote a Greek history of Babylonia, which has been lost, but is known in part from quotations by classical writers. In this work he recounted the above myth, with some variation in the names, and the additional statement that half of Tiawath's body formed the earth.[3]

Tiawath, like the Egyptian Nut, personified the primeval abyss; in fact, the name signifies the sea, Apsu, the name of her spouse, meaning the deep. The sea was to the Semitic mind symbolical of chaos and trouble, as witness the Scriptural promise, "and there shall be no more sea." The strange monsters framed by the goddess of the abyss to combat the gods of light are perhaps associated with the teeming gigantic life the Semites believed the sea capable of propagating, one well-known example of which is the 'whale' or 'great fish' of Jonah.

CHINESE WORLD-MAKING

Chinese myth furnishes a fairly clear account of creation. During countless scores of ages "nothing" condensed intounity, and the Mighty Atom was formed. In the course of further ages the atom became divided into the male and female principles, and the universe came into being. But a more simple explanation was necessary for the uninitiated, who were told that the two original elements became four, from the co-operation of which sprang a deity called P'an Ku, whose function it was to supply the constituents of the universe, His eyes became the sun and moon, his breath the wind, his hair trees and vegetation, his flesh the earth, his sweat rain, and the worms which sprang from his decomposing body were men. The god Tien or Shang-ti is generally regarded as the First Cause in Chinese myth; but although he may have inspired the creation of the universe, he does not appear to have taken any hand in its actual manufacture.

THE HEBREW CREATION STORY

The Biblical story of creation is a very complete cosmogony, having affinities with that of Babylon. We are told in Genesis i, 6, 7, 14, 15 that God divided the primeval waters into two parts by an intervening 'firmament' or platform, where he placed the heavenly bodies. This division has some likeness to the Babylonian account of the cleaving of the carcass of Tiawath into two parts, one of which kept the upper waters from coming down. The wordste hom, rendered in the English Bible 'the deep,' closely resemble the name Tiawath, 'the sea,' Here, then, we seem to possess irrefragable philological evidence of early Babylonian influence upon Hebrew belief. Verse 2 of Genesis i also mentions the earth-matter out of which the earth and all its products were to appear. This is calledtohuandbohu, 'devoid of living things,' and so would appear to equate with "the lands" that "altogether were sea" of Babylonian cosmogony. The creation of light which appears in Genesis is not found in the Babylonian account, but the Babylonian creator, Merodach, is a god of light. In brief, the Hebrew account of the successive stages of creation corresponds so closely to that of Babylon that it is obvious one has been influenced by the other—naturally the younger by the elder.

JAPANESE ORIGINS

In the beginning, according to Japanese myth, Heaven and earth were not separated and the In and Yo (the male and female principles) not divided. TheNihongistates that these male and female principles formed a chaotic mass like an egg which was of obscurely defined limits and contained germs. This egg quickened with life, the clearer part became Heaven, while the more ponderable portion settled down as the terrestrial sphere, like the floating of a fish sporting on the surface of the waters. An object like a reed-shoot appeared between Heaven and earth, and as suddenly became transformed into a god, Kuni-toko-tachi. Other divine beings were born, but those responsible for most of "this sorry scheme of things entire" were Izanagi (Male who invites) and Izanami (Female who invites), concerning whom a very charming and original myth was told.

They stood on the floating bridge of Heaven and peered downward into the abyss below, asking each other what might exist so far below. Puzzled, yet determined to probe the mystery of nothingness beneath them, they thrust a jewel-spear downward, and touched the ocean. Drawing the spear upward, some water dripped from it, coagulated, and became an island, upon which the god and goddess set foot. Desiring each other is husband and wife, although they were brother and sister, they set up a pillar on the island, and by walking round it lost their relationship. Izanagi walked round one way and Izanami the other, exclaiming when they met: "Delightful! I have met with a lovely maiden," and "I have met with a lovely youth." They espoused each other, and Izanami gave birth to islands, seas, rivers, herbs, and trees, and having produced the Great-Eight-Island Country was desirous of bringing forth a living being who would be head of the Universe. In due season Ama-terasu, the sun-goddess, was born, and the moon-god, Tsuki-yumi. After the birth of the fire-god, however, Izanami suffered so greatly that she betook herself to the land of Yomi or Hades and was subsequently disowned by her husband.

IRANIAN COSMOGONY

The Iranian account of creation states that Ormuzd (Ahura Mazda), the creator and good agency, fixed the duration of the world at twelve thousand years. He created the spiritual world during the first thousand of these. Ahriman, the principle of evil, did not know of his existence until he espied the beams of light which emanated from his glorious presence, but when he discovered it he commenced to plot evil. During the next three thousand years Ormuzd created the world, the sun, moon, and stars, plants, animals, and man. But Ahriman instituted a malevolent counter-creation, and for every desirable thing Ormuzd made Ahriman produced something evil, so that he became the creator of all noxious plants and beasts of prey, diseases, and death. For a third three thousand years a bitter strife was waged between the deities, but with the birth of Zarathushtra or Zoroaster, a better day dawned for the forces of good. The first animal created by Ormuzd was an ox, which was assailed by the plagues and diseases of Ahriman and died; but from its members sprang every description of cereal and plant, and two other oxen. Ormuzd took of his sweat, and uttering words of power produced the man Gayomart. He was also slain by Ahriman, but his seed having fertilized in the earth, twins Mashya and Mashyana sprang up, at first in the form of shrubs, and were the progenitors of humanity.

THE CELTIC IDEA OF THE ORIGIN OF MAN

The Celtic idea of creation as exhibited in the Welsh workBarddasprovided for two primary existences, God and Cythrawl, standing respectively for life and death. Cythrawl has his abode in Annwn, the Abyss of Chaos. In the beginning naught was but God and Annwn. God pronounced his ineffable name, and Manred, the primal substance of the Universe, was formed. Manred was composed of thousands of teeming atoms, in each of which God was present, and each was a part of God. They were arranged in concentric circles representing the totality of being, and the innermost, the first on which life gets a footing on emerging from Annwn, is Abred. This is thestage of struggle and evolution, the contest of life with Cythrawl. The second is Gwynfyd, the Circle of Purity, in which life triumphs, and the last is Ceugant, inhabited by God alone, with whom, presumably, it is merged.

NORSE COSMOGONY

The Scandinavian conception of creation bears, strangely enough, some general resemblance to those of ancient China and India (Purusha variant). In the beginning yawned the great abyss of Ginnungagap and naught beside, save that it was flanked on the north by the dreary realm of Niflheim, a region of cold and mist, and on the south by Muspelheim, a region of fire. Flowing from Niflheim, the rivers called Elivagar froze, and the ice formed upon them was covered with congealed vapour. The hot air from Muspelheim beating upon the ice melted it, and the drops of moisture so formed took life and became a giant called Ymir, the progenitor of a race of gigantic beings. From the cow Audhumla, formed at the same time, Ymir was nourished by four streams of milk. For sustenance she licked the stones covered with brine and moisture; and on the first day she licked there appeared a single hair, on the second day a head, on the third an entire being, beautiful and glorious to look upon, Buri, the grandfather of Odin. Ymir, while asleep, engendered the race of giants from the sweat of his body, but the grandchildren of Buri slew him, and all his progeny were drowned in his blood, except Bergelmir and his wife, who saved themselves in a boat His body was then cast into Ginnungagap, and from his blood were created the sea and waters, from his flesh the solid earth, from his bones the mountains, from his skull the dome of the sky, from his brain the clouds, and from his eyebrows Midgard, the dwelling of the race of men. Odin, Vili, and Ve are then spoken of (in a myth apparently a variant) as raising the disk of the earth out of the waters. Later Odin and his brothers find a couple of inanimate figures fashioned by the dwarfs out of trees, and endowed them with the breath of life and understanding, calling them Askr and Embla. These were the first human beings.

MEXICAN BEGINNINGS

In the Mexico of the Aztecs the sun was held to be the cause of all material force, and the gods the holders of the fluctuating fortunes of man. The sun, like man himself, was considered dependent upon food and drink; and according to Aztec cosmology several suns had perished through lack of provision, as had older races of men. The original sun had no other nourishment than the water it absorbed from the earth, and was thus nothing but a semi-liquid mass, designated Atonatiuh, the 'Water-Sun.' It was supposed to have absorbed enormous quantities during the course of centuries, and ultimately discharged the whole over the world, causing a complete destruction of animal and vegetable life. The Water-Sun was sometimes identified with Tlaloc, the god of moisture, but this is a comparatively recent addition to the popular account. The general destruction of terrestrial life by elementary physical forces was accompanied in Mexican belief by myths of other great catastrophes wrought by earthquake, wind-storms, or fire, and a tale of the collapse of the vault of heaven itself.[4]These holocausts were traced to some defect in the sun. Other accounts relate that the gods Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and Xiuhtecutli each attempted therôleof the god of day without success. At length it became evident that a special god must be created for the express purpose of fulfilling the functions of the office, so the existing sun was brought into being. However the Mexican myths may vary according to the method by which the creation of the sun was achieved authorities agree on these points of Aztec belief. The luminary was an animal which was originally a man, but, by the action of fire, became transformed, and received the intense vitality necessary for the performance of his functions from the blood of the gods, voluntarily shed for that purpose. The gods met at Teotihuacan in order to make a sun. They kindled a mighty fire, and signified to the worshippers that whosoever should first leap into it should become the new sun personified. One of them sacrificed himself by doing so; and arose as the sun from the midst of thefire, but was unable to ascend into the sky for lack of strength. In order to give him the necessary motive force the gods resolved to sacrifice themselves in the usual Mexican manner, by having their hearts torn out. This was done by the god Xolotl, who had in this way created man, and now performed the act of sacrifice upon himself. The sun then ascended the sky.[5]According to another tradition, the creation of man was subsequent to that of the sun. Men were only created to be the food of the luminary, and were ordered to fight and slay one another so that the sun might be supplied with food. The Mayas of Yucatan increased the previous number of suns by one. Two solar epochs terminated by devastating plagues known as the 'sudden deaths.' So swift and mortal were the pests engendered by solar failure that vultures dwelt in the houses of the cities, and devoured the bodies of their former owners. The third epoch closed with a hurricane or inundation known ashun yecil,'the inundation of the trees,' as all the forests were swept away.

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