Chapter 23

"Come l'Araba Fenice;Che ci sia, ciascun lo dice;Dove sia, nessun lo sa."[325]Cfr.Afanassieff, v. 27.[326]Itin.i.[327]In the first chapter of the first book we saw how the witch sucked the breasts of the beautiful maiden.—InDu Cange, s. v.Amma, we read as follows: "Isidorus, lib. xii. cap. vii. bubo strix nocturna: 'Hæc avis, inquit ille, vulgo Amma dicitur ab amando parvulos, unde et lac præbere dicitur nascentibus.' Anilem hanc fabulam non habet Papias MS. Ecclesiæ Bituricensis. Sic enim ille: Amma avis nocturna ab amando dicta, hæc et strix dicitur a stridore."[328]Mâ mâm ime patatriṇî vi dugdhâm;Ṛigv.i. 158, 4.—In Sicily, the bat calledtaddaritais considered as a form of the demon; to take and kill it, one sings to it—"Taddarita, 'ncanna, 'ncanna,Lu dimonio ti 'ncannaE ti 'ncanna pri li peniTaddarita, veni, veni."When it is caught, it is conjured, because, when it shrieks, it blasphemes. Hence it is killed at the flame of a candle or at the fire, or else is crucified.[329]According to a Sicilian story, as yet unpublished, communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, a siren once carried off a girl, and bore her out to sea with her; and, though she occasionally allowed her to come to the shore, she secured her against running away by means of a chain which was fastened to her own tail. The brother released his sister by throwing bread and meat to the siren to satiate her hunger, employing seven blacksmiths the while to cut the chain.[330]Cfr. thePentamerone, iv. 7; and the legend of Lohengrin, in the chapter on the Swan.[331]Ǵaghâsa te visham;Ṛigv.i. 191, 11.[332]Communicated to me by Dr Ferraro.—A similar story is still told in Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Ireland, with the variation of the stork as the eagle's rival in flying: when the stork falls down tired out, the wren, which was hidden under one of its wings, comes forth to measure itself with the eagle, and not being tired, is victorious.—In a popular story of Hesse, the wren puts all the animals, guided by the bear, to flight by means of a stratagem.[333]Atyunnatiṁ prâpya naraḥ prâvâraḥ kîtako yatha sa vinaçyatyasaṁdeham; Böhtlingk,Indische Sprüche, 2te Aufl. Spr. 181.[334]The same superstition exists in some parts of England, where the children address it thus:—"Cow-lady, cow-lady, fly away home;Your house is all burnt, and your children are gone."The English names for this beetle are ladybird, ladycow, ladybug, and ladyfly (cfr. Webster's English Dictionary). The country-people also call it golden knop or knob (Cfr. TrenchOn the Study of Words).[335]"Boszia KaróvkaPaletí na niebo.Bog dat tibié hleba."[336]"La galiña d' San MichelBüta j ale e vola al ciel."[337]Sacred, no doubt, to St Lucia. In the Tyrol, according to theFestliche Jahrof Baron Reinsberg, St Lucia gives presents to girls, and St Nicholas to boys. The feast of St Lucia is celebrated on the 15th of September; that evening no one need stay up late, for whoever works that night finds all the work undone in the morning. The night of St Lucia is greatly feared (the saint loses her sight; the summer, the warm sunny season, comes to an end; the Madonna moon disappears, and then becomes queen of the sky, the guardian of light, as St Lucia), and conjurings are made against nightmare, devils, and witches. A cross is put into the bed that no witch may enter into it. That night, those who are under the influence of fate see, after eleven o'clock, upon the roofs of houses a light moving slowly and assuming different aspects; prognostications of good or evil are taken from this light, which is calledLuzieschein.[338]"Santu Nicola, Santu NicolaFacitimi asciari ossa e chiova."(St Nicholas, St Nicholas,Make me find bone and coin.)[339]Cfr. Menzel,Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre.[340]Cfr. Rochholtz,Deutscher Glaube und Brauch.[341]Kuhn und Schwartz,N. d. S. M. u. G., p. 377.[342]In another Tuscan variety, the song begins—"Lucciola, Lucciola, bassa, bassa,Ti darò una materassa," &c.(Firefly, firefly, down so low, I will give you a mattrass.)[343]Pliny, too, wrote in the eighteenth book of hisNatural History: "Lucentes vespere cicindelas signum esse maturitatis panici et milii." G. Telesius of the Cosentino wrote an elegant Latin poem upon the firefly or cicindela, in the seventeenth century.[344]"'Ntr' à to vucca latti e meli,'Ntr' à mè casa saluti e beni."[345]Madhu priyam bharatho yat saradbhyaḥ;Ṛigv.i. 112, 21.[346]Haṅsâso ye vâm madhumanto asridho hiraṇyaparṇâ uhuva ushar-budhaḥ udapruto mandino mandinispṛiço madhvo na makshaḥ savanâni gaćhathah;Ṛigv.iv. 45, 4. Heremakshas, in conjunction withmadhvas, gives us the sense ofmadhumakshasandmadhumakshika, which means bee, and not fly, as it was interpreted by other translators, and by the Petropolitan Dictionary, whose learned editors will be all the more induced to make this slight correction in the newVerbesserungen, as in this hymn, as well as in the hymn i. 112, the bees are considered in connection with the Açvinâu.[347]iii. 1333.[348]The god of thunder (or Indras), in opposition to the bees, is also found in a legend of the Ćerkessians quoted by Menzel. The god destroys them; but one of them hides under the shirt of the mother of God, and of this one all the other bees are born.—According to the popular superstition of Normandy, inDe Nore, quoted by Menzel, the bees (the same is said of the wasps and the horseflies) are revengeful when maltreated, and carry happiness into a house when treated well. In Russia it is considered sacrilege to kill a bee.[349]Cfr. Addison,Indian Reminiscences.[350]ii. 112.[351]Perì ton en Odüsseia tôn Nümphôn antron.[352]Die Bienen gebeten werden: "Biene, du Weltvöglein, flieg in die Weite, über neun Seen, über den Mond, über die Sonne, hinter des Himmelssterne, neben der Achse des Wagengestirns; flieg in den Keller des Schöpfers, in des Allmächtigen Vorrathskammer, bring Arznei mit deinen Flügeln, Honig in deinem Schnabel, für böse Eisenwunden und Feuerwunden;"Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre. In this work, to which I refer the reader, Menzel treats at length of the worship of bees, and of honey.[353]In the Engadine in Switzerland, too, it is believed that the souls of men emigrate from the world and return into it in the forms of bees. The bees are there considered messengers of death; cfr. Rochholtz,Deutscher Glaube und Brauch, i. 147, 148.—When some one dies, the bee is invoked as follows, almost as if requesting the soul of the departed to watch for ever over the living:—"Bienchen, unser Herr ist todt,Verlass mich nicht in meiner Noth."In Germany, people are unwilling to buy the bees of a dead man, it being believed that they will die or disappear immediately after him:—"Stirbt der Hausherr, so muss sein Tod nicht bloss dem Vieh im Stall und den Bienen im Stocke angesagt werden;" Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 601.—In the East, as is well-known, it was the custom to bury great men in a tomb sprinkled over with honey or beeswax as a symbol of immortality.[354]Der Adel der Bienen ist vom Paradies entsprossen und wegen der Sünde des Menschen kamen sie von da heraus und Gott schenkte ihnen seinen Segen, und deshalb ist die Messe nicht zu singen ohne Wachs; Leo,Malberg. Glossæ, 1842.[355]Baluz. Capitulor.tom. ii. p. 663, in oratione ad revocandum examen apum dispersum ex Cod. MS. S. Gallï.[356]InDu Cange: "Apis significat formam virginitatis, sive sapientiam, in malo, invasorem."—Papias M. S. Bitur; ex illo forsitan officii Ecclesiast. in festo S. Ceciliæ: "Cecilia famula tua, Domine, quasi Apis tibi argumentosa deservit," &c.[357]Cfr. the chapters on the Hare, the Lion, and the Elephant. The louse and the flea have the same mythical nature as the mosquito and the fly.—In the ninth Esthonian story, the son of the thunder, by means of a louse, obliges the thunder-god to scratch his head for a moment, and thus to let fall the weapon of thunder, which is instantly carried off to hell. The lice that fall down from the head of the witch combed by the good maiden, or from that of the Madonna combed by the wicked maiden, have already been mentioned. The Madonna that combs the child is, moreover, a subject of traditional Christian painting.—In the fifth story of the first book of thePentamerone, we read of a monstrous louse. The king of Altamonte fattens a louse so much that it grows to the size of a wether. He then has it flayed, orders the skin to be dirtied, and promises to give his daughter to wife to whoever guesses what skin this is. The ogre alone guesses, and carries the maiden off, whom seven heroes afterwards go to deliver towards the aurora "subito che l'Aucielle (the birds) gridaro: Viva lo Sole."[358]"Quando la cicala il c. batteL'ha del m. chi non si fa la parte."[359]Peri Zôôn idiotêtos, xxiv., with the additions of Joachim Camerarius.[360]Plutarch, in theLife of Sylla, cites among the prognostics of the civil war between Marius and Sylla, the incident of a sparrow lacerating a cicada, of which it left part in the temple of Bellona, and carried part away.[361]Ṛigv.vii. 104, 22.[362]Kanikradaǵ ǵanusham prabruvâṇa iyarti vâćam ariteva nâvam sumañgalaç ća çakune bhavâsi mâ tvâ kâ ćid abhibhâ viçvyâvidat. Ma tvâ çyena ud vadhîn ma suparṇo mâ tvâ vidad ishumân vîro astâ; pitryâmanu pradiçaṁ kanikradat sumañgalo bhadrâvâdî vadeha. Ava kranda dakshiṇato gṛihâṇâm sumañgalo bhadravâdî çakunte;Ṛigv.ii. 42.[363]St Anthony of Padua said of the partridge: "Avis est dolosa et immunda et hypocritas habentes, ut dicit Petrus, oculos plenos adulterii et incessabilis delicti signa."—Partridge's foot (perdikos pous) meant, in the Greek proverb, a deceitful foot.[364]Indische Studien, i. 117, 118.[365]Stutiṁ tu punar evéćhanam indro bhûtvâ kapińǵalaḥRisher ǵigamishor âçâm vavâçe prati dakshiṇâmSa tam ârsheṇa saṁprekshya ćakshushâ pakshirûpiṇamParâbhyâm api tushṭâva sûktâbhyâṁ tu kanikradat.[366]i. 66.[367]ii. 79.[368]Cfr. the chapter on the Woodpecker. A whoop, kept by me for some time with its young ones, had been taken with its nest from the trunk of a tree which had been cut down, and which it had scooped out in its higher part in order to build its nest in the lowest and deepest part of the trunk.[369]I, for instance, kept for some time a young cuckoo which had been found in the nest of a little granivorous singing bird, which is very common in Tuscany, and is called scoperina or scopina.[370]Villemarqué,Barzaz Breiz, sixième éd. p. 493.[371]The old English popular song celebrates it as the bringer of summer—"Sumer is icumen in, lhude sing cuccu."The old Anglo-Saxon song of St Guthlak makes the cuckoo the announcer of the year (geacas gear budon). The ancient song of May in Germany welcomes it with the words—"The cuckoo with its song makes every one gay."The popular Scotch song caresses it thus—"The cuckoo's a fine bird, he sings as he flies;He brings us good tidings, he tells us no lies.He sucks little bird's eggs to make his voice clear,And when he sings 'cuckoo,' the summer is near."In Shakspeare (Love's Labour Lost, v. 2), the owl represents winter, and the cuckoo spring—"This side is Hiems, winter, this Ver, the spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo."In a mediæval Latin eclogue recorded in the third volume of Uhland'sSchriften(Abhandlung über die deutschen Volkslieder), the death of the cuckoo is wept over—"Heu cuculus nobis fuerat cantare suetus,Quæ te nunc rapuit hora nefanda tuis?Omne genus hominum Cuculum complangat ubique!Perditus est cuculus, heu perit ecce meus.Non pereat Cuculus, veniet sub tempore verisEt nobis veniens carmina læta ciet.Quis scit, si veniat? timeo est submersus in undis,Vorticibus raptus atque necatus aquis."A popular German song shows us the cuckoo first wet, and then dried by the sun—"Der Kuckuck auf dem Zaune sass,Kuckuck, kuckuck!Es regnet sehr und ward nass.Darnach da kam der Sonnenschein,Kuckuck, kuckuck!Der kuckuck der ward hübsch und fein."—Cfr. also the "Entstehung des Kukuks" in Hahn'sAlbanesische Märchen, ii. 144, 316.[372]s. v. cucullus.[373]Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock.[374]Cfr. Uhland'sSchriften, iii. 25.[375]Cfr.Afanassieff, i. 12.[376]Villemarqué,Barzaz Breiz, sixième éd. p. 392.[377]"Quand il le tint, se mit à rire de tout son cœur. E il l'étouffa, et le jeta dans le blanc giron de la pauvre dame. Tenez, tenez, ma jeune épouse, voici votre joli rossignol; c'est pour vous que je l'ai attrapé; je suppose, ma belle, qu'il vous fera plaisir;" Villemarqué,Barzaz Breiz, p. 154.[378]iii. 5.[379]Dixon,Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England; cfr. also on the traditions relating to the cuckoo and the nightingale in Russia, Ralston,The Songs of the Russian People.[380]Currum Deæ prosequentes, gannitu constrepenti lasciviunt Passeres;De Asino Aureo, vi.[381]A woman of Antignano, near Leghorn, once told me the story of a beautiful princess who stayed upon a tree till her husband returned, who had gone in quest of robes for her. Whilst she is waiting, up comes a negress to wash clothes, and sees in the water the reflection of the beautiful princess. She induces her to come down by offering to comb her hair for her, and puts a pin into her head, so that she becomes a swallow. The negress then takes the maiden's place by her husband. The swallow, however, finds means of letting herself be caught by her husband, who, stroking her head, finds the pin, and draws it out; then the swallow becomes again a beautiful princess. The same story is narrated more at length in Piedmont, in other parts of Tuscany, in Calabria, and in other places; but instead of the swallow we have the dove, as in theTuti-Name.[382]Pra yâ ǵigâti khargaleva naktam apa druhâ tanvaṁ gûhamânâ;Ṛigv.vii. 104, 17.[383]Yad ulûko vadati mogham etad yat kapotaḥ padam agnâu kṛiṇoti, yasya dûtaḥ prahita esha etat tasmâi yamâya namo astu mṛityave;Ṛigv.i. 165, 4.[384]iii. 73.[385]iii. 15, 128, andHitopadeças, iv. 47.[386]iii. 308, x. 38.[387]vi. 64.[388]In the articles against Bernard Saget in the year 1300, recorded by Du Cange, I read—"Aves elegerunt Regem quemdam avem vocatam Duc, et est avis pulchrior et major inter omnes aves, et accidit semel quod Pica conquesta fuerat de Accipitre dicto Domino Regi, et congregatis avibus, dictus Rex nihil dixit nisi quod flavit (flevit?). Vel (veluti) idem de rege nostro dicebat ipse Episcopus, qui ipse est pulchrior homo de mundo, et tamen nihil scit facere, nisi respicere homines."[389]Among the Tartars, according to Aldrovandi, the feathers of the male owl are worn as an amulet, probably to conjure the owl himself away, in the same way as, in the Vedic hymns, Death is invoked in order that it may remain far off. In theKhorda Avesta(p. 147), translated by Spiegel, the hero Verethraghna derives his strength from the owl's feathers.—We are acquainted with the funereal moon in the form of Proserpine; the Hindoos considered Manus in relation with the moon, with which, moreover, it was also identified. Manus, as the first and the father of men, is also the first of the dead. Manus gives the somas to Indras. The dying sun is exchanged in the funereal kingdom for the moon; but of the moon's kingdom the souls come down, and to the moon's kingdom they return. With Manus the wordMenervais joined, a Latin form, as a goddess, of the Greek Athênê. The owl, the symbol of Minerva, may be equivalent to Manus as the moon. The intimate connection which exists in myths and legends between the maiden aurora and the maiden moon is well-known; they reciprocally do services to each other. Athênê may very well have represented equally the two wise maidens—the moon, who sees everything in the dark night; the aurora, who, coming out of the gloomy night, illumines everything. The head of Zeus, out of which Athênê comes, appears to be a form of the eastern sky.[390]"Selbst in sternloser Nacht ist keine Verborgenheit, es lauert eine grämliche Alte, die Eule; sie sitzt in ihrem finstern Kämmerlein, spinnt mit silbernen Spindelchen und sieht übel dazu, was in der Dunkelheit vorgeht. Der Holzschnitt des alten Flugblattes zeigt die Eule auf einem Stühlchen am Spinnrocken sitzend."[391]"Wenn durch die dünne Luft ein schwarzer Rabe fleuchtUnd krähet sein Geschrei, und wenn des Eulen FraueIhr Wiggen-gwige heult: sind Losungen sehr rauhe."—Rochholtz, the work quoted before, i. p. 155.[392]i. 175.[393]ii. 5.[394]i. 1152.[395]ii. 105, v. 3.[396]Ib.[397]ii. 105; cfr. alsoDu Cange, s. v.corbitor.—In the German legend of the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, the emperor, buried under a mountain, wakens and asks, "Are the crows still flying round the mountain?" he is answered that they are still flying. The emperor sighs and lies down again, concluding that the hour of his resurrection has not yet arrived.[398]In theOrnithologiaof Aldrovandi. The messenger crow is of frequent occurrence in legends.[399]In Plutarch, two crows guide Alexander the Great, when he goes to consult the oracle of Zeus Ammôn.[400]Hence the name of Avis S. Martini also given to the crow, because it often comes about St Martin's day. In Du Cange and in theRoman du Renardwe also find indicated the auspices to be taken from the crow's flight; for the same custom in Germany, cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 546.[401]Horace,Carm.iii. 27.—InAfanassief, again (iv. 36), the rook is asked where it has flown to. It answers, "Into the meadows to write letters and sigh after the maiden;" and the maiden is advised to hurry towards the water. The maiden declares that she fears the crab. In this maiden, that is afraid of the crab, I think I can recognise the zodiacal sign of Virgo (attracted by the crab of the summer),—the virgin who approaches the water, the autumn and the autumnal rains; the virgin loved by the crow, who is the friend of the rains.[402]Horace,Carm.iii. 27.[403]Sâkaṁ yakshma pra pata ćâsheṇa kīkidîvinâ;Ṛigv.x. 97, 13.[404]Saróvka, saróvka,Kasha varllaNa parók skakála,Gastiei saszivála.[405]The magpie is proverbial as a babbler; hence, from its Italian namegazza, the namegazzettagiven to newspapers, as divulging secrets.—In theDialogus Creaturarum, dial. 80, it is written of the magpie, calledAgazia: "Pica est avis callidissima.... Hæc apud quemdam venatorem et humane et latine loquebatur, propter quod venator ipsam plenaria fulciebat. Pica autem non immemor beneficii, volens remunerare eum, volavit ad Agazias, et cum eis familiariter sedebat et humane sermocinabatur. Agaziæ quoque in hoc plurimum lætabantur cupientes et ipsæ garrire humaneque loqui."[406]Hence the request made in the popular song to the stork, to bring a little sister; cfr. the songs of the stork in Kuhn and Schwarz,N. S. M. u. G.p. 452. As the bringer of children, the stork is represented as the serpent's enemy; cfr.Tzetza, i. 945.[407]Cfr.Phile, vi. 2; and Aristophanes in theOrnithes—"Deî tous neotous t' patéra palin trephein."[408]"Lacte quis infantes nescit crevisse ferino?Et picum expositis sæpe tulisse cibos?"—Ovid,Fasti, iii.[409]Comparepińǵûlaswithpińǵalasandpińǵaras.—In the hymn, x. 28, 9, of theṚigvedas, we also have the mountain cleft from afar by a clod of earth: Adriṁ logena vy abhedam ârât. This analogy is so much the more remarkable, as in the same hymn, 4th strophe, the wild boar is also spoken of.[410]The same virtue of opening the mountain by means of an herb I find attributed to the little martin, in connection with Venus, in Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 415: "Schon in einem Gedichte Meister Altschwerts, ed. Holland, s. 70, wird der Zugang zu dem Berge durch ein Kraut gefunden, das der Springwurzel oder blauen Schlüsselblume unserer Ortssagen gleicht. Kaum hat es der Dichter gebrochen, so kommt ein Martinsvögelchen geflogen, das guter Vorbedeutung zu sein pflegt; diesem folgt er und begegnet einem Zwerge, der ihn in den Berg zu Frau Venus führt."[411]Carm.iii. 27.[412]"Thou shalt not lackThe flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; norThe azured hare-bell, like thy veins; no, norThe leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,Out-sweetened not thy breath; the ruddock would,With charitable bill (O bill, sore-shamingThose rich-left heirs, that let their fathers lieWithout a monument!), bring thee all this."—iv. 2.[413]Cfr. what is said on the whoop, the stork, and the lark.—Concerning the birdgaulus, I find in Du Cange as follows: "Gaulus Merops avis apibus infensa, unde et Apiastra vocitatur. Papias: 'Meropes, Genus avium, idem et Gauli, qui parentes suos recondere, et alere dicuntur, sunt autem virides et vocantur Apiastræ.'"[414]Tâittiriya Yaǵurv.vii. 1, 4.[415]Hence Gregory of Tours relates, inDu Cange: "In Ecclesia Arverna, dum matutinæ celebrarentur Vigiliæ, in quadam civitate avis Corydalus, quam Alaudam vocamus, ingressa est."[416]Vartikâṁ grasitâm amuńćatam;Ṛigv.i. 112, 8.—Amuńćataṁ vartikâm aṅhasaḥ; i. 118, 8.—Âsno vṛikasya vartikâm abhîke yuvaṁ narâ nâsatyâmumuktam; i. 116, 14.—Vṛikasya ćid vartikâm antar âsyâd yuvaṁ çaçîbhir grasitâm amuńćatam; x. 39, 13.[417]The same fable is also related in a different way: Jove cohabits with Latona, and subsequently forces her sister, Asterien, who is, in pity, changed by the gods into a quail. Jove becomes an eagle to catch her; the gods change the quail into a stone—(cfr. the stories of Indras as a cuckoo and Rambhâ, of Indras as a cock and Ahalyâ. It is a popular superstition that quails, like the crane, when they travel, let little stones fall in order to recognise on their return the places by which they passed the first time)—which lies for a long time under water, till by the prayer of Latona it is taken out.[418]Ælianos says that the cock is in the moon's favour, either because it assisted Latona in parturition, or because it is generally believed (as a symbol of fecundation) to be the facilitator of childbirth. As a watchful animal it was natural to consider it especially dear to the moon, the nocturnal watcher.—The cock, as an announcer of news, was sacred to Mercury; as the curer of many diseases, to Æsculapius; as a warrior, to Mars, Hercules, and Pallas, who, according to Pausanias, wore a hen upon her helmet; as an increaser of the family, to the Lares, &c. Even Roman Catholic priests will deign to receive with especial favour, ad majorem Dei gloriam, the homage of cocks, capons, and chickens.[419]This year, my quails cried out six times; and the corn in Italy is very dear, the spring having been a very rainy one.[420]iii. 12,437.[421]i. 49.[422]Mâ no vadhîr indra mâ parâ dâ mâ naḥ priyâ bhoǵanâni pra moshîḥ âṇḍâ mâ no maghavań ćhakra nir bhen mâ naḥ pâtrâ bhet sahaǵânushâṇi;Ṛigv.i. 104, 8.[423]Der Vogel der den Namen Parodars führt, o heiliger Zarathustra, den die übelredenden Menschen mit den Namen Kahrkatâç belegen, dieser Vogel erhebt seine Stimme bei jeder göttlichen Morgenröthe: Stehet auf, ihr Menschen, preiset die beste Reinheit, vertreibet die Dâeva;Vendidad, xviii. 34-38, Spiegel's version.—The cock Parodars chases away with his cry especially the demon Bûshyaṅçta, who oppresses men with sleep, and he returns again in a fragment of theKhorda-Avesta(xxxix.): "'Da, vor dem Kommen der Morgenröthe, spricht dieser Vogel Parodars, der Vogel der mit Messern verwundet, Worte gegen das Feuers aus. Bei seinem Sprechen läuft Bushyaṅçta mit langen Händen herzu von der nördlichen Gegend, von den nördlichen Gegenden, also sprechen, also sagend: "Schlafet o Menschen, schlafet, sündlich Lebende, schlafet, die ihr ein sündiges Leben führt." As in the song of Prudentius, the idea of sleep and that of sin are associated together; the song of Prudentius suggests the idea that it was written by some one who was initiated in the solar mysteries of the worship of Mithras.[424]Cfr. Du Cange,s. v.—And the same Du Cange, in the articlegallina, quotes an old mediæval glossary in whichgallinais said to mean Christ, wisdom, and soul.—The cock of the Gospel announces, reveals, betrays Christ three times, in the three watches of the night, to which sometimes correspond the three sons of the legends.[425]According to a legend of St James, an old father and mother go with their young son on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in Spain. On the way, in an inn at San Domingo de la Calzada, the innkeeper's daughter offers her favours to the young man, who rejects them; the girl avenges herself upon him by putting a silver plate in his sack, for which he is arrested and impaled as a thief. The old parents continue their journey to Santiago; St James has pity upon them, and works a miracle which is only known to be his afterwards. The old couple return to their country, passing by San Domingo; here they find their son alive, whom they had seen impaled, for which they there and then offer solemn thanks to St James. All are astonished. The prefect of the place is at dinner when the news is brought to him; he refuses to believe it, and says that the young man is no more alive than the roasted fowl which is being set upon the table; no sooner has he uttered the words, than the cock begins to crow, resumes its feathers, jumps out of the plate and flies away. The innkeeper's daughter is condemned; and in honour of the miracle, the cock is revered as a sacred animal, and at San Domingo the houses are ornamented with cock's feathers. A similar wonder is said, by Sigonio, to have taken place in the eleventh century in the Bolognese; but instead of St James, Christ and St Peter appear to perform miracles.—Cfr. also the relationship of St Elias (and of the Russian hero Ilya) feasted on the 21st of July, when the sun enters the sign of the lion, with Helios, the hellenic sun.[426]

"Come l'Araba Fenice;Che ci sia, ciascun lo dice;Dove sia, nessun lo sa."

[325]Cfr.Afanassieff, v. 27.

[326]Itin.i.

[327]In the first chapter of the first book we saw how the witch sucked the breasts of the beautiful maiden.—InDu Cange, s. v.Amma, we read as follows: "Isidorus, lib. xii. cap. vii. bubo strix nocturna: 'Hæc avis, inquit ille, vulgo Amma dicitur ab amando parvulos, unde et lac præbere dicitur nascentibus.' Anilem hanc fabulam non habet Papias MS. Ecclesiæ Bituricensis. Sic enim ille: Amma avis nocturna ab amando dicta, hæc et strix dicitur a stridore."

[328]Mâ mâm ime patatriṇî vi dugdhâm;Ṛigv.i. 158, 4.—In Sicily, the bat calledtaddaritais considered as a form of the demon; to take and kill it, one sings to it—

"Taddarita, 'ncanna, 'ncanna,Lu dimonio ti 'ncannaE ti 'ncanna pri li peniTaddarita, veni, veni."

When it is caught, it is conjured, because, when it shrieks, it blasphemes. Hence it is killed at the flame of a candle or at the fire, or else is crucified.

[329]According to a Sicilian story, as yet unpublished, communicated to me by Dr Ferraro, a siren once carried off a girl, and bore her out to sea with her; and, though she occasionally allowed her to come to the shore, she secured her against running away by means of a chain which was fastened to her own tail. The brother released his sister by throwing bread and meat to the siren to satiate her hunger, employing seven blacksmiths the while to cut the chain.

[330]Cfr. thePentamerone, iv. 7; and the legend of Lohengrin, in the chapter on the Swan.

[331]Ǵaghâsa te visham;Ṛigv.i. 191, 11.

[332]Communicated to me by Dr Ferraro.—A similar story is still told in Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Ireland, with the variation of the stork as the eagle's rival in flying: when the stork falls down tired out, the wren, which was hidden under one of its wings, comes forth to measure itself with the eagle, and not being tired, is victorious.—In a popular story of Hesse, the wren puts all the animals, guided by the bear, to flight by means of a stratagem.

[333]Atyunnatiṁ prâpya naraḥ prâvâraḥ kîtako yatha sa vinaçyatyasaṁdeham; Böhtlingk,Indische Sprüche, 2te Aufl. Spr. 181.

[334]The same superstition exists in some parts of England, where the children address it thus:—

"Cow-lady, cow-lady, fly away home;Your house is all burnt, and your children are gone."

The English names for this beetle are ladybird, ladycow, ladybug, and ladyfly (cfr. Webster's English Dictionary). The country-people also call it golden knop or knob (Cfr. TrenchOn the Study of Words).

[335]

"Boszia KaróvkaPaletí na niebo.Bog dat tibié hleba."

[336]

"La galiña d' San MichelBüta j ale e vola al ciel."

[337]Sacred, no doubt, to St Lucia. In the Tyrol, according to theFestliche Jahrof Baron Reinsberg, St Lucia gives presents to girls, and St Nicholas to boys. The feast of St Lucia is celebrated on the 15th of September; that evening no one need stay up late, for whoever works that night finds all the work undone in the morning. The night of St Lucia is greatly feared (the saint loses her sight; the summer, the warm sunny season, comes to an end; the Madonna moon disappears, and then becomes queen of the sky, the guardian of light, as St Lucia), and conjurings are made against nightmare, devils, and witches. A cross is put into the bed that no witch may enter into it. That night, those who are under the influence of fate see, after eleven o'clock, upon the roofs of houses a light moving slowly and assuming different aspects; prognostications of good or evil are taken from this light, which is calledLuzieschein.

[338]

"Santu Nicola, Santu NicolaFacitimi asciari ossa e chiova."(St Nicholas, St Nicholas,Make me find bone and coin.)

[339]Cfr. Menzel,Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre.

[340]Cfr. Rochholtz,Deutscher Glaube und Brauch.

[341]Kuhn und Schwartz,N. d. S. M. u. G., p. 377.

[342]In another Tuscan variety, the song begins—

"Lucciola, Lucciola, bassa, bassa,Ti darò una materassa," &c.

(Firefly, firefly, down so low, I will give you a mattrass.)

[343]Pliny, too, wrote in the eighteenth book of hisNatural History: "Lucentes vespere cicindelas signum esse maturitatis panici et milii." G. Telesius of the Cosentino wrote an elegant Latin poem upon the firefly or cicindela, in the seventeenth century.

[344]

"'Ntr' à to vucca latti e meli,'Ntr' à mè casa saluti e beni."

[345]Madhu priyam bharatho yat saradbhyaḥ;Ṛigv.i. 112, 21.

[346]Haṅsâso ye vâm madhumanto asridho hiraṇyaparṇâ uhuva ushar-budhaḥ udapruto mandino mandinispṛiço madhvo na makshaḥ savanâni gaćhathah;Ṛigv.iv. 45, 4. Heremakshas, in conjunction withmadhvas, gives us the sense ofmadhumakshasandmadhumakshika, which means bee, and not fly, as it was interpreted by other translators, and by the Petropolitan Dictionary, whose learned editors will be all the more induced to make this slight correction in the newVerbesserungen, as in this hymn, as well as in the hymn i. 112, the bees are considered in connection with the Açvinâu.

[347]iii. 1333.

[348]The god of thunder (or Indras), in opposition to the bees, is also found in a legend of the Ćerkessians quoted by Menzel. The god destroys them; but one of them hides under the shirt of the mother of God, and of this one all the other bees are born.—According to the popular superstition of Normandy, inDe Nore, quoted by Menzel, the bees (the same is said of the wasps and the horseflies) are revengeful when maltreated, and carry happiness into a house when treated well. In Russia it is considered sacrilege to kill a bee.

[349]Cfr. Addison,Indian Reminiscences.

[350]ii. 112.

[351]Perì ton en Odüsseia tôn Nümphôn antron.

[352]Die Bienen gebeten werden: "Biene, du Weltvöglein, flieg in die Weite, über neun Seen, über den Mond, über die Sonne, hinter des Himmelssterne, neben der Achse des Wagengestirns; flieg in den Keller des Schöpfers, in des Allmächtigen Vorrathskammer, bring Arznei mit deinen Flügeln, Honig in deinem Schnabel, für böse Eisenwunden und Feuerwunden;"Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre. In this work, to which I refer the reader, Menzel treats at length of the worship of bees, and of honey.

[353]In the Engadine in Switzerland, too, it is believed that the souls of men emigrate from the world and return into it in the forms of bees. The bees are there considered messengers of death; cfr. Rochholtz,Deutscher Glaube und Brauch, i. 147, 148.—When some one dies, the bee is invoked as follows, almost as if requesting the soul of the departed to watch for ever over the living:—

"Bienchen, unser Herr ist todt,Verlass mich nicht in meiner Noth."

In Germany, people are unwilling to buy the bees of a dead man, it being believed that they will die or disappear immediately after him:—"Stirbt der Hausherr, so muss sein Tod nicht bloss dem Vieh im Stall und den Bienen im Stocke angesagt werden;" Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 601.—In the East, as is well-known, it was the custom to bury great men in a tomb sprinkled over with honey or beeswax as a symbol of immortality.

[354]Der Adel der Bienen ist vom Paradies entsprossen und wegen der Sünde des Menschen kamen sie von da heraus und Gott schenkte ihnen seinen Segen, und deshalb ist die Messe nicht zu singen ohne Wachs; Leo,Malberg. Glossæ, 1842.

[355]Baluz. Capitulor.tom. ii. p. 663, in oratione ad revocandum examen apum dispersum ex Cod. MS. S. Gallï.

[356]InDu Cange: "Apis significat formam virginitatis, sive sapientiam, in malo, invasorem."—Papias M. S. Bitur; ex illo forsitan officii Ecclesiast. in festo S. Ceciliæ: "Cecilia famula tua, Domine, quasi Apis tibi argumentosa deservit," &c.

[357]Cfr. the chapters on the Hare, the Lion, and the Elephant. The louse and the flea have the same mythical nature as the mosquito and the fly.—In the ninth Esthonian story, the son of the thunder, by means of a louse, obliges the thunder-god to scratch his head for a moment, and thus to let fall the weapon of thunder, which is instantly carried off to hell. The lice that fall down from the head of the witch combed by the good maiden, or from that of the Madonna combed by the wicked maiden, have already been mentioned. The Madonna that combs the child is, moreover, a subject of traditional Christian painting.—In the fifth story of the first book of thePentamerone, we read of a monstrous louse. The king of Altamonte fattens a louse so much that it grows to the size of a wether. He then has it flayed, orders the skin to be dirtied, and promises to give his daughter to wife to whoever guesses what skin this is. The ogre alone guesses, and carries the maiden off, whom seven heroes afterwards go to deliver towards the aurora "subito che l'Aucielle (the birds) gridaro: Viva lo Sole."

[358]

"Quando la cicala il c. batteL'ha del m. chi non si fa la parte."

[359]Peri Zôôn idiotêtos, xxiv., with the additions of Joachim Camerarius.

[360]Plutarch, in theLife of Sylla, cites among the prognostics of the civil war between Marius and Sylla, the incident of a sparrow lacerating a cicada, of which it left part in the temple of Bellona, and carried part away.

[361]Ṛigv.vii. 104, 22.

[362]Kanikradaǵ ǵanusham prabruvâṇa iyarti vâćam ariteva nâvam sumañgalaç ća çakune bhavâsi mâ tvâ kâ ćid abhibhâ viçvyâvidat. Ma tvâ çyena ud vadhîn ma suparṇo mâ tvâ vidad ishumân vîro astâ; pitryâmanu pradiçaṁ kanikradat sumañgalo bhadrâvâdî vadeha. Ava kranda dakshiṇato gṛihâṇâm sumañgalo bhadravâdî çakunte;Ṛigv.ii. 42.

[363]St Anthony of Padua said of the partridge: "Avis est dolosa et immunda et hypocritas habentes, ut dicit Petrus, oculos plenos adulterii et incessabilis delicti signa."—Partridge's foot (perdikos pous) meant, in the Greek proverb, a deceitful foot.

[364]Indische Studien, i. 117, 118.

[365]

Stutiṁ tu punar evéćhanam indro bhûtvâ kapińǵalaḥRisher ǵigamishor âçâm vavâçe prati dakshiṇâmSa tam ârsheṇa saṁprekshya ćakshushâ pakshirûpiṇamParâbhyâm api tushṭâva sûktâbhyâṁ tu kanikradat.

[366]i. 66.

[367]ii. 79.

[368]Cfr. the chapter on the Woodpecker. A whoop, kept by me for some time with its young ones, had been taken with its nest from the trunk of a tree which had been cut down, and which it had scooped out in its higher part in order to build its nest in the lowest and deepest part of the trunk.

[369]I, for instance, kept for some time a young cuckoo which had been found in the nest of a little granivorous singing bird, which is very common in Tuscany, and is called scoperina or scopina.

[370]Villemarqué,Barzaz Breiz, sixième éd. p. 493.

[371]The old English popular song celebrates it as the bringer of summer—

"Sumer is icumen in, lhude sing cuccu."

The old Anglo-Saxon song of St Guthlak makes the cuckoo the announcer of the year (geacas gear budon). The ancient song of May in Germany welcomes it with the words—

"The cuckoo with its song makes every one gay."

The popular Scotch song caresses it thus—

"The cuckoo's a fine bird, he sings as he flies;He brings us good tidings, he tells us no lies.He sucks little bird's eggs to make his voice clear,And when he sings 'cuckoo,' the summer is near."

In Shakspeare (Love's Labour Lost, v. 2), the owl represents winter, and the cuckoo spring—"This side is Hiems, winter, this Ver, the spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo."

In a mediæval Latin eclogue recorded in the third volume of Uhland'sSchriften(Abhandlung über die deutschen Volkslieder), the death of the cuckoo is wept over—

"Heu cuculus nobis fuerat cantare suetus,Quæ te nunc rapuit hora nefanda tuis?Omne genus hominum Cuculum complangat ubique!Perditus est cuculus, heu perit ecce meus.Non pereat Cuculus, veniet sub tempore verisEt nobis veniens carmina læta ciet.Quis scit, si veniat? timeo est submersus in undis,Vorticibus raptus atque necatus aquis."

"Heu cuculus nobis fuerat cantare suetus,Quæ te nunc rapuit hora nefanda tuis?Omne genus hominum Cuculum complangat ubique!Perditus est cuculus, heu perit ecce meus.

Non pereat Cuculus, veniet sub tempore verisEt nobis veniens carmina læta ciet.Quis scit, si veniat? timeo est submersus in undis,Vorticibus raptus atque necatus aquis."

A popular German song shows us the cuckoo first wet, and then dried by the sun—

"Der Kuckuck auf dem Zaune sass,Kuckuck, kuckuck!Es regnet sehr und ward nass.Darnach da kam der Sonnenschein,Kuckuck, kuckuck!Der kuckuck der ward hübsch und fein."

—Cfr. also the "Entstehung des Kukuks" in Hahn'sAlbanesische Märchen, ii. 144, 316.

[372]s. v. cucullus.

[373]Cfr. the chapter on the Peacock.

[374]Cfr. Uhland'sSchriften, iii. 25.

[375]Cfr.Afanassieff, i. 12.

[376]Villemarqué,Barzaz Breiz, sixième éd. p. 392.

[377]"Quand il le tint, se mit à rire de tout son cœur. E il l'étouffa, et le jeta dans le blanc giron de la pauvre dame. Tenez, tenez, ma jeune épouse, voici votre joli rossignol; c'est pour vous que je l'ai attrapé; je suppose, ma belle, qu'il vous fera plaisir;" Villemarqué,Barzaz Breiz, p. 154.

[378]iii. 5.

[379]Dixon,Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England; cfr. also on the traditions relating to the cuckoo and the nightingale in Russia, Ralston,The Songs of the Russian People.

[380]Currum Deæ prosequentes, gannitu constrepenti lasciviunt Passeres;De Asino Aureo, vi.

[381]A woman of Antignano, near Leghorn, once told me the story of a beautiful princess who stayed upon a tree till her husband returned, who had gone in quest of robes for her. Whilst she is waiting, up comes a negress to wash clothes, and sees in the water the reflection of the beautiful princess. She induces her to come down by offering to comb her hair for her, and puts a pin into her head, so that she becomes a swallow. The negress then takes the maiden's place by her husband. The swallow, however, finds means of letting herself be caught by her husband, who, stroking her head, finds the pin, and draws it out; then the swallow becomes again a beautiful princess. The same story is narrated more at length in Piedmont, in other parts of Tuscany, in Calabria, and in other places; but instead of the swallow we have the dove, as in theTuti-Name.

[382]Pra yâ ǵigâti khargaleva naktam apa druhâ tanvaṁ gûhamânâ;Ṛigv.vii. 104, 17.

[383]Yad ulûko vadati mogham etad yat kapotaḥ padam agnâu kṛiṇoti, yasya dûtaḥ prahita esha etat tasmâi yamâya namo astu mṛityave;Ṛigv.i. 165, 4.

[384]iii. 73.

[385]iii. 15, 128, andHitopadeças, iv. 47.

[386]iii. 308, x. 38.

[387]vi. 64.

[388]In the articles against Bernard Saget in the year 1300, recorded by Du Cange, I read—"Aves elegerunt Regem quemdam avem vocatam Duc, et est avis pulchrior et major inter omnes aves, et accidit semel quod Pica conquesta fuerat de Accipitre dicto Domino Regi, et congregatis avibus, dictus Rex nihil dixit nisi quod flavit (flevit?). Vel (veluti) idem de rege nostro dicebat ipse Episcopus, qui ipse est pulchrior homo de mundo, et tamen nihil scit facere, nisi respicere homines."

[389]Among the Tartars, according to Aldrovandi, the feathers of the male owl are worn as an amulet, probably to conjure the owl himself away, in the same way as, in the Vedic hymns, Death is invoked in order that it may remain far off. In theKhorda Avesta(p. 147), translated by Spiegel, the hero Verethraghna derives his strength from the owl's feathers.—We are acquainted with the funereal moon in the form of Proserpine; the Hindoos considered Manus in relation with the moon, with which, moreover, it was also identified. Manus, as the first and the father of men, is also the first of the dead. Manus gives the somas to Indras. The dying sun is exchanged in the funereal kingdom for the moon; but of the moon's kingdom the souls come down, and to the moon's kingdom they return. With Manus the wordMenervais joined, a Latin form, as a goddess, of the Greek Athênê. The owl, the symbol of Minerva, may be equivalent to Manus as the moon. The intimate connection which exists in myths and legends between the maiden aurora and the maiden moon is well-known; they reciprocally do services to each other. Athênê may very well have represented equally the two wise maidens—the moon, who sees everything in the dark night; the aurora, who, coming out of the gloomy night, illumines everything. The head of Zeus, out of which Athênê comes, appears to be a form of the eastern sky.

[390]"Selbst in sternloser Nacht ist keine Verborgenheit, es lauert eine grämliche Alte, die Eule; sie sitzt in ihrem finstern Kämmerlein, spinnt mit silbernen Spindelchen und sieht übel dazu, was in der Dunkelheit vorgeht. Der Holzschnitt des alten Flugblattes zeigt die Eule auf einem Stühlchen am Spinnrocken sitzend."

[391]

"Wenn durch die dünne Luft ein schwarzer Rabe fleuchtUnd krähet sein Geschrei, und wenn des Eulen FraueIhr Wiggen-gwige heult: sind Losungen sehr rauhe."—Rochholtz, the work quoted before, i. p. 155.

[392]i. 175.

[393]ii. 5.

[394]i. 1152.

[395]ii. 105, v. 3.

[396]Ib.

[397]ii. 105; cfr. alsoDu Cange, s. v.corbitor.—In the German legend of the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, the emperor, buried under a mountain, wakens and asks, "Are the crows still flying round the mountain?" he is answered that they are still flying. The emperor sighs and lies down again, concluding that the hour of his resurrection has not yet arrived.

[398]In theOrnithologiaof Aldrovandi. The messenger crow is of frequent occurrence in legends.

[399]In Plutarch, two crows guide Alexander the Great, when he goes to consult the oracle of Zeus Ammôn.

[400]Hence the name of Avis S. Martini also given to the crow, because it often comes about St Martin's day. In Du Cange and in theRoman du Renardwe also find indicated the auspices to be taken from the crow's flight; for the same custom in Germany, cfr. Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 546.

[401]Horace,Carm.iii. 27.—InAfanassief, again (iv. 36), the rook is asked where it has flown to. It answers, "Into the meadows to write letters and sigh after the maiden;" and the maiden is advised to hurry towards the water. The maiden declares that she fears the crab. In this maiden, that is afraid of the crab, I think I can recognise the zodiacal sign of Virgo (attracted by the crab of the summer),—the virgin who approaches the water, the autumn and the autumnal rains; the virgin loved by the crow, who is the friend of the rains.

[402]Horace,Carm.iii. 27.

[403]Sâkaṁ yakshma pra pata ćâsheṇa kīkidîvinâ;Ṛigv.x. 97, 13.

[404]

Saróvka, saróvka,Kasha varllaNa parók skakála,Gastiei saszivála.

[405]The magpie is proverbial as a babbler; hence, from its Italian namegazza, the namegazzettagiven to newspapers, as divulging secrets.—In theDialogus Creaturarum, dial. 80, it is written of the magpie, calledAgazia: "Pica est avis callidissima.... Hæc apud quemdam venatorem et humane et latine loquebatur, propter quod venator ipsam plenaria fulciebat. Pica autem non immemor beneficii, volens remunerare eum, volavit ad Agazias, et cum eis familiariter sedebat et humane sermocinabatur. Agaziæ quoque in hoc plurimum lætabantur cupientes et ipsæ garrire humaneque loqui."

[406]Hence the request made in the popular song to the stork, to bring a little sister; cfr. the songs of the stork in Kuhn and Schwarz,N. S. M. u. G.p. 452. As the bringer of children, the stork is represented as the serpent's enemy; cfr.Tzetza, i. 945.

[407]Cfr.Phile, vi. 2; and Aristophanes in theOrnithes—

"Deî tous neotous t' patéra palin trephein."

[408]

"Lacte quis infantes nescit crevisse ferino?Et picum expositis sæpe tulisse cibos?"—Ovid,Fasti, iii.

[409]Comparepińǵûlaswithpińǵalasandpińǵaras.—In the hymn, x. 28, 9, of theṚigvedas, we also have the mountain cleft from afar by a clod of earth: Adriṁ logena vy abhedam ârât. This analogy is so much the more remarkable, as in the same hymn, 4th strophe, the wild boar is also spoken of.

[410]The same virtue of opening the mountain by means of an herb I find attributed to the little martin, in connection with Venus, in Simrock, the work quoted before, p. 415: "Schon in einem Gedichte Meister Altschwerts, ed. Holland, s. 70, wird der Zugang zu dem Berge durch ein Kraut gefunden, das der Springwurzel oder blauen Schlüsselblume unserer Ortssagen gleicht. Kaum hat es der Dichter gebrochen, so kommt ein Martinsvögelchen geflogen, das guter Vorbedeutung zu sein pflegt; diesem folgt er und begegnet einem Zwerge, der ihn in den Berg zu Frau Venus führt."

[411]Carm.iii. 27.

[412]

"Thou shalt not lackThe flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; norThe azured hare-bell, like thy veins; no, norThe leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,Out-sweetened not thy breath; the ruddock would,With charitable bill (O bill, sore-shamingThose rich-left heirs, that let their fathers lieWithout a monument!), bring thee all this."—iv. 2.

[413]Cfr. what is said on the whoop, the stork, and the lark.—Concerning the birdgaulus, I find in Du Cange as follows: "Gaulus Merops avis apibus infensa, unde et Apiastra vocitatur. Papias: 'Meropes, Genus avium, idem et Gauli, qui parentes suos recondere, et alere dicuntur, sunt autem virides et vocantur Apiastræ.'"

[414]Tâittiriya Yaǵurv.vii. 1, 4.

[415]Hence Gregory of Tours relates, inDu Cange: "In Ecclesia Arverna, dum matutinæ celebrarentur Vigiliæ, in quadam civitate avis Corydalus, quam Alaudam vocamus, ingressa est."

[416]Vartikâṁ grasitâm amuńćatam;Ṛigv.i. 112, 8.—Amuńćataṁ vartikâm aṅhasaḥ; i. 118, 8.—Âsno vṛikasya vartikâm abhîke yuvaṁ narâ nâsatyâmumuktam; i. 116, 14.—Vṛikasya ćid vartikâm antar âsyâd yuvaṁ çaçîbhir grasitâm amuńćatam; x. 39, 13.

[417]The same fable is also related in a different way: Jove cohabits with Latona, and subsequently forces her sister, Asterien, who is, in pity, changed by the gods into a quail. Jove becomes an eagle to catch her; the gods change the quail into a stone—(cfr. the stories of Indras as a cuckoo and Rambhâ, of Indras as a cock and Ahalyâ. It is a popular superstition that quails, like the crane, when they travel, let little stones fall in order to recognise on their return the places by which they passed the first time)—which lies for a long time under water, till by the prayer of Latona it is taken out.

[418]Ælianos says that the cock is in the moon's favour, either because it assisted Latona in parturition, or because it is generally believed (as a symbol of fecundation) to be the facilitator of childbirth. As a watchful animal it was natural to consider it especially dear to the moon, the nocturnal watcher.—The cock, as an announcer of news, was sacred to Mercury; as the curer of many diseases, to Æsculapius; as a warrior, to Mars, Hercules, and Pallas, who, according to Pausanias, wore a hen upon her helmet; as an increaser of the family, to the Lares, &c. Even Roman Catholic priests will deign to receive with especial favour, ad majorem Dei gloriam, the homage of cocks, capons, and chickens.

[419]This year, my quails cried out six times; and the corn in Italy is very dear, the spring having been a very rainy one.

[420]iii. 12,437.

[421]i. 49.

[422]Mâ no vadhîr indra mâ parâ dâ mâ naḥ priyâ bhoǵanâni pra moshîḥ âṇḍâ mâ no maghavań ćhakra nir bhen mâ naḥ pâtrâ bhet sahaǵânushâṇi;Ṛigv.i. 104, 8.

[423]Der Vogel der den Namen Parodars führt, o heiliger Zarathustra, den die übelredenden Menschen mit den Namen Kahrkatâç belegen, dieser Vogel erhebt seine Stimme bei jeder göttlichen Morgenröthe: Stehet auf, ihr Menschen, preiset die beste Reinheit, vertreibet die Dâeva;Vendidad, xviii. 34-38, Spiegel's version.—The cock Parodars chases away with his cry especially the demon Bûshyaṅçta, who oppresses men with sleep, and he returns again in a fragment of theKhorda-Avesta(xxxix.): "'Da, vor dem Kommen der Morgenröthe, spricht dieser Vogel Parodars, der Vogel der mit Messern verwundet, Worte gegen das Feuers aus. Bei seinem Sprechen läuft Bushyaṅçta mit langen Händen herzu von der nördlichen Gegend, von den nördlichen Gegenden, also sprechen, also sagend: "Schlafet o Menschen, schlafet, sündlich Lebende, schlafet, die ihr ein sündiges Leben führt." As in the song of Prudentius, the idea of sleep and that of sin are associated together; the song of Prudentius suggests the idea that it was written by some one who was initiated in the solar mysteries of the worship of Mithras.

[424]Cfr. Du Cange,s. v.—And the same Du Cange, in the articlegallina, quotes an old mediæval glossary in whichgallinais said to mean Christ, wisdom, and soul.—The cock of the Gospel announces, reveals, betrays Christ three times, in the three watches of the night, to which sometimes correspond the three sons of the legends.

[425]According to a legend of St James, an old father and mother go with their young son on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in Spain. On the way, in an inn at San Domingo de la Calzada, the innkeeper's daughter offers her favours to the young man, who rejects them; the girl avenges herself upon him by putting a silver plate in his sack, for which he is arrested and impaled as a thief. The old parents continue their journey to Santiago; St James has pity upon them, and works a miracle which is only known to be his afterwards. The old couple return to their country, passing by San Domingo; here they find their son alive, whom they had seen impaled, for which they there and then offer solemn thanks to St James. All are astonished. The prefect of the place is at dinner when the news is brought to him; he refuses to believe it, and says that the young man is no more alive than the roasted fowl which is being set upon the table; no sooner has he uttered the words, than the cock begins to crow, resumes its feathers, jumps out of the plate and flies away. The innkeeper's daughter is condemned; and in honour of the miracle, the cock is revered as a sacred animal, and at San Domingo the houses are ornamented with cock's feathers. A similar wonder is said, by Sigonio, to have taken place in the eleventh century in the Bolognese; but instead of St James, Christ and St Peter appear to perform miracles.—Cfr. also the relationship of St Elias (and of the Russian hero Ilya) feasted on the 21st of July, when the sun enters the sign of the lion, with Helios, the hellenic sun.

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