Demonology and Devil-lore Part 50

[62] So confirming the conjecture of Wachs.m.u.th, in 'Das alte Griechenland im neuen,' p. 23. Elias might also easily be a.s.sociated with the name aeolus.

[63] 'Rig-Veda,' x. (Muir).

[64] John iii. 8.

[65] 'The Wheel of the Law,' by Henry Alabaster, Trubner & Co.

[66] 'Rig-Veda,' v. 83 (Wilson).

[67] 'Major's Tr.,' ii. 26.

[68] Wierus' 'Pseudomonarchia Daemon.'

[69] 'Songs of the Russian People,' by W. R. S. Ralston, M.A.

[70] Isa. xxii. 22. It is remarkable that (according to Callimachus) Ceres bore a key on her shoulder. She kept the granary of the earth.

[71] Rev. i. 18.; Matt. xvi. 19.

[72] 'Journal N. C. B. R. A. S.,' 1853.

[73] 'Folklore of China,' p. 124. The drum held by the imp in Fig. 3 shows his relation to the thunder-G.o.d. In j.a.pan the thunder-G.o.d is represented as having five drums strung together. The wind-G.o.d has a large bag of compressed air between his shoulders; and he has steel claws, representing the keen and piercing wind. The Tartars in Siberia believe that a potent demon may be evoked by beating a drum; their sorcerers provide a tame bear, who starts upon the scene, and from whom they pretend to get answers to questions. In Nova Scotian superst.i.tion we find demons charmed by drums into quietude. In India the temple-drum preserved such solemn a.s.sociations even for the new theistic sect, the Brahmo-Somaj, that it is said to be still beaten as accompaniment to the organ sent to their chief church by their English friends.

[74] Although the Koran and other authorities, as already stated, have a.s.sociated the Jinn with etherial fire, Arabic folklore is nearer the meaning of the word in a.s.signing the name to all demons. The learned Arabic lexicographer of Beirut, P. Bustani, says 'The Jinn is the opposite of mankind, or it is whatever is veiled from the sense, whether angel or devil.'

[75] 'Cuneiform Ins.,' iv. 15.

[76] Ib. ii. 27.

[77] Job xli.

[78] 'Records of the Past,' i.

[79] Lenormant, 'La Magie.'

[80] 'Records of the Past,' iii. 129.

[81] The G.o.d of the Euphrates.

[82] The a.s.syrian has 'of the high places.'

[83] 'Records of the Past,' iii. 129, 130.

[84] 'Henry IV.,' Part 1st, Act 2. 'Heart of Mid-Lothian,' xxv. An interesting paper on this subject by Mr. Alexander Wilder appeared in The Evolution, New York, December 16, 1877.

[85] De Plancy.

[86] An individual by this means saw his wife among the witches, so detecting her unhallowed nature, which gave rise to a saying there that husbands must not be star-gazing on St. Gerard's Eve.

[87] London 'Times,' July 8, 1875.

[88] This Protean type of both demon and devil must accompany us so continually through this volume that but little need be said of it in this chapter.

[89] Canticles ii. 15.

[90] De Gubernatis, II. viii.

[91] 'Our Life in j.a.pan' (Jephson and Elmhirst, 9th Regiment), Chapman & Hall, 1869.

[92] London 'Times,' June 11, 1877.

[93] Rep. 488.

[94] Literally, goat-song. More probably it has an astrological sense.

[95] E.g., the demon Huorco in the 'Pentamerone.'

[96] See De Gubernatis' 'Zoological Mythology,' which contains further curious details on this subject.

[97] 'Myths and Myth-makers.' Boston: Osgood & Co.

[98] 'Zoological Mythology,' p. 64.

[99] Koran, xviii.

[100] Wagner. Behold him stop--upon his belly crawl.... The clever scholar of the students, he!

[101] 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.' London: Chatto & Windus.

[102] 'Spirit of the Beasts of France,' ch. i.

[103] 'Rigv.' i. 105, 18, 42, 2; 'Vendidad,' xix. 108. Quoted by De Gubernatis ('Zoolog. Mythology,' ii. 142), to whose invaluable work I am largely indebted in this chapter.

[104] 'Zoolog. Myth.,' ii. 7. Trubner & Co.

[105] 'Zoolog. Myth.,' ii. 108 seq.

[106] Afanasief, v. 28.

[107] Ibid., v. 27.

[108] ii. 6 (De Gubernatis, ii. 117).

[109] Rather the devil of l.u.s.t than of cruelty, according to Du Cange: "Occidunt ursum, occiditur diabolus, id est, temptator nostrae carnis."

[110] De Plancy (Dict. Inf.), who also relates an amusing legend of the bear who came to a German choir, as seen by a sleepy chorister as he awoke; the nave narrator of which adds, that this was the devil sent to hold the singers to their duty! The Lives of the Saints abound with legends of pious bears, such as that commemorated along with St. Sergius in Troitska Lavra, near Moscow; and that which St. Gallus was ungracious enough to banish from Switzerland after it had brought him firewood in proof of its conversion.

[111] Max Muller, 'Science of Language,' i. 275.