Demonology and Devil-lore Part 49

[13] 'Myths and Marvels of Astronomy.' By R. A. Proctor. Chatto & Windus, 1878.

[14] 'Scenes and Legends,' &c., p. 73.

[15] 'Any Orientalist will appreciate the wonderful hotchpot of Hindu and Arabic language and religion in the following details, noted down among rude tribes of the Malay Peninsula. We hear of Jin b.u.mi, the earth-G.o.d (Arabic jin = demon, Sanskrit bhumi = earth); incense is burnt to Jewajewa (Sanskrit dewa = G.o.d), who intercedes with Pirman, the supreme invisible deity above the sky (Brahma?); the Moslem Allah Taala, with his wife Nabi Mahamad (Prophet Mohammed), appear in the Hinduised characters of creator and destroyer of all things; and while the spirits wors.h.i.+pped in stones are called by the Hindu term of 'dewa' or deity, Moslem conversion has so far influenced the mind of the stone-wors.h.i.+pper that he will give to his sacred boulder the name of Prophet Mohammed.'--Tylor's 'Primitive Culture,' vol. ii. p. 230.

[16] Yacna, 32.

[17] 'The Devil,' &c., from the French of the Rev. A. Reville, p. 5.

[18] Tylor's 'Primitive Culture,' vol. ii. p. 299.

[19] 'The Gnostics,' &c., by C. W. King, M.A., p. 153.

[20] Those who wish to examine this matter further will do well to refer to Badger, 'Nestorians and their Rituals,' in which the whole of the 'Eulogy' is translated; and to Layard, 'Ninevah and Babylon,'

in which there is a translation of the same by Hormuzd Ra.s.sam, the King of Abyssinia's late prisoner.

[21] The significance of the gargoyles on the churches built on the foundations of pagan temples may be especially observed at York, where the forms of various animals well known to Indo-Germanic mythology appear. They are probably copies of earlier designs, surviving from the days when the plan of Gregory for the conversion of temples prevailed. 'The temples of the idols in that nation,' wrote the Pope, A.C. 601, 'ought not to be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected and relics placed. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the wors.h.i.+p of devils to the service of the true G.o.d.'--Bede, Eccl. Hist. ch. 30.

[22] 'The Land of Charity,' by Rev. Samuel Mateer, p. 214.

[23] London 'Times' Calcutta correspondence.

[24] The Persian poet Sadi uses the phrase, 'The whale swallowed Jonah,' as a familiar expression for sunset; which is in curious coincidence with a Mimac (Nova Scotian) myth that the holy hero Glooscap was carried to the happy Sunset Land in a whale. The story of Jonah has indeed had interesting variants, one of them being that legend of Oannes, the fish-G.o.d, emerging from the Red Sea to teach Babylonians the arts (a saga of Dagon); but the phrase in the Book of Jonah--'the belly of h.e.l.l'--had a prosaic significance for the christian mind, and, in connection with speculations concerning Behemoth and Leviathan, gave us the mediaeval Mouth of h.e.l.l.

[25] Tablet K 162 in the British Museum. See 'Records of the Past,'

i. 141.

[26] London 'Times,' July 11, 1877.

[27] 'Songs of the Russian People,' p. 409.

[28] 'Primitive Culture.'

[29] Caesarius D'Heisterbach, Miracul. iii.

[30] Lev. iii. 15.

[31] Du Perron, 'Vie de Zoroastre.'

[32] The principle similia similibus curantur is a very ancient one; but though it may have originated in a euphemistic or propitiatory aim, the h.o.m.oeopathist may claim that it could hardly have lived unless it had been found to have some practical advantages.

[33] Sonnerat's 'Travels,' ii. 38.

[34] Deutsch, 'Literary Remains,' p. 178.

[35] Isa. lvii. 5; Ezek. xvi. 20; Jer. xix. 5.

[36] The 'Jewish World.'

[37] 'Observations on Popular Antiquities,' &c., by John Brand. With the additions of Sir Henry Ellis. An entirely new and revised edition. Chatto & Windus, 1877. See especially the chapter on 'Summer Solstice,' p. 165.

[38] 'Pyra, a bonefire, wherein men's bodyes were burned.'--Cooper's Thesaurus. Probably from Fr. bon; Wedgewood gives Dan. baun, beacon.

[39] See Chapter i. Compare Numbers x.x.xi. 23.

[40] Numbers xix. 17.

[41] Ibid. xix. 2, seq.

[42] 'Folklore of China,' p. 121.

[43] In Russia the pigeon, from being anciently consecrated to the thunder G.o.d, has become emblem of the Holy Ghost, or celestial fire, and as such the foe of earthly fire. Pigeons are trusted as insurers against fire, and the flight of one through a house is regarded as a kindly warning of conflagration.

[44] Tablet K 162 in Brit. Mus. Tr. by H. F. Talbot in 'Records of the Past.'

[45] The Western Mail, March 12, 1874, contains a remarkable letter by the Arch-Druid, in which he maintains that 'Jesus' is a derivation from Hea or Hu, Light, and the Christian system a corruption of Bardism.

[46] 'L'Enfer,' p. 5.

[47] Dennys' 'Folklore of China,' p. 98.

[48] Procopius, 'De Bello Gothico,' iv. 20.

[49] 'Memorials of the Rev. R. S. Hawkes'.

[50] 'La Magie chez les Chaldeens,' iii.

[51] Lonnrot, 'Abhandlung uber die Magische Medicin der Finnen.'

[52] 'Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland.' Nimmo, 1876.

[53] 'Rig-Veda,' ii. 33. Tr. by Professor Evans of Michigan.

[54] 'Rig-Veda,' i. 114.

[55] 'Jour. Ceylon R. A. Soc.,' 1865-66.

[56] Welcker, 'Griechische Gotterlehre,' vol. i. p. 661.

[57] Moffat, p. 257.

[58] Livingstone, p. 124.

[59] Poppig, 'Reise in Chile,' vol. ii. p. 358.

[60] Eyre, vol. ii. p. 362.

[61] Tylor, 'Early Hist.,' p. 359.