Myths and Myth-makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology |
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Achilleus ancestors ancient appears Arabian Aryan Aryan Nations Athene barbaric Baring-Gould beast belief bird body Book of Werewolves Boots Brahman Cacus called cannibal carried century character Christian clouds conception cows dark Dawn dead deity demon Devil divining-rod divinity Dyaus earth etymology explained fetichistic folk-lore ghosts giant Gladstone Greek hand heaven Herakles Hercules Hermes Hindu Homeric poems human Iliad Indra Ioskeha killed king language legend light Luxman Mara Max Müller mediæval Michabo mind moon myth mythical mythology nature never night night-demons Norse notion Odin Odysseus Oidipous once origin Panis persons phenomena philology primeval Punchkin race regarded resemblance Rig-Veda Sanskrit savage schamir Sculloge Sigurd similar slays solar hero soul story strange superstition supposed swan-maidens tale Tannhäuser Tell theory Thief thought tion told tribes Troll Tylor Veda Vedic Vritra werewolf wife wolf wolves words worship Zeus Zulu
Popular passages
Page 23 - JACK and Jill went up the hill, To fetch a pail of water; Jack fell down and broke his crown And Jill came tumbling after.
Page 197 - Sixpence,' his claim would be easily established, — obviously the four-and-twenty blackbirds are the four-and-twenty hours, and the pie that holds them is the underlying earth covered with the overarching sky, — how true a touch of nature it is that when the pie is opened, that is, when day breaks, the birds begin to sing ; the King is the Sun, and his counting out his money is pouring out the sunshine, the golden shower of Danae ; the Queen is the Moon, and her transparent honey the moonlight...
Page 83 - ... and cut off the leg of one less nimble than the rest : on his taking it up, to his amazement he found it belonged to a female of his own species, and next morning discovered the owner, an old hag, with only the companion leg to this.
Page 216 - If an animal or a plant die, its soul immediately goes to Bolotoo; if a stone or any other substance is broken, immortality is equally its reward; nay, artificial bodies have equal good luck with men, and hogs, and yams. If an axe or a chisel is worn out or broken up, away flies its soul for the service of the gods.
Page 23 - ... exiled thither for many centuries, and who is so far off that he is beyond the reach of Death. He has once visited this earth, if the nursery rhyme is to be credited, when it asserts that — " The Man in the Moon Came down too soon, And asked his way to Norwich ;" but whether he ever reached that city, the same authority does not state.
Page 96 - The poets of the Veda indulged freely in theogonic speculations, without being frightened by any contradictions. They knew of Indra as the greatest of gods, they knew of Agni as the god of gods, they knew of Varuna as the ruler of all, but they were by no means startled at the idea that their Indra had a mother, or that their Agni was born like a babe from the friction of two fire-sticks, or that Varu;;a and his brother Mitra were nursed in the lap of Aditi.
Page 5 - In its English form it occurs in the ballad of William of Cloudeslee. The bold archer says : ' I have a sonne seven years old ; Hee is to me full deere ; I will tye him to a stake—- All shall see him that bee here — And lay an apple upon his head, And goe six paces him froe, And I myself with a broad arrowe Shall cleave the apple in towe.
Page 212 - In New Zealand it is ominous to see the figure of an absent person, for if it be shadowy and the face not visible, his death may erelong be expected, but if the face be seen he is dead already. A party of Maoris (one of whom told the story) were seated round a fire in the open air, when there appeared, seen only by two of them, the figure of a relative, left ill at home ; they exclaimed, the figure vanished, and on the return of the party it appeared that the sick man had died about the time of the...
Page 142 - The victor returned to his grandmother, and established his lodge in the far east, on the borders of the great ocean whence the sun comes. In time he became the father of mankind, and the special guardian of the Iroquois.