also trace a slight resemblance in the search of Orpheus for Eurydice, and the Vedic myth of Mitra, the Sun-god, as well as the beautiful Deccan tale of (Sodewa Bai.' If we search for indications of a nature-myth in the story of Cinderella, we shall find that it belongs to the myths of the Sun and the Dawn. The maiden is the Dawn, dull and gray, away from the brightness of the Sun; the sisters are the clouds, that screen and overshadow the Dawn, and the stepmother takes the part of Night. The Dawn fades away from the Sun, the prince, who after a long search finds her at last in her glorious robes of sunset. Max Müller gives the same meaning to the Vedic myth of Urvasî,' whose name ("great-desires») seems to imply a search for something lost.

HOP O' MY THUMB.-A mythic theory of this tale has been given, by which the forest represents the night; the pebbles, the stars; and the ogre, the devouring sun. The idea of cannibalism which it contains may possibly be a survival of an early savage state; and thus the story very obligingly supports two of the schools of mythic interpretation. It contains traces of very great antiquity, and the main features are frequently met with. We find them, for instance, in the Indian story of 'Surya Bai,' where a handful of grain is scattered; in the German counterpart, Hänsel and Gretel"; in the Kaffir tale, in which the girl drops ashes; and that is found again in a story in the Pentamerone. The incident of the ogre's keen scent is found in a Namaqua tale, in which the elephant takes the part. In a Zulu story an ogress smells the hero Uzembeni, and the same feature is seen in Polynesian myths, and even among the Canadian Indians. In Perrault's tale Hop o' My Thumb makes the ogre kill his own children; but in many forms the captor is either cooked, or forced to eat some of his relatives, by means generally of some trick. The substitution of the ogre's daughters is suggested by the story of Athamas and Themisto, whose children are dressed by her orders in white, while those of her rival are clad in black; then by a reversal of the plan, she murders her own. In most variants the flight of the brothers is magically helped; but Perrault uses only the SevenLeague Boots, which are no doubt identical with the sandals of Hermes and Loki's magic shoes.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.-This ancient story is very evidently a myth of the Sun and the Dawn. In all the variants the hero and the heroine cannot behold each other without misfortune. Generally the bride is forbidden to look upon her husband, who is enchanted under the form of a monster. The breaking of the taboo results in separation, but they are finally reunited after many adventures. The anthropological school of myth interpreters see in this feature a primitive marriage custom, which still exists among many savage races of the present day. One of the earliest forms of the story is the Vedic myth of Urvasi and Purûravas. Another is the Sanskrit Bhekt, who marries on condition she shall never see water; thus typifying the dawn, vanishing in the clouds of sunset. Müller gives an interesting philological explanation of this myth. Bhekî means frog, and stands for the rising or setting sun, which like amphibious creatures appears to pass from clouds or water. But in its Greek form Bheki means seaweed which is red, thus giving dark red; and the Latin for toad means "the red one," hence the term represents the dawn-glow or gloaming, which is quenched in water. In Greek myths we find a resemblance in some features of Orpheus and Eurydice'; and the name of Orpheus in its Sanskrit form of Arbhu, meaning the sun, hints quite plainly at a solar origin of this cycle of tales. A more marked likeness exists in the myth of Eros and Psyche by Apuleius, and in the Scandinavian tale of the 'Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon. More or less striking parallels are seen in the Celtic Battle of the Birds'; in the 'Soaring Lark,' by Grimm; in the Kaffir 'Story of Five Heads'; in Gaelic, Sicilian, and Bengal folk-lore; and even in as remote a quarter as Chili. The investigation of minor fairy-tales, nursery rhymes, and detached features running through many myths, will yield an abundance of interesting information. For instance, the swan-maidens and werewolves, the beanstalk (which is probably a form of the sacred ash of the Eddas, Yggdrasil, the heaven-tree of many myths), can be found in ever-varying combinations.

(1856), and Chips from a German Workshop' (1867-75); by Sir G. W. Cox in 'Mythology of the Aryan Nations' (1870), 'Introduction to the Science of Comparative Mythology and Folk-Lore' (1881), and 'Popular Romances of the Middle Ages'; by Grimm in his 'Teutonic Mythology' ('Deutsche Mythologie,' translated by Stally brass) (1880-88); by A. Kuhn in his Teutonic Mythology,' and the 'Descent of Fire' (1872); and by W. Schwartz in Origin of Myths' ('Ursprung der Mythe'; 1860).

The most important works on the basis of the anthropological theory are E. B. Tylor's Primitive Culture' (1871); Andrew Lang's 'Custom and Myth' (1885); his 'Myth Ritual and Religion' (1887); and John Fiske's 'Myths and Myth-Makers' (1872); as well as J. G. Frazer's 'Golden Bough' (1890). W. A. Clouston in 'Popular Tales and Fictions' (1887) supports the Indian theory. The best works directly bearing on Fairy Tales are J. Ritson's 'Fairy Tales' (1831); T. Keightley's Fairy Mythology (1833), both somewhat antiquated; J. T. Bunce's 'Fairy Tales, their Origin and Meaning' (1878); J. O. Halliwell-Phillips's 'Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales' (1849); R. Koehler's 'European Popular Tales' (1865), and his 'Essays on Fairy Tales and Popular Songs' (1894); E. S. Hartland's Science of Fairy Tales' (1891); Andrew Lang's Edition of 'Perrault's Popular Tales' (1888); W. Adlington's 'Most Pleasant and Delectable Tale of the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche,' with 'Discourse on Fable' by A. Lang (1887); and Joseph Bedier's 'Fables' ('Les Fabliaux') (1893).

The most noteworthy collections of the folk-tales of individual nations are Dasent's Popular Norse Tales' (1862); Campbell's Tales of the West Highlands'; Frere's Old Deccan Days'; Steel and Temple's Wide-Awake Stories' (1884); L. B. Day's 'Folk Tales of Bengal' (1883); Callaway's 'Zulu Nursery Tales' (1866); Theal's Kaffir Folk Lore'; Cosguin's 'Popular Tales of Lorraine' (1886); Maspero's Tales of Ancient Egypt,' 2d ed. (1889).

Physiologus (The Naturalist). A very

remarkable book of animal allegories, some fifty or sixty in number, produced originally in Greek at Alexandria, as early probably as the final completion of the New Testament, or before

200 A. D., and in circulation for many centuries, in many languages, as a kind of natural Bible of the common people; more universally known, and more popularly regarded, than the Bible even, because so familiar in the memories of the masses, and not dependent upon written copies.

So entirely was it a book of tales and traditions of the uneducated mass, more often told to hearers than copied out and read, that any one who made a written copy varied the text at will, enlarging or abridging, and inserting new ideas or Scripture quotations at pleasure. It was in this respect a reflection of the literary method of the Græco-Hebrew writers of the time of Christ, and of the Greek Christians of the New Testament age, 50-150 A. D. It was the lesson only of the story, not its exact text, which was regarded; facts were of less account than the truth meant to be conveyed. Some of the animals of the stories were imaginary; and with animals were included the diamond, the magnet, the fire-flint, the carbuncle, the Indian stone, and such trees as the sycamore and one called peridexion. The facts in each story were not those of science, given by Aristotle or any other authority; but those of folk-lore, of popular tradition and fable, and of frequent touches of the imagination. It mattered little as to the facts, if they were of startling interest: the important thing was the spiritual lesson. Thus the one horn of the unicorn signifies that Christ is one with the Father; the wonderfully sweet odor of the panther's breath, attracting all other animals except the serpent, signifies Christ drawing all unto him except the Devil. The riot of legend and fable, which ran under "Physiologus says," took the popular fancy in proportion as it was wild; and credulity thus stimu lated was the strongest belief. The ideas thus taught passed into all the lit eratures of Europe, and found incessant expression in art, and in emblems carved upon churches and even upon furniture.

The Greek text of Physiologus,' and versions in great variety, have been printed; and in the Geschichte des Physiologus,' by F. Lauchert, 1889, a full account of the origin, character, and diffusion of the work is given, with the Greek original and a German transla. tion.

olden Ass, The, by Apuleius.

Golde

A collection of stories divided into eleven books, and written in Carthage, not later than 197 A. D. It is usually described as an imitation of The Ass' of Lucian; the author himself tells us that it is a "tissue woven out of the tales of Miletus »; but probably both works are based on the same earlier originals. The plot is of the thinnest. A young man sees an old sorceress transform herself into a bird after drinking a philter. He wishes to undergo a similar metamorphosis, but mistakes the vial and is turned into an ass. To become a man again, he must eat a certain species of roses, and the pilgrimage of the donkey in search of them is the author's excuse for stringing together a number of romantic episodes and stories: stories of robbers, such as The Brigand for Love,' where a youth becomes a bandit to deliver his betrothed; The Three Brothers,' where the three sons of a .wealthy peasant are massacred by a ferocious squire and his servants; and The Bear of Platæa,' where a heroic robber lets dogs devour him in the bearskin in which he has hidden himself. Then come ghost stories: The Spectre,' where the phantom of a girl penetrates in full noonday into a miller's yard, and carries off the miller to a room where he hangs himself; Telephron,' where a poor man falls asleep, and supposes himself to awaken dead; The Three Goat-Skins,' where the witch Pamphile inadvertently throws some goats' hair into her crucible, instead of the red hair of her fat Boeotian lover, thus bringing back to life in place of him the goats to whom the hairs belonged. But the prettiest and most finely chiseled of these tales are those that paint domestic life: The Sandals, where a gallant devises a very ingenious stratagem to get out of an unpleasant predicament and regain possession of his sandals, forgotten one night at the house of a decurion; and several of the same kind. Many others are real dramas of village life. The most famous of all is The Loves of Psyche.' It occupies two entire books, and has inspired poets, painters, and sculptors, in all ages and countries; though perhaps the author would have been rather astonished to learn that the moderns had discovered in the sufferings of his heroine a profound metaphysical allegory, symbolizing the tortures of the soul in

its pursuit of the ideal. Apuleius excels every other ancient writer in catching the changing aspects of nature and of human comedy; and with all his fantastic imaginative power, he is as realistic as Zola, and sometimes as offensive. He describes, for instance, the agony of a broken-down horse tortured by swarms of ants, with the same precision that he uses to relate the gayety of a rustic breakfast, or a battle between wolves and dogs. On the other hand, he puts in no claim to be a moralist, and is much more concerned about the exteriors of his characters than about their souls.

Daphnis and Chloe, by Longus. This

charming pastoral romance was written in Greek during the fourth century of our era. It was first translated into a modern language by Amyot, who published a French version in 1559. Other renderings were soon made, and had great influence on European literature. Many English, French, and Italian pastorals were suggested by this work; but the one derived most directly from this source is Saint-Pierre's (Paul and Virginia, which is almost a parallel story, with Christian instead of pagan ethics. On the island of Lesbos, a goatherd named Lamon finds one of his goats suckling a fine baby boy, evidently exposed by his parents. The good man adopts him as his own child, calling him Daphnis, and brings him up to herd his goats. The year after he was found, a neighbor, Dryas, discovers a baby girl nouished by a ewe in the grotto of the nymphs. She is adopted under the name of Chloe, and trained to tend the sheep. The two young people pasture their herds in common, and are bound by an innocent and childlike affection. Eventually, this feeling ripens on both sides to something deeper; but in their innocence they know not the meaning of love, even when they learn that the little god has them in his especial keeping. After a

winter of forced separation, which only inflames their passion, Daphnis sues for the hand of Chloe. In spite of his humble station, he is accepted by her fosterparents; but the marriage is deferred till after the vintage, when Lamon's master is coming. On his arrival the goatherd describes the finding of the child, and exhibits the tokens found with him. Hereupon he is recognized as the son of the

master of the estate, and restored to his real position. By the aid of Daphnis's parents, Chloe is soon identified as the daughter of a wealthy Lesbian, who in a time of poverty had intrusted her to the nymphs. The young people are married with great pomp, but return to their pas toral life, in which they find idyllic happi

ness.

Golden Fleece, Conquest of the

((Argonautica'), an epic poem in four cantos, by Apollonius of Rhodes, a contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Apollonius found all the elements of his poem in the legendary traditions of the Greeks; the expedition of the Argonauts being, next to the siege of Troy, the most famous event of the heroic ages, and the most celebrated poets haying sung some one or other of its heroes. The first two cantos contain an explanation of the motives of the expedition, the election of Jason as commander-inchief, the preparations for departure, and a narrative of the incidents that marked the voyage from Chalcis. The third describes the conquest of the Golden Fleece, and the beginning of Medea's love for Jason, the development of which forms the finest portion of the poem. Her hesitations and interior struggles supplied Virgil with some of his best material for the fourth book of the Æneid. In the fourth canto, Medea leaves her father to follow Jason. This book is full of incident. The Argonauts go through the most surprising adventures, and encounter perils of every description, before they are able to reach the port from which they started. These various events have allowed the poet to introduce brilliant mythological pictures, such as his account of the Garden of the Hesperides. The

all the poets and dramatists of succeeding ages have freely drawn, so that scarcely a Sanskrit play or song lacks references to it. As the compilation of long series of poets, it contains not only the original story of the KauravaPandava feud, but also a vast number of more or less relevant episodes: it is a storehouse of quaint and curious stories. It tells of the mental and moral philosophy of the ancient Rishis, their discoveries in science, their remarkable notions of astronomy, their computations of time, their laws for the conduct of life, private and public, their grasp of political truths worthy of Machiavelli. Stories and histories, poems and ballads, nursery tales and profound discourses on art, science, daily conduct, and religion, are all sung in sonorous verse. Written in the sacred language of India, it is the Bible of the Hindus, being held in such veneration that the reading of a single Parva or Book was thought sufficient to cleanse from sin. It has been translated into English prose by Kisari Mohan Ganguli, and published in fifteen octavo volumes. Sir Edwin Arnold has translated the last two of the eighteen parvas into blank verse; and in his preface he gives a succinct analysis of the epic which has been called "the Fifth Veda.» To ordinary readers much of the figurative language of the Mahabharata' seems grotesque, and the descriptions are often absurd; but no one can help being amazed at its enormous range of subjects, the beauty of many of the stories it enshrines, and the loftiness of the mo. rality it inculcates. In grandeur it may well be compared to the awe-inspiring heights of the Himalayas.

almost every modern language, and is admittedly the masterpiece of Alexandrian literature. The 'Argonautica' of Valerius Flaccus is an imitation of that of Apollonius, while the style is that of Virgil. Quintilian and other contemporaries of the author considered the imitation superior to the original. Most modern scholars, however, regard it as without originality or invention, and as a mere tasteless display of erudition.

Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana

Vyasa, The. This great Indian epic has been compared to a national bank of unlimited resources, upon which

(The Sheikh Muslih-ud-din was his real name.) He was born about 1193 at Shiraz; and after many years of travel (once captured by the Christian Crusaders he was fighting), and visiting all the chief countries and cities of Asia, he settled down in a hermitage at Shiraz, and wrote many works, including the 'Gulistan.' He has been called "The Nightingale of Shiraz," and his works "the salt-cellar of poets." Emerson so admired him that he frequently used his name as an alias in his poems. Sa'di's daughter married the poet Hafiz. The 'Gulistan is a poetical work, and con sists of fascinating stories or anecdotes,

with a moral, like the parables of the Bible. They are replete with homely wisdom and life experience; the prose portions are interspersed with verses out of Sa'di's wide experience of the manners and customs of many men. Their great charm can only be known by reading them. Delicacy, simplicity, and bonhomie are the chief features of Sa'di's style.

Heimskringla, The, by Snorri Sturla

son. This chronicle of the kings of Norway (from the earliest times down to 1177), sometimes known as the 'Younger Edda' or the 'Mythic Ring of the World,' was originally written in Icelandic, in the early part of the thirteenth century. It has always been a household word in the home of every peasant in Iceland, and is entertaining reading to those who read for mere amusement, as well as to the student of history; being full of incident and anecdote, told with racy simplicity, and giving an accurate picture of island life at that early day. Short pieces of scaldic poetry originally recited by bards are interspersed, being quoted by Snorri as his authorities for the facts he tells. The writer, born in Iceland in 1178, was educated by a grandson of Sæmund Sigfusson, author of the Elder Edda,' who doubtless turned his pupil's thoughts in the direction of this book. A descendant of the early kings, he would naturally like to study their history. He became chief magistrate of Iceland, took an active part in politics, and was murdered in 1241 by his two sons-in-law, at the instigation of King Hakon. His book was first printed in 1697, in a Latin translation, having been inculcated in manuscript, or by word of mouth, up to that time. It was afterwards translated into Danish and English, and may be regarded as a classic work.

The French text of the 'Chanson' was first published in Paris by M. Francisque Michel in 1837, and afterward in 1850 by M. F. Genin. The original form of the lines above quoted is as follows:

"Ne vos ait hume ki pur altre feiet!

Mult bon vassal vos ad lung tens tenue: Jamais n'ert tel in France la solue." Around this incident have grown a multitude of heroic and romantic tales. which have taken form in all the mediæ val literature of Europe; but especially in Italy, where however the hero appears with little more than the name to identify him,-in the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, and the Orlando Innamorato' of Boiardo. Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer, was the first to call the attention of English readers to the 'Chanson'; but English tradition has it that the song was sung by the Norman Taillefer just before the battle of Hastings. The best and oldest French MS., called the "Digby," is preserved in the Bodleian library at Oxford. The French poem contains 6,000 lines. A Fragment of 1,049 lines, translated in Middle English from what is known as the Lansdowne MS., is published by the Early English Text Society.

Ogier the Dane.

This story of the paladin of Charlemagne has ap peared in many different forms; but the earliest manuscript is a chanson de geste, or epic poem, written by Raimbert de Paris in the twelfth century. The subject is still older, and Raimbert is thought to have collected songs which had been sung in battle years before. The first part is entitled The Anger of Ogier,' and is descriptive of the feudal life of the barons of Charlemagne. In a quar rel over a game of chess, Charlot, the son of Charlemagne, kills Beaudoin, the son of Ogier. Ogier demands the death