CHAPTER VIII.

MYTHOLOGY. PAGE

Mythic fancy based, like other thought, on Experience — Mythology affords evidence for studying laws of Imagination — Change in public opinion as to credibility of Myths — Myths rationalized into Allegory and History — Ethnological import and treatment of Myth — Myth to be studied in actual existence and growth among modern savages and barbarians — Original sources of Myth — Early doctrines of general animation of Nature — Personification of Sun, Moon, and Stars; Water-spout, Sand-pillar, Rainbow, Waterfall, Pestilence — Analogy worked into Myth and Metaphor — Myths of Rain,Thunder, &c. — Effect of Language in formation of Myth — Material Personification primary, Verbal Personification secondary — Grammatical Gender, male and female, animate and inanimate, in relation to Myth — Proper names of objects in relation to Myth — Mental State proper to promote mythic imagination — Doctrine of Werewolves — Phantasy and Fancy

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CHAPTER IX.

MYTHOLOGY (continued).

Nature-myths, their origin, canon of interpretation, preservation of original sense and significant names — Nature-myths of upper savage races compared with related forms among barbaric and civilized nations — Heaven and Earth as Universal Parents — Sun and Moon: Eclipse and Sunset, as Hero or Maiden swallowed by Monster; Rising of Sun from Sea and Descent to Under-World; Jaws of Night and Death, Symplegades; Eye of Heaven, Eye of Odin and the Graiæ — Sun and Moon as mythic civilizers — Moon, her inconstancy, periodical death and revival — Stars, their generation — Constellations, their place in Mythology and Astronomy — Wind and Tempest — Thunder — Earthquake

316

CHAPTER X.

MYTHOLOGY (continued}.

Philosophical Myths: inferences become pseudo-history — Geological Myths — Effect of doctrine of Miracles on Mythology — Magnetic Mountain — Myths of relation of Apes to Men by development or degeneration — Ethnological import of myths of Ape-men, Men with tails, Men of the woods — Myths of Error, Perversion, and Exaggeration: stories of Giants, Dwarfs, and Monstrous Tribes of men — Fanciful explanatory Myths — Myths attached to legendary or historical Personages — Etymological Myths on names of places and persons — Eponymic Myths on names of tribes, nations, countries, &c.; their ethnological import — Pragmatic Myths by realization of metaphors and ideas — Allegory — Beast-Fable — Conclusion

368