was said above, there can be no doubt that these rats were the
souls of those whom the Bishop had murdered. There are many
versions of the story in different Teutonic countries, and in
some of them the avenging rats or mice issue directly, by a
strange metamorphosis, from the corpses of the victims. St.
Gertrude, moreover, the heathen Holda, was symbolized as a
mouse, and was said Go lead an army of mice; she was the
receiver of children's souls. Odin, also, in his character of
a Psychopompos, was followed by a host of rats.[20]

[20] Perhaps we may trace back to this source the frantic
terror which Irish servant-girls often manifest at sight of a
mouse.

As the souls of the departed are symbolized as rats, so is the
psychopomp himself often figured as a dog. Sarameias, the
Vedic counterpart of Hermes and Odin, sometimes appears
invested with canine attributes; and countless other examples
go to show that by the early Aryan mind the howling wind was
conceived as a great dog or wolf. As the fearful beast was
heard speeding by the windows or over the house-top, the
inmates trembled, for none knew but his own soul might
forthwith be required of him. Hence, to this day, among
ignorant people, the howling of a dog under the window is
supposed to portend a death in the family. It is the fleet
greyhound of Hermes, come to escort the soul to the river
Styx.[21]

[21] In Persia a dog is brought to the bedside of the person
who is dying, in order that the soul may be sure of a prompt