Myths and myth-makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology by John Fiske
page 55 of 272 (20%)
page 55 of 272 (20%)
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[31] Henderson, Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England, p. 202 In the Middle Ages the hand of glory was used, just like the divining-rod, for the detection of buried treasures. Here, then, we have a large and motley group of objects--the forked rod of ash or hazel, the springwort and the luck-flower, leaves, worms, stones, rings, and dead men's hands--which are for the most part competent to open the way into cavernous rocks, and which all agree in pointing out hidden wealth. We find, moreover, that many of these charmed objects are carried about by birds, and that some of them possess, in addition to their generic properties, the specific power of benumbing people's senses. What, now, is the common origin of this whole group of superstitions? And since mythology has been shown to be the result of primeval attempts to explain the phenomena of nature, what natural phenomenon could ever have given rise to so many seemingly wanton conceptions? Hopeless as the problem may at first sight seem, it has nevertheless been solved. In his great treatise on "The Descent of Fire," Dr. Kuhn has shown that all these legends and traditions are descended from primitive myths explanatory of the lightning and the storm-cloud.[32] [32] Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gottertranks. Berlin, 1859. To us, who are nourished from childhood on the truths revealed |
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