of Phoenician origin, but a deity borrowed from 'the primitive Accadian
population of Babylonia.' Mr. Isaac Taylor, again, explains Cronus as
the sky which swallows and reproduces the stars. The story of the sickle
may be derived from the crescent moon, the 'silver sickle,' or from a
crescent-shaped piece of meteoric iron--for, in this theory, the fetich-
stone of Delphi is a piece of that substance.

* * * * *

It will be observed that any one of these theories, if accepted, is much
more 'minute in detail' than our humble suggestion. He who adopts any
one of them, knows all about it. He knows that Cronus is a purely Greek
god, or that he is connected with the Sanskrit Krana, which Tiele, {62b}
unhappily, says is 'a very dubious word.' Or the mythologist may be
quite confident that Cronus is neither Greek nor, in any sense, Sanskrit,
but Phoenician. A not less adequate interpretation assigns him
ultimately to Accadia. While the inquirer who can choose a system and
stick to it knows the exact nationality of Cronus, he is also well
acquainted with his character as a nature-god. He may be Time, or
perhaps he is the Summer Heat, and a horned god; or he is the harvest-
god, or the god of storm and darkness, or the midnight sky,--the choice
is wide; or he is the lord of dark and light, and his children are the
stars, the clouds, the summer months, the light-powers, or what you will.
The mythologist has only to make his selection.

The system according to which we tried to interpret the myth is less
ondoyant et divers. We do not even pretend to explain everything. We do
not guess at the meaning and root of the word Cronus. We only find
parallels to the myth among savages, whose mental condition is fertile in
such legends. And we only infer that the myth of Cronus was originally