(3) These processes, if demonstrated, which they are not, must be
carefully discriminated from the actual demonstrable process of
folk-etymology. The Marmalade legend gives the etymology of a word,
marmalade; the Daphne legend does not give an etymology.

(4) The theory of Daphne is of the kind protested against by Mannhardt,
where he warns us against looking in most myths for a 'mirror-picture' on
earth of celestial phenomena. {20a} For these reasons, among others, I
am disinclined to accept Mr. Max Muller's attempt to explain the story of
Daphne.



Mannhardt on Daphne


Since we shall presently find Mr. Max Muller claiming the celebrated
Mannhardt as a sometime deserter of philological comparative mythology,
who 'returned to his old colours,' I observe with pleasure that Mannhardt
is on my side and against the Oxford Professor. Mannhardt shows that the
laurel (daphne) was regarded as a plant which, like our rowan tree,
averts evil influences. 'Moreover, the laurel, like the Maibaum, was
looked on as a being with a spirit. This is the safest result which myth
analysis can extract from the story of Daphne, a nymph pursued by Apollo
and changed into a laurel. It is a result of the use of the laurel in
his ritual.' {20b} In 1877, a year after Mannhardt is said by Mr. Max
Muller to have returned to his old colours, he repeats this explanation.
{21a} In the same work (p. 20) he says that 'there is no reason for
accepting Max Muller's explanation about the Sun-god and the Dawn, wo