any particular reason beyond the law which makes detached myths
crystallise round any celebrated name.'

Professor Tiele says he does not grasp the meaning of, or believe in, any
such law. Well, why is the world-wide tale of the Cyclops told about
Odysseus? It is absolutely out of keeping, and it puzzles commentators.
In fact, here was a hero and there was a tale, and the tale was attracted
into the cycle of the hero; the very last man to have behaved as Odysseus
is made to do. {34} But Cronos was an odious ruffian. The world-wide
tale of swallowing and disgorging the children was attracted to _his_ too
notorious name 'by grace of congruity.' Does Professor Tiele now grasp
my meaning (saisir)?



Our Lack of Scientific Exactness


I do not here give at full length Professor Tiele's explanation of the
meaning of a myth which I do not profess to explain myself. Thus, drops
of the blood of Ouranos falling on Earth begat the Melies, usually
rendered 'Nymphs of the Ash-trees.' But Professor Tiele says they were
really _bees_ (Hesychius, [Greek]=[Greek])--'that is to say, stars.'
Everybody has observed that the stars rise up off the earth, like the
bees sprung from the blood of Ouranos. In Myth, Ritual, and Religion (i.
299-315) I give the competing explanations of Mr. Max Muller, of Schwartz
(Cronos=storm god), Preller (Cronos=harvest god), of others who see the
sun, or time, in Cronos; while, with Professor Tiele, Cronos is the god
of the upper air, and also of the underworld and harvest; he 'doubles the
part.' 'Il est l'un et l'autre'--that is, 'le dieu qui fait murir le