their blood. Beowulf assails him. A ghastly struggle follows in the
darkness. Grendel is killed. But his fearful mother, the devil's
clam, comes to avenge his death; she attacks Beowulf, and is
slain.[1] There comes a third dragon, which Beowulf kills, but is
stifled with the breath of the monster and dies, rejoicing, however,
that the dragon has brought with him a great treasure of gold, which
will make his people rich.[2]

[1. Poor, "Sanskrit and Kindred Literatures," p. 315.

2. Ibid.]

{p. 234}

Here, again, are the three comets, the wolf, the snake, and the dog
of Ragnarok; the three arrows of the American legends; the three
monsters of Hesiod.

When we turn to Egypt we find that their whole religion was
constructed upon legends relating to the ages of fire and ice, and
the victory of the sun-god over the evil-one. We find everywhere a
recollection of the days of cloud, "when darkness dwelt upon the face
of the deep."

Osiris, their great god, represented the sun in his darkened or
nocturnal or ruined condition, before the coming of day. M.
Mariette-Bey says:

"Originally, Osiris is the nocturnal sun; he is _the primordial night
of chaos_; he is consequently anterior to Ra, the Sun of Day."[1]