Among the Tupis of Brazil we have the same story of the battle of
light and darkness. They have a myth of Timandonar and Ariconte:

"They were brothers, one of fair complexion, the other dark. They
were constantly struggling, and Ariconte, which means _the stormy or
cloudy day_, came out worst."

Again the myth reappears; this time among the Norsemen:

Balder, the bright sun, (Baal?) is slain by the god Hodur, the blind
one; to wit, the Darkness. But Vali, Odin's son, slew Hodur, the
Darkness, and avenged Balder. Vali is the son of Rind--the rind--the
frozen earth. That is to say, Darkness devours the sun; frost rules
the earth; Vali, the new sun, is born of the frost, and kills the
Darkness. It is light again. Balder returns after Ragnarok.

And Nana, Balder's wife, the lovely spring-time, died of grief during
Balder's absence.

[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 200.]

{p. 240}

We have seen that one of the great events of the Egyptian mythology
was the search made by Isis, the wife of Osiris, for the dead sun-god
in the dark nether world. In the same way, the search for the dead
Balder was an important part of the Norse myths. Hermod, mounted on
Odin's horse, Sleifner, the slippery-one, (the ice?) set out to find
Balder. He rode nine days and nine nights through deep valleys, _so
dark that he could see nothing_;[1] at last he reaches the barred