Chapter II: The Horse (3)

Moreover, as the horse exults by neighing over the good fortune of the hero who rides him, so he not only becomes sad, but sheds real tears when his rider is about to meet with misfortune.

When Râvanas, in the _Râmâyanam_, comes forth in his chariot, to join in final combat with Râmas, his coursers shed tears,[668] as a sinister omen, Râvanas is the monster of darkness and clouds; when the cloud begins to disperse, drops of rain fall, that is, the horses of the monster weep. The treacherous sister who is confederate with the monster against her brother, in Russian stories, is condemned by her brother, who kills the monster, to fill a whole basin with her tears.[669] These tears are also a legendary symbol of the rain which falls when the solar hero has torn the cloud in two.

Suetonius, in the Life of Cæsar, writes that the horses consecrated by Cæsar to Mars, and then set at liberty after the passage of the Rubicon, refused to eat, and wept abundantly.[670] Note that this legend of the horses that weep is connected with the passage of water, of the Rubicon (a river which no geographer has been able to identify with certainty, probably because the legend of Cæsar relating to it is a fable of mythical origin. We know how mythical beliefs incline to assume a human form, and are especially prone to group themselves round the great personages of history--Cyrus, Alexander, Romulus, Cæsar, Augustus, Vespasian, Attila, Theodoric, and Charlemagne are proofs of this; and perhaps a day will come in which Napoleon I. or Garibaldi will offer a new _mannequin_ to some popular tradition, which is now uncertain and wandering). Thus it is said that Cæsar's horse itself shed tears for three days before the hero's death. In the _Iliad_,[671] the horses of Achilleus weep for the death of Patroklos, whom Hektor has thrown from his chariot into the dust; in the _Paraleipomenoi_ of Quintus Smyrneus,[672] the horses of Achilleus weep bitterly for the death of their hero. This is a variety of the legend of the horses which throw the solar hero down into the waters, the ocean of night or the clouds, and of that of the horses of Poseidôn. The mists which after sunset in the evening impregnate the air, and the diurnal or nocturnal rains, as well as the autumnal ones, cause tears to fall upon the ground, or weep over the (apparent) death of the solar hero.

The dew of the morning, on the contrary, which comes from the mouth of the solar horse like foam, or from its hoof as ambrosia and salutary water, is fraught with every species of healthful influence.

The horse and the bull of mythology are pourers out _par excellence_. In a Vedic strophe--which seems in my eyes to be one of those riddles which are recited in order to loosen the thread of the tongue--relative to the two outpouring or fertilising horses of Indras, there is a continual play kept up upon the root _varsh_ or _vrish_, which means at once to pour out and to make fruitful,[673] and upon the letter _r_ which enters into almost every word of the verse. Not only do the horses of Indras pour out and make fruitful; the same virtue is attributed to the chariot which they draw.[674] We have seen already that the horse of the Açvinâu is the killer of the monster serpent, and that the horse's head Dadhyanc, he who goes in the milk or in the liquefied butter, and who is found in a sea of milk, discomfits the enemies of Indras. A Vedic hymn sings that, with the foam of the waters, Indras beats down the head of the monster serpent.[675] In Tuscany, the whooping-cough is called the horse-cough or asinine-cough,[676] and it is thought that the cough is cured by giving the children to drink the foam from the horse's mouth, or causing them to drink in the water where a horse has been drinking. This is a remedy founded upon the principle _similia similibus_, the foam being used against the convulsive cough, which, like all convulsions in general, brings much saliva or foam to the mouth. The credit, however, of this marvellous medicine is slightly compromised when we read that the same foam is also very efficacious for ear-ache. Pliny, Sextus Empiricus, and Marcellus, quoted by Aldrovandi,[677] also recommend the saliva of a horse as a cure for cough, particularly in the case of consumptive patients, adding that the sick person is cured in three days, but that the horse dies; a superstition which must have had its origin in the mythical horse who feeds on ambrosia, and who loses his strength, and expires when his saliva, foam, ambrosia, or dew is taken from him. It is well known that the Açvinâu, besides being luminous horsemen, were, as friends of men, also exceedingly skilful physicians; nor could they be otherwise, having in their power the head of Dadhyanc which is in the ambrosia, that is, whose foam is ambrosia. The Dioscuri also frequently appear, in European legends, as unexpected and miraculous deliverers. With this mythical belief of the horse that produces ambrosia, is also connected the transformation, described by Ovid in the second book of the _Metamorphoses_, of Ocyroe into a mare, because she had predicted that Æsculapius would save men from death by the medical art. It is a well-known fact that Æsculapius was revered near fountains whose waters were supposed to have salutary effects, and that he was protected by the sun-god Apollo; and the two physicians, sons of Asklêpios or Æsculapius, seem to be nothing more than a specific form of the Dioscuri.

But the solar horse does not produce ambrosia with his mouth alone.

He has great strength in his hoofs (whence Isidorus and other mediæval etymologists derived the name _caballus_, thus, "Quod ungula terram cavet"[678]), and makes use of them in the myth, and in the legend, not only to combat the enemies, but also to break open the earth, and cause ambrosial fountains to spring out of it. Sometimes ambrosia pours out of the hoof of the horse itself. In the _Rigvedas_,[679] the horses of Agnis are said to have hands (_i.e._, hoofs of the fore-feet) that pour out; and the horse given by the Açvinâu to the hero protected by them (that is, to the solar horse, to the morning sun), with his strong hoof fills a hundred jars with inebriating liquor.[680] It is not necessary for me to instance here the famous fountain of the horse, or Hippokrênê, which Bellerophon's horse Pêgasos caused to spring out of the earth by breaking the soil with his hoof (called also for this reason _Pêgasía krênê_). In Latin tradition, the horse's hoof was worshipped on a spot near Lake Regillus, where it is said that the Dioscuri had appeared.[681] In a Russian story,[682] when Johnny (Ivanushka) sees a horse's hoof, he is sorely tempted to drink out of it, but is dissuaded by his sister. He experiences the same temptation upon seeing a bull's hoof, and afterwards that of a kid. At last he gives way, drinks from the kid's hoof, and is himself transformed into a kid. In the footprint of a horse's hoof, in other stories, the ant is in danger of being drowned; saved by a man, it is ever afterwards grateful to him.[683]

Several myths which we have already noticed in the preceding chapter as applied to the bull, occur again in connection with the horse; as, for instance, the birds which come out of the horse; the hero who takes the horse's skin off, seizing it by the tail in order to make a sack of it; the swift horse of Adrastus, which runs after the tortoise (a Greek proverb);[684] the lunar horse, and the solar one. These exchanges between moon and sun, and between bull and horse, are happily indicated by the Latin poet, Fulgentius:--

"Jam Phoebus disjungit equos, jam Cynthia jungit,
Quasque soror liquit, frater pede temperat undas:
Tum nox stellato coelum circumlita peplo
Coerula rorigenis pigrescere jusserat alis
Astrigeroque nitens diademate luna bicornis
Bullarum bijugis conscenderat æquora tauris."

The gods had often a liking to transform themselves into horses; so much so, that the sacrifice of the god, that is, the god's death, is represented by the death of the horse. Every one knows that gods and heroes delighted in showing themselves good horsemen, or, at least, good charioteers. On this account, it would be difficult to say to which god in particular the horse is sacred. The Vedic Açvinâu, the Vedic aurora, who wins the race in her chariot, Agnis, Savitar, Indras, victorious and splendid by means of their steeds, the hippios Poseidôn, the hippeia Athênê, the hippodameia Aphroditê, the horsemen Dioscuri, Mars, Apollo, Zeus, Pluto, and the German Wuotan (like his _alter ego_, St Zacchæus), never show themselves otherwise than on horseback; hence the horse was naturally sacred to all of them. In the Christian faith, the innumerable gods of the ancients having become innumerable saints (when they were not so unfortunate as to degenerate into devils), the horse is now recommended in its stable to the protection of several saints, from the obscure Sicilian St Aloi to the no less modest Russians St Froh and St Laver, who take the horse, as well as the mule and the ass, under their especial protection, not to speak of the glorious horsemen St George, St Michael, St James, St Maurice, St Stephen, St Vladimir, and St Martin, especially revered by warriors, and in whose honour the principal orders of knighthood in Europe were founded. But religions being, from one point of view, the caricature of mythologies, there is now some difference between the mythical old deities and the legendary new ones, inasmuch as the former would at times ingenuously accept the homage of the animal in effigy, as we have observed in the preceding chapter; while the latter, and they who purvey to them upon earth, not being quite so simple, never leave their devotee in peace until they have received, at sight and without discount, the full value of their favours. In the Life of San Gallo, we read that, in the times of King Pepin (we already know what these times mean), a certain Willimar, being ill, promised, if cured, to offer a horse to the Church of San Gallo. Having recovered his health, he forgot his promise; but passing one day before the church of the saint, his horse stopped before the gate, and by no possibility could it be induced to-move on, until Willimar had at last declared his intention of fulfilling his vow. In the Life of St Martin, there is a rather gayer variation of the same anecdote. King Clodoveus, after having become a Christian, when fighting against the Visigoths, promises his own horse to St Martin, if he grants the victory to him. Having obtained it, Clodoveus regrets being obliged to deprive himself of his good charger, and beseeches St Martin to be kind enough to take money instead, offering him a hundred pieces of gold. St Martin thinks the sum insufficient, and asks for double, which Clodoveus gives; but, inasmuch as a little heretic blood still runs in his veins, he cannot refrain from aiming a pointed witticism at him: "Martinus, quantum video, auxiliator est facilis, sed mercator difficilis!"[685]

FOOTNOTES:

[526] The word _atyas_ has the same meaning.

[527] Yungantv asya kâmyâ harî vipakshasâ rathe çonâ dhrishnû nrivâhasâ; _Rigv._ i. 6, 2.

[528] Vacoyugâu; _Rigv._ i. 7, 2.

[529] Yukshvâ hi keçinâ harî vrishanâ kakshyaprâ; _Rigv._ i. 10, 3.

[530] Sûracakshasah; _Rigv._ i. 16, 1.

[531] Indrâya vacoyugâ tatakshur manasâ harî; _Rigv._ i. 20, 2.

[532] Saudhanvanâ açvâd açvam atakshata; _Rigv._ i. 161, 7.

[533] Vi ganân chyâvah çitipâdo akhyan ratham hiranyaprâugam vahantah; _Rigv._ i. 33, 5.

[534] Indro vañkû vañkutarâdhi tishthati; _Rigv._ i. 5, 11.

[535] Yukshvâ madacyutâ harî; _Rigv._ i. 81, 3.

[536] Vâm açvinâ manaso gaviyân rathah svaçvah; _Rigv._ i. 117, 2.

[537] Â tvâ yachantu harito na sûryam ahâ viçveva sûryam; _Rigv._ i. 130, 2.

[538] Harî sûryasya ketû; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 6.

[539] Ghritaçcutam svâram asvârshtâm; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7.

[540] Pra ye dvitâ diva ringanty âtâh susammrishtâso vrishabhasya mûrah; _Rigv._ iii. 43, 6.

[541] Indra haribhir yâhi mayûraromabhih; _Rigv._ iii. 45. 1.

[542] Sholhâ yuktâh panca-pancâ vahanti; _Rigv._ iii. 55, 18.

[543] Patatribhir açramâir avyatibhir dansanâbhih; _Rigv._ vii. 69, 7. The Açvinâu also are called dravatpânî (swift-hoofed); _Rigv._ i. 3, 1.

[544] Açvatarî--rathenâgnir âgimadhâvattâsâm prâgamâno yonimakûlayattásmâttâ na vigâyante. Gobhirarunâirushâ âgimadhâvattasmâdushasyagatâyâmarunamivaeva prabhâtyushasorûpamaçvarathenendra âgimadhâvattasmâtsa uccâirghosha upabdimânkshatrasya rûpamâindro hi sa gadarbharathenâçvinâ udagayatâmaçvinâvâçnuvâtâm; _Ait. Br._ iv. 2, 9.

[545] Tvâshtrî tu savitur bhâryâ vadavârupadhârinî asûyata mahâbhâgâ sâ 'ntarîkshe 'çvinâvubhâu; _Mbh._ i. 2599.

[546] _Il._ x. 352.

[547] In the Monferrato, according to the information kindly given me, concerning the beliefs relative to animals current in this country, by Dr Giuseppe Ferraro, the young collector of the popular songs and stories of the Monferrato, it is believed that the horse's teeth hung upon the necks of infants at the breast cause them to cut their teeth, and that the two incisors of the horse, when worn, are a spell to charm away every evil.

[548] _Mbh._ i. 1093-1237.

[549] Cfr. the first of the Tuscan stories of _Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_.--In the preceding chapter, we have seen how the apples of a certain apple-tree cause horns to grow on whoever eats them. In an unpublished Italian story, instead of the apple-tree, we have the fig-tree, and instead of horns, the tail. It is narrated by an old man of Osimo, in the Marches:--Three poor brothers, having but little inclination for work, go in search of fortune round the world. Overtaken in the country by night, they fall asleep in the open air. A fairy, under the aspect of a hideous old woman, comes up and wakens them, offering herself as their wife. The three brothers excuse themselves, and declare that they wish for nothing except a little money with which to make merry. The fairy answers, "Tell me what you wish for, and you shall have it." The first asks for a purse, which shall always be full of money; the second for a whistle, by blowing into which a whole army of brave combatants would be summoned to his side; the third a mantle, which would make its wearer invisible. The fairy satisfies them, and then disappears in flames, like the devil. The eldest brother, Stephen, goes with his purse into Portugal, where he plays and loses, but still remains rich. This comes to the queen-dowager's ears, who wishes to see the stranger, hoping to possess herself of his secret; she feigns to love him, and the wedding-day is fixed; but before it comes she has already gained his confidence, and taking the purse from him, she orders him to be flogged. Stephen returns to his brothers, relates his grievance, and proposing to revenge himself upon the queen, induces them to lend him the whistle, which calls armies into existence. The queen softens towards him, protesting that she expected to the last that he would have appeared on the day appointed for the wedding, and that he had been flogged without her knowledge. Stephen gives way, and the whistle passes out of his hands into those of the queen. He is flogged again, but twice as severely as before. Again he has recourse to his brothers; he implores, supplicates, and promises to get everything back by the miraculous mantle; but having obtained it, he allows himself to be deceived once more by the queen. Deprived of everything, he wanders about in despair, reduced to beggary. In the middle of January, he sees a tree covered with beautiful figs; desirous of them, he eats with avidity; but for every fig that he swallows, a span of tail as thick as a boa grows on to him. He goes on his way, still more desperate, till he finds more figs, of a smaller size; he eats them, and the tail disappears. Contented with this discovery, he fills a basket with the first figs, and disguised as a countryman, comes to the palace of the Queen of Portugal. Every one marvels on seeing such fine figs in January. The queen buys the basket, and every one eats; but tails immediately grow on their backs. Stephen then dresses himself as a doctor, and with the little figs, cures many persons. The queen has him called; he obliges her to confess to him first, and in the confession makes her say where the three marvellous gifts of the fairy are kept. Having recovered them, he leaves the queen with ten spans of tail, and returns rich and happy to his brothers. In this story there must be some parts wanting; it is probable that the fairy warned the brothers not to discover their secret to any one. The last enterprise, moreover, is more likely to have been undertaken by the third brother, who always assumes in fairy tales the part of the cunning one, than by the first-born, who in this story represents the part of the fool.--Polydorus speaks of the horse's tail as a chastisement for an insult to Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, in the thirteenth book of his _Hist. Angl._:--"Irridentes Archiepiscopum, caudam equi cui insidebat, amputarunt. At postea nutu Dei ita accidit, ut omnes ex eo hominum genere qui id facinus fecissent, nati sunt instar brutorum caudati."

[550] Hiranyakarnam manigrîvam arnas; _Rigv._ i. 122, 14.

[551] _Ilíou Halôsis_, 65-72.

[552] In the before-quoted collection of Radloff, _Täktäbäi Märgän_.

[553]

Longa solitos caligine pasci
Terruit orbis equos; pressis hæsere lupatis
Attoniti meliore polo; rursusque verendum
In chaos obliquo pugnant temone reverti.
Claudianus, _De Raptu Proserpinæ_, ii. 193.

[554] _Phainomena_, 215.

[555] _Mbh._ i. 1470, 1471.

[556] Quelli cavalli che sono de pilo morello se fanno de humore colerico impero che e più caldo humore et sicco che non e lo sangue et per questo produce ad nigredine el pelo. _I tre Libri della Natura Dei Cavalli et del Modo di medicar le Loro Infermità_, composti da Maestro Agostino Columbre; _Prologo._ 6, Vinegia, 1547.

[557]

Hippomanes phüton esti par Arkasi tôi d'epi pasai
Kai pôloi mainontai an ôrea, kai thoai hippoi; ii. 48.

[558] Devennosi corrigere et emendare quelli li quali se posseno dire heretici, impero che voleno dire che quelle tal bestie che portano li crini advolte et atrezate; et con loro poco cognoscimento dicono che sono le streghe che li cavalcano et chiamanli cavalli stregari;" _Prologo._ 10, the work quoted before.--Cfr. on the Damavoi, Ralston, _The Songs of the Russian People_, p. 120, 139.

[559]

Hippous melaínas ou kalon pantôs blepein
Hippôn de leukôn opsis, aggelôn phasis.

In Tuscany, flying horses, when seen in dreams, announce news; no doubt, this flying horse seen in dreams can only refer to the nocturnal voyage of the solar horse.

[560] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_, Leipzig, 1870.

[561] The Hungarians call the bier of the dead St Michael's horse; Neo-Greek popular songs represent the ferryman of the dead, Charon, on horseback; in Switzerland, the sight of a horse is a harbinger of approaching death for a person seriously ill.--Cfr. Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 163, 164.

[562] _Afanassieff_, v. 37.

[563] _Ib._ v. 54.

[564] _Afanassieff_, i. 6.

[565] _Ib._ ii. 25.--Cfr. iii. 5, iv. 27.

[566] _Afanassieff_, ii. 28.

[567] _Ib._ iv. 41.--In the twenty-first story of _Erlenwein_, the poor brother obtains wealth by means of a mare's head, while the rich brother, on the other hand, becomes poor.--In _Af._ v. 21, the dwarf-boy, who possesses great strength, enters into the ear of one of the two horses when in the act of ploughing; upon which they plough of their own accord, and the old father of the dwarf is at liberty to rest.--In the sixth Calmuck story, the head of the dead horse, when fallen from the tree, brings riches and good luck to him who lets it fall, who finds under it a golden cup: this is a form of the ambrosia which comes out of the horse's head, which we shall find farther on.

[568] The Russian text seems to me of too much importance, in the history of myths, not to deserve to be recorded here: "Iediet apiát vsadnik: sam cornoi, adiet va vsiem cornom; na cornom kanié; padskakál k varótam babijaghí i is-cesz, kak skvosz szemlin pravalílsia; nastála noc."

[569] Idiót aná i draszít. Vdrúg skacet mimo iejá vsadnik sam bieloi, adiet v bielom, kon pod nim bieloi, i sbruja na kanié biélaja; na dvarié stalo raszvietát. Idiót aná dalshe, kak skacet drugoi vsadnik; sam krasnoi, adiét v krasnom i na krasnom kanie; stalo vshódit solntze.

[570] Yah pâurusheyena kravishâ samañkte yo açvyena paçunâ yâtudhânah yo aghnyâyâ bharati kshîram agne teshâin çîrshâni harasâpi vriçca; _Rigv._ x. 87, 16.--Cfr. the dragon that torments the horses in the _Tuti-Name_ of Rosen, ii. 300.

[571] Tad agne cakshuh prati dhehi rebhe çaphârugam yena paçyasi yâtudhânam; _Rigv._ x. 87, 12.--The demon Hayagrîvas killed by Vishnus, which is the same as horse's neck, and Hayaçiras, or horse's head, another monster giant in the _Râmâyanam_, iv. 43, 44, always refer to the Vedic açva-yâtudhânas. We are already acquainted with the demon who, during the night, makes the horses sweat and grow lean, _i.e._, who makes them ugly. In the Latin tradition, after having assisted the Romans in the battle of the Lake Regillus, Castor and Pollux were seen, near the ambrosial lacus Iuturnæ (Ovidius, _Fasti_, i.), to wash the sweat off their horses with the water of this lake, which was near the temple of Vesta. To this Macaulay alludes in his verses--

"And washed their horses in the well
That springs by Vesta's fane."
--_Battle of the Lake Regillus_, xxxix.

The salutary water of the Dioscuri, or sons of the luminous one, would here occupy the place of the fire lighted by night in stables, and of the Vedic Agnis who kills the monster of horses. My friend Giuseppe Pitrè writes me, that in Sicily, when an ass, a mule, or a horse is to enter a new stable, salt is put upon its back (a form of Christian baptism), in order that the fairies may not lame it.--The Küllaros, the heroic horse of the Dioscuri, is perhaps not unrelated to the word _küllos_, which means lame and bent; the solar horse, before being heroic, is hump-backed, lame, lean, and ugly; the lame hero, the lame horse (ass or mule), the lame devil, seem to me to be three _penumbræ_ of the solar hero, or of the sun in the darkness.

[572] Vibhir ûhathur rigrebhir açvâih; _Rigv._ i. 117, 14.--Cfr. vii. 69, 7.

[573] Açvain na gûlham açvinâ durevâir rishim narâ vrishanâ rebham apsu; _Rigv._ i. 117, 4.--The Açvinâu pass the sea upon a chariot, which resembles a ship; this chariot is said to have the sun for a covering--rathena sûryatvacâ; _Rigv._ i. 47, 9.

[574] Yam açvinâ dadathuh çvetam açvam aghâçvâya çaçvad it svasti; _Rigv._ i. 116, 6.

[575] Agnis tuviçravastamain tuvibrahmânam uttamam atûrtam çrâvayatpatim putram dadâti dâçushe--Agnir dadâti satpatim sâsâha yo yudhâ nribhih agnir atyam raghushyadam getâram aparâgitam; _Rigv._ v. 25, 5, 6.

[576] _Rigv._ i. 155, 6.

[577] i. 154, 4.

[578] Vishnor nu kam vîryani pra vocam yah pârthivâni vimame ragânsi yo askabhâyad uttaram sadhastham vicakramânas tredhorugâyah; _Rigv._ i. 154, 1.

[579] Yadâ te vishnur ogasâ trîni padâ vicakram âd it te haryatâ harî vavakshatuh; _Rigv._ viii. 12, 27.

[580] _Râmây._ iv. 40.

[581] Yuktas te astu dakshina uta savyah çatakrato tena gâyâm upa priyâm mandâno yâhy andhaso yogâ; _Rigv._ i. 82, 5.

[582] Tad û shu vâm agiram ceti yânain yena patî bhavathah sûryâyâh; _Rigv._ iv. 43, 6.--In the following hymn, strophe 1st, the aurora is called now daughter of the sun, now cow: Tam vâm ratham vayam adyâ huvema prithugrayam açvinâ samgatim goh--Tah sûryâm vahati.

[583] Rathasya naptyah; _Rigv._ i. 50. 9.

[584] _Rigv._ i. 116, 10.

[585] vi. 9.

[586] The lake of Brâhman, visited by Hanumant in the _Râmâyanam_, vi. 53, has the form of a horse's snout (hayânanam).

[587] Indro dadhîco asthabhir vritrâny apratishkutah gaghâna navatîr nava; _Rigv._ i. 84, 13, 14, i. 117, 22, and the corresponding commentary of Sâyanas.--The bones of the heroic horse possess strength equal to that of the horse itself; thus in the last chapter we have seen how, when the bones of the sacrificed bull or cow are kept, it springs up again with renewed strength.--Cfr. concerning this subject the interesting and copious details relating to European beliefs to be found in Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_, i. 219-253.

[588] ii. 24.

[589] Divo napâtâ; _Rigv._ i. 182, 1.

[590] As to the Vedic passage, v. 76, 3, where it would seem that the Açvinâu are invoked in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, there seems to me to be room for discussion. The text says: Utâ yâtam sañgave prâtar ahno (that is, in the early dawn, when the cows are gathered together), madhyandine (which, in my mind, is the middle term which separates the gloomy hours from the luminous ones), uditâ sûryasya (which, meaning the rising of the sun, cannot express evening, but precisely the rising of the morning sun). We too would have thus expressed the three moments in the morning in which it was opportune to invoke the Açvinâu.

[591] Sushupvânsam na nirriter upasthe sûryam na dasrâ tamasi kshiyantam çubhe rukmam na darçatam nikhâtam ud ûpathur açvinâ vandanâya; _Rigv._ i. 117, 5.

[592] Madhuprishtham ghoram ayâsam açvam; _Rigv._ ix. 89, 4.

[593] _Rigv._ viii. 104, 15-25.

[594] Quoted in Muir's _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 264.--Somas united with Agnis in the _Rigvedas_, Somas united with Rudras, seem, in my opinion, to be the same as Somas united with Indras.--Cfr. Muir, v. 269, 270.

[595] xii. 1, quoted by Muir in his _Sanskrit Texts_, v. 224.

[596] In the _Edda_ we find the Açvinâu under the forms of night and day. Odin took Natt and Dag her son, gave them two horses and two drays, and placed them in the heavens to go round the earth in twenty-four hours. Natt was the first to advance with Hrimfaxe, her horse; he scatters every morning the foam from his bit upon the earth; it is the dew. The horse of Dag is named Skenfaxe; the air and the earth are illumined by his mane.

[597] Â vâm patitvam sakhyâya gagmushî yoshâvrinîta genyâ yuvâm patî; _Rigv._ i. 119, 5.

[598] Cfr. the legends relating to Cyavanas cured by the Açvinâu in the _Çatapatha Brâhmanam_ and in the _Mahâbhâratam_, referred to by Muir in the above-quoted fifth volume of the _Sanskrit Texts_, p. 250, and those following.

[599] In the _Rigv._ i. 8, 2, also, the invokers of Indras desire to fight the enemies, the monsters Mushtihatyayâ and Arvatâ, by fist and by horses.

[600] _Mbh._ i. 6484-6504.

[601] _Râmây._ i. 49, ii. 7.

[602] iv. 12.

[603] iv. 7, 17.

[604] iv. 8.

[605] iv. 10.

[606] _Râmây._ iv. 8.

[607] The Persian hero often takes his name from his horse or his horses; hence Kereçâçpa, Vîstâçpa, Argâçp, Gustâçp, Yapâçp, Pûrushâçpa, Açpâyaodha, &c.

[608] Cfr. Spiegel's _Avesta_, ii. 72.--In the Servian stories of Wuck, one of two brothers sleeps, transformed into stone with all his people, until the other comes to free and resuscitate him.

[609] i. 91, and following, Rosen's version.

[610] ii. 20, and following.

[611] ii. 157.

[612] _Tuti-Name_, i. 151.

[613] Cfr. a zoological variety of this myth in the chapter on the Cock and the Hen.

[614] This is a variety of the legend of the Tzar's daughter enamoured of Emilius, the foolish and idle, though fortunate, youth, whom the indignant Tzar orders to be shut up in a cask and thrown with her lover into the sea, as we have seen in the first chapter.

[615] iv. 24.

[616] We shall shortly find the hare (the moon) who devours the mare.

[617] i. 53.

[618] U kavó preszde sviecâ sama saboi zagaritsia, tot tzar budiet.

[619] Tzelijá kuci zolotá v anbarah nasipani; cto ni pluniet on, to vsié zólotom; dievat niekudá!

[620] It will, I hope, be deemed not inappropriate to quote here the words with which Professor Roth begins his essay upon the legend of Çunahçepas in the first volume of the _Indische Studien_: "Die Deutung der indischen Sagengeschichte sucht noch die Regeln, nach welchen die das überlieferte verworrene Material behanden soll. Eine und dieselbe Sage wird vielleicht in zehn verschiedenen Büchern in zehnfacher Form erzählt. Glaubt man einen festen Punkt gefunden zu haben, auf welchen nach einem Berichte die Spitze der Erzählung zusammenläuft, so streben andere Berichte wieder nach ganz anderem Ziele und treiben denjenigen, der einen festen Kern der Sage fassen will, rathlos im Kreise herum. Die Widersprüche, mit welchen ein Sammler und Ordner griechischer Heldensagen zu kämpfen hat, sind lauter Einklang und Klarheit im Vergleiche zu dem wirren Knäuel, in welchen die Willkühr indischer Poeten die reichen Ueberlieferungen ihrer Vorzeit zusammengeballt hat."

[621] ix. 37, 3.--I observe that the same craft as that used by the two brothers to steal the treasure, in an as yet unpublished fairy tale of the Canavese in Piedmont, was employed by the inexperienced robber, who becomes at length very skilful to rob the loaves from the baker's oven. The Piedmontese thief makes an opening from without, and thus carries the bread off. The same thief then steals the king's horse. At first, he learns his profession from the chief of the robbers. The chief sends him the first time to waylay some travellers, and bids him leap upon them; the young thief obeys these directions to the letter; he makes the travellers lie down and then jumps upon them, but does not rob them. The second time the chief tells him to take the travellers' quattrini (the name of a very small coin, by which money in general is also expressed). The young thief takes the quattrini alone, and lets the travellers keep their dollars and napoleons. At last, however, he becomes an accomplished thief.

[622] Cfr. in the same _Pentamerone_, the ninth story of the first book; the eighteenth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_; the thirty-ninth of the Sicilian stories of the _Gonzenbach_; the sixtieth and the eighty-fifth story of Grimm's collection, _Kinder und Hausmärchen_; the tenth of Kuhn and Schwartz's _Märchen_; the twenty-second of the Greek stories of Hahn, _Griechische und Albanesische Märchen_; the fourth of Campbell's in _Orient und Occident_; the first book of the _Pancatantram_, and the twelfth story of the fifth book of the same; and Cox, the work quoted before, i. 141, 142, 161, 281, 393, &c.

[623] In the _Pentamerone_, i. 9, the queen's son does the same with the wife of his twin-brother; "Mese la spata arrancata comme staccione 'miego ad isso ed a Fenizia."

[624] In the corresponding collections of Ferraro, Bolza, and Wolf.--Cfr. the end of the twenty-eighth of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_.

[625] i. 807 and following.

[626] iv. 4.

[627] i. 41-43.

[628] _Râmây._ i. 13.

[629] i. 13.

[630] In the Western stories, instead of the horse's fat or marrow, it is generally the fish eaten by the queen and her servant-maid which gives life to the two brothers, who become three when the water in which the fish was washed is given to be drunk by the mare or the bitch, whence the son of the mare or bitch is born. I have already attempted to prove the identity of the fish with the phallos; the fish eaten by the queen, the maid, the mare, or the bitch, which renders them pregnant, seems to me a symbol of coition. The horse's fat or marrow smelled by the queen seems to have the same meaning.

[631] Vâgino devagâtasya sapteh pravakshyâmo vidathe vîryâni; _Rigv._ i. 162, 1.--Sûrâd açvam vasavo nir atashta; _Rigv._ i. 163, 2.

[632] Sâdhur na gridhnuh; _Rigv._ i. 70, 11.

[633] Vikroçatâm nâdo bhûtânâm salilâukasâm çrûyate bhriçâmârttânâm viçatâm vadavâmukham; _Râmây._ iv. 40.--Aurvas, who, in the shape of a horse's head, swallows the water of the sea and vomits flames, is a variety of the same solar myth; _Mbh._ i. 6802, and following verses.

[634] Hiranyaçriñgo yo asya pâdâ manogavâ; _Rigv._ i. 163, 9.--Tava çriñgâni vishthitâ purutr âranyeshu garbhurânâ caranti. 11.--We find the stag in relation with the horse, as his stronger rival until man mounts upon the horse's back, in the well-known apologue of Horace, _Epist._ i. 10.

"Cervus equum pugna melior communibus herbis
Pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo
Imploravit opes hominis, frenumque recepit;
Sed postquam victor discessit ab hoste,
Non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore."

[635] Vriksho nishthito madhye arnaso yam tâugryo nâdhitah paryashasvagat; _Rigv._ i. 182, 7.

[636] _Afanassieff_, v. 11.

[637] Apa yor indrah pâpaga â marto na çaçramâno bibhîvân çubhe yad yuyuge tavishîvân; _Rigv._ x. 105, 3.

[638] Iasya samsthe na vrinvate harî samatsu çatravah; _Rigv._ i. 5, 4.

[639] Açvyo vâro abhavas tad indra; _Rigv._ i. 32, 12; and the Hindoo commentator notes that Indras chased the enemy as the tail of a horse shakes off the insects that place themselves upon it, which it is much more natural to believe of the tail of Indras's horse, which is covered with milk, butter, honey, and ambrosia.

[640] _Rigv._, the hymn quoted before, i. 84, 13, 14; Agnis, too, is honoured as a tailed horse (vâravantam açvam), _Rigv._ i. 27, 1.

[641] Rigipyam çyenam prushitapsum âçum carkrityam aryo nripatim na çûram--vâtam iva dhragantam--uta smâsya tanyator iva dyor righâyato abhiyugo bhayante yadâ sahasram abhi shîm ayodhîd durvartuh smâ bhavati bhîma ringan; _Rigv._ iv. 38, 2, 3, 8.

[642] Avakrâmantah prapadâir amitrân; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7.

[643] vi. 49.

[644] Cfr. Simrock, _Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie_, p. 375, and Rochholtz, the work quoted before.

[645] _Afanassieff_, ii. 24.

[646] _Ib._ v. 6.

[647] _Ib._ v. 35.

[648] Povíshe liessú stajácavo, ponísze ablaká hadiácavo.

[649] For instance, in the _Pentamerone_, iii. 7, where the king of Scotland sends Corvetto to steal the horse of the ogre who lives ten miles distant from Scotland: "Haveva st' Huorco no bellissimo cavallo, che pareva fatto co lo penniello, e tra le autre bellizze no le mancava manco la parola." When Corvetto carries off the horse, it cries out, "A l'erta ca Corvetto me ne porta."--Cfr. also the _Pentamerone_, iii. 1.--Not only has the horse the gift of speech, but the chariot too: in the seventh book of the _Râmâyanam_, 44, the chariot Pushpakam speaks to Râmas, and says to him that he alone is worthy of driving it.

[650] _Afanassieff_, vi. 46.--Cfr. also v. 22, and the 26th of the _Novelline di Santo Stefano di Calcinaia_.

[651] i. 61, 15.

[652] Anaçvo gâto anabhîçur arvâ; _Rigv._ i. 152, 5.

[653] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_.

[654] Sapta svasârah suvitâya sûryam vahanti harito rathe; _Rigv._ vii. 66, 15.

[655] Adha kratvâ maghavan tubhyam devâ anu viçve adaduh somapeyam yat sûryasya haritah patantîh purah satîr uparâ etaçe kah; _Rigv._ v. 29, 5.

[656] Â no nâvâ matînâm yâtam parâya gantave, yungâthâm açvinâ ratham; _Rigv._ i. 46, 7.

[657] Krandad açvo nayamâno ruvad gâur antar dûto na rodasî carad vâk; _Rigv._ i. 173, 3.

[658] Ghritaçcutam svâram asvârshtâm; _Rigv._ ii. 11, 7.

[659] ... in equæ genitalem partem demissam manum, cum ad eum locum ventum esset, naribus equi admovit, quo odore irritatus ante omnes hinnitum edidit, auditoque eo sex reliqui summæ potestatis continuo equis dilapsi candidati, ut mos est Persarum, humi prostratis corporibus Darium regem salutarunt; Valerius Maximus, _Mem._ vii.; _Herodotus_, iii. 87. Herodotus also refers to another variation of the same anecdote, where he adds, that at the first dawn of day it lightninged and thundered.

[660] Devî gîrâ rathânâm; _Rigv._ i. 48, 3.--Çatam rathebhih subhagoshâ iyam vi yâty abhi mânushân; i. 48, 7.

[661] Upa tmani dadhâno dhury âçûnt sahasrâni çatâni vagrabâhuh; _Rigv._ iv. 29, 4.

[662] Cfr. _Rigv._ iv. 3, 11; iv. 13, 3.

[663] Cfr. Böhtling u. Roth, _Sanskrit Wörterbuch_, s. v. _açvin_.

[664] Kuhn u. Schwartz, p. 330.--The English proverbial expression, "a mare's nest," now used to denote an impossibility, probably originally referred to a real myth.

[665] _Künêgetikôn_, i. 284.

[666] ii. 3.--"Allecordatose d'haver 'ntiso na vota da certe stodiante, che le cavalle de Spagna se'mpreñano co lo viento;" and the story goes on to speak of the ogre's surprise, who, seeing a beautiful maiden in his garden, "penzaie che lo shiavro de lo pideto, havesse 'ngravedato quarche arvolo, e ne fosse sciuta sta penta criatura; perzo abbracciatala co gran'ammore, decette, figlia mia, parte de sto cuorpo, shiato de lo spireto mio, e chi me l' havesse ditto mai, che co na ventosetate, havesse dato forma a ssa bella facce?" Varro seriously wrote: "In fætura res incredibilis est in Hispania, sed est vera, quod in Lusitania ad Oceanum in ea regione, ubi est oppidum Olyssipo monte Tagro, quædam e vento concipiunt equæ, ut hic gallinæ solent, quarum ova hypanemia appellant, sed ex his equis qui nati pulli, non plus triennium vivunt."

[667] Rathebhir açvaparnâih; _Rigv._ i. 88, 1.--In Horace, _Carm._ i. 14--

"Namque Diespiter,
Igni corusco nubila dividens,
Plerumque per purum tonantes
Egit equos, volucremque currum."

[668] Açrûni câsya mumucurvâginah; _Râmây._ vi. 75.

[669] In the corresponding Italian stories, the hero or heroine, punished for some indiscretion, must, before being pardoned, wear out seven pairs of iron shoes, and fill seven flasks with their tears.

[670] Proximus diebus equorum greges, quos in trajiciendo Rubicon Marti consacraverat, ac sine custodibus vagos dimiserat, comperit pabulo pertinacissime abstinere, ubertimque flere.

[671] xvii. 426.

[672] iii. 740.

[673] Vrishâ tvâ vrishanam vardhatu dyâur vrishâ vrishabhyâm vahase haribhyâm sa no vrisha vrisharathah suçipra vrishakrato vrishâ vagrin bhare dhâh; _Rigv._ v. 36, 5.--In Piedmont there exists a game of conversation, consisting in the description of the presents which one intends making to one's bride, in which description the letter _r_ must never enter; he who introduces it loses the game.

[674] Vrishâyam indra te ratha uto te vrishanâ harî; _Rigv._ viii. 13, 31.

[675] Apâm phenena namuceh çira indrod avartayah; _Rigv._ viii. 14, 13.

[676] It is also called the canine cough, and it is believed on this account that it is cured when the children are made to drink where a dog has been drinking.

[677] _De Quadrupedibus_ i.

[678] Du Cange, _Gloss. Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis_, s. v. _caballus_.

[679] Vrshapânayo 'çvâh; _Rigv._ vi. 75, 7.

[680] Kârotarâc chaphâd açvasya vrishnah çatam kumbhân asincatam surâyah; _Rigv._ i. 116, 7.

[681] "One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was for many ages regarded with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock; and this mark was believed to have been made by one of the celestial chargers."--Macaulay, Preface to the _Battle of the Lake Regillus_.

[682] _Afanassieff_, iv. 45.

[683] The milk of white mares, which, according to Olaus Magnus (i. 24) was poured into the ground by the king of the Goths every year, on the 28th of August, in honour of the gods, who received it with great avidity, would seem to be an announcement of the imminent rains of autumn; the horse loses his ambrosial humour, and his end is at hand.

[684] The Græco-Latin proverb, "Equus me portat, alit rex," would seem also to have a mythical origin, and to refer to the mythical legend of the betrayed blind man, who carries the cunning hunchback or lame man; who sometimes only feigns lameness, in order to play off his practical jokes upon his companion.

[685] The fable in _Phædrus_, iv. 24, of the poet Simonides saved by the Dioscuri, is well known; but the gods punish the miser who refuses to give the reward that he had promised, not on their own account, but on account of the wrong done to the poet, whom they love. It is remarkable that, as the Latin legend shows us the horses of the Dioscuri perspiring, so Phædrus represents the Dioscuri themselves as--

"Sparsi pulvere
Sudore multo diffluentes corpore."

This sweat must be the crepuscular mists, in the same way as the poet Simonides, who alone escapes, being delivered by the Dioscuri, the ceiling of whose banqueting-hall he had ruined, seems to conceal an image of the sun saved from the night.