This brief sketch of Aryan religion, especially the early notions of virtue and divine power abiding in the Soma, shows us a truth which is every day becoming clearer; that the things which are thought to belong only to one religion are common to all religions. The Roman Catholic priest who elevates the consecrated bread called the 'host' (from Latin hostia, a victim), is after all but an imitator of the old Aryan worshipper who, when he offered the Soma, raised the wooden cup that held it.

(e) ARYAN MYTHS.

You know that there is found among every people what is called a mythology (from Greek muthos, a fable, and logos, a word), under which name may be classed all legends and traditions, and also the fairy tales to which boys and girls listen so eagerly. There is common to myth and folk-lore the stories of the loves and quarrels of gods and goddesses, the feasts they ate, and the foes they slew; of heroes fighting with monsters for the rescue of fair maidens from dark dungeons and enchanted castles, of love-sick princes crossing

wide seas in quest of the princess whom they wish to marry, and doing many deeds of daring to win her; of brave and cunning dwarfs that kill greedy, cruel and stupid giants; of strange creatures that lived in forest, in stream and underneath the ground— in Northern lands, known as nixies or watersprites; as trolls or hill-dwarfs; as golden-haired elves that come from Elf-home at moonlight to dance in fairy rings upon the grass and make the air gently tremble with the soft music of their magic harps; in Southern lands, the naiades or water-nymphs, the satyrs and fauns and pigmies —and, all the world over, the beings too many to name, that dwell in wonder-land. Then there are the legends that people the air with the spirits of the dead, with sheeted ghosts, thirsty vampires, witches and the like; that tell of strange powers for good or evil possessed by living and lifeless things, of men changed into bears and wolves and stones; of maidens changed into swans; of waters of life and death and forgetfulness; of magic horns, lamps, cudgels, table-cloths and necklaces ; of flasks that fill the ocean and talismans that open hidden stores of gold and gems; legends

G

accounting for the cross on the ass's back, the marks on the haddock, the bear's stumpy tail, the robin's red breast, the wasp's narrow waist, the echoes among the hills, the saltness of the sea, the spots on the moon, and so on. We must also include as more or less out-growths of myth the great Epics (or poems describing the deeds of heroes) of the Aryan nations; in Norseland the tales of the Volsungs; in England, the tales of King Arthur and his Round Table Knights; in Greece, the Iliad and Odyssey; and the minor stories which are found among many peoples, such as the skill of Tell the archer, and the mistake of the prince who slew the faithful dog Gellert, that had saved his child from the wolf. Now, strange to tell, just as the languages of the English, Russians, Hindus and other Aryan nations have come from one source, so also have many of their myths, legends and fairy tales. It is worth your while to hear how this has been found out.

Much that was passed by in former years as meaningless and unworthy of notice has in our day been looked at with care and found to be full of history and meaning.

Thus it has been with nursery tales, which of all things one might think would be the least likely to throw any light upon the past, or to yield instruction as they yield amusement. For some years learned men have taken down these tales from the lips of old goodies, unlearned peasants, and servants in India, Germany, Russia, Scotland and elsewhere, and on putting them side by side, have traced a strong likeness running through the whole. Now we are sure that the old grannies in Northern Europe did not learn their tales from Hindu books or story-tellers, and the resemblance can be explained only by supposing that the Aryan tribes carried with them from their one Asian home a common stock of stories as well as a common speech and a common name for the Heaven-Father.

What was the foundation of all these stories we shall presently see; but it cost great labour to get at, because the older form had become overlaid, the gods of the early myths being the heroes of mock history, and these again the giants and knights of fireside tales.

The question was asked if the mythologies of

the ancients were merely absurd stories invented to please a low, bad taste, or stories which held within them a pure meaning, hidden, but not departed? For if this better meaning could be found it might tell something of the purpose myths once served to those who framed them, and of the views they had of things.

In looking at the Greek myths, it seemed unlikely that a people who have made the world more beautiful to all of us, whose sweet singers charm us still, and of whose wise teachers the wisest of our time gladly learn, should have been the sons of men who invented out of filthy minds the mass of coarse and horrid stories which make up so much of their mythology; such as those telling of Kronos maiming his father and swallowing his own children; of Tantalus roasting his son and giving the gods his flesh to eat; and of Edipus killing his father and becoming the husband of his own mother.

The doubt led, as doubts always lead, to enquiry, and the enquiry brought out the truth that the older meaning of these tales had been forgotten by the later Greeks, the wisest among