CHAPTER III.

Enumeration and discussion of Causes — Singular and deceptive appearances of Nature — Exaggeration of the details and dura- tion of Phenomena' — Improper terms, ill- conceived and badly explained — Figurative expressions — Poetic style — Erroneous explanations of Emblematic Representations — Allegories and Fables adopted as real facts.
So great is the charm attached to anything of an extraordinary nature, that the man whose mind is but little enlightened, regrets when his dreams of the marvellous are dispelled by truth, and is vexed when forced to confess that the slightest unusual appearances are, in his eyes, capable of transforming the immove- able objects of nature into living or moving beings. This charm and the tendency to exaggeration, which is a consequence of it ; the permanence of those tra- ditions which would recal events as still existing that have ceased for ages ; the singular pride which nations have in transferring into* their own history; the fabulous and allegorical traditions received from some race preceding them ; incorrect expressions ; the still more inaccurate translations of ancient narratives ;
vol. i. c
18 CAUSES OF HISTORICAL FICTIONS.
the energy peculiar to the languages of antiquity; and the figurative style essentially belonging to poetry, — that is to say, to the first language in which the knowledge of the past was impressed on the memory of the people; the desire natural to a half civilized community to explain allegories and emblems, the meaning of which was known only to the learned ; that interest which leads both noble and base passions to make use of the marvellous in acting upon the credulity of the present and the future ; all conduce to deception, and are the causes which, separately or collectively, have debased the records of history with an immense number of marvellous fictions, although these reposi- tories of knowledge have not required their powerful aid.#
In order to disencumber truth from the mantle of the marvellous, it will be found sufficient to place, by the side of the pretended wonders, a similar fact not yet employed by superstition in support of her assertions ; and then to separate from the accessories attached to it, some one of those causes, the influence of which we have just noticed.
The ringing of the bells at Rheims had the effect of shaking one of the pillars in the Church of St. Nicasius;f
* One of these fictions, the production, duration, and univer- sality of which belong to the union of these different causes, appears to us worthy of a separate notice. See Appendix, note A. On Dragons and monstrous y Serpents, which have figured in a great number of historical and fabulous recitals.
f He was the ninth Bishop of Rheims. He was killed in the sacking of that city by the Vandals in 407. {Stilting' s Life of St. Viventius). — Ed.
TREMBLING MINARETS. 19
and giving to that heavy mass a vibration which con- tinues for some minutes. A minaret of brick near Da- mietta, also, received a very apparent movement from the pushing of a single man placed near its summit.* These accidents, which were certainly, neither foreseen nor intended by the architects would in the hands of a wonder-worker, become the act of some Divinity. The mosque of Jethro at Hhulehf is renowned for its trembling minaret. The officiating priest places his hands on the ball at its summit, and invokes Ali. At this sacred name the minaret trembles : and the movement is so violent, as to cause the curious who are mounted on its summit, to dread being precipitated below.
Many of the metamorphoses, and of the wonders con- secrated in the history, or embellished by the poetry of the Greeks and Latins, are no more than the historical translations of some particular names of men, nations, or places ;| and they might be easily explained, if instead of saying, that the recollection of the miracle had given origin to the name of the town, the man, the people, or the country, we should say, on the contrary, that the name had originated the miracle. We have confirmed
* Macrisius, quoted by E. Quatremère, Mémoires sur l'Egypte, tome i. p. 340.
t Hhuleh or Halleh, a town situated on the Euphrates, in the Pashalik of Bagdad. In 1741, the traveller A'bdoul Kerym, {Voyage de l'Inde à la Mekke, Paris, 1757), witnessed this miracle; he tried in vain to accomplish it himself, but he had not the secret of the priest.
. + Essai historique et politique sur les noms d'Hommes, de Peuples, et de Lieux, par Eugène Salverte. Passim.
c 2
20 RIVERS OF BLOOD EXPLAINED.
this remark in another place ; and have, at the same time, pointed out the origin of these significant names.
If the adoption of narrations evidently of fabulous origin, proceeds from a love of the marvellous, how much more readily will this disposition lead us to contem- plate with astonishment some of the sports of nature, such as the appearances of rivers flowing in waves of blood, or the resemblance of rocks to men, animals, or ships.
Memnon fell beneath the blows of Achilles ;# the Gods collected the drops of his blood, and formed of them that river which flows through the valley of the Ida.f Upon every anniversary of that fatal day, when the son of Aurora fell a victim to his courage, the waters of that river assume the colour of the blood from which their origin was derived. In this, as in a thousand other instances, the Greek tradition is copied from one still more ancient. From Mount Libanos flows the river Adonis : at the same period of every year, it assumes a deep red tint, and rolls in bloody looking torrents to the sea. It is the blood of Adonis ; and the prodigy indicates the period proper for commencing the mourn- ing ceremonies in honour of this demi-god. An inha- bitant of Byblos explained the phenomenon, by observing that the soil of Mount Libanos, where it is watered by the Adonis, is composed of a red earth ; and that, in a certain period of the year, the wind drying up the earth raises clouds of dust, and carries them into the river.
* Q. Calaber. Prœtermiss. ab Homer, lib. n. f Traite de la Déesse de Syrie, (Œuvres de Lucien), tome v. p. 143.
RIVERS OF MILK: STONE SHIPS. 21
The water of a lake at Babylon reddens for several days the colour of the earth bathed by it, " which suffices," says Athenius, " to explain the phenomenon." Analogous suppositions account for the change of colour, which the river Ida regularly experiences. During the rainy season, or when the snow is melting, its waters proba- bly reach and partly dissolve a bank of ochrous earth, impregnated with sulphate of iron, the presence of which is detected by the unwholesome vapours emitted from the stream. The miraculous appearance is thus reproduced only at a certain period; indeed, on that particular day when the waters of the river acquire their greatest elevation.
In Phrygia, where Diana is said to have rewarded the love of Endymion, is seen from a distance the spot which was the scene of their enjoyment ; and we are led to believe, that we see a rill of fresh milk of a dazzling white- ness flowing near it : but on approaching the spot, this milky rill disappears ; and, at the foot of the mountain, a simple channel* hollowed in the rock is all that is visible ; the prodigy has disappeared. An optical illu- sion which dispels itself, is sufficient nevertheless to perpetuate the belief in the existence of the lactiferous rill.
A rock near the island of Corfu has the appearance of a ship in sail.f Modern observers have confirmed this resemblance which also struck the ancients, and which is not a solitary instance. In another hemisphere, near the land of the Arsacides, a rock, named Eddystone, rises from the bosom of the waves, and so closely resembles a
* Plin. Hist. Natur. book iv. chap. xn.
t Observations sur Vlsle de Corfu, Bibliothèque Universelle, vol. il, p. 195.
22 STONE SHIPS.
ship in sail, that French and English navigators have heen more than once deceived.*
In the present day, we only note these singular objects. In the eyes of the ancient Greeks, the rock near Corfu was the vessel which, having brought Ulysses back to his country, was changed into a rock by Neptune, indignant that the conqueror of his son, Polyphemus, should again see Ithaca and Penelope. We must here observe, that this story is not founded on a poetic fiction only, but perpetuates a pious custom, practised by ancient navigators, of dedicating to the Gods a representation, in stone, of the vessel which had borne them safely in some perilous voyage. Agamemnon dedicated a vessel of stone to Diana, when this goddess, happily pacified, taught the art of navigation to the warlike ardour of the Greeks. A merchant in Corcyra consecrated to Jupiter a similar representation, which some voyagers, nevertheless, believed to be the ship in which Ulysses returned to his native land.f
A rock which is first descried upon the side of Mount Sipylus, was regarded by the ancients as the unfortunate Niobe transformed into stone by the anger, or the pity of the Gods. Q. Calaber notices this meta-
* Labilladière, Voyage à la recherche de la Pey rouse, 4to. Paris, an viii. tome i. p. 215.
f Procopius, Histoire mêlée, chap. xxn. Upon a high hill near the town of Vienna, department of the Iser, is a monument called the Boat of Stone. A vaulted cavern is all now remaining of it. Its name, explained by no local appearance or tradition, must have been preserved by some ancient fable. It most probably supported a boat of stone, dedicated to the Gods, by voyagers escaped ; from the perils of the Rhone navigation, and who placed it
STORY OF NIOBE. 23
morphosis, at once admitting and explaining it. " Far off," he exclaims, " is seen the figure of a woman stifled by sobs and melted in tears ; but on approaching nothing is visible but a mass of rock detached from the mountain."* " I have seen this Niobe," says Pausanias ; " it is a " craggy rock, which when viewed near, bears no resem- blance to a woman ; but, when seen from a distance, it has the appearance of a female figure, with the head bent down, as if shedding tears. "f
Endemic diseases have in figurative language been termed the arrows of Apollo and Diana, because their origin was referred to the influence of the sun and the moon upon the atmosphere ; or more properly to those sudden changes from heat to cold, and dryness to damp- ness, attendant upon the succession of day and night in a mountainous and wooded country. There is nothing more probable than that one of these diseases, peculiar to the neighbourhood of Mount Sipylus, should have carried off the children of a chief, before the eyes of their distracted mother. Superstitious man, ever imagining that he sees in misfortune the existence of crime, believed that Niobe, too proud of the prosperity of her
on so elevated a spot, that all passengers embarked on the river might see it.
* Q. Calaber, lib. i.
f Pausanias, Attic, xxi. — On the Calton Hill, at Edin- burgh, is a tower erected to the memory of Lord Nelson. The rock on which it stands displays nothing uncommon when viewed near, or at its base ; but at a distance, in some posi- tions, it represents a very accurate profile of the head of the hero. —Ed.
24 IMPRESSIONS UPON ROCKS.
numerous family, was justly punished for having dared to compare her happiness to that of the divinities, whose resentment she experienced : and in the remem- brance of this unfortunate mother, as well as observ- ing that the rock resembles a female figure, in tears, credulity beholds in it the portrait of Niobe. And all this may, with as much probability, have been a real history, as an allegory intended to show, by a picture of the instability of human prosperity, the folly of presumption. In either case, the priests of Apollo and Diana seconded, if they did not create, the established belief; and delighted to show upon Mount Sipylus, this imperishable monument of the vengeance of the Gods.
On surfaces of rocks, full of inequalities, are almost always to be found forms which recal to us some familiar object. The eye eager in discovering wonders would easily recognize these impressions, as the pro- duction of a supernatural power. I will not cite as an instance the impression of the foot of Budda upon the Peak of Adam, at Ceylon, because an attentive observer* has suspected it to be a work of art ; and this, probably, is also the case with the print of the foot of Gaudma, three times reproduced in the Burmese Empire, and which is more a hieroglyphicf than a freak of nature. But in Savoy, not far from Geneva, the credulous
* Dr. John Davy, who states this as his opinion in a letter to his brother, Sir Humphrey Davy.
f Symes' Travels in Ava, vol. n. p. 61 and 73, and atlas, plate viii.
IMPRESSIONS UPON ROCKS. 25
peasant shows a block of granite, upon which the devil and his mule have left evident traces of their footsteps. Traces, not less deep, upon a rock near Agrigentum, mark the passage of the cattle conducted by Hercules.* This hero's foot has left, also, near Tyras in Scythia an impression of two cubits in length jf and upon the banks of the Lake Regillus, the form of a horse's foot imprinted upon a very hard stone, attests the apparition of Dioscurus, who announced in Rome the victory gained by the Dictator Posthumus | over the Latins in that place.
Upon the sides of a grotto near Medina, the Mussul- man sees the impression of Mahomet's head ; and upon a rock in Palestine that of his camel's foot, as perfectly marked as it could be in the sand.§ Mount Carmel is honoured by preserving the print of Elijah's foot ; and that of the foot of Jonas is repeated four times near his tomb, in the neighbourhood of Nazareth. Moses, when hid in a cavern, left the impression of his back and arms upon the rock. Near Nazareth the mark of the Virgin Mother's knee is revered by Christian pilgrims ; also the impressions of the feet and elbows of our Saviour upon a rock rising from the middle of the Brook Cedron: and that of his foot in the identical place from which we are assured he quitted earth to ascend to his heavenly abode. The stone upon which the body of St. Catherine was laid, is said to have softened, and retains the
* Diod. Sic. lib. iv. cap. 6.
f Herodot. lib, iv. cap. 82.
% Cicer. De nat. Deor. lib. in. cap. 5.
§ Thévenot, Voyage au Levant, p. 300 et 320.
26 IMPRESSIONS UPON ROCKS.
impression of her back,* Not far from Manfredonia, our admiration is excited by the face of St. Francisf in relief, upon the rock of a grotto. Near the dolmen of Mavaux, the villagers exhibit a stone which the mare of St. Jouin struck, and left the impression of her foot, one day when the pious Abbé was tormented by the devil.j Another dolmen in the commune of Villemaur|| bears the print of St. Flavy's ten fingers.
Numerous as these instances are, (we might relate many more) they fatigue neither faith nor piety ; they are adopted and revered ; and, notwithstanding the falsehood of the stories, they are believed in most countries. §
At a little distance from Cairo, the impression of Mahomet's two feet is exposed to the veneration of the Faithful.^T The Mountain of the Hand, on the eastern bank of the Nile, is so named from being supposed to bear the impression of the hand of Christ.** At the
* Thévenot, ibidem, pages 319, 320, 368, 369, 370, 425 and 426.
t Swinburne's Travels, vol. n. p. 137.
X Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de France, tome vin. p. 454.
|| Mémoires de la Société d' Agriculture du Département de l'Aube, 1er trimestre.
§ How lamentable is it to reflect, that such pretended prodigies, the inventions of bigotry and misdirected enthusiasm, should be regarded as in any degree essential for propagating and supporting a faith, which requires nothing but its innate purity to prove its divine origin and to sustain its truth. — Ed.
5[ J. J. Mared. Contes du Cheghet Mohdy, tome in. p. 133.
** Khalil Dakery cited by E. Quatremère, Mémoires sur l'Egypte.
IMPRESSIONS UPON ROCKS. 27
north of the town of Kano in Soudan, there is a rock which presents to the zealous Mussulman a gigantic impression of the camel's foot, upon which Mahomet ascended to Heaven.* In the Church of St. Radegonde, in Poitiers, is a stone upon which our Saviour is said to have impressed the form of his foot ;f and upon a rock near Vienna, the inhabitants of the Department of La Charente still recognize the print of St. Madelaine's right foot.|
Near La Devinière, a place to which the memory of Rabelais has given a very different kind of celebrity, is to be seen the impression of a foot resembling that of St. Radegonde :§ so natural is it for man to attribute
* Travels in Africa, by Denham, Clapperton, andOudney, vol, in, p. 7 and 8, 1832.
t Mém. de la Société des Antiquaires de France, tome vu. p. 42, 43.
t Ibid.
§ Eloi Johanneau. Commentaire sur les Œuvres de Rabelais, t. v. p. 12. — Mankind do not always connect religious notions withtbe extraordinary ideas they adopt, when endeavouring to explain some unusual appearance in nature. At the foot of a precipitous rock, near Saverne, are four impressions, well marked, upon the red freestone (freestone of the Vosges). According to a tradition, some three or four centuries old, a nobleman pursuing a stag, or pursued himself by victorious enemies, was thrown from the summit of the rock without being hurt, the horse only leaving the print of his feet upon the stone. We must here observe that after the appearance of these prints of the horse's feet, other impres- sions less in size being discovered, the workmen, it is said, amused themselves by enlarging the latter and deepening the former. If it had not been for this last circumstance, the phenomenon would "naturally, in the present day, have attracted the attention of the learned. According to M. Humboldt and other naturalists,
28 PRETENDED PRODIGIES EXPLAINED.
some remarkable prodigy to places which his national vanity, or his religious faith, renders dear to him.
In proof of the opinion that there is a desire to convert natural objects into prodigies, Bethlehem for- merly offered a striking example. According to Gregory of Tours, when a person reposed upon the brink of a well, with the head covered up in linen, the star which guided the three Magi was seen to pass from one side of the well to the other, brushing the surface of the water : — " But," adds the historian, " it was visible to those pilgrims only who were by their faith worthy of such a favour : that is to say, to men whose minds were so preoccupied by the truth of the tradition as not to perceive in what they beheld, only a sunbeam reflected in the water."*
Secondly. In reducing to truth those histories in appearance fabulous, it will be often found sufficient
the impressions observed upon the freestone of Hildburghausen must have been made by footsteps of antediluvian animals, either quadrupeds or quadrumanni, before the stone had completely hardened. Mr. Hitchcock has discovered upon the red freestone of Massachusetts, an immense number of the impressions of the feet of birds of a species no longer existing ; but M. de Blainville thinks it possible that these may be only the impression of vegeta- bles, similar to those which the red freestone frequently pre- sents.
To this sensible note, the Editor would add, that impressions of the feet of animals have frequently been found by geologists in secondary rocks. An American geologist even asserts that the prints of human feet are to be seen in the secondary lime- stone of the Missisippi, near St. Louis. — American Journal of Science, vol. xxxiii. p. 76.
* Greg. Turon miracul. lib. § 1.
PRETENDED PRODIGIES EXPLAINED. 29
to reduce to natural proportions details evidently exag- gerated ; or to regard, as a weak and passing pheno- menon, that which is presented as a continued and active miracle. The diamond and the ruby, carried suddenly into darkness, after a long exposure to the light of the sun, emit for some time an apparent phosphorescent light : a circumstance, which, in the energetic style of the oriental writers, has produced accounts of diamonds and carbuncles illumining all night, by the fires they emit, the depths of a dark wood and the vast saloons of a palace.
Under the name of Roukh, or Roc, the same narrators have described a monstrous bird, whose strength exceeds all probability. In reducing this exaggeration to the measure of positive fact, Buffon was enabled to recog- nise in this Roc, an eagle, whose strength and dimensions nearly resembled those of the American Condor, or the hammer Geyer of the Alps.# As far as we can judge,
* Gypâetus barbatus, Bearded Griffin of the Alps of Ornitholo- gists, which Buffon confounded with the Condor, Surcoram- phus Gryphus, Great Vulture of the Andes. No better instance of the effect of exaggeration, in reference to natural objects, im- perfectly known, could be advanced, than the early accounts of the Condor. Setting aside writers of romance, we find Desmarchius, a naturalist, stating that the extended wings of the bird measure eighteen feet ; that it can carry off a stag, and will attack a man ; and Linnaeus, misled by the narrators of the wild and wonderful, says, " that in nearing the earth, the rushing of its wings renders men as if planet struck, and almost deafens them !" The. most authentic account of the largest Condor ever seen gives the mea- surement of the extended wings under fourteen feet ; and Hum- boldt saw none that exceeded nine feet. The utmost length of the male bird, from the tip of the beak to the extremity of the
30 TRADITION OF SCYLLA EXPLAINED.
the Roc differs in little from the Burkout,# a very strong black eagle, frequenting the mountains of Turkistan, of whom the inhabitants relate the most extraordinary stories, and have even declared it to be as large as a camel.
Although we may disbelieve all that has been related respecting the immense Kraken of the north ; and may accuse Pliny and Aelian of having exaggerated the dimensions of the two polypi of the sea, which were, nevertheless, seen by many who observed them, nearly at the same time when these authors wrote ; yet, it will be sufficient to admit with Aristotle, that the arms of these polypi grew sometimes to six feet seven inches in length : and, with the authors of the new Dictionary of Natural History, we may believe that they were able to destroy a man in an open boat.f What becomes, then, of the tradition of Scylla ? That monster, the scourge of the strongest fish that passed within its reach, and
tail, is rather more than three feet ; and his height, when perched, two feet nine inches. The head of the male bird carries a comb, and, like other vultures, the head and neck are bare of feathers. The plumage is black, except the wing coverts, which are white ; the claws are less powerful than those of the eagle. The Con- dor inhabits the Andes at an elevation of 10,000 to 15,000 feet above the level of the sea : it usually hunts in pairs, and the couple will attack large quadrupeds ; but Humboldt affirms that he never heard of men, nor even children having been carried off by them. From these facts the reader may form some idea of the reliance to be placed on extraordinary stories. — Ed.
* In Russian, Berkout ; in Chinese, Khar-tchaa Hiao. Guin- kowski, Voyage à Pékin, tome i. p. 415.
f See Pliny, Hist. Nat. lib. ix. cap. 30. Aelian. De Nat. Anim. lib. xin. cap. 6. Aristot. Hist. Animal, lib. 4 cap. 1. et le Nouveau Dictionnaire a" Histoire naturelle, 8vo. 1819, tome xxx. p. 462.
PLANTS POSSESSING MAGICAL PROPERTIES. 31
which, raising its six heads from beneath the water, drew in upon its long necks, six of Ulysses' rowers ?# If we substitute for the poetical exaggeration, the possible reality, this monster would be no more than an overgrown polypus of great size, fastened to the rock towards which these inexperienced navigators, fearing the whirlpool of Charybdis, directed their frail vessel. How many other fables in Homer are merely natural facts' aggrandized by the poetical conception of the narrators ?
In enumerating plants endowed with magical proper- ties, Pliny names three, which, according to Pythagoras, had the power of freezing water.f
In another place, without reference to magic, Pliny bestows a similar property on the hemp. According to him, the juice of this plant thrown into water, thickens it suddenly to the consistence of jelly.j Many mucila- ginous vegetables produce the same phenomenon in different degrees ; and, among others, the Althea cannabina of Linnseus, and the rose coloured Vervain, Verbena Aubletia. " We have observed," says Valmont de Bomasi, in speaking of this latter plant, " that three or four leaves bruised, and put into an ounce of water, will give to it in a few moments the consistence of apple jelly."§ Althaea cannabina produces the same effect to a
* Homer, Odyss. lib. xn. vers. 90, 100, et 245, 269.
f Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxiv. cap. 12 et 13.
+ Idem, lib. xx. cap. 23.
§ Dictionnaire d'Hist. Art. Obletia. The common Vervain, Ver- bena officinalis, indigenous in England, and many parts of Europe, had formerly the reputationof possessing wonderful magical powers.
32 PLANTS EMITTING LIGHT.
certain degree ; and it may also be obtained from every vegetable containing much mucilaginous matter : the fact before stated has been, therefore, merely exagge- rated.
The plant named by Aelian Cynospastos and Aglaophotis, and Barras by the historian Josephus, bears a flame coloured flower, which towards evening flashes like a kind of lightning.* It has been stated that a similar effulgence might be perceived upon the flower of the Nasturtium, at the moment of its fertilization; and, above all, in the evening after a very hot day. Experience has not confirmed this fact; nevertheless, we must not utterly reject the possibility of other vegetables, such as the Agaric of the Olive-tree, and the Euphorbia phosphorea, emitting such a light under particular circumstances. The error of Josephus and Aelian consists in supposing a casual phenomenon to be constant.!
" In the valleys bordering on the Dead Sea," says the traveller Hasselquist, " the fruit of the Solanum Me- lt was termed Hiera Botane, " Holy Herb," by Dioscorides ; and it entered into the composition of various charms and love-philters. Among the common people, it has still the reputation of securing affection from those who take it to those who administer it. It was held in great esteem by the Romans, and the Druids ; and the latter gathered it with religious ceremonies. These pretensions of the Vervain were first set aside by the good sense of our country- man John Ray, the Botanist. — Ed.
* Fl. Joseph de Bello jndaico. lib. vu. cap. 25; Aelian de Nat. animal, lib. iv. cap. 27. This plant is the Atropa Belladonna.
f Comptes rendus des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences, 2 vols. 1837.
PARTICULAR FACTS GENERALIZED. 33
longena (Linn.)# is attacked by an insect, (a Tenthredo) which converts the whole of the interior into dust, leaving the skin only entire, without destroying its form or colour." It is in the same district that Josephus places the Apple of Sodom, which, he relates, deceives the eye by its colour, and crumbles in the hand into ashes evolving smoke, a phenomenon intended to com- memorate, by a permanent miracle, a punishment as just as it was terrible. This particular incident, observed by the modern naturalist, has been generalized by the ancient historian, who has also added to it the divine malediction.
An American naturalistf affirms that, at the approach of any danger, the young of the rattle-snake take refuge in the mouth of their mother. A similar instance may have induced the ancients to suppose, that some animals produce their young by the mouth, thus drawing a most absurd and hasty conclusion from a real fact.
In some cases the duration of a phenomenon has been exaggerated, and in others that which has long ceased to exist, has been described as still existing. " The Lake Avernus," say the ancient writers, " received its name from the fact that birds could not fly over it
* Hasselquist, Voyage dans le Levant, tome n. p. 90. The traveller Broucchi not having found the Solanum Melongena on the borders of the Dead Sea, or near Jerusalem, thinks that Hassel - quist had been deceived, and that the Apple of Sodom is merely a gall nut, formed by the incision of an insect upon the Pistacia terebinthus. — Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, tome vi. p. 3.
t Will. Clinton. Preface to the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of New York, 1825. Bibliothèque universelle, Sciences, tome ii. p. 263.
VOL. I. D
34 LAKE OF AVERNUS.
without falling down dead, suffocated by the vapours exhaled from it." We know that, in the present day, birds fly with impunity near to its surface. Is the tradition thus cited then utterly false ? Some reasons induce me to doubt : — " For," says a traveller,* " the marshes of Carolina are in places so insalubrious, and so com- pletely surrounded by great woods, that, during the heat of the day, birds as well as aquatic animals die in attempting to cross them. Full of sulphureous springs,! and, like the marshes of Carolina, surrounded by thick forests, the Lake Avernusj formerly exhaled most pestilential vapours; but, Augustus having had these woods thinned, this insalubrity was succeeded by an agreeable wholesome atmosphere. The prodigy has ceased to exist, but the tradition has been obstinately preserved ; and the imagination struck with a religious terror, looked for a long time upon this lake as one of the entrances to the Valley of Death. §
* M. Bosc. Bibliothèque universelle, Sciences, tome v. (Mai, 1817), p. 24.
f Servius in JEneid. lib. in. vers. 441.
X Aristot. da Mirai. Auscult.
§ A real valley of death exists in Java. It is termed the Valley of Poison, and is filled to a considerable height with car- bonic acid gas, which is exhaled from crevices in the ground. If a man, or any animal, enter it he cannot return ; and he is not sensible of his danger until he feels himself sinking under the poisonous influence of the atmosphere which surrounds him, the carbonic acid of which it chiefly consists rising to the height of eighteen feet from the bottom of the valley. Birds which fly into this atmosphere drop down dead ; and a living fowl thrown into it, dies before it reaches the bottom, which is strewed with the carcases of various animals that have perished in the delete- rious gas. — Ed.
ILL-CONCEIVED EXPRESSIONS. 35
Thirdly. Improper or ill-conceived expressions, not less than exaggeration, tinge a real fact with a marvellous, false, or ridiculous colouring.
A popular error, the origin of which has been traced to the instructions of Pythagoras, had for a long time established some mysterious connection between parti- cular plants, and the diseases which men suffer at the period of their blossoming : and, although the disease might be perfectly cured, yet, when these plants flowered again, the individuals always re-experienced# some faint return of the disease. This is a fact incorrectly stated, in order to deceive the multitude who scarcely can distinguish the different periods of the year, except by the phenomena of vegetation: the fact has no connection with the plants, but strictly belongs to the revolutions of the seasons. The spring, for instance, frequently brings with it perio- dical returns of gout, rheumatism, and even diseases of the brain.f
The appearance of falsehood and prodigy, joined to impropriety of expression, is more striking when ancient authors repeat what has been related to them respecting foreign countries in any other language than their own ;
* Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxrv. cap. xvn.
f Although the above explanation is true in part ; yet, it is also true that various odours, such for instance as that of Ipeca- cuanha and of the Pelargonium or African Geranium, cause in some individuals an attack of spasmodic catarrh : in others the odour of sweet vernal grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum, brings on a fit of asthma attended with fever, hence the term hay-asthma ; and such persons always suffer at hay-making time, for as the grass dries, the odour is most powerfully exhaled. — Ed,
D 2
36 ILL-CONCEIVED EXPRESSIONS.
or when modern writers translate without fully under- standing the originals, and then accuse them of error.
" In the vicinity of the Red Sea," says Plutarch, " are seen creeping from the bodies of some diseased people little snakes, which, on any attempt to seize them re-enter the body, and cause insupportable suffering to the wretched beings."* This statement has been regarded as an absurd story, and yet it is an exact description of a disease called " the Guinea Worm," known not only in those regions, but on the coasts of Guinea and Hindoostan.f
Herodotus relates, that in India " ants larger than foxes, when digging their holes in the sand, discover the gold which is mixed with it." j Another edition of this mar- vellous narration, evidently compiled from the accounts of the ancients, describes animals existing in an island near the Maldives, which are larger than tigers, but in form
* Plutarch. Symposiac. lib. vm.
f The ' Guinea Worm' disease prevails in the marshy districts of Africa ; and among negroes in the West Indies, where it is endemic in the months of November, December, and January ; and in the same months at Bombay. The worm is the Filaria dra- cunculus : it is white, of great length, varying from eight inches to three feet ; and the thickness of a violin cord, throughout its entire length except at the tail, which is thin and curved. It is supposed to have an external origin, and its eggs to be taken into the habit with water used as drink ; but this opinion requires confirmation. It appears under the skin, and when it is about to issue, a small pustule rises, on the bursting of which the head of the worm is obtruded. It is removed by winding it round a piece of stick, desisting when it cannot be freely drawn forth, and continuing the winding until the whole is obtained. — Ed.
t Herod, lib. in. cap. en.
ILL-CONCEIVED EXPRESSIONS. 37
resembling ants.* In the sandy mountains containing gold dust near Grangue, some English travellers have seen animals whose forms and habits in some measure explain these accounts of Eastern and Greek historians.f
Fliny and Virgil describe the Seres as gathering silk from the tree which bears it, and which the poet likens to a cotton plant. j This too literal translation of a correct expression, makes it appear as if the silk were the produce of the tree, upon which insects deposit it, and from which men gather it. Ktesias speaks of " a " fountain in India, which was filled every year with " liquid gold. Every year the gold was dragged up " in a hundred earthern amphora, at the bottom of " which, when broken, the gold was found hardened, of " the value of a talent." || Larcher turns this account into ridicule, and particularly insists on the disproportion of the produce to the capacity of the fountain, which could not contain less than a cubic fathom of this liquid. §
Ktesias's account is correct, but not his expressions ; instead of saying liquid gold, he should have said gold suspended in water. In other places, he is careful to explain that it was the water, and not gold which they drew up. In the marshes of Libya, (to which Achilles Tatius compares the above mentioned spot), gold was
* Les Mille et un Jours, Jour cv. cvi. Aelian.
f Asiatic Researches, vol. xn. Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, tome i. p. 311, 312.
+ Pliny. Hist. Nat. lib. vi. cap. xvii. Virgil. Georg. lib. n. v. 120, 121, but Servius, in his Commentaries, assigns silk to its true origin.
|| Ktesias in Ind. apud. Photium.
§ Larcher, Traduction d'Hérodote, 2e édition, t. vr. p. 243.
38 FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS.
obtained by plunging poles plastered with pitch into the mud* of a fountain which was the basin of a gold washing; such as exists wherever rivers or soils containing auriferous earth are to be found, and of which some very important ones exist in Brazil.
For extracting the gold the method used in the present day was that employed : namely, evaporating the water until the gold was precipitated to the bottom, and upon the sides of the vessels containing it, which were then broken, and the fragments no doubt washed or scraped. Ktesias adds, that iron was found at the bottom of the fountain, and this statement confirms the truth of his account. To disengage the gold from the oxide of iron, is one of the greatest of the labours of the gold washers of Brazil.f The gold of Bambouk, which is also collected by washing, is so mingled with iron and emery powder, as to require great care in separating the base from the precious metal. :[
From time immemorial, the Hindoos have had a custom of placing a perfumed pastille in the mouth before addressing any person of superior rank. This substance were it described in any other than the Hin- dostanee, would be looked upon as a talisman, the possession of which was requisite to obtain a favour- able reception to its possessor from the powerful ones of the earth.
* Achill. Tat. de Clitoph. et Leucipp. amor. lib. n.
f Mawe, Travels in the interior of Brazil, v. i. pp. 135 and 330.
% Mollien, Voyage en Afrique, tome i. pp. 334 et 335.
FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS. 39
The Halliatoris* we are told was used in Persia to enliven a feast, or to assist in procuring places nearest the King; these are figurative expressions, the meaning of which it is easy to decipher. They are merely intended to show that certain favour and preeminence was shown to him who, among a people addicted to wine and the pleasures of the table, was at the same time the gayest and the most capable of bearing much wine. The Persians, and even the Greeks, exulted in being able to drink much without suffering intoxication, and sought out all kinds of specifics to counteract the effects of wine. For this reason they eat the seeds of the cabbage,f and boiled cabbage. Bitter almonds were used for the same purpose, and it appears with some success. | All this favours the conjecture that the halliatoris was endowed with the same property to such an extent, that drunken-
* Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxrv. cap. xvn. different editions of Pliny's Work.
f Athence. Deipnos. lib. i. cap. xxx.
X The Bitter Almond contains the constituents of Prussic Acid and a peculiar volatile oil, resembling the peach-blossom in its odour ; both are developed when the almond is bruised and brought into contact with water. "When the bitter almond, therefore, is masticated and receives moisture in the mouth and stomach, the prussic acid then formed operates as a powerful sedative upon the nervous system, and renders the body less susceptible of the influence of excitants, consequently of wine. It forms, as it were, the balance in the opposite scale, and preserves the equilibrium, between the sinking which would result from its use were no wine taken, and the intoxication which would follow an excess of wine, were the bitter almonds not eaten. Plutarch informs us that the sons of the physician of the Emperor Tiberius, knew this fact, and although most intrepid topers, yet, they kept themselves sober by eating bitter almonds. — Ed.
40 FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS.
ness had neither power to confuse the intellect, nor to pass beyond the bounds of gaiety.
And what, it may be asked, was the plant Latacé which the Kings of Persia gave to their envoys, and in virtue of which their expenses were defrayed wherever they went ?# It was a peculiar sign, a rod of a parti- cular form, or a flower embroidered upon their gar- ments, or on their banners, announcing the titles and prerogatives which were borne by them.
Instead of the water, which the fugitive Sisera exhausted with fatigue and thirst had supplicated, Jael, with the intention of making him sleep,f gave him milk. What reason have we, who call an emulsion of almonds' milk, for doubting that in the original Hebrew, this word signified a somniferous drink, deriving its name from its colour and taste.j
* Plutarch. Symposiac, lib. i. quest 6. Athense. Deipnos, lib. n. cap. xii.
t Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxvi. cap. iv.
X Book of Judges, cap. iv. vers. 17, 24. — It is surprising that our author should have attempted an explanation of an event which requires none. The following is the passage in the Book of Judges. " Howbeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kènite ; for there was peace between Jabin the King of Hazor and Heber the Kènite. And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, turn in my Lord, turn in to me, fear not. And when he had turned in unto her, into the tent, she covered him with a mantle. And he said unto her, give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him. Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a nail, a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened him into the ground (for he was fast asleep and weary) so
FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS. 41
When Samaria was besieged, the town was a prey to all the horrors of famine ; hunger was so extreme, that five pieces of silver was the price given for a small measure (fourth part of a kal) of dove's dung.# This seems at first sight ridiculous. But Bochart maintains very plausibly that this name was then, and is still, given by the Arabs to a species of vetch, (pois chiches.)
The Chinese historians affirm that wine in which the feathers of the Tchin are macerated, becomes a deadly poison ; and history contains numerous instances of poisonings achieved in this manner.f We are not acquainted with any bird endowed with so fatal a property ; but the fact may be explained by supposing that the poison was, in order to preserve it, inserted into the quill of a feather ; and thus we are told Demosthenes caused his own death by sucking a pen.
Midas, King of Phrygia,| Tanyoxartes, brother of Cambyses,|| and Psammenites, King of Egypt,§ died, it is said, in consequence of drinking bull's blood, and the death of Themistocles has been attributed to the same cause. Near the ancient town of Argos, in Achaia, was
he died." Every incident is natural ; his sleep arose from fatigue as stated, and not from a narcotic. — Ed.
* Book of Judges, iv. cap. iv. vers. 25.
t I. Klaproth. Lettre à M. Humboldt sur l'invention de la Boussole, p. 89. The Tchin, according to the Chinese writers, resembled a vulture, and fed upon poisonous serpents. In refer- ence to its name, a word has been formed which signifies to poison. (I owe this note to M. Stanislas Jullien, a member of the Institut of France.)
X Strabo, lib. i.
|| Ktesias in Persic, apud Photium.
§ Herodotus, lib. in. cap. xin.
42 FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS.
a temple of Terra, the moral purity of its priestesses, was tried by making them drink the blood of the bull.*
Experience has proved that the blood of bulls does not contain any deleterious property. But, in the East and in some of the Grecian temples, they possessed the secret of composing a beverage which could procure a speedy and easy death, and which, from its dark red colour, had received the name of Bull's blood, a name, unfortunately, expressed in the literal sense by the Greek historians. Such is my conjecture, and, I trust, a plausible one. We shall also by and by, see how the name, blood of Nessus, which was given to a pretended love philter, was taken in a literal sense by some mythologists who might have been set right by the very accounts of it which they copied.f The blood of the hydra of Lerna, in which Hercules' arrows being dipped, rendered the wounds they inflicted mortal, seems to us to signify nothing more than that it was one of those poisons which archers in every age have been accustomed to make use of, in order to render the wounds of their arrows more deadly.
And again we have a modern instance of the same equivocation. Near Basle, is cultivated a wine which has received the name of blood of the Swiss ; not only from its deep colour, but from the circumstance of its being grown on a field of battle, the scene of Helvetian valour. Who knows but that in a future day, some
* Pausanias, Achate, cap. xxv. — Whatever was the nature of the poison termed Bull's blood, Dioscorides (lib. v. 130) informs us that the antidote was a mixture of nitre and benzoin. — Ed.
t See to chap. xxv.
FIGURA. TIVE EXPRESSIONS. 43
literal translator may convert those patriots, who every year indulge in ample libations of the blood of the Swiss, at their civic feasts, into Anthropophagi.*
To confirm this remark we have only to seek in history for proofs of the means by which a simple fact has been transformed into a prodigy, owing to the expressions employed to describe it being less correct than forcible.
Assailed by the Crusaders, and scared by the looks which these warriors, completely clothed in metal, darted upon them through their visors, the trembling Greeks described them as " men of brass whose eyes flashed fire."f
The Russians in Kamschatka are still called hrichtains, men of fire, an appellation which the inhabitants gave them, from their imagining when they saw them use fire-arms for the first time, that the fire issued from their mouths. :[
Near the burning mountains, north of the Missouri, and the river of St. Peter, dwell a people who appear to have emigrated from Mexico and the adjacent countries, at the time of the Spanish invasion. According to their traditions, they had hidden themselves in the inland country, at a time when the sea coast was continually infested by enormous monsters, vomiting lightning and thunder, and from whose bodies came men who, with unknown instruments, and by magical power, killed the defenceless Indians at immense distances.! They observed
* W. Coxe, Letters upon Switzerland, letter xliii.
f Nicetas, Annal. Man. Comn. lib. i. cap. iv.
% Kracheninnikof, Hist, of Kamschatka, part. i. chap. i.
|| Carver, Travels in North America, etc., pages 80 — 81.
44 FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS.
that these monsters could not reach the land, and in order to escape from their blows, they took refuge in distant mountains. We see here that the vanquished at first doubted, whether these advantages were not more to be attributed to better arms, than to the power of magic. It is probable that deceived by appearances they endowed with life the ships which seemed to move of themselves, and transformed them into monsters ; and this prodigy has either from that day been firmly rooted in their minds ; or on the contrary, it was merely a bold metaphor invented to depict and to perpetuate so novel an event.
But this instance leads us to the consideration of one of the most fertile causes of the marvellous; namely, the use of a figurative style.
Fourthly. That style which, contrary to the intention of the narrator, clothes facts in a supernatural colouring, is not confined to the art or rather the habit, common to lively imaginations, of employing poetical expressions and bold images in the recital of those deep feelings, or those facts which they desire to fix upon the memory. Man is everywhere inclined to borrow from the figura- tive style the name which he gives to any new object, with the aspect of which he has been struck. For instance, a parasol was imported to the centre of Africa ; and the inhabitants calld it the " cloud,"* a picturesque designation, which, some day or other, may become the foundation of a marvellous story. Our passions, in short, which speak more frequently than our reason,
* Travels in Africa, by Denham, Clapperton and Oudeney, vol. III.
FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS. 45
have introduced expressions eminently figurative into every language, which no longer appear to be such, so completely has their literal sense been lost in the habit of differently applying them. To be boiling with anger — to bite the ground — swift as the wind — to cast one's eyes, are expressions which if a foreigner, knowing the words but not the idiom of the language, were to translate literally, would appear nonsense ; and what fables might result. Such, indeed, has been already done : for instance, we are seriously told that Democrites, who devoted his life to observing nature, had put out his eyes, that he might meditate without distraction of mind.# It has been told also, that stags are enemies to snakes, and can make them fly ;f an assertion depending on the fact, that the smell of burnt hartshorn is disagreeable to serpents, and causes them to turn away.
The bites of the Boa are not venomous; but the serpent squeezes its victim to death by twining round it ; and from this fact, was derived the fable of the dragon, whose tail was said to be armed with an enve- nomed barb. When pressed by hunger, such is the swiftness of the Boa, that its prey rarely escapes it : poets have compared its course to a flight, and vulgar superstition immediately bestowed real wings upon the
* According to Tertullian (Apologet, cap. xlvi), he blinded himself that he might be placed beyond the influence of love, as he could not see any woman without loving her. This tradi- tion is also founded on the literal interpretation of a figurative expression.
f Aelian, de Nat. Animal, lib. n. cap. ix.
46 FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS.
dragon. The names of basilisk and asp were employed to designate reptiles so agile, that it is difficult to escape their attack at the moment they are perceived ; the asp and basilisk were, therefore, supposed to cause death by their breath, or only by their look. Of all these figu- rative expressions, the foundation of so many physical errors, none was bolder than the expression applied by the Mexicans to describe the rapidity of the rattle- snake, they called it the ivind.*
A church threatened to give way, St. Germain at Auxerre,f and St. Francis of Assisi,| at Rome, sus- tained the edifice, which from that moment remained immoveable on its foundations. Credulity believes this to have been a miracle ; but the real meaning of the allegory is, that the Bishop, and the founder of the
* Lacépède, Hist. Nat. des Serpents, art. Boiquira.
t Robineau Desvoidy's Description des Cryptes de l'Abbaye St. Germain à Auxerre, (an unpublished work) liber conformitatum, S. Francisci, etc. — St. Germain was born at Auxerre, of noble parents, and died at Ravenna. He was originally a lawyer. He married, and was created a Duke, by the Emperor Honorius ; but through the means of St. Amater, he took the tonsure, lived with his wife merely as a sister ; and at the death of Amater was chosen Bishop of Auxerre. He is reported to have given sight to the blind, raised the dead, and performed numerous miracles ! —Ed.
X St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the order of Francis- cans, was born in 1182. He was baptized by the name of John, but was afterwards called Francis, from the facility with which he acquired the French language. His supernatural visions and miracles would fill a volume. He died in 1226, and two years afterwards he was canonized at Assisi, by Gregory IX. a — Ed.
a Butler's Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Saints, vol. i. p. 137. Ibid, vol. ii. p. 569.
FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS. 47
order were, by the influence of their doctrine and works, the support of a tottering Church.
In prayer and in religious contemplation, the fervent man is, as it were, ravished into ecstasy ; he seems no longer to belong to earth, but is raised to Heaven. The enthusiastic disciples of Iamblicus affirmed, in spite of their master's assertions to the contrary, that when he prayed, he was raised to the height of ten cubits from the ground :# and dupes to the same metaphor, although Christians, have had the simplicity to attribute a similar miracle to St. Clare,f and St. Francis of Assisi.
This transformation of an allegory into a physical fact, may be traced to a remote period, if we can rely on a learned individual of the fifteenth century ; but one, who like most of his cotemporaries, too seldom indicates the source from which he derived his information. Ccelius Rhodiginus relates, that according to the Chaldeans,
* Eunap. in Iamblich.
f St. Clare, the daughter of Paverino Sciffo, a noble knight, was born at Assisi in Italy, in 1193. At a very early age, she displayed a strong bias for devout observances ; and at the age of eighteen received the penitential habit from Saint Francis, who placed her in the nunnery of Saint Paul, in Assisi, whence her relations endeavoured in vain to remove her. She afterwards, by the aid of Saint Francis, founded the order which bears her name. Her humility, austerity, prayers, and her contempt for the persecutions which she suffered, were remarkable even in the period in which she lived. She died in 1253. The order was brought into England in 1293, by Blanche, Queen of Navarre, and had a house without Aldgate : the nuns were called Mino- resses, as the Franciscans were called Minors, a name imposed by their founder, on account of their humility. From them the Minories received its name. — Ed.
48 FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS.
the luminous rays emanating from the soul do some- times divinely penetrate the body, which is then of itself raised above the earth. This, he says, occurred to Zoroaster ; and he attempts to explain, in the same manner, the translation of Elijah into Heaven, and the trance of St. Paul.*
In the kingdom of Fez is a little hill, which requires to be crossed either by dancing, or with a great deal of action, in order to avoid an endemic fever prevalent there.f The relation of this popular custom, which has existed and been obeyed for more than a hundred years, has been treated with scorn by some enlightened men. What, indeed, at first sight, could have a more ridiculous effect? Nevertheless, what is the advice given to all travellers in the Campagna of Rome, and in the vicinity of the Eternal City ? They are told to struggle against the drowsiness that will insensibly steal over them, by forced and violent movements ; as yielding to it only for a moment would expose them to an attack of fever, always dangerous, often fatal.
In Hai-nan, and in almost the whole province of Canton, the inhabitants rear a species of partridge, which they call tchu-ki. They say, that the instant one of these birds is introduced into a house, the white ants quit it : doubtless, because this bird destroys a quantity of them for food. The Chinese, however, poetically
* Arbitrabantur chaldœorum scientissimi ab rationali anima id. . . effici quandoque ut radiorum splendore, ab ipsa manantium, illustratum diviniore modo corpus etiam surrigat in sublime, 8çc. &;c. (Ccelius Rhodig. Lection. Antiq. lib. n. cap. vi.)
t Boulet, Description de l'Empire des Cherifs, p. 112.
POETIC FICTIONS AND METAPHORS. 49
assert that the cry of the tchu-ki, changes the white ants into dust* it would be converting a ridiculous saying into a prodigy, if we literally believed this em- phatic expression.
We are told, also, that every spring time, in those deserts which separate China from Tartary, yellow rats are transformed into yellow quails; and that in Ireland and in Hindostan, the leaves and fruit of a tree, planted near the water, become first shell fish, and then aquatic bidrs.f
* Jules Klaproth, Description de l'Ile de Hai-nan (Nouvelles Annales des Voyages), deuxième série, tome vi. p. 156.
t The aquatic bird, noticed in the above passage, is the Bar- nacle goose, and it is scarcely possible to adduce a more striking instance of the credulity of even those regarded, in their period, as the learned and philosopliic, than their belief that the barnacle, Pentalasmis antifera, (Leach), is the origin of that bird. The barnacle is a marine, testaceous animal, covered with a nearly triangular shell, composed of five distinct pieces. The animal itself is compressed, enveloped in a thin mantle, and furnished with curled tentacula. It attaches itself by along fleshy peduncle to rocks, to the bottoms of ships, and even to the branches of trees that grow upon the margin of the sea and dip into the waters Many of the old writers described these animals, when they appeared on trees, as the fruit in which, say they, is to be found the lineaments of a fowl, and from which, when ripe and dropped into the sea, the fowl comes forth and takes wing. Even so late as 1636, Gerard, the celebrated author of the Herbal, a man of learning, observation, and in many points of acknowledged accuracy, impresses upon his readers the truth of this absurd fable. He thus describes the coming forth of the bird, " next came the legs of the bird hanging out ; and as it (the bird) groweth greater it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth and hangeth only by the bill : in short space after it commeth to full maturitie, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a fowle bigger than a mallard, and lesser VOL. I. E
50 POETIC FICTIONS AND METAPHORS.
In both narrations, if we substitute the idea of the metamorphose, for that of a successive appearance, the absurdity vanishes and the truth appears.*
The amethyst is a precious stone, which is coloured and sparkles like wine. Instead of this description, so coldly exact, figurative language has substituted an expressive image in its name, A/aetÔuo-tw, amethystos, not intoxicating — or wine that does not inebriate ; and it is from this name having been literally translated in Greece, that the amethyst was supposed to possess the miraculous power of preserving from drunkenness the man who was adorned with it.
Is this, we may ask, the only poetical flight, the only metaphor which has been transformed into a history ? Bacchus,f with the thyrsus which he carried
than a goose." He adds, " if any doubt, may it please them to repaire to me, and I shall satisfie them by the testimonie of good witnesses." The absurdity of this delusion requires no comment. —Ed.
* Eloge de Moukdem, p. 32 and 164.
t Bacchus was the Roman name for the Grecian God Diony- sius, whom the Greeks, both in Asia and Europe, universally worshipped. In the whole history of polytheism, we find no rites more extravagant, sensual, and savage, than those of the Dionysia or Bacchic festivals. The men present at them took the disguise of satyrs, and the women acted the parts of bacchse, nymphs, and other inferior deities, and committed the greatest excesses. At an early period these festivals were often solem- nized with human sacrifices ; and pieces of the raw flesh, cut from the bodies of the victims, were distributed among the bacchse. (From the Attic Dionysia, nevertheless, both tragedy and comedy derived their origin). In Italy, the Bacchanalia were scenes of the coarsest excesses, and the most unnatural vices. They were latterly carried on at night, and often stained with poisonings,
POETIC FICTIONS AND METAPHORS. 51
in his hand, having pointed out a spring of water to the troop who followed his steps,* " the God," it was reported, " caused a spring to rise by striking the ground with his thyrsus ;" and, with a slight alteration of the fable, we read also, that Atalanta struck her lance against a rock, from which instantly gushed a spring of freshwater. f It is in this manner that poetry explains and describes, in some brilliant allegory, the prodigy that credulity has laid hold of, but which in reality is only the consequence of its figurative style. XroVl MP~^>
Similar errors may be l^)tb the charge of history, and even of natural history/ ïfE^h^5}iS|gajb^ the lhead of a considerable army, I\a4 been able to unit? his forces with the defenders of nsQv^ji^Qr/ççl^^nausted by a ten years' struggle, would have despaired of victory. A declaration of what was so easily foreseen, was poetically expressed, and became one of the fatalities of this famous siege. The Fates, it was said, would not per- mit Troy to be taken, if the horses of Rhésus were once permitted to taste the grass which grew on the borders of the Xanthus, or to quench their thirst in its waters.
assassinations, and every crime. Although conducted in Rome, and although the number of the initiated was said to be seven thousand, yet the existence of these meetings appears to have been unknown to the Senate, until a.d. 186, when they were put down, after a report on them had been made to that august assembly, by the Consuls Spurius Postumus Albinus and Quin- tus Marius Philippus. The delinquents were arrested and tried ; many of the men were imprisoned, others were put to death ; and the women were delivered to their parents and husbands to be pri- vately punished. (Livy, lib. xxxix. 14). — Ed.
* Pausanias, lib. iv. cap. xxxvi.
t Pausanias, Laconic, cap. xxiv.
E 2
52 POETIC FICTIONS AND METAPHORS.
On the celebration of the day of some saint revered in Ireland,* the fish, if we could believe a writer of the twelfth century, raise themselves from the bosom of the sea, pass in procession before his altar, and disap- pear after having rendered him homage.f The saint's day most probably fell in that period of the spring, when, on the coast where his church was built, might be seen periodical shoals of herrings, mackerel, or tunnies.
Nonnosus who was sent by the Emperor Justinian, on a mission to the Saracens of Phoenicia and Mount Taurus, heard that while the religious assemblies of these people lasted, they lived in peace amoug themselves, and with strangers, " that even beasts of prey respected their universal peace, and observed it towards mankind and their fellows, "j
Photius regards the traveller on this occasion as a narrator of fables. Nonnosus, however, only repeated what he had heard, but mistook for a fact, a poetic expression or mode of speech, frequently used in the
* Saint Patrick, the titular Saint of Ireland. He was a Scotch- Roman, and was born in 372, in the Roman village Benaven Tabernise, now the town of Killpatrick, at the mouth of the Clyde, between Glasgow and Dumbarton. His family name was Caliphurnia. At an early age, he was carried captive into Ireland, where he was forced to keep cattle, and suffered many hardships, during which time he is said to have been admonished in a dream, to undertake his mission. Many miracles, equally absurd as the prodigy noticed in the text, are related as having been performed by St. Patrick. — Ed.
f Gervais de Tilbery, Otia imper. cap. vm. Hist. Lilt, de la France, tome xvn. p. 87.
% Photius Biblioth. cod. in.
POETIC FICTIONS AND METAPHORS. 53
East, and also to be found in one of the most eloquent of the Hebrew writers ;* a mode of speech employed by the Greeks and Romans also in their pictures of the gojden age ; and which Virgil less happily made use of in his admirable description of an epizootic, (a disease amongst cattle) which desolated the north of Africa and the south of Europe.f
It is a well known fact, that a sudden and striking alarm often arrests speech ; such, for instance, as a person experiences who finds himself unexpectedly before a wild beast. But it has been said, that a man loses his power of utterance when he is seen by a wolf, although the animal is unobserved by him. This figur- ative expression has been even taken literally, and it has furnished a proverb, which is not only found in Theocritus and Virgil,j but in Solinus and Pliny, who have also adopted it. The former very seriously speaks of "a particular species of wolf in Italy which affects any man it sees with dumbness ; its victim in endea- vouring to cry, finds that his voice is lost."||
* Isaiah, cap. xi, verse 6, 7, 8.
f Virgil, Georg. lib. in. See also Eclog.viu. v. 27.
% Theocrit. Eidyll, xiv. v. 22. Virgil Eclog. ix. v. 54.
|| Solinus, cap. vin. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. vni. cap. xxn. Soli- nus was a Roman author, who borrowed freely from Pliny. The effect which he describes has been attributed to a supernatural cause, by modern superstition. A woman, in the night, saw four thieves enter her apartment through' the window : she attempted to cry, but could not. They took her keys, opened her coffers, possessed themselves of her money, and escaped by the same window. The woman then recovered her voice, and
54 EMBLEMS AND SYMBOLS.
Varro, Columella, Pliny and Solinus,# relate that the mares of Lusitania conceive by the breath of the wind : but Pompeius Trogusf understood this expression as merely metaphorical of the rapid multiplication of these animals, and their swiftness in the course.
Fifthly. What emblems are to the sight, a figurative style is to the mind. Their influence has produced many extraordinary narrations : and in every age of antiquity they were employed to illustrate any thing of impor- tance, in dogmas, in recollections, in morals, and in history. Their meaning perfectly understood in the commencement, often became gradually less so; and after some length of time was completely lost to the ignorant and unreflecting. The emblem, nevertheless, remained, and when seen by the people at once com- manded their belief and veneration : henceforth the representation, however absurd and monstrous, naturally took its place in the common belief as the real object it was originally intended to commemorate. From a symbol representing religion and laws, emanating from the supreme intelligence, sprung the fable that a falcon
called for assistance. The impossibility of her calling out, when the thieves were in her chamber, was said to be the effect of sorcery. Frommann, Tractatus de Fascinatione, p. 558 — 559.
* Varro. De re rustica, lib. n. Columell. lib. vi. cap. xxvu. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. viii. cap. xlii. Solinus, cap. xxvi.
f Justin, lib. xliv. cap. in. Pompeius Trogus was a Roman historian in the time of Augustus. His great work, " Historiée Phillippiœ et totius mundi origines," is known only in the abridgement by Justinus ; but Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. vu. 3. mentions a work by Trogus on animals. — En.
EMBLEMS AND SYMBOLS. 55
had borne to the priests of Thebes, a book containing religious rites and laws.# Certain islands of the Nile were, according to Diodorus,f defended by serpents with dogs' heads and other monsters. These monsters, and serpents were probably emblems intended to point out, that these islands were consecrated to the Gods, and were .consequently inaccessible to profane mortals.
How many fables and prodigies in the records of Egypt, how many in the records of India, and of Greece have an analogous origin !
It has been related, and the story is still repeated without reflecting that the thing is absurd, that such was the strength of Milo of Croton, that, when he stood on a narrow quoit, no one could displace or tear from him a pomegranate, which he held in his hand, but which, nevertheless, he did not press violently enough to crush; nor could they separate from one another the fingers of his right hand, which he held extended. Milo, says a man learned in religious rites and emblems, was, in his own country, high priest of Juno : his statue placed in Olympia represented him, according to the sacred rite, standing upon a little round buckler, and holding a pomegranate, the fruit of the tree dedicated to the Goddess. The fingers of his right hand were extended and joined together, in the manner the ancient sculptors always represented them.j Thus was an imperfection of art made the foundation of a miraculous story.
* Diod. sic. lib. i. par. 2, § 32.
t Diod. sic. lib. par. i. § 19.
X Apollonius de Tyanus, vit. Apollon, lib. iv. cap. ix.
56 EMBLEMS AND SYMBOLS.
It is not necessary to dive deep into antiquity for similar facts. In the middle ages, figured almanacs were used as the only means of instructing those who could not read. To explain to them that a mar- tyred saint had perished by decapitation, they painted him as standing and holding between his hands, the head which had been separated from his body.* This emblem was doubtless the more easily adopted, as it had for some length of time fixed the attention, and consequently the reverence, of the multitude in the hieroglyphic calendar of a more ancient religion. f
From the calendars the emblems naturally passed to the statues and various representations of the martyrs. I have seen Saint Clara in a church in Normandy; Saint Mitrius at Aries ;J and in Switzerland all the soldiers of the Thebean legion represented with their heads in their hands.
Saint Valéry also is painted with his head in his hands, upon the doors and other parts of the Cathedral at Limoges. || Saint Felix, St. Régula, St. Exupe- rantius,§ are presented in the same attitude upon the great seal of the Canton of Zurich. This, no doubt, was the
* See Menagiana, tome iv. p. 103. Some of the illustrated calendars are probably still existing and may be found in the cabinets of the antiquary.
t Sphœra Persica, Capricornus Decanus, in. " Dimidium figura sine capite quia caput ejus in'manu ejus est.'"
X St. Mitrius is the patron saint of Aix in Provence, where he suffered martyrdom under Dioclesian. — Ed.
|| C.N. Allou, Description of the Monuments of the department of Upper Vienne, page 143.
§ St. Exuperantius is not found upon any seals before 1240.
EMBLEMS AND SYMBOLS. 57
origin of the pious fable they relate of these martyrs, of Saint Denis,* and many others, such as Saint Maurice of Agen,f Saint Principius at Souvigny in Bourbonnais, Saint Nicasius, the first Bishop of Rouen, St. Lucian, Apostle of Beauvais, St. Lucain, Bishop of Paris,j St. Balsemus at Arcy-sur-Aube, and St. Savinian at Troy es. || The year 275, furnished no less than three more headless saints to the diocese of Troyes in Cham- pagne.§ The origin of the above legend may be traced first of all to some cotemporary hagiographer having em- ployed a strong figure of speech, still used among us ; who, in attempting to describe all the obstacles and dangers which attended the faithful eager to render the last services to the martyrs, probably called the forcible carrying away, and burying of the sacred remains, a real miracle. The attitude in which the saints were offered to the public veneration explained the nature of this miracle, and gave some kind of authority for saying, that
* " Se cadaver mox erexit,
Truncus truncum caput vexit, Quo ferentem hoc direxit Angelorum legio." Sung in the offices of St. Denis, until the year 1789.
f Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de France, tome m. p. 268—269.
% J. A. Dulaure, Histoire physique, civile, et morale de Paris, tome i. page 142.
|| Promptuarium sacrum antiquitatum Trecassinœ diœcesis, 335. v. et 390. v.
§ L. P. Deguerrois, La Sainteté Chrétienne, fol. 33, 34, 38, 39, 48. In a life of St. Par, one of these three martyrs, printed at Nogent- sur- Seine in 1821, this marvellous narration is repeated.
58 EMBLEMS AND METAPHORS.
although beheaded, the martyrs had walked from the place of their decapitation to that of their sepul- ture.
Sixthly. To what lengths will not a credulous curiosity extend when from various explanations it selects the most marvellous ? The veil of an allegory or a fable, however transparent it may be, arrests attention.
The crowing of the cock makes the lion fly — is an old remark, believed in its literal sense by the ignorant ; the better informed know that at the dawn of day, which is announced by the crowing of the cock, carni- vorous animals voluntarily return to their dens.
Moral proverbs clothed in equally transparent garbs have, nevertheless, passed as axioms of natural science. Love vanquishes all things, even the most formidable : the ferocity of the lion is appeased, we are told, at the sight of a woman unveiled.
In spite of the facility of proving the contrary, Aelian relates that, from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, the ram sleeps lying upon his right side, and upon his left from the autumnal equinox to the vernal.* In natural history this is a ridiculous tale, but it is an evident truth in the allegorical language of ancient astro- nomy.
It is related that in the army which Xerxes led against the Greeks, a man gave birth to a hare ; a prodigy which presaged the issue of that gigantic enterprise :f it was nothing more than the fable of the moun-
* Aelian, de Nat. Anim. lib. x. cap. xvui. t Vider, Maxim, lib. i. cap. vi. § 10.
ALLEGORIES. 5 9
tain bringing forth a mouse improved, perhaps, by lessening the distance between the physical relations, and by a sarcastic allusion, through the hare, to an army of fugitives.
Was it intended that we should understand and believe as a miracle, the story, that innumerable rats, by gnawing the bow-strings and the straps of the bucklers of Sennacherib's soldiers, effected the delive- rance of the King of Egypt, besieged by that leader ?# Assuredly not : it was an expression used to designate an army incapable, from want of discipline and from negligence, of resisting the sudden attack of the Ethio- pians, who arrived to the assistance of the King of Egypt, and which consequently fell almost entirely beneath their conquering sword. The priests, to whose caste the Egyptian King belonged, willingly favoured a literal interpretation of the allegory and the belief in it as a miracle, which they ascribed to their tutelar divinity, and which saved the national pride from the humiliation of acknowledging that the victory was due to the delivering allies. The tradition of this mira- culous deliverance extended farther than the fable which had given it birth ; Bérosus, quoted by Josephus,f says, that the Assyrian army was the victim of a scourge, a plague sent by Heaven, which at once struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand men. Thus the Chaldean vanity covered with an unavoidable misfor- tune, the opprobrium of a merited defeat. In the same manner, fictions which are purely moral, and unconnected
* Herodot. lib. n. cap. cxli.
t Fl. Josephus, Ant.jud. lib. i. cap. n.
60 ALLEGORIES.
with any fact, become historical traditions. I might quote the touching parable of the Samaritan assisting the wounded man, when neglected by the priest and the lévite. In the present day, in Palestine, it is looked upon not as a parable, but as an historical fact, and the scene of it was shown by the monks to the traveller Hasselquist* There is, after all, in this nothing extra- ordinary nor repugnant to reason ; and the heart, being interested, is tempted to believe in its reality. Less mindful of probabilities, a sage wishing to perpetuate in a fable the maxim, " that it is not enough to sacri- fice for the good of one's country, riches, luxury, and pleasure, but more is necessary ; and although held back by the dearest affections, life itself should be devoted to it ;" he related that a frightful gulf, which nothing could fill up, suddenly opened in the middle of a city ; the Gods when consulted, declared that it would only close on the most precious possessions of mankind being thrown into it. Gold, silver, and precious stones were instantly but vainly precipitated into it. At length a generous man, tearing himself from a father and a wife, voluntarily plunged into it, and the abyss closed for ever over him.
In spite of the evident improbability of the result, this fable, invented in Phrygia, or borrowed from a still more ancient civilization, has passed into history. The name of the hero was Anchurus, son of Midas,f
* Hasselquist, Voyage dans le Levant, tome i, p. 184.
f Parallels between Grecian and Roman Histories, § x. This work, falsely attributed to Plutarch, merits in general but little confidence ; but its testimony, it seems to me, may be admitted
ALLEGORIES. 6 1
one of the Kings of the heroic times. But such is the charm attached to the marvellous, that Rome, some centuries afterwards, appropriated to herself this fable which, in place of a general precept, displays only an individual example. It was not because the Sabine chief, Metius Curtius* who, when almost overcome in the midst of Rome, left his name to the marsh famed as the scene of his vigorous defence against the efforts of Romulus ; it was not because a Consul,f directed by the Senate, enclosed with a wall this marsh upon which the thunderbolt fell; but it was to perpetuate to the veneration of the people a patrician, on whom the name of Curtius was bestowed, as having nobly in the same place thrown himself completely armed into a gulf, which had miraculously opened, and not less miraculously closed, that Rome borrowed from Phrygia this fable of Anchurus, and introduced it into her own history.f The desire of increasing the reputation of a country, has favoured such plagarisms. It is one object of our
when its object is to take from history those facts evidently fabu- lous, regarding which the ancient annalists of Rome do not agree. Callisthenes, quoted by Stober (Sermo xlviii), also relates the devotion of the son of Midas, whom he calls ^Egystheos.
* Such is the real origin of the name of the Lacus Curtius, according to the historian L. Calpurnius Piso, quoted by Varro (Varro de Lingua Latino), lib. iv. cap. xxxn. See also Titus Liv. lib. i. cap. xii. and xin.
f This was also the opinion of C. ^Elius, and of Q. Lutatius (Varro loc. cit.)
% Varro (loco citato) also relates this tradition ; but with the air of a man who hardly believes it, since he terms the hero who precipitated himself into the gulf a certain Curtius, " quemdam Curtium."
62 ALLEGORIES.
task, to show how often, imposture assisting the vanity of a nation, or a family, in effacing a stain, or adding an ornament, has given birth to the history of prodigies. From an immense number of instances, we shall select but one. It was constantly repeated that, from the amours of the God of war, sprung the founders of a city which was destined to be raised to the highest pitch of power, by the favour of that God ; and this story was credited, notwithstanding the tradition preserved by two grave historians, that the ferocious Aurelius violated his niece Rhey Sylvia, who became the mother of Romulus and Remus.*
* C. Licînius Macer et M. Octavius, quoted by Marcus Aure - lius Victor. De origine gentis romance, cap. xix.
NATURAL PHENOMENA 63