cloud. The lightning flash reaches the barren, dead, and thirsty land; forth gush the waters of heaven, and the parched vegetation bursts once more into the vigour of life, restored after suspended animation. It is the dead and parched vegetation which is symbolized by Glaucus, and the earth still and without the energy of life which is represented by the lady in the Lai d'Eliduc. This reviving power is attributed in mythology to the rain as well. In Sclavonic myths, it is the water of life which restores the dead earth, a water brought by a bird from the depths of a gloomy cave. A prince has been murdered, that is, the earth is dead; then comes the eagle bearing a vial of the reviving water— the cloud with the rain; it sprinkles the corpse with the precious drops, and life returns". But the hand of glory has a very different property-it paralyzes. In this it resembles the Gorgon's head or the basilisk. The head of Medusa, with its flying serpent locks, is unquestionably the storm-cloud; and the basilisk which strikes dead with its eye is certainly the 7 Compare with this the Psyche in "The Golden Ass,” and the Fair One with the Golden Locks of the Countess d'Aulnay. same. The terror inspired by the outburst of the thunder-storm is expressed in fable by the paralyzing effect of the eye of the cockatrice, the exhibition of the Gorgon's countenance, and the waving of the glorious hand. Strained as some of these explanations may seem, they are nevertheless true. We, with our knowledge of the causes producing meteorological phenomena, are hardly able to realize the extravagance of the theories propounded by the ignorant to account for them. How Finn cosmogonists could have believed the earth and heaven to be made out of a severed egg, the upper concave shell representing heaven, the yolk being earth, and the crystal surrounding fluid the circumambient ocean, is to us incomprehensible and yet it remains at fact that so they did regard them. How the Scandinavians could have supposed the mountains to be the mouldering bones of a mighty Jötun, and the earth to be his festering flesh, we cannot conceive: yet such a theory was solemnly taught and accepted. How the ancient Indians could regard the rain-clouds as cows with full udders, milked by the winds of heaven, is beyond our comprehension, and yet their Veda contains indisputable testimony to the fact that so they were regarded. Nonnus Dionysius (v. 163 et seq.) spoke of the moon as a luminous white stone, and Democritus regarded the stars as Téтpovs. Lucretius considered the sun as a wheel (v. 433), and Ovid as a shield "Ipse Dei clypeus, terra cum tollitur ima, Mane rubet: terraque rubet, cum conditur ima. As late as 1600, a German writer would illustrate a thunder-storm destroying a crop of corn by a picture of a dragon devouring the produce of the field with his flaming tongue and iron teeth (Wolfii Memorabil. ii. p. 505); and at the present day children are taught that the thunder-crash is the voice of the Almighty. The restless mind of man, ever seeking a reason to account for the marvels presented to his senses, adopts one theory after another, and the rejected explanations encumber the memory of nations as myths, the significance of which has been forgotten. The Piper of Hameln HAMELN town was infested with rats, in the year 1284. In their houses the people had no peace from them; rats disturbed them by night and worried them by day "They fought the dogs, and kill'd the cats, And bit the babies in the cradles, And ate the cheeses out of the vats, And lick'd the soup from the cook's own ladles, Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, And even spoil'd the women's chats, In fifty different sharps and flats." One day, there came a man into the town, most quaintly attired in parti-coloured suit. Bunting the man was called, after his dress. None knew whence he came, or who he was. He announced himself to be a rat-catcher, and offered for a certain E e sum of money to rid the place of the vermin. The townsmen agreed to his proposal, and promised Thereupon the man him the sum demanded. drew forth a pipe and piped. "And ere three shrill notes the pipe utter'd, No sooner were the townsfolk released from their torment, than they repented of their bargain, and, on the plea that the rat-destroyer was a sorcerer, they refused to pay the stipulated remuneration. At this the piper waxed wrath, and vowed vengeance. On the 26th June, the feast of SS. John and Paul, the mysterious Piper reappeared in Hameln town "Once more he stept into the street, And to his lips again |