Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/203

Rh Even the mouse may help the lion, and we venture in conclusion to offer a few suggestions. In ii. 18, Mr. Frazer gives a neat little note about the eyes on Greek ships, but he does not mention that the custom is still kept up in the caiques of the Levant, as the writer has often seen. The explanation suggested, that the boat may see its way, is undoubtedly correct; and Mr. Frazer might have got an interesting confirmation from a book called Under the Dragon Flag. The author of that most thrilling work is guiltless of all folklore; but he gives the most vivid description we have ever read of a splendid Chinese junk, that has sailed the seas for a century, and the same explanation of the eyes was given him by its owner. In ii. 160, the extraordinary ascetic priesthood of the Selli at Dodona might be mentioned; "that wash not the feet, and sleep upon the ground." The pillar under the head of Athena Parthenos (ii. 318) offends all artists, and yet undoubtedly existed in ancient times; but why should we suppose Pheidias put it there? He is most unlikely to have done such a thing; but it may well have been added after some earthquake that shook the statue. With the ghostly warriors of Marathon (ii. 443), we might compare the tramp of Nicholson's war-horse, still heard by the shivering mountaineers at night. A good instance of the persistence of local tradition (iii. 163) is the Mound of the Priests by Carmel, which appears to have been always so called, though the Arabs do not know why. The "towers" of Maina (iii. 393) recall the or "towers" of the Greek islands, which may be found in every village and vineyard. The mania by which a man behaves like an animal (v. 382) is well illustrated by the story of Nebuchadnezzar. The Mountain of the Sphinx (v. 138) struck the writer as curiously resembling a couching tiger or cat-like animal, and this probably helped to localise the legend, perhaps originated it. Captain Cook's Voyages would have furnished parallels to the offerings of pigs (v. 29); the islanders threw one into the grave when one of his men was being buried. Possibly the connection of water with serpents (v. 44) is illustrated by the ægis, and by the device used by the Moqis, scales with the dependent snakes, to represent a thunderstorm (Bourke, Snake Dance, pl. xix.). The discussion of altars within the temple (iii. 560) is not complete without pointing out that a table of offerings always stood in the temple, and this is in principle an altar. The reason why children, for