Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/649

Rh can show traces, as I have attempted (pp. 365-75), of the same myth in Ireland. Further, a sort of complement to it is supplied by the fact that Cúchulainn the Sun Hero is made to fight several days and nights without having any sleep, which, though fixed at the wrong season of the year in the epic tale in its present form, may probably be regarded as originally referring to the sun remaining above the horizon continuously for several days in summer. Traces of the same idea betray themselves in Balder's son Forseti or the Judge, who, according to a passage in old Norse literature, sits long hours at his court settling all causes in his palace of Glitnir in the skies. These points are mentioned as part of a hypothesis I have been forced to form for the interpretation of certain features of Aryan mythology; and that hypothesis, to say the least of it, will not now be considered so wild as it would have been a few years ago; for the recent researches of the students of language and ethnology have profoundly modified their views, and a few words must at this point be devoted to the change that has come over the scene. Among the great discoveries of modern times must undoubtedly be ranked that of the fact, that Sanskrit and the more important languages of Europe are closely akin; but this discovery was accompanied by several erroneous assumptions of far-reaching influence. One was that Sanskrit, if not the mother of the other Aryan languages, was at any rate their eldest sister; and altogether the importance of Sanskrit used to be greatly exaggerated. Another of these assumptions was that all