Page:Primitive Culture Vol 2.djvu/282

268 which he cannot catch or prison, so that it almost always blows. To the Kamchadal, it is Billukai the Heaven-god who comes down and drives his sledge on earth, and men see his traces in the wind-drifted snow. To the Finn, while there are traces of subordinate Wind-gods in his mythology, the great ruler of wind and storm is Ukko the Heaven-god; while the Esth looked rather to Tuule-ema, Wind's Mother, and when the gale shrieks he will still say 'Wind's mother wails, who knows what mothers shall wail next.' Such instances from Allophylian mythology show types which are found developed in full vigour by the Aryan races. In the Vedic hymns, the Storm Gods, the Maruts, borne along with the fury of the boisterous winds, with the rain-clouds distribute showers over the earth, make darkness during the day, rend the trees and devour the forests like wild elephants. No effort of the Red Indian's personifying fancy in the tales of the dancing Pauppuk-keewis the Whirlwind, or that fierce and shifty hero, Manabozho the North-West Wind, can more than match the description in the Iliad, of Achilles calling on Boreas and Zephyros with libations and vows of sacrifice, to blow into a blaze the funeral pyre of Patroklos —

.... his prayer Swift Iris heard, and bore it to the Winds. They in the hall of gusty Zephyrus Were gathered round the feast; in haste appearing, Swift Iris on the stony threshold stood. They saw, and rising all, besought her each To sit beside him; she with their requests Refused compliance, and addressed them thus,' &c.