Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/373

Rh How the souls of the Ojibwas cross the deep and rapid water to reach the land of bliss, and the souls of the Mandans travel on the lake by which the good reach their ancient village, while the wicked cannot get across for the burden of their sins, I do not know; but, like the Heaven-Bridge, the Heaven-Gulf which has to be passed on the way to the Land of Spirits, has a claim to careful discussion in the general argument for the proof of historical connexion from Analogy of Myths.

The Fountain of Youth is known to the Mythology of India. The Açvinas let the husband of Sukanyâ go into the lake, whence the bather comes forth as old or as young as he may choose; and elsewhere the "ageless river," vijarâ nadî, makes the old young again by only seeing it, or perhaps by bathing in its waters. Perhaps it is this fountain that Sir John Mauudevile tells of early in the fourteenth century somewhere about India. "Also toward the heed of that Forest is the Cytee of Polombe. And above the Cytee is a grete Mountayne, that also is clept Polombe; and of that Mount the Cytee hathe his name. And at the Foot of that Mount, is a fayr Welle and a gret, that hathe odour and savour of alle Spices; and at every hour of the day, he chaungethe his odour and his savour dyversely. And whoso drynkethe 3 tymes fasting of that Watre of that Welle, he is hool of alle maner sykenesse, that he hathe. And thei that dwellen there and drynken often of that Welle, thei nevere han Sekenesse, and thei semen alle ways ȝonge. I have dronken there of 3 or 4 sithes; and ȝit, methinkethe, I fare the better. Sum men clepen it the Welle of ȝouthe: for thei that often drynken there of, semen alle weys ȝongly, and lyven with outen Sykenesse. And men seyn, that that Welle cometh out of Paradys: and therfore it is so vertuous."

When Cambyses sent the Fish-Eaters to spy out the condition of the long-lived Ethiopians, and the messengers wondered to hear that they lived a hundred and twenty years or more, the Ethiopians took them to a fountain, where, when they had