Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/109

Rh combed out, as it were, into a hairy mass in front of the heavy cloud bank below.

I have no doubt that the old Norse idea of Thor's chariot being drawn by goats had its origin in this phase of cloud building. Here is an exact quotation from the story of Kungni in Theodwolf 's haustlong, as given by Mr. Vigfuson.

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"The story of Rungni.—Next I see how the terror of the giants (Thor) visited the cave-dweller, Rungni, at Rockgarth, in a ring of flame. The son of earth drove to the battle, and the moon's path (heaven) thundered beneath him. The whole ether was on fire about him, and the flat outstretched ground below him was beaten with the hail. Yea, the earth was rent asunder as the goats drew the chariot-god on to his tryst with Rungni."

So that where man in the myth-making and poetic epoch of development speaks of Thor's chariot being drawn by goats the more prosaic man of modern times notes the combing out of a cloud in front of rocky looking masses, popularly known as "goats'-hair," as a sign of impending rain.

Unfortunately we cannot explain this curious appearance, but it is certain that it is due to the condensation of vapour under certain conditions that we do not know at present.

In another form of rocky structure, the cloud takes the form of a number of small heads, usually all in a line.

Here is a beautiful slide, from a sketch by Mr. Ley, of a type which so frequently precedes thunderstorms that they are called "thunderheads" in many parts of the country.

There is no doubt that the hundred-headed monsters, and three-headed dogs, which play so large a part in all mythologies, have their mental origin in this form of rocky cloud. The idea of a cloud-form, like heads, is perpetually cropping up.

We have already mentioned one cloud-name that contains the idea of a head; but we often see on the west coast a small detached, lumpy, patch of cloud, usually above a heavy gust, which fishermen call the