Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/116

 108 There is however a very pretty Bengalese tale to explain the origin of mist, which is such a typical example of a folk-lore story in which nature has furnished none of the imagery that I will now read it to you.

The origin of mist is grounded on the following story.

One fine summer's morning Matsaganda, the daughter of Whebur Raja, was tripping along the bank of a beautiful silvery lake, clear as crystal. As she sped along she admired the brightness of the scenery, and the flitting of the beautiful plumaged waterfowl, scarcely disturbed by her fairy feet. She was charmed with the mellow tints of the morning dawn, and the light murmurs of the southern breeze. Approaching day smiled in brightness, and happiness dwelt around. As she was listlessly musing on these beauties, suddenly there appeared before her a man of large and majestic appearance, and richly clad. Taking her tapering hand in his, he thus spoke: "I am Monassi Muni, lady; thy loveliness has bound me your slave; my heart is gone and with it happiness, unless you smile on me." The fair Matsaganda blushed and brightened at these words; she hesitated to reply, she was indeed silent. Muni waited in impatient ecstacy; at last he took her in his arms; when breaking silence, she thus replied: "If thou be a god, darken this sequestered spot of my father's kingdom." Muni created mist.

People nowadays only look on fog or mist as the product of the condensation of vapour in a calm atmosphere, and have no need to go into the supernatural for the cause of so simple a phenomenon.

We have now finished our review of all the structures in cloudland which concern us this evening; we have seen the likeness to terrestrial objects that many nations have found in the sky; we have sketched briefly the modern explanations of these same cloud-forms; and we will now conclude with a few remarks on the difference in the attitude of mind induced by the ancient personification of every natural phenomenon, and the modern way of looking at the same thing.

We may notice that nature stories are of two kinds. The forms of clouds or appearances in the sky have furnished the imagery or suggested a simile in the first kind; while the latter are simply tales