Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/133

Rh CHAP, which seem to have had their origin in proverbs or adages ; and it is, of course, possible that some or all of these may belong to those — — '^— more recent times when men had attained to some notion of the order of a moral world, to some idea of law and duty. But it is im- possible not to see that some at least of these stories turn on notions suggested by the older mythical speech. The dog and the parrot in the stories of the Carter and the Nautch-girl are weak things which bring down the pride of those who oppress the helpless ; but this is simply the character and the office of Boots in Teutonic stories, and Boots and Cinderella, Oidipous and Herakles, alike represent the sun, who, weak and powerless as he starts on his course, is at length victorious over all his enemies. The phenomena of nature present analogies to the order of the moral world, which are perhaps closer than theologians have imagined. If the words which we use to denote the most abstract ideas were at first mere names of sensible things,^ the phrases which described the processes of nature must be capable of receiving a moral meaning. The story of the sun starting in weakness and ending in victory, waging a long warfare against darkness, clouds, and storms, and scattering them all in the end, is the story of all heroism, of all patient self-sacrifice, of all Christian devotion. There is, therefore, nothing to surprise us if the phrases which we use with a spiritual meaning, and the proverbs in which we sum up our spiritual experience, should have been suggested by the very phenomena which furnished the groundwork of Aryan epic poetry. The tendency of physical science is to resolve complex agencies mto a single force : the science of language seems to be doing the same work for the words and the thoughts of men.

But the story of the heroes of Teutonic and Hindu folk-lore, the Historical stories of Boots and Cinderella, of Logedas Raja, and Surya Bai, Ai^an°^ are the story also of Achilleus and Oidipous, of Perseus and Theseus, popular traditions. of Helen and Odysseus, of Baldur and Rustem and Sigurd. Everywhere there is the search for the bright maiden who has been stolen away, everywhere the long struggle to recover her.^ The war of Ilion has been fought out in every Aryan land. Either, then, the historical facts which lie at the root of the narrative of the Iliad took place before the dispersion of the Aryan tribes from their common home, or they are facts which belong to the beautiful cloudland, where the misty Ilion " rises into towers " at early dawn.

' If theie be monotony in the charac- mythology when he said, " It is curious ter thus imparted to popular stories, the to remark at how little expense of in- nionotony is not confined to these tales. vention successive ages are content to Sir Walter bcolt was not thinking of receive amusement."