Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/243

Rh CHAP, II.

itself might be developed in many ways. The disappearance or death of Daphne, or Prokris, or Arethousa would mark the moment of the great catastrophe ; but the disaster was only the interruption of a union which had been continued during the long hours of the night, and at once we have in this fact the suggestion of disguise. If the being whose glance scorched even the object of his love could keep her near him without doing her hurt, this could only be because he had shrouded his splendour in darkness, or because he had assumed some other form. Either he might hide his hmbs behind the skin of a lion, as in Greek stories, or of a fox or a jackal in Hindu folk-lore, or he might himself assume their form. Such an idea would prompt the tale that the beautiful Dawn had been given by her father in marriag',^ to a hideous monster ; or that she, the youngest and loveliest of his daughters, had been frightened by her gloomy sisters, the earUer hours of the night, into the belief that she was wedded to a loathsome being. The natural growth of the story would frame the more minute details, that before this terrible union the mother of the Dawn was dead ; that the beautiful maiden was sacrificed by a new bride, who took part with her elder sisters ; and that, as she sought to verify their words, she discovered the beauty and majesty of her husband only to see it vanish from her sight. Then over the heart of the forsaken Dawn would come that irrepressible yearning which filled the soul of Odysseus. For her life would now have nothing worth living for but the hope that one day she should be reunited to him whom she had lost ; and until she should so recover him, she could know no rest or peace. She must follow him through all lands, she must seek him at all costs and at every sacrifice. To the uttermost bounds of the earth, and far beyond the clouds which veil the distant moun- tains, beyond the mists which brood on the restless sea, she must journey on, buoyed up by the ever undying longing to see his face once more. There are fearful dangers to be encountered and over- come. She is surrounded by awful shapes, who blot out all bright- ness from the sky ; but the powers of light are on her side. The beautiful clouds which sail on the pure ether will bear her up above the murky vapours, and carry her, as on swan's wings, across the mysterious vaults of heaven. Her heart is full of sadness ; but the tenderness of her beauty is not lessened, and as she moves on her weary way, helpless creatures feel her kindness, and declare that their gratitude shall not end in words. She may be doomed to scale a mountain of ice, or to remove heaps of enormous stones ; but the winds are content to be her ministers, and their warm breath melts the ice, and drives away the massy storm-clouds. Still the malignant in-