Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/557

Rh nor oars. They can pour down rain or snow on the earth, and, CHAP. like the clouds, they can change their form at will ; and thus they are destroyed by Phoibos in the guise of a wolf, as the sun's rays scatter the mists at noonday. In this capacity of changing their form and bringing storms upon the earth we have all that is needed as the groundwork of their reputation as sorcerers, even if we refuse to indulge in any conjectures as to the origin of the name.^ Their office as nurses of Poseidon ^ is even more significant, as showing their close affinity to the nurses of Zeus in the cave of Dikte. Hence the story recorded by Strabo that those of the Telchines who went with Rhea to Crete were there called Kouretes, the guardians of the child (Kovpo<s) Zeus.^ These are the dancers clad in everlasting youth, the Daktyloi, or pointers, of Ida, the nourishing earth, the bride of Dyaus the heaven.* These also are beings endowed with a strange wisdom and with magical powers, and from them Orpheus received the charm which gave to his harp its irresistible power. Their numbers vary, sometimes only a few being seen, sometimes a troop of fifty or a hundred, like the fifty children of Danaos, Thestios, or Asterodia.

The characteristics of the Phaiakians and their ships carry us to The Tel- other myths of the clouds and the light. As roaming over hill and Kourltes^ dale, as visiting every cornfield and seeing all the works of men, and as endowed with powers of thought, these mysterious vessels are possessed in some measure of the wisdom of Phoibos himself. The kindred Telchines and Kouretes, the unwearied dancers who move across the skies, have the power also of changing their forms at will.^ If we put these attributes together, we at once have the wise yet treacherous, and the capricious yet truthful Proteus, the Farmer Weathersky of Teutonic tales. This strange being is the old

von OfAyai in der Bedeutung bezaubern, adaptation to a Semitic sound. durch BerUhrung berlicken, daher Ste- ' So with the fairy in the Ballad of sichoros die Keren und betaiibende Tamlane : Schlage, welche das Bewusstscin ver- dunkeln, reAx'"** genannt hatte." — " I quit my body when I please, Preller, Gr. Myth. i. 473. _ Or unto it repair ; 3 Preller, Gr. Myth. i. 103. In either earth or air, digitus with the root from w hich sprung Our shapes and size we can convert the Greek SeiKi'u/xi, the Latin indico anil To either large or small : other words, is generally admitted. The An old nutshell's the same to us myth that they served Rhea as the As is the lofty hall." fingers serve the hand would naturally grow up when the real meaning of the The sequel of the ballad specifics all the name was weakened or forgotten. But changes of Thetis when Peleus seeks to this fact, if proved, woukf not explain win her. necessarily the source of the name ; and
 * " Der name TsA.x«s ist abzulciten certainly could not do so, if it be only in
 * Thirlwall, Hist. Greece, i. 76. We can inhabit at our ease
 * The connexion of SctJcruAoy and