Chapter VII: Part 7

Mr. Max Muller 'follows Kuhn' in his explanation of Prometheus, the Fire- stealer, but he does not follow him all the way. Kuhn tried to account for the myth that Prometheus _stole_ fire, and Mr. Max Muller does not try. {194} Kuhn connects Prometheus with the Sanskrit pramantha, the stick used in producing fire by drilling a pointed into a flat piece of wood. The Greeks, of course, made Prometheus mean 'foresighted,' providens; but let it be granted that the Germans know better. Pramantha next is associated with the verb mathnami, 'to rub _or_ grind;' and that, again, with Greek [Greek], 'to learn.' We too talk of a student as a 'grinder,' by a coincidence. The root manth likewise means 'to rob;' and we can see in English how a fire-stick, a 'fire-rubber,' might become a 'fire-robber,' a stealer of fire. A somewhat similar confusion in old Aryan languages converted the fire-stick into a person, the thief of fire, Prometheus; while a Greek misunderstanding gave to Prometheus (pramantha, 'fire-stick') the meaning of 'foresighted,' with the word for prudent foresight, [Greek]. This, roughly stated, is the view of Kuhn. {195a} Mr. Max Muller concludes that Prometheus, the producer of fire, is also the fire-god, a representative of Agni, and necessarily 'of the inevitable Dawn'--'of Agni as the deus matutinus, a frequent character of the Vedic Agni, the Agni aushasa, or the daybreak' (ii. 813).

But Mr. Max Muller does not say one word about Prometheus as the Fire- stealer. Now, that he _stole_ fire is of the essence of his myth; and this myth of the original procuring of fire by theft occurs all over the world. As Australian and American savages cannot conceivably have derived the myth of fire-stealing from the root manth and its double sense of stealing and rubbing, there must be some other explanation. But this fact could not occur to comparative mythologists who did not compare, probably did not even know, similar myths wherever found.

Savage Myths of Fire-stealing

In La Mythologie (pp. 185-195) I have put together a small collection of savage myths of the theft of fire. {195b} Our text is the line of Hesiod (Theogony, 566), 'Prometheus _stole_ the far-seen ray of unwearied fire in a hollow stalk of fennel.' The same stalk is still used in the Greek isles for carrying fire, as it was of old--whence no doubt this feature of the myth. {195c} How did Prometheus steal fire? Some say from the altar of Zeus, others that he lit his rod at the sun. {196a} The Australians have the same fable; fire was obtained by a black fellow who climbed by a rope to the sun. Again, in Australia fire was the possession of two women alone. A man induced them to turn their backs, and stole fire. A very curious version of the myth occurs in an excellent book by Mrs. Langloh Parker. {196b} There was no fire when Rootoolgar, the crane, married Gooner, the kangaroo rat. Rootoolgar, idly rubbing two sticks together, discovered the art of fire-making. 'This we will keep secret,' they said, 'from all the tribes.' A fire- stick they carried about in their comebee. The tribes of the Bush discovered the secret, and the fire-stick was stolen by Reeargar, the hawk. We shall be told, of course, that the hawk is the lightning, or the Dawn. But in this savage Jungle Book all the characters are animals, and Reeargar is no more the Dawn than is the kangaroo rat. In savage myths animals, not men, play the leading roles, and the fire-stealing bird or beast is found among many widely scattered races. In Normandy the wren is the fire-bringer. {196c} A bird brings fire in the Andaman Isles. {196d} Among the Ahts a fish owned fire; other beasts stole it. The raven hero of the Thlinkeets, Yehl, stole fire. Among the Cahrocs two old women possessed it, and it was stolen by the coyote. Are these theftuous birds and beasts to be explained as Fire-gods? Probably not. Will any philologist aver that in Cahroc, Thlinkeet. Australian, Andaman, and so forth, the word for 'rub' resembled the word for 'rob,' and so produced by 'a disease of language' the myth of the Fire-stealer?

Origin of the Myth of Fire-stealing

The myth arose from the nature of savage ideas, not from unconscious puns. Even in a race so civilised as the Homeric Greeks, to make fire was no easy task. Homer speaks of a man, in a lonely upland hut, who carefully keeps the embers alive, that he may not have to go far afield in search of the seed of fire. {197} Obviously he had no ready means of striking a light. Suppose, then, that an early savage loses his seed of fire. His nearest neighbours, far enough off, may be hostile. If he wants fire, as they will not give it, he must _steal_ it, just as he must steal a wife. People in this condition would readily believe, like the Australian blacks, that the original discoverers or possessors of a secret so valuable as fire would not give it away, that others who wanted it would be obliged to get it by theft. In Greece, in a civilised race, this very natural old idea survives, though fire is not the possession of a crane, or of an old woman, but of the gods, and is stolen, not by a hawk or a coyote, but by Prometheus, the culture-hero and demiurge. Whether his name 'Foresighted' is a mistaken folk-etymology from the root manth, or not, we have, in the ancient inevitable idea, that the original patentees of fire would not willingly part with their treasure, the obvious origin of the myth of the Fire-stealer. And this theory does not leave the analogous savage myths of fire-stealing unexplained and out in the cold, as does the philological hypothesis. {198} In this last instance, as in others, the origin of a world-wide myth is found, not in a 'disease of language,' but in a form of thought still natural. If a foreign power wants what answers among us to the exclusive possession of fire, or wants the secret of its rival's new explosive, it has to _steal_ it.

CONCLUSION

Here ends this 'Gentle and Joyous Passage of Arms.' I showed, first, why anthropological students of mythology, finding the philological school occupying the ground, were obliged in England to challenge Mr. Max Muller. I then discoursed of some inconveniences attending his method in controversy. Next, I gave a practical example, the affair of Tuna and Daphne. This led to a comparison of the philological and the anthropological ways of treating the Daphne myth. The question of our allies then coming up, I stated my reasons for regarding Prof. Tiele 'rather as an ally than an adversary,' the reason being his own statement. Presently, I replied to Prof. Tiele's criticism of my treatment of the myth of Cronos. After a skirmish on Italian fields, I gave my reasons for disagreeing with Mr. Max Muller's view of Mannhardt's position. His theory of Demeter Erinnys was contrasted with that of Mr. Max Muller. Totemism occupied us next, and the views of Mr. Max Muller and Mr. J. G. Frazer were criticised. Then I defended anthropological and criticised philological evidence. Our method of universal comparison was next justified in the matter of Fetishism. The Riddle Theory of Mr. Max Muller was presently discussed. Then followed a review of our contending methods in the explanation of Artemis, of the Fire-walk, of Death Myths, and of the Fire-stealer. Thus a number of points in mythological interpretation have been tested on typical examples.

Much more might be said on a book of nearly 900 pages. Many points might be taken, much praise (were mine worth anything) might be given; but I have had but one object, to defend the method of anthropology from a running or dropping fire of criticism which breaks out in many points all along the line, through Contributions to the Science of Mythology. If my answer be desultory and wandering, remember the sporadic sharpshooting of the adversary! For adversary we must consider Mr. Max Muller, so long as we use different theories to different results. If I am right, if he is wrong, in our attempts to untie this old Gordian knot, he loses little indeed. That fame of his, the most steady and brilliant light of all which crown the brows of contemporary scholars, is the well-earned reward, not of mythological lore nor of cunning fence in controversy, but of wide learning and exquisitely luminous style.

I trust that I have imputed no unfairness, made no charge of conscious misrepresentation (to accidents of exposition we are all liable), have struck no foul blow, hazarded no discourteous phrase. If I have done so, I am thereby, even more than in my smattering of unscholarly learning, an opponent more absolutely unworthy of the Right Hon. Professor than I would fain believe myself.

APPENDIX A: The Fire-walk in Spain

One study occasionally illustrates another. In examining the history of the Earl Marischal, who was exiled after the rising of 1715, I found, in a letter of a correspondent of d'Alembert, that the Earl met a form of the fire-walk in Spain. There then existed in the Peninsula a hereditary class of men who, by dint of 'charms' permitted by the Inquisition, could enter fire unharmed. The Earl Marischal said that he would believe in their powers if he were allowed first to light the fire, and then to look on. But the fire-walkers would not gratify him, as not knowing what kind of fire a heretic might kindle.

APPENDIX B: Mr. Macdonell on Vedic Mythology

Too late for use here came Vedic Mythology, from Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie, {201} by Mr. A. Macdonell, the representative of the historic house of Lochgarry. This even a non-scholar can perceive to be a most careful and learned work. As to philological 'equations' between names of Greek and Vedic gods, Mr. Macdonell writes: 'Dyaus=[Greek] is the only one which can be said to be beyond the range of doubt.' As to the connection of Prometheus with Sanskrit Pramantha, he says: '[Greek] has every appearance of being a purely Greek formation, while the Indian verb math, to twirl, is found compounded only with nis, never with pra, to express the art of producing fire by friction.' (See above, p. 194.) If Mr. Macdonell is right here, the Greek myth of the fire-stealer cannot have arisen from 'a disease of language.' But scholars must be left to reconcile this last typical example of their ceaseless differences in the matter of etymology of names.

FOOTNOTES

{0a} Chips, iv. 62.

{0b} Chips, iv. p. xxxv.

{0c} Chips, iv. pp. vi. vii.

{0d} Ibid. iv. p. xv.

{0e} Cults of the Greek States, ii. 435-440.

{0f} Chips, iv. p. xiv.

{0g} Chips, iv. p. xiii.

{5} Suidas, s.v. [Greek]; he cites Dionysius of Chalcis, B.C. 200.

{6a} See Goguet, and Millar of Glasgow, and Voltaire.

{6b} Translated by M. Parmentier.

{7} See 'Totemism,' infra.

{8} Longmans.

{10a} M. R. R. i. 155-160.

{10b} Tylor's Prim. Cult. i. 145.

{10c} Turner's Samoa, p. 219.

{10d} Gill's Myths and Songs, p. 79.

{11} M. R. R. ii. 160.

{14} Metam. i. 567.

{15a} Grimm, cited by Liebrecht in Zur Volkskunde, p. 17.

{15b} Primitive Culture, i. 285.

{15c} Op. cit. i. 46-81.

{16} M. R. R. i. 160.

{17} Erratum: This is erroneous. See Contributions, &c., vol. i. p. 6, where Mr. Max Muller writes, 'Tuna means eel.' This shows why Tuna, i.e. Eel, is the hero. His connection, as an admirer, with the Moon, perhaps remains obscure.

{18} Phonetically there may be 'no possible objection to the derivation of [Greek] from a Sanskrit form, *Apa-var-yan, or *Apa-val-yan' (ii. 692); but, historically, Greek is not derived from Sanskrit surely!

{20a} Mythologische Forschungen, p. 275.

{20b} Baumkultus, p. 297. Berlin: 1875.

{21a} Antike Wald- und Feldkulte, p. 257. Referring to Baumkultus, p. 297.

{21b} Oriental and Linguistic Studies, second series, p. 160. La Religion Vedique, iii. 293.

{22} 1, viii. cf. i. 27.

{23} Riv. Crit. Mensile. Geneva, iii. xiv. p. 2.

{25a} Custom and Myth, p. 3, citing Revue de l'Hist. des Religions, ii. 136.

{25b} M. R. R. i. 24.

{25c} Revue de l'Hist. des Religions, xii. 256.

{26} Op. cit. p. 253.

{27} Op. cit. xii. 250.

{28a} P. 104, infra.

{28b} Revue de l'Hist. des Religions, xii. 259.

{29a} M. R. R. i. 25.

{29b} Rev. xii. 247.

{30} M. R. R. i. 24.

{31a} Rev. xii. 277.

{31b} Rev. xii. 264.

{31c} M. R. R. i. 44, 45.

{32a} Custom and Myth, p. 51.

{32b} Rev. xii. 262.

{34} Odyssey, book ix.

{37} C. and M. p. 56.

{42a} W. u. F. K. xxiii.

{42b} M. R. R. i. 23.

{42c} W. u. F. K. xvii.

{46} Golden Bough, 1. ix.

{48} [Greek]. Dionys. i. 80.

{51a} Pausanias, viii. 25.

{51b} Myth. Forsch. p. 244.

{51c} Iliad, xx. 226.

{52} Myth. Forsch, p. 265

{54} September 19, 1875. Myth. Forsch. xiv.

{55} For undeniable solar myths see M. R. R. i. 124-135.

{56} Op. cit. p. xx.

{60} Folk Lore Society.

{61a} Von einem der vorzuglichsten Schiriftgelehrten, Annana, in klassischer Darstellung aufgezeichneten Marchens, p. 240.

{61b} Custom and Myth.

{62a} See Preface to Mrs. Hunt's translation of Grimm's Marchen.

{62b} P. 309.

{65} x. 17. Cf. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, v. 277.

{66} As the Sun's wife is Dawn, and leaves him at dawn, she is not much of a bedfellow. As _Night_, however, she _is_ a bedfellow of the nocturnal Sun.

{71} M. R. R. i. 58-81.

{72a} See Robertson Smith on 'Semitic Religion.'

{72b} See Sayce's Herodotus, p. 344.

{72c} See Rhys' Rhind Lectures; I am not convinced by the evidence.

{73} Academy, September 27, 1884.

{74a} Anth. Rel. p. 405.

{74b} Plantagenet, Planta genista.--A. L.

{74c} See M. R. R. ii. 56, for a criticism of this theory.

{76} Religion of the Semites, pp. 208, 209.

{78} Die Religionen, p. 12.

{79} Anth. Rel. p. 122.

{80} Dalton.

{81a} Strabo, xiii. 613. Pausanias, i. 24, 8.

{81b} Crooke, Introduction to Popular Religion of North India, p. 380.

{82a} C. and M. p. 115.

{82b} Contributions, ii. 687.

{83a} Evidence in G. B. i. 325, 326.

{83b} Compare Liebrecht, 'The Eaten God,' in Zur Volkskunde, p. 436.

{84a} Cf. G. B. ii. 17, for evidence.

{84b} M. R. R. ii. 232.

{84c} G. B. ii. 90-113.

{84d} In Encyclop. Brit. he thinks it 'very probable.'

{85a} i. 200.

{85b} M. R. R. ii. 142, 148-149.

{85c} R. V. iv. 18, 10.

{86} G. B. ii. 44-49.

{87} G. B. ii. 33.

{88a} Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. vi. McLennan, The Patriarchal Theory, p. 207, note 2.

{88b} G. B. ii. 337.

{89a} See G. B. ii. 332-334.

{89b} Religion of the Semites, p. 118.

{90} G. B. ii. 337, 338.

{93a} Custom and Myth, p. 235.

{93b} M. R. R. ii. 327.

{93c} Op. cit. ii. 329.

{94} Lectures on Science of Language, Second Series, p. 41.

{95} M. R. R. ii. 336.

{96} Anthropological Religion.

{97a} M. R. R. i. 171-173.

{97b} Ibid. i. 172.

{97c} Anth. Rel. p. 180.

{100} 'Totemism,' Encyclop. Brit.

{101a} M. R. R. ii. 333.

{101b} Ibid. ii. 335.

{103} M. R.. R.. i. 96, 127; ii. 22, 336.

{106a} Greek Etym. Engl. transl. i. 147.

{106b} Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte, p. 431.

{109} Gr. Etym. i. 150.

{110} M. R. R. ii. 142.

{111a} ii. 210. Cf. Oldenberg in Deutsche Rundschau, 1895, p. 205.

{111b} R. V. iv. 18, 10.

{114} Aglaophamus, i. 700.

{115} Custom and Myth, i. 29-44. M. R. R. ii. 260-273.

{116} Custom and Myth, pp. 212-242.

{117a} Culte des Fetiches, 1760.

{117b} Codrington, Journal Anthrop. Inst., Feb. 1881.

{118a} C. and M. p. 230, note.

{118b} Rochas, Les Forces non definies, 1888, pp. 340-357, 411, 626.

{118c} Revue Bleue, 1890, p. 367.

{118d} De Brosses, p. 16.

{120a} C. and M. p. 214.

{120b} M. R. R. i. 327.

{120c} Lectures on the Science of Language, 2nd series, p. 41.

{121} M. R. R. ii. 327 and 329.

{124} M. R. R. ii. 324.

{125a} Paris: OEuvres, 1758, iii. 270.

{125b} M. R. R. ii. 324.

{126} I have no concern with his criticism of Mr. Herbert Spencer (p. 203), as I entirely disagree with that philosopher's theory. The defence of 'Animism' I leave to Dr. Tylor.

{135} Meyer, 1846, apud Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i. 432.

{138} My italics.

{139a} M. R. R. ii. 208-221.

{139b} Ibid. ii. 209.

{140} M. R. R. ii. 218.

{141a} De Dianae Antiquissima apud Graecos Natura, p. 76. Vratislaw, 1881.

{141b} De Diane Brauron, p. 33. Compare, for all the learning, Mr. Farnell, in Cults of the Greek States.

{142a} M. R. R. i. x.

{142b} Life in California, pp. 241, 303.

{142c} Religion of the Semites, p. 274.

{142d} See also Mr. Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. 90-94; and Robertson Smith, op. cit. pp. 416-418.

{142e} Apostolius, viii. 19; vii. 10.

{143a} Melanesians, p. 32.

{143b} Samoa, p. 17.

{143c} M. R. R. ii. 33.

{143d} See also Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. 92.

{143e} M. R. R. ii. 208.

{144a} M. R. R. ii. 209.

{144b} Custom and Myth, 'Star Myths.'

{148a} L. Preller, Rom. Myth. p. 239, gives etymologies.

{148b} AEn. xi. 785.

{149a} A. W. F. p. 328.

{149b} Dionys. Halic. iii. 32.

{149c} Hist. Nat. vii. 2.

{149d} AEn. xi. 784.

{149e} AEn. xi. 787.

{150a} Serv. AEn. vii. 800.

{150b} Authorities in A. F. W. K. p. 325.

{151a} Herabkunft, p. 30.

{151b} Pausanias, viii. 385.

{151c} A. W. F. K. xxii. xxiii.

{153} Janus, pp. 44-49.

{161} Home, the medium, was, or affected to be, entranced in his fire tricks, as was Bernadette, at Lourdes, in the Miracle du Cierge.

{163} The photograph referred to is evidently taken from a sketch by hand, and is not therefore a photograph from life.--EDITOR. The original photograph was hereon sent to the editor and acknowledged by him.--A. L.

{169} Proces, Quicherat, ii. 396, 397

{171} Introduction to Popular Religion and Folk-Lore in Northern India, by W. Crookes, B.A., p. 10.

{172} Iamblichus, De Myst. iii. 4.

{173} Folk-Lore, September 1895.

{174} Quoted by Dr. Boissarie in his book, Lourdes, p. 49, from a book by Dr. Dozous, now rare. Thanks to information from Dr. Boissarie, I have procured the book by Dr. Dozous, an eye-witness of the miracle, and have verified the quotation.

{175} Predvestniki spiritizma za posleanie 250 lyet. A. M. Aksakoff, St. Petersburg, 1895. See Mr. Leaf's review, Proceedings S. P. R. xii. 329.

{178} Prim. Cult. i. 138.

{179} Journal of Anthrop. Institute, x. iii.

{180a} Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 42.

{180b} Relations, 1637, p. 49.

{183a} Abor. of Victoria, i. 429.

{183b} Dalton, op. cit.

{184} Codrington, Journal Anthrop. Institute, x. iii. For America, compare Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1674, p. 13.

{185} The connection between the Moon and the Hare is also found in Sanskrit, in Mexican, in some of the South Sea Islands, and in German and Buddhist folklore. Probably what we call 'the Man in the Moon' seemed very like a hare to various races, roused their curiosity, and provoked explanations in the shape of myths.

{186} Hahn, Tsuni-Goam, p. 150.

{187} Codrington, op. cit, p. 304.

{188} Codrington, op. cit.

{190a} Bastian, Heilige Sage.

{190b} Primitive Culture, i. 336.

{194} Kuhn, Die Herabkunft der Feuers und der Gottertranks. Berlin, 1859.

{195a} Herabkunft, pp. 16, 24.

{195b} Dupret, Paris, 1886. Translation by M. Parmentier.

{195c} Pliny, Hist. Nat. xiii. 22. Bent. Cyclades.

{196a} Servius ad Virg., Eclogue vi. 42.

{196b} Australian Legendary Tales. Nutt: London, 1897. Mrs. Parker knows Australian dialects, and gives one story in the original. Her tribes live on the Narran River, in New South Wales.

{196c} Bosquet, La Normandie Merveilleuse. Paris, 1845.

{196d} Journal Anthrop. Institute, November, 1884.

{197} Odyssey, v. 488-493.

{198} References for savage myths of the Fire-stealer will be found--for the Ahts, in Sproat; for the tribes of the Pacific coast, in Bancroft; for Australians in Brough Smyth's Aborigines of Victoria.

{201} Trubner, Strasburg, 1897.