Among the Arabs we have an addition to our sacred account of Adam—the legend of the black stone of the Caaba at Mecca, into which the angel was changed who was charged by the Almighty to keep Adam away from the forbidden fruit, and who neglected his duty.
Similar old transformation legends are abundant among the Indians of America, the negroes of Africa, and the natives of Australia and the Pacific islands.
Nor has this making of myths to account for remarkable appearances yet ceased, even in civilized countries.
About the beginning of this century the Grand Duke of Weimar, smitten with the classical mania of his time, placed in the public park near his palace a little altar, and upon this was carved, after the manner so frequent in classical antiquity, a serpent taking a cake from it. And shortly there appeared, in the town and the country round about, a legend to explain this altar and its decoration. It was commonly said that a huge serpent had laid waste that region in the olden time, until a wise and benevolent baker had rid the world of the monster by means of a poisoned biscuit.
So, too, but a few years since, in the heart of the State of New York, a swindler of genius having made and buried a "petrified giant," one theologian explained it by declaring it a Phoenician idol, and published the Phoenician inscription which he thought he had found upon it; others saw in it proofs that "there were giants in those days," and within a week after its discovery myths were afloat that the neighbouring remnant of the Onondaga Indians had traditions of giants who frequently roamed through that region.(425)
(425) For transformation myths and legends, identifying rocks and stones
with gods and heroes, see Welcker, Gotterlehre, vol. i, p. 220. For
recent and more accessible statements for the general reader, see
Robertson Smith's admirable Lectures on the Religion of the Semites,
Edinburgh, 1889, pp. 86 et seq. For some thoughtful remarks on the
ancient adoration of stones rather than statues, with refernce to
the anointing of stones at Bethel by Jacob, see Dodwell, Tour through
Greece, vol. ii, p. 172; also Robertson Smith, as above, Lecture V. For
Chinese transformation legends, see Denny's Folklore of China, pp. 96,
128. For Hindu and other ancient legends of transformations, see
Dawson, Dictionary of Hindu Mythology; also Coleman, as above; also Cox,
Mythology of the Aryan Nations, pp. 81-97, etc. For such transformations
in Greece, see the Iliad, and Ovid, as above; also Stark, Niobe und die
Niobiden, p. 444 and elsewhere; also Preller, Griechische Mythologie,
passim; also Baumeister, Denkmaler des classischen Alterthums, article
Niobe; also Botticher, as above; also Curtius, Griechische Geschichte,
vol i, pp. 71, 72. For Pausanius's naive confession regarding the
Sipylos rock, see book i, p. 215. See also Texier, Asie Mineure, pp. 265
et seq.; also Chandler, Travels in Greece, vol. ii, p. 80, who seems to
hold to the later origin of the statue. At the end of Baumeister there
is an engraving copied from Stuart which seems to show that, as to the
Niobe legend, at a later period, Art was allowed to help Nature. For the
general subject, see Scheiffle, Programm des K. Gymnasiums in
Ellwangen: Mythologische Parallelen, 1865. For Scandinavian and Teutonic
transformation legends, see Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, vierte Ausg.,
vol. i, p. 457; also Thorpe, Northern Antiquities; also Friedrich,
passim, especially p. 116 et seq.; also, for a mass of very curious
ones, Karl Bartsch, Sagen, Marchen und gebrauche aus Meklenburg, vol. i,
pp. 420 et seq.; also Karl Simrock's edition of the Edda, ninth edition,
p. 319; also John Fiske, Myths and Myth-makers, pp. 8, 9. On the
universality of such legends and myths, see Ritter's Erdkunde, vol. xiv,
pp. 1098-1122. For Irish examples, see Manz, Real-Encyclopadie, article
Stein; and for multitudes of examples in Brittany, see Sebillot,
Traditions de la Haute-Bretagne. For the enchanted columns at Saloniki,
see the latest edition of Murray's Handbook of Turkey, vol. ii, p. 711.
For the legend of the angel changed into stone for neglecting to guard
Adam, see Weil, university librarian at Heidelberg, Biblische Legende
der Muselmanner, Frankfort-am-Main, 1845, pp. 37, 84. For similar
transformation legends in Australia and among the American Indians, see
Andrew Lang, Mythology, French translation, pp. 83, 102; also his Myth,
Ritual, and Religion, vol. i, pp. 150 et seq., citing numerous examples
from J. G. Muller, Urreligionen, and Dorman's Primitive Superstitions;
also Report of the Bureau of Ethnoligy for 1880-'81; and for an African
example, see account of the rock at Balon which was once a woman, in
Berenger-Feraud, Contes populaires de la Senegambie, chap. viii. For the
Weimar legend, see Lewes, Life of Goethe, book iv. For the myths which
arose about the swindling "Cardiff giant" in the State of New York, see
especially an article by G. A. Stockwell, M. D., in The Popular Science
Monthly for June, 1878; see also W. A. McKinney in The New-Englander
for October, 1875; and for the "Phoenician inscription," given at length
with a translation, see the Rev. Alexander McWhorter, in The Galaxy for
July, 1872. The present writer visited the "giant" shortly after it
was "discovered," carefully observed it, and the myths to which it gave
rise, has in his possession a mass of curious documents regarding this
fraud, and hopes ere long to prepare a supplement to Dr. Stockwell's
valuable paper.
To the same stage of thought belongs the conception of human beings changed into trees. But, in the historic evolution of religion and morality, while changes into stone or rock were considered as punishments, or evidences of divine wrath, those into trees and shrubs were frequently looked upon as rewards, or evidences of divine favour.
A very beautiful and touching form of this conception is seen in such myths as the change of Philemon into the oak, and of Baucis into the linden; of Myrrha into the myrtle; of Melos into the apple tree; of Attis into the pine; of Adonis into the rose tree; and in the springing of the vine and grape from the blood of the Titans, the violet from the blood of Attis, and the hyacinth from the blood of Hyacinthus.
Thus it was, during the long ages when mankind saw everywhere miracle and nowhere law, that, in the evolution of religion and morality, striking features in physical geography became connected with the idea of divine retribution.(426)
(426) For the view taken in Greece and Rome of transformations into
trees and shrubs, see Botticher, Baumcultus der Hellenen, book i, chap.
xix; also Ovid, Metamorphoses, passim; also foregoing notes.