SECTION III.
The Bull and the Cow in Iranian and Turanian Tradition.
SUMMARY.
The bull the first created in Persian tradition.—The bull of Mithra.—Mithra and Yamas.—The excrements of the celestial cow and bull.—Exorcisms for chasing the evil one away from the beasts of the stable.—The salutary herb, rue.—The heavenly cypress and the mythical forest.—The mountain and the gem.—The mountain of the heroes.—The defenceless soul of the bull recommends itself to the mercy of the gods.—The moon, as a cow or bitch, guides the hero over the funereal bridge.—The many-eyed god.—The golden-hoofed bull.—The spinners of the sky.—Friendship between sun and moon.—The Geusurva is the full moon.—The purifying moon.—Ardhvî-Çûra-Anâhita, the Persian aurora, has all the characteristics of the Vedic aurora, elevated, luminous, discomfiter of the demons, deliverer of the hero Thraetaona from the water, having golden shoes, swift, the first to arrive with her chariot, guesser of riddles, revered at the break of day.—The aurora sung to by her own name, the cow-aurora.—Mithra, the shepherd-god,—Mithra, the hero who fights to recover his cows.—The bull Veretraghna.—Thrita and Thraetaona.—The three brothers in the Avesta.—The two brothers.—The three sisters.—The strength of the solar hero consists in the wind.—The winds have golden shoes and an especial foible for women, as the women have for them.—Indras envious of the Marutas.—Kereçâçpa envious of the wind.—The wind, with its whistling and wailing, makes everything tremble; the hero presses him tightly and forces him to be silent.—The bound hero.—The bow-cow, and the birds coming out of the cow in the Avesta.—The darts, horns of the cow.—The rich brother and the poor one.—The poor one, who has a lean ox and a lean horse, makes his fortune.—Ashis Vag̃uhi, another equivalent of the aurora who also frees the hero Thraetaona.—Other names of the three Persian brothers.—Importance of the Avesta on account of its mythical contents.—The hero exposed on the mountain.—The hero-shepherd, the wonderful child, Cyrus.—Feridun.—The three brothers, sons of Feridun; the third brother is the best, and is murdered by the two elder ones.—Sal, with white hair, the hero exposed and nourished by a bird, solves riddles, and receives in reward the daughter of the king.—The hero Rustem, with the mace of a bull's head, with the strong horse that vanquishes the lion, the strong hero, the Persian Orlando, kills and binds demons, monsters, and giants, who fight with rocks.—From black comes white.—The prince Kawus recovers his sight after the death of the monster.—The demon in the mountain, who keeps back the waters, is the same as the demon in the mill.—The hero Rustem unites himself with the daughter of the demoniacal and hostile king.—Sohrab is born of this union, with a demoniacal nature.—Gurdaferid, the Persian amazon princess, assailed in her white castle by the hero-demon Sohrab.—Rustem fights, wins, and kills his son Sohrab; he then retires from warfare.—Explanation of this myth.—The end of Rustem in an ambuscade.—Sijavush persecuted by his stepmother, whose love he had disdained; the young prince submits to the trial by fire, and comes out safely: the cruel stepmother was to have undergone the same trial, but Sijavush intercedes for her; she continues to persecute him; Sijavush dies in the country of his demoniacal father-in-law, and is avenged by Rustem, who kills the cruel stepmother.—The child-hero Kai Khosru consigned to the care of shepherds; during his childhood he performs prodigies of valour, and passes a river with dry feet.—The strength of the hair of the hero Firud.—The two hero-brothers again; one brother avenges the other.—The old hero becomes a penitent, and disappears in a tempest upon a mountain.—The seven heroic undertakings of Isfendiar.—The legend of Iskander.—The Tuti-Name.—The hero who wishes to kill himself for the king's sake; the deity prevents the sacrifice.—The story of the poor man and the rich one again.—The beautiful woman persecuted by her brother-in-law the seducer; the oriental Crescentia or Geneviève.—The sea, invited to the wedding, brings pearls and gold.—The maiden who discovers the thief by means of a riddle.—The girl who gives his eyesight back to the blind man against her will.—The lovers flee upon the bull's back.—The lover forsakes his mistress on the shore after having despoiled her.—The three brothers deliver the beautiful maiden and dispute for her; the maiden takes refuge in a convent.—The wise child who distinguishes false from true, honest from dishonest.—The money of the dead man.—The adulterer condemned to death who bites off the nose of his companion in guilt and dissoluteness.—The wife despoiled of her riches by her husband and thrown into the water.—Romeo and Juliet in the East.—The three brothers: the seer; the strong carrier, or Christophoros; the victorious one.—The disputed bride again.—The little pipkin of abundance; Perrette in the East.—The small porringer of abundance, which the two brothers contend for.—The shoes which take one in an instant wherever one wishes to go.—The little purse which is filled as fast as it is emptied.—The sword which makes a city rise.—The animals which contend for the division of the prey, and the third comer who profits between two disputers.—The four mines of the four brothers.—Why old men have white hair.—Calmuc and Mongol tradition.—The six companions are the same as three.—The bride torn in pieces.—A man unites himself with a cow, which brings forth a Minotaur of a good nature, who fights against the demons in favour of the gods.—The gem in the cow's litter.—The bull lost.—The three sisters; the third sister marries the monster bird; she loses him, because she has burned the aviary.—The painter and the woodman in Paradise; the painter is burned.—The two brothers, the rich one and the poor one; the rich brother ends badly.—The husband who despoils his wife and hides her in a chest in the sand of the desert.—The gem of the prince falls to the ground; his nose bleeds and he dies; explanation of this myth.—The wonderful hammer, which, when used, brings one whatever is wished for.—The rich and poor brothers; the poor one becomes rich.—The lengthened nose and the corresponding Italian proverb.—The wife kills her husband with the hammer, wishing to knock a protuberance off his nose.—The old man who eats his last cow; his wife continues, even after its death, to nourish and protect him until the wild beasts in the cavern devour him.—The woman disguised as a solar hero.—The lion and the bull friends, or foster-brothers; their friendship is put an end to by the fox.—The projects of Perrette again.—The horns of the dead buffalo.—The grateful animals.—The laughing princess.—The wise herd-children.—The wise puppets.—The prince born of a cake.—The boy learns in the forest every art, even devilish ones.—The son of the wolves who understands their language.—Heroes and demons cut in pieces multiply themselves.—The hero has good luck, because he has performed funeral services to the dead.—Four young shepherds, a new form of the Ṛibhavas, make a beautiful maiden of wood, and then dispute for her.—The wife throws her husband into the fountain out of jealousy, having heard another voice, perhaps the echo of her own.—The princess Light of the sun, who must be seen by no one, and who is visited by the minister Moon.—Turanian tradition in Siberia.—The three brothers dream upon the mountain; the third brother is persecuted on account of his dream; he finds the blind woman and lame man, and induces them to adopt him; he hunts, fights against the devil, and vanquishes him; from the body of the demon come forth animals, men, and treasures; he fishes up in the sea of milk the casket which contains the eyes of the blind woman; receives extraordinary gifts, and above all the faculty of transforming himself; wins his predestined bride, and kills his own cruel father.—The hero who solves enigmas.—Ancient and modern riddles.—The cow devours the wolf, and the wolf devours the cow.—The bow of horn.—The wolves fastened to the calf's tail.—The soul of the black bull in the rainbow, the bridge of souls, wounded by the young hero, who then espouses the daughter of the sky, after attaining the third heaven, and accomplishing heroic undertakings to merit her.—The sleeper in the cup, the gem in the fish.—The Argonauts and Medea in Turan.—The Finnish Diana.—The Finnish thundering God, Kave Ukko.—The little sun, the Finnish dwarf-hero.—The second of the three brothers.—The strong bear.—The monster giant darkness or cloud.—The Orpheus and the lyre of the Finns; grief the inspirer of song.—Finnish and Aryan myths.—The Sampo.—Esthonian tradition.—The three sisters; the third is the most beautiful, and is persecuted by her stepmother, and delivered by the prince.—The bird of light.—The maiden transformed into a pond-rose, and delivered by her husband in the shape of a shrimp.—The witch is burned in the form of a cat.—The gold of the witch.—Explanation of several myths.—The third brother is the swiftest.—The wise maiden.—The golden fairy.—The puppet.—The magical rod makes the cock come out of the mountain.—The fairy is good towards the good, and punishes the wicked.—The cow lost.—The old hospitable dwarf.—The leaf which carries the hero across the waters.—Heroic undertakings against the serpent and the tortoise.—The third brother, expelled from home, travels and solves riddles on the way.—The rod which makes a bridge.—In heaven and in hell time passes quickly.—The hero under-cook.—The golden birds and the voyages to hell.—The brothers punished, and the bride won by the magical sword.—The son of thunder.—The weapon carried off from the god of thunder.—The weapon recovered.—The fisherman-god.—The marvellous musical instrument; the magical flute.—The three dwarfs.—The hat that makes its owner invisible, made of men's nails; the shoes which carry one where-ever one wishes, and the stick which fights of itself.—The proverb of the third who profits between two disputers again.—The third brother is the son of a king, exposed when a child; he awakens the princess who sleeps in the glass mountain; non est mortua puella, sed dormit.—Passage from the dawn of the day to the dawn of the year.—The child sold by his father without the latter's knowledge.—The boy exchanged.—The boy sets out to deliver the maiden from the demon.—The pea, the kidney-bean, the cabbage, and the pumpkin of funerals accompany the solar hero in his nocturnal voyage.—The symbol of abundance, of generation, of stupidity.—The nuptial beans.—Meaning of the myth concerning vegetables.—The region of silence.—The region of noise.—The wise girl helps the hero.—The cow milked and the calf bound.—The luminous ball comes out of the calf.—The antithesis of white and of black.—Hungarian proverbs.—The luminous ball comes out of the stone.—The luminous ball and the ring.—The fearless hero frees the castle from spirits.—The Esthonian story of Blue Beard.—The charivari in the nuptials of widowers.—The widow who burns herself.—The hero exposed, and then brought up among cowherds, feels himself predestined to reign, and learns the art by guiding herds.—The German (or Western) witch endeavours to take the red strawberries from the Esthonian hero.—The boy avenges this injury by causing her to be devoured by wolves, who will not touch her heart.—The gardener's daughter.—The broken ring; the two parts of the ring unite again; the husband and wife find each other once more.—The maiden born of the egg in the shape of a puppet.—The casket which brings good luck disappears when the young couple are married.
Moving now from India westwards, we find on one side the Iranian, and on the other the Turanian traditions. We cannot pass into Europe without at least indicating the general character of each.
In the Persian cosmogony, the bull (gâus aevo dâto) is one of the first of created existences, being as old as the elements. It is, moreover, well known how much importance was ascribed to the bull among the Persians in the mysteries of the solar god Mithra, who is represented as a beautiful youth, holding the horns of a bull in his left hand, and having the knife of sacrifice in his right. Mithra sacrificing the bull is just the solar hero sacrificing himself in the evening. Indeed, in the Persian tradition, Mithra, like the Hindoo Yamas, holds the office of god of the dead, and as such, like Yamas, is of a monstrous aspect, and is found in the Yaçna represented with a thousand ears and ten thousand eyes.
As in India, so in Persia, the urine of the cow is used in ceremonies of purification, during which it is drunk.[267] We have already seen in the story of Utañkas how the excrement of the bull, upon which Utañkas fed, was ambrosia itself; and, indeed, all is beneficial which is given by the cow of abundance (the moon, the cloud, and the aurora), and by the divine bull (the moon and the sun). The mythical belief was natural, however disgusting when we insist on literal interpretation.
And even in the Persian tradition itself, a distinction already exists between common bulls or oxen and sacred or privileged ones. This distinction appears in the legend of Gemshid, whose bulls were all devoured by the devil, as long as they were protected by no magical rites; whilst, when he was given a red ox (or bull) cooked in old, that is strong, vinegar, to which was added garlic and rue (famous for its potency in exorcism), he disappeared and was never seen again.[268] The rue is probably the fabulous plant which the Zend tradition surmises to have sprung from the sea Vôuru-Kasha, whence Ahura Mazda draws the clouds, from which all healthful water is derived, and which corresponds to the sea of milk of Hindoo tradition, in which the ambrosia is agitated.
Thus the funereal cypress of Kishmar (planted by Zarathustra, with a branch from the tree of Paradise), under which more than two thousand cows and sheep could pasture, and the innumerable birds of which darkened the air, obscuring the light of the sun, reminds us of the celestial forest of the Vedâs, in which the shepherd-hero and the hunter-hero wander and are lost.