[84] See Uhland, Der Mythus von Thor.
[85] Baldur; a Song of Divine Death, by Robert Buchanan.
[86] This scarcely holds as a simile, for in fact the light is the aurora. It need hardly be said, therefore, that the comparison is not found in the original story.
[87] I.e. Garðr a general name for earth, expanded from the confined meaning of inclosure, yard (allied to οἶκος, hortus); just as γαῖα is connected with a cow-inclosure.
[88] The meaning of Zoroaster, or rather Zarathustra, his true name. The reader may usefully consult M. James Darmesteter’s Zend Avesta (Sacred Books of the East, vol. iv.), in which he will see how much of this religion is (in the opinion of M. Darmesteter) simply an early nature-religion parallel to that of the Vedas.
[89] Hence the name Mazdean applied to this creed.
[90] See Chapter IV., p. 100.
[91] Or the graves of those whom he desired specially to honour. We can guess at the process of his thought pretty well. First, the body is buried deep, or earth is thrown over it in a heap, to keep it from being torn up by wild beasts. Then as the covering of the body gets to be thought a special insurance of vitality to the soul, the practice is exaggerated more and more until we get the great grave-mounds and the pyramids.
[92] Wooden statues were very common in the earliest Egyptian dynasties. But they belong to these only.
[93] Blue or green is the colour of Osiris, who represents the soul. (See Chapter VII.)