In Babylonia, as elsewhere, the priests utilized the floating material from which all mythologies were framed, and impressed upon it the stamp of their doctrines. The symbolized stories were afterwards distributed far and wide, as were those attached to the memory of Alexander the Great at a later period. Thus in many countries may be found at the present day different versions of immemorial folk tales, which represent various stages of culture, and direct and indirect contact at different periods with civilizations that have stirred the ocean of human thought, and sent their ideas rippling in widening circles to far-distant shores.
[[190]] It is suggested that Arthur is derived from the Celtic word for "bear". If so, the bear may have been the "totem" of the Arthur tribe represented by the Scottish clan of MacArthurs.
[[191]] See "Lady in the Straw" beliefs in Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. ii, 66 et seq. 1899 ed.).
[[192]] Like the Etana "mother eagle" Garuda was a slayer of serpents (Chapter III).
[[193]] Vana Parva section of the Mahábhárata (Roy's trans.), p. 818 et seq., and Indian Myth and Legend, p. 413.
[[194]] The Koran (with notes from approved commentators), trans. by George Sale, P-246, n.
[[195]] The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, E. Wallis Budge (London, 1896), pp. 277-8, 474-5.
[[196]] Campbell's West Highland Tales, vol. iii, pp. 251-4 (1892 ed.).
[[197]] Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 141.