The goat or ram is the vehicle of the Indian fire and lightning god Agni; the Norse god Thor has a car drawn by goats. Dionysos, as Bromios (the Thunderer), has a goat “avatar”, too, and he is the god of wine (Bacchus)—the wine, the “blood of grapes”, being the elixir of life. Osiris, who had a ram form, was to the Ancient Egyptians “Lord of the Overflowing Wine”. European witches ride naked on goats or on brooms; the devil had a goat form.
In China, as has been shown, the dragon-herb, peach, vine, pine, fungus of immortality, ginseng, &c., received their sap, or blood, or “soul substance” from rain released by dragon gods, who thundered like Bromios-Dionysos. The inexhaustible pot from which life-giving water came was in the moon. This Pot was the mother-goddess, [[184]]who had a star form. A fertilizing tear from the goddess-star, which falls on the “Night of the Drop”, is still supposed in Egypt to cause the Nile to rise in flood.
We should expect to find the Chinese mythological cycle completed by an arbitrary connection between the goat or ram and sacred stones.
There are, to begin with, celestial goats. Some of the Far Eastern demi-gods, already referred to, ride through “Cloud-land” on the backs of goats or sheep. One of the eight demi-gods, who personify the eight points of the compass, is called by the Chinese Hwang Chʼu-Pʼing, and by the Japanese Koshohei. He is said to be an incarnation of the “rain-priest”, Chʼih Sung Tze, who has for his wife a daughter of the Royal Mother of the West, the mother-goddess of the Peach Tree of Life.
The Japanese version of the legend of the famous Koshohei is given by Joly as follows: “Koshohei, when fifteen years old, led his herd of goats to the Kin Hwa mountains, and, having found a grotto, stayed there for forty years in meditation. His brother, Shoki, was a priest, and he vowed to find the missing shepherd. Once he walked near the mountain and he was told of the recluse by a sage named Zenju, and set out to find him. He recognized his brother, but expressed his astonishment at the absence of sheep or goats. Koshohei thereupon touched with his staff the white stones with which the ground was strewn, and as he touched them they became alive in the shape of goats.”[31]
THE GODDESS OF THE DEW
From a Chinese painting in the British Museum
Goats might become stones. The Great Mother was a stone, rock, or mountain, having the power to assume many forms, because she was the life of all things and the [[185]]substance of all things. The goddess was the Mountain of Dawn in labour that brought forth the mouse-form of the sun (Smintheus Apollo), or the antelope form of the sun, or the hawk or eagle form, or the human form, or the egg containing the sun-god. She was also the sun-boat—the dragon-ship of the sun. The five holy mountains of China appear to have been originally connected with the goddess and her sons—the gods of the four quarters.
In China deities might on occasion take the form of stones or reptiles. During the Chou Dynasty (756 B.C.) “one of the feudal dukes”, says Giles, “saw a vision of a yellow serpent which descended from heaven, and laid its head on the slope of a mountain. The duke spoke of this to his astrologer, who said, ‘It is a manifestation of God; sacrifice to it’. In 747 B.C. another duke found on a mountain a being in the semblance of a stone. Sacrifices were at once offered, and the stone was deified and received regular worship from that time forward.”[32]