[49] The original signification of this seems to have gone astray, but was probably based on some former worship of the horse, long regarded as a sacred animal by Indians, Parsees, Arabs, and Germans.
[50] See “Saxon Superstition,” chap. xxix.
[51] Also believed by most Slav races.
[52] Archæologists have derived this word from Pri, which in Sanscrit means fruitful, and Hu, the god of the Celtic deluge tradition, and likewise regarded as the personification of fruitful nature.
[53] So in India the Matris, known also among Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Mexicans. A corresponding spirit is likewise found in Scandinavian and Lithuanian mythology; in the latter, under the name of the medziajna.
[54] Surely a corruption of “great Pan,” who, it would seem, is not dead after all, but merely banished to the land beyond the forest.
[55] The ancients used likewise to cook for their household demons (cæna dæmonum).—Plaut. Pseudol. Also, the Hindoos prepared food for the house-spirit.
[56] Instances of weather-makers are also common in Germany. We are told that there used to live in Suabia long ago a pastor renowned for his proficiency in exorcising the weather, and whenever a thunder-storm came on he would stand at the open window invoking the clouds till they had all dispersed. But the work was heavy and difficult to do, and the pastor used frequently to be so exhausted after dispersing a storm that large drops of perspiration would trickle down his face.
[57] An old German saying, “Hier liegt der Hund begraben”—and which is equivalent to saying, That now we penetrate the true meaning of something not previously understood—has been explained in the same way in Büchner’s “Geflügelte Worte:” There the dog lies buried; that is why the tree bears fruit.
[58] The Greeks also observed this at their banquets in order to appease the gods.