[1232]. See above, pp. [186], [365], [366].
[1233]. The only positive evidence, so far as I know, that the Celtic oak-god was also a deity of thunder and rain is his identification with Zeus (see above, p. [362]). But the analogy of the Greeks, Italians, Teutons, Slavs, and Lithuanians may be allowed to supply the lack of more definite testimony.
[1234]. It is said to have been observed that lightning strikes an oak twenty times for once that it strikes a beech (J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th ed., iii. 64). But even if this observation were correct, we could not estimate its worth unless we knew the comparative frequency of oaks and beeches in the country where it was made. The Greeks observed that a certain species of oak, which they called haliphloios, or sea-bark, was often struck by lightning though it did not grow to a great height; but far from regarding it as thereby marked out for the service of the god they abstained from using its wood in the sacrificial rites. See Theophrastus, Histor. plant. iii. 8. 5; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 24.
[1235]. M. Abeghian, Der armenische Volksglaube, p. 90.
[1236]. E. B. Tylor, Early History of Mankind, 3rd Ed., pp. 223-227. For more evidence of this wide-spread belief see M. Baudrouin et L. Bonnemère, “Les Haches polies dans l’histoire jusqu’au XIXe siècle,” Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris, Ve Série, v. (1904) pp. 496-548; Lieut. Boyd Alexander, “From the Niger, by Lake Chad, to the Nile,” The Geographical Journal, xxx. (1907) pp. 144 sq.; A. B. Ellis, Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, pp. 37 sq.; H. Seidel, “Der Yew’e Dienst im Togolande,” Zeitschrift für afrikanische und oceanischen Sprachen, iii. (1897) p. 161; H. Klose, Togo unter deutscher Flagge, pp. 197 sq.; L. Conradt, “Die Ngumbu in Südkamerun,” Globus, lxxxi. (1902) p. 353; Guerlach, “Mœurs et superstitions des sauvages Ba-hnars,” Missions Catholiques, xix. (1887) pp. 442, 454; J. A. Jacobsen, Reisen in die Inselwelt des Banda-Meeres (Berlin, 1896), pp. 49 sq., 232; C. Ribbe, “Die Aru-Inseln,” Festschrift des Vereins für Erdkunde zu Dresden (Dresden, 1888), p. 165; E. Thurston, Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 351; Rev. P. O. Bodding, “Ancient Stone Implements in the Santal Parganas,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, lxx. Part iii. (1901) pp. 17-20; E. M. Gordon, Indian Folk-tales (London, 1908), p. 75; County Folk-lore, III. Orkney and Shetland Islands, collected by G. F. Black (London, 1903), p. 153; P. Hermann, Nordische Mythologie, pp. 339 sq., 352; M. Toeppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren 2nd Ed., (Danzig, 1867), pp. 42 sq. Dr. E. B. Tylor has pointed out how natural to the primitive mind is the association of spark-producing stones with lightning (Primitive Culture, 2nd Ed., ii. 262).
[1237]. L. Preller, Griechische Mythologie, 4th ed., i. 116 sq.; id., Römische Mythologie, 3rd Ed., i. 184 sqq. As to Jupiter see in particular Augustine, De civitate Dei, vii. 19, “Coelum enim esse Jovem innumerabiliter et diligenter affirmant”; and Ennius, quoted by Cicero, De natura deorum, ii. 25, 65, “Aspice hoc sublimen candens, quem invocant omnes Jovem.”
[1238]. Above, vol. i. pp. 6 sq., 12; vol. ii. pp. [124] sq., [128] sq., [171] sqq.
[1239]. Above, vol. i. pp. 19 sqq., 40 sq.
[1240]. Above, vol. i. pp. 12 sq.