“In Norway, lambs and kids, mostly black ones, were offered to the water-sprite.”—(Idem, p. 1009.)
“It is a natural and well-known fact, that the gods of one nation become the devils of their conquerors or successors.”—(Black, “Folk-Medicine,” p. 12.)
Gladiators wore camel’s dung as a charm; it is not at all unlikely that to the Bedouin nomad the “ship of the desert” was the god of fortitude.
Fosbroke says that it was the “symbol of Arabia.”—(“Antiquities,” p. 1011.)
The sacredness of the domestic cattle in India and elsewhere is too well known to require remark; so is that of the crocodile in parts of ancient Egypt.
The hare was sacred in China, and is as sacred to-day to certain tribes of American Indians as it was to the Britons when Boadicea drew one from her bosom to consult as an omen before joining battle with the Roman legions.
The rabbit and hare figured upon ancient Spanish coins.—(Fosbroke, “Antiquities,” vol. ii. p. 1022.)
The dung of hawks, eagles, and vultures was administered to expel the fœtus from the womb. This may have been on the principle of similia similibus, because these rapacious birds tore the young of other birds from their nests and devoured them. However, the eagle was worshipped by the Romans, Persians, and Babylonians, upon whose standards it perched.—(See Fosbroke, “Antiquities,” vol. ii. pp. 1024, 1025, article “Eagle.”)
“It was the common symbol of Jupiter.”—(Idem.)
The cat was a moon-goddess symbol to the Egyptians, as well as to many others.—(Idem, p. 1011.)