bull and the legs of a goat were horrible in the extreme. Evil spirits might sometimes achieve success by practising deception. They might appear as beautiful girls or handsome men and seize unsuspecting victims in deathly embrace or leave them demented and full of grief, or come as birds and suddenly assume awesome shapes.
Fairies and elves, and other half-human demons, are sometimes regarded as degenerate gods. It will be seen, however, that while certain spirits developed into deities, others remained something between these two classes of supernatural beings: they might attend upon gods and goddesses, or operate independently now against mankind and now against deities even. The "namtaru", for instance, was a spirit of fate, the son of Bel-Enlil and Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades. "Apparently", writes Professor Pinches, "he executed the instructions given him concerning the fate of men, and could also have power over certain of the gods."[103] To this middle class belong the evil gods who rebelled against the beneficent deities. According to Hebridean folk belief, the fallen angels are divided into three classes--the fairies, the "nimble men" (aurora borealis), and the "blue men of the Minch". In Beowulf the "brood of Cain" includes "monsters and elves and sea-devils--giants also, who long time fought with God, for which he gave them their reward".[104] Similarly the Babylonian spirit groups are liable to division and subdivision. The various classes may be regarded as relics of the various stages of development from crude animism to sublime monotheism: in the fragmentary legends we trace the floating material from which great mythologies have been framed.
[78] The Acts, xvii, 22-31.
[79] Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. ii, p. 149 et seq.
[80] Egyptian Myth and Legend, xxxix, n.
[81] Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, J.H. Breasted, pp. 38, 74.
[82] Custom and Myth, p. 45 et seq.
[83] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 108.
[84] Act iv, scene 1.
[85] Paradise Lost, book ix.
[86] Chapman's Caesar and Pompey.
[87] Natural History, 2nd book.
[88] Indian Myth and Legend, 70, n.
[89] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 202-5, 400, 401.
[90] Teutonic Myth and Legend, p. 424 et seq.
[91] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 164 et seq.
[92] Popular Religion and Folk Lore of Northern India, W. Crooke, vol. i, p. 254.
[93] When a person, young or old, is dying, near relatives must not call out their names in case the soul may come back from the spirit world. A similar belief still lingers, especially among women, in the Lowlands. The writer was once present in a room when a child was supposed to be dying. Suddenly the mother called out the child's name in agonized voice. It revived soon afterwards. Two old women who had attempted to prevent "the calling" shook their heads and remarked: "She has done it! The child will never do any good in this world after being called back." In England and Ireland, as well as in Scotland, the belief also prevails in certain localities that if a dying person is "called back" the soul will tarry for another twenty-four hours, during which the individual will suffer great agony.
[94] A Journey in Southern Siberia, Jeremiah Curtin, pp. 103, 104.
[95] Vol. i, p. 305.
[96] Adi Parva section of Mahàbhàrata, Roy's trans., p. 635.
[97] Jastrow's Aspects of Religious Belief in Babylonia, &c., p. 312.
[98] R.C. Thompson's trans.
[99] The Elder or Poetic Edda, Olive Bray, part i, p. 53.
[100] Babylonian Religion, L.W. King, pp. 186-8.
[101] The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. Campbell Thompson, vol. i, p. 53 et seq.
[102] Omens and Superstitions of Southern India, E. Thurston, p. 124.
[103] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 110.
[104] Beowulf, Clark Hall, p. 14.
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