Cox, George - Aryan Mythology Vol 2.pdf

ZlO MYTHOLOGY OF THE ARYAN NATIONS.
BOOK he has kindled a fire from which rises a dense smoke and
. ,_—, vapour, and the instantaneous effect, as of the lightning, is
the discoverj- of a way into the depths of the earth. In the
tale of Ahmed and the Peri Banou, the Schamir or Sassa-
fras is again an arrow which, when shot by the hand of the
prince, travels so far as to become invisible, as the light-
nings shine from the east and give light to the uttermost
west. Following its course, he comes to a great mountain,
and finds the arrow just where an opening in the rocks shows
him a door by which he descends into a palace of unim-
aginable splendour. Here he is greeted by the queen of this
magnificent domain, who calls him by his name, and having
convinced him of her knowledge of all his actions by recount-
ing incidents of his past life, offers herself to him as his bride.
With her he dwells in happiness and luxury, until, driven
by a yearning to see his home and his father once more, he
beseeches the benignant being to suffer him to go, and at
length obtains his wish after promising, like true Thomas
in the myth of Ercildoune, that he will soon return. This
beautiful Peri with her vast treasures and her marvellous
wisdom is but a reflection of the wise Kirke and Medeia, or
of the more tender Kalypso, who woos the brave Odysseus
in her glistening cave, until she is compelled to let the man
of many sorrows go on his way to his wife Penelope. She is,
in short, the Venus of the Horselberg or Ercildoune (the hill
of Ursula and her eleven thousand Virgins), for the names
are the same, and the prince Ahmed is Tanhauser, or Thomas
the Rhymer, wooed and won by the Elfland queen.
The greedy It is obvious that for the name of the flower which is to
open the cave or the treasure-house might be substituted
any magical formula, while the lightning flash might be
represented by the lighting of a miraculous taper, the ex-
tinguishing of which is followed by a loud crashing noise.
With these modifications, the myth at once assumes the
form of the Spanish legend of the Moor's Legacy, as related
by Washington Irving. In this delightful tale we have all
the usual incidents or features—the buried treasures—the
incantation which has e such virtue that the strongest bolts
and bars, nay, the adamantine rock itself, will yield before