alternations of storm and calm; his light might break fitfully through
the clouds, or be hidden for many a weary hour, to burst forth at last
with dazzling splendor as he sank down in the western sky. He would thus
be described as facing many dangers and many enemies, none of whom,
however, may arrest his course; as sullen, or capricious, or resentful;
as grieving for the loss of the dawn whom he had loved, or as nursing
his great wrath and vowing a pitiless vengeance. Then as the veil was
rent at eventide, they would speak of the chief, who had long remained
still, girding on his armor; or of the wanderer throwing off his
disguise, and seizing his bow or spear to smite his enemies; of the
invincible warrior whose face gleams with the flush of victory when the
fight is over, as he greets the fair-haired Dawn who closes, as she had
begun, the day. To the wealth of images thus lavished on the daily life
and death of the Sun there would be no limit. He was the child of the
morning, or her husband, or her destroyer; he forsook her and he
returned to her, either in calm serenity or only to sink presently in
deeper gloom.

"So with other sights and sounds. The darkness of night brought with it
a feeling of vague horror and dread; the return of daylight cheered them
with a sense of unspeakable gladness; and thus the Sun who scattered
the black shade of night would be the mighty champion doing battle with
the biting snake which lurked in its dreary hiding-place. But as the Sun
accomplishes his journey day by day through the heaven, the character of
the seasons is changed. The buds and blossoms of spring-time expand in
the flowers and fruits of summer, and the leaves fall and wither on the
approach of winter. Thus the daughter of the earth would be spoken of as
dying or as dead, as severed from her mother for five or six weary
months, not to be restored to her again until the time for her return
from the dark land should once more arrive. But as no other power than
that of the Sun can recall vegetation to life, this child of the earth
would be represented as buried in a sleep from which the touch of the
Sun alone could arouse her, when he slays the frost and cold which lie
like snakes around her motionless form.

"_That these phrases would furnish the germs of myths or legends teeming
with human feeling, as soon as the meaning of the phrases were in part
or wholly forgotten, was as inevitable as that in the infancy of our
race