91

VII. MOTHER CAREY AND HER CHICKENS 104

VIII. DAVY JONES'S LOCKER 113

IX. SOME FLOWERS OF FANCY 121

X. ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE 137

XI. HERB OF GRACE 149

XII. THE ROMANCE OF A VEGETABLE 163

XIII. THE STORY OF A TUBER 176

XIV. THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD 188

INDEX 201

STORYOLOGY.

CHAPTER I.

STORYOLOGY.

I.

What is a myth?

According to Webster, it is 'a fabulous or imaginary statement or
narrative conveying an important truth, generally of a moral or
religious nature: an allegory, religious or historical, of spontaneous
growth and popular origin, generally involving some supernatural or
superhuman claim or power; a tale of some extraordinary personage or
country that has been gradually formed by, or has grown out of, the
admiration and veneration of successive generations.' Here is a choice
of three definitions, but not one of them is by itself satisfying. Let
us rather say that a myth is a tradition in narrative form, more or less
current in more or less differing garb among different races, to which
religious or superhuman significations may be ascribable. We say 'may
be' ascribable because, although the science of comparative mythology
always seeks for such significations, it is probable that the modern
interpretations are often as different from the original meaning as
certain abstruse 'readings' of Shakespeare are from the poet's own
thoughts.

In their introduction to Tales of the Teutonic Lands, Cox and Jones
declare that the whole series of Arthurian legends are pure myths. These
tales, they say, can be 'traced back to their earliest forms in phrases
which spoke not of men and women, but of the Dawn which drives her white
herds to their pastures'--the white clouds being the guardians of the
cattle of the Sun--'of the Sun which slays the dew whom he loves, of the
fiery dragon which steals the cattle of the lord of light, or the Moon
which wanders with her myriad children through the heaven.' It is
claimed that 'a strict etymological connection has been established'
with regard to a large number of these and similar stories, 'but the
link which binds the myth of the Hellenic Hephaistos with that of the
Vedic Agni justifies the inference that both these myths reappear in
those of Regin and of Wayland, or, in oth