cases cited by Mr. McLennan may here be repeated in illustration.
"The story of the origin of the Dikokamenni Kirgheez," they say, "from a
red greyhound and a certain queen and her forty handmaidens, is of
ancient date." Now, if "the red greyhound" was the nickname of a man
extremely swift of foot (celebrated runners have been nicknamed
"greyhound" among ourselves), a story of this kind would naturally
arise; and if the metaphorical name was mistaken for the actual name,
there might result, as the idol of the race, a compound form appropriate
to the story. We need not be surprised, then, at finding among the
Egyptians the goddess Pasht represented as a woman with a lion's head,
and the god Har-hat as a man with the head of a hawk. The Babylonian
gods--one having the form of a man with an eagle's tail, and another
uniting a human bust to a fish's body--no longer appear such
unaccountable conceptions. We get feasible explanations, too, of
sculptures representing sphinxes, winged human-headed bulls, etc.; as
well as of the stories about centaurs, satyrs, and the rest.

* * * * *

Ancient myths in general thus acquire meanings considerably different
from those ascribed to them by comparative mythologists. Though these
last may be in part correct, yet if the foregoing argument is valid,
they can scarcely be correct in their main outlines. Indeed, if we read
the facts the other way upward, regarding as secondary or additional,
the elements that are said to be primary, while we regard as primary,
certain elements which are considered as accretions of later times, we
shall, I think, be nearer the truth.

The current theory of the myth is that it has grown out of the habit of
symbolizing natural agents and processes, in terms of human
personalities and actions. Now, it may in the first place be remarked
that, though symbolization of this kind is common among civilized races,
it is not common among races that are the most uncivilized. By existing
savages, surrounding objects, motions, and changes, are habitually used
to convey ideas respecting human transactions. It needs but to read the
speech of an Indian chief to see that just as primitive men name one
another metaphorically after surrounding objects, so do they
metaphorically describe one another's doings as though they were the
doings of natural objects. But assuming a contrary habit of thought to
be the dominant one, ancient myths are expla