own phenomena of human volition,
by constructing a theory of a great black dragon pierced by the unerring
arrows of a heavenly archer. We consider the nature of the stars to
a certain extent explained when they are classified as suns; but the
Mohammedan compiler of the "Mishkat-ul-Ma'sabih" was content to explain
them as missiles useful for stoning the Devil! Now, as soon as the old
Greek, forgetting the source of his conception, began to talk of a human
Oidipous slaying a leonine Sphinx, and as soon as the Mussulman began,
if he ever did, to tell his children how the Devil once got a good
pelting with golden bullets, then both the one and the other were
talking pure mythology.

We are justified, accordingly, in distinguishing between a myth and
a legend. Though the words are etymologically parallel, and though in
ordinary discourse we may use them interchangeably, yet when strict
accuracy is required, it is well to keep them separate. And it is
perhaps needless, save for the sake of completeness, to say that
both are to be distinguished from stories which have been designedly
fabricated. The distinction may occasionally be subtle, but is usually
broad enough. Thus, the story that Philip II. murdered his wife
Elizabeth, is a misrepresentation; but the story that the same Elizabeth
was culpably enamoured of her step-son Don Carlos, is a legend. The
story that Queen Eleanor saved the life of her husband, Edward I., by
sucking a wound made in his arm by a poisoned arrow, is a legend; but
the story that Hercules killed a great robber, Cacus, who had stolen his
cattle, conceals a physical meaning, and is a myth. While a legend is
usually confined to one or two localities, and is told of not more than
one or two persons, it is characteristic of a myth that it is spread,
in one form or another, over a large part of the earth, the leading
incidents remaining constant, while the names and often the motives
vary with each locality. This is partly due to the immense antiquity
of myths, dating as they do from a period when many nations, now widely
separated, had not yet ceased to form one people. Thus many elements of
the myth of the Trojan War are to be found in the Rig-Veda; and the myth
of St. George and the Dragon is found in all the Aryan nations. But we
must not always infer that myths have a common descent, merely because
they resemble each other. We must remember that the proceedings of the
uncultivated mind are more or les