, while in
another version the cloud is the rock or mountain which the talisman
cleaves open; nor need we wonder at it, if we find stories in which the
two conceptions are mingled together without regard to an incongruity
which in the mind of the myth-teller no longer exists. [43]

In early Aryan mythology there is nothing by which the clouds are
more frequently represented than by rocks or mountains. Such were the
Symplegades, which, charmed by the harp of the wind-god Orpheus, parted
to make way for the talking ship Argo, with its crew of solar heroes.
[44] Such, too, were the mountains Ossa and Pelion, which the giants
piled up one upon another in their impious assault upon Zeus, the lord
of the bright sky. As Mr. Baring-Gould observes: "The ancient Aryan had
the same name for cloud and mountain. To him the piles of vapour on the
horizon were so like Alpine ranges, that he had but one word whereby to
designate both. [45] These great mountains of heaven were opened by the
lightning. In the sudden flash he beheld the dazzling splendour within,
but only for a moment, and then, with a crash, the celestial rocks
closed again. Believing these vaporous piles to contain resplendent
treasures of which partial glimpse was obtained by mortals in a
momentary gleam, tales were speedily formed, relating the adventures of
some who had succeeded in entering these treasure-mountains."

This sudden flash is the smiting of the cloud-rock by the arrow of
Ahmed, the resistless hammer of Thor, the spear of Odin, the trident
of Poseidon, or the rod of Hermes. The forked streak of light is the
archetype of the divining-rod in its oldest form,--that in which it
not only indicates the hidden treasures, but, like the staff of the
Ilsenstein shepherd, bursts open the enchanted crypt and reveals them
to the astonished wayfarer. Hence the one thing essential to the
divining-rod, from whatever tree it be chosen, is that it shall be
forked.

It is not difficult to comprehend the reasons which led the ancients
to speak of the lightning as a worm, serpent, trident, arrow, or forked
wand; but when we inquire why it was sometimes symbolized as a flower or
leaf; or when we seek to ascertain why certain trees, such as the ash,
hazel, white-thorn, and mistletoe, were supposed to be in a certain
sense embodiments of it, we are entering upon a subject too complicated
to be satisfactorily treated within the limits of the present paper. It
has been said th