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Article THE UNIVERSALITY OF SUPERSTITION. ← Page 3 of 20 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Universality Of Superstition.
hammer Avhichnever missed its aim , and which invariablyreturned to the death-dealing hand that hacl hurled it forth . The northern gods , from whom xve derive our days of the week , xvere also similar to certain deities of the Greeks . Nixas , a Baltic deity , Avas probably derived from tlie classic Neptune , and is conjectured to have occasioned the appellation of Old Nick , fraught
Avith such an especial terror to sailors . Add to this , that the gigantic Titans find their parallel in the xvild idea of northern mythology , which identified Odin with the earth , its rocks being his bones , its soil his flesh , the ocean his blood , and the heavens Ms skull , upheld at the corners by four dAvarfs—and Ave have sufficient ground to question whether the Asiatic founders of Scandinavian faith mi ght not have derived it from the Greeks and Romans *
The decline of this system took place in the eleventh century , and our islands were cleared of it internally ( having shared it in common Avith Western Europe ) , although it was retained still in remote parts of the Orkney and Shetland Isles . The Anglo-Saxon customs differed materially from those AA'hich they succeeded , although worship of the heavenly bodies form part of the Saxon religious creed . The belief in Elves , allied in nature to the Persian Peri and the Grecian Naiads
and Dryads ( deities of the ocean and the groves ) , arose at this epoch—and we enter the region where modern superstition , such as more nearly concerns ourselves , may be said to have commenced . The origin of Fairies in our country took place with the Celts ; these , xve shall notice subsequently . About 600 A . D ., the more gross and palpable forms of idolatry and
superstition were dispelled by Christian truth . Canute forbad the xvorshi p of fire and flood , wells , stones , and trees ; and endeavoured to dissipate the axve xvith which the idea of phantoms ancl death-spells were regarded . Before , hoAvever , entering upon the later period in our OAVU land , which xvill necessitate some detaillet us notice the striking features of pagan
, xvorshi p in other parts of the world . Lowest in the scale of nations without the light of revelation , stand the Central and West African negroes , Avho revere inanimate objects , pieces of Avood , stone , or toys of various kinds , under the name of fetishes . Brahmanism , xvith the complicated Hindoo mythology , of which Vishnu and Siva stand at the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Universality Of Superstition.
hammer Avhichnever missed its aim , and which invariablyreturned to the death-dealing hand that hacl hurled it forth . The northern gods , from whom xve derive our days of the week , xvere also similar to certain deities of the Greeks . Nixas , a Baltic deity , Avas probably derived from tlie classic Neptune , and is conjectured to have occasioned the appellation of Old Nick , fraught
Avith such an especial terror to sailors . Add to this , that the gigantic Titans find their parallel in the xvild idea of northern mythology , which identified Odin with the earth , its rocks being his bones , its soil his flesh , the ocean his blood , and the heavens Ms skull , upheld at the corners by four dAvarfs—and Ave have sufficient ground to question whether the Asiatic founders of Scandinavian faith mi ght not have derived it from the Greeks and Romans *
The decline of this system took place in the eleventh century , and our islands were cleared of it internally ( having shared it in common Avith Western Europe ) , although it was retained still in remote parts of the Orkney and Shetland Isles . The Anglo-Saxon customs differed materially from those AA'hich they succeeded , although worship of the heavenly bodies form part of the Saxon religious creed . The belief in Elves , allied in nature to the Persian Peri and the Grecian Naiads
and Dryads ( deities of the ocean and the groves ) , arose at this epoch—and we enter the region where modern superstition , such as more nearly concerns ourselves , may be said to have commenced . The origin of Fairies in our country took place with the Celts ; these , xve shall notice subsequently . About 600 A . D ., the more gross and palpable forms of idolatry and
superstition were dispelled by Christian truth . Canute forbad the xvorshi p of fire and flood , wells , stones , and trees ; and endeavoured to dissipate the axve xvith which the idea of phantoms ancl death-spells were regarded . Before , hoAvever , entering upon the later period in our OAVU land , which xvill necessitate some detaillet us notice the striking features of pagan
, xvorshi p in other parts of the world . Lowest in the scale of nations without the light of revelation , stand the Central and West African negroes , Avho revere inanimate objects , pieces of Avood , stone , or toys of various kinds , under the name of fetishes . Brahmanism , xvith the complicated Hindoo mythology , of which Vishnu and Siva stand at the