when S. opened the door to him, "Don't frighten poor Mary; but master has just expired." The messenger had only ridden from Somers Town to Compton Street, Soho. I had this story from S. himself, who was possessed with a notion that the sparrow that tapped at his window was the soul of his brother-in-law.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.

This sheet was already in type and just going to press when I found, in the Times of September 3, 1863, the following corroboration of the conjecture offered in the last paragraph of page 100. At the meeting of the British Association at Newcastle-on-Tyne on the preceding day, the Rev. H. B. Tristram said :

"The gentlemen of Durham and Northumberland believed that the hedgehog ate the partridge eggs; and so great was the ignorance of natural history that, a short time ago, when he remonstrated with a man for shooting a cuckoo, the defence was that it was well known that sparrowhawks turned into cuckoos in the summer."

CHAPTER IV.

THE DEAD-THEIR WORLD AND THE WAY TO IT-PSYCHOPOMP DOGS AND COWS-DEATH OMENS GIVEN BY DOGS AND COWS THE DEAD-SHOE-THE BRIG O' DREAD-SHIPS AND BOATS-THE FERRYMAN'S FEE-ENGLAND THE LAND OF THE DEAD-BERTHA-TEARS FOR THE DEAD-SOULS OF UNCHRISTENED BABES-ZWERGS OROSSING THE FERRY.

It was the belief of the Aryans that the soul— that spark of heavenly fire-passed upwards after death, to mingle with the spirits of the winds, the clouds, the lightning, the sunbeams, and the stars, and to find its everlasting abode in the highest heaven. On its way thither it had to cross a vast river-the cloud-water-which flows between the world of men and the bright realm of Yama and the Pitris, or fathers. But it was not left to make the dread journey alone or unprotected; for, as the Vedas tell, it was taken up by a cow (i. e., a cloud) from the divine world, which conveyed it across the heavenly waters and over the Milky Way to Yama's dwelling. For this reason it was made a religious ordinance of the Hindus that the dying person

PSYCHOPOMP COWS AND DOGS.

107

should lay hold of the tail of a cow in his last moments. Cows drew the corpse to the funeral pile, and a black cow was led after it to the same spot, slaughtered and flayed there. The flesh of the animal was heaped upon the corpse as it lay on the pile, and its hide was spread over all. Fire was then applied, and when the flames rose high a hymn was sung, in which the cow was invoked to ascend with the deceased to the land of the departed fathers.*

Other Vedic accounts state that the wind, under the form of a dog (p. 7), sent by Yama, accompanies and protects the soul on its journey; and again, it is said, that two four-eyed dogs, acquainted with men, watch the path that leads to Yama's abode. In accordance with the conception of the dog as the soul's escort to heaven, it is the custom of the Parsees of Bombay to place a dog before the dying, so that their eyes may rest upon the animal at the last moment; and two dogs are set before a woman dying in pregnancy, one for each departing soul. After death, according to Parsee belief, the soul arrives at the bridge Tchinavat, where the gods and the unclean spirits fight for possession of it. If it be one of the righteous, it is defended by

* Mannhardt, p. 51.

108

THE COW-PATH. MORTUARIES.

the other pure souls and by the dogs that guard the bridge.*

The reader will probably be surprised to learn how many of these particulars have been preserved in the mythologies and popular traditions of Europe. It was an ancient belief of the whole German race that the Milky Way is the way of souls, and in Friesland it is even called the Cow-path (kaupat). It was also believed that whoever had given a cow to the poor on earth would not stumble or be dizzy when he had to cross the fearful Gjallar bridge-the bridge Tchinavat of the Persian Aryans -for there, as in the Vedic times, he would find a cow that would carry his soul safely over. "Hence it was of yore a funeral custom in Sweden, Denmark, England, Upper and Lower Germany, that a cow should follow the coffin to the churchyard. This custom was partially continued [on the Continent] until recent times, being accounted for on the ground that the cow was a gift to the clergy for saying masses for the dead man's soul or preaching his funeral sermon." In England, when heathen sacrifices had been abolished, the animal was likewise devoted to pious uses, in the way of what our Saxon ancestors called saul sceat, i.e., soul-shot, Ibid., p. 320,

*

Mannhardt,

p. 51.

THE HOWLING DOG.

109

or mortuary payment. "It was considered as a gift left by a man at his death by way of recompense for all failures in the payment of tithes and oblations, and called a corse present. It is mentioned in the national council of Ensham about the year 1006."*

In the office assigned to the dog of the Aryans, as a messenger from the world of the dead, we see the origin of that very wide-spread superstition which recognizes a death-omen in the howling of a dog. An intelligent Londoner tells me he has often seen the omen given, and verified its fulfilment. The dog's mode of proceeding on such occasions, he says, is this: The animal tries to get under the doomed person's window; but if the house stands within an inclosure, and it cannot get in, it runs round the premises very uneasily, or paces up and down before them like a sentry. If the dog succeeds in making an entry, it stops under the window, howls horribly, finishes with three tremendous barks, and hurries away. same superstition prevails in France and in Germany. In the latter country, a dog howling before a house portends either a death or a fire. If it howls along the highway, that is held in West* Brand, ii. 248.

The