the domestic animals.[1] Nor did this ancient idea remain a mere lingering notion of peasant folklore. Its adoption by the Church is obvious in the ceremonial benediction of candles in the Roman Ritual: 'Ut quibuscumque locis accensæ, sive positæ fuerint, discedant principes tenebrarum, et contremiscant, et fugiant pavidi cum omnibus ministris suis ab habitationibus illis, &c.' The metrical translation of Naogeorgus shows perfectly the retention of primitive animistic ideas in the middle ages: —
.... a wondrous force and might
Doth in these candels lie, which if at any time they light,
They sure beleve that neyther storm or tempest dare abide,
Nor thunder in the skies be heard, nor any devil's spide,
Nor fearefull sprightes that walke by night, nor hurts of frost or
haile.'[2]
Animals stare and startle when we see no cause; is it that they see spirits invisible to man? Thus the Greenlander says that the seals and wildfowl are scared by spectres, which no human eye but the sorcerer's can behold;[3] and thus the Khonds hold that their flitting ethereal gods, invisible to man, are seen by beasts.[4] The thought holds no small place in the folklore of the world. Telemachos could not discern Athene standing near him, for not to all do the gods visibly appear; but Odysseus saw her, and the dogs, and they did not bark, but with low whine slunk across the dwelling to the further side.[5] So in old Scandinavia, the dogs could see Hela the death-goddess move unseen by men;[6] so Jew and Moslem, hearing the dogs howl, know that they have seen the Angel of Death come on his awful errand;[7] while the
2 Rituale Romanum; Benedictio Candelarum. Brand, 'Popular Antiquities,' vol. i. p. 46.
