Moncure Daniel Conway · Public domain edition · 289 cards · 77 chapters
Moncure Daniel Conway’s Demonology and Devil-lore argues that religious evolution moved from nature worship through dualism toward ethical monotheism, with devil figures preserving traces of older deities and spirits. The deck covers his examples from witch trials, Dahomey, Karen and Hindu practice, and English folklore, plus his account of how he classified phantom hosts.
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Chapter 1 · Question
What legend opens the Preface, and what does the devil tell the friars?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
A legend says three friars hid near the Witch Sabbath orgies to count the devils. The Chief Devil discovered them and said their army is so numerous that if all the Alps, rocks and glaciers, were divided equally among them, none would weigh a pound. Conway uses this to suggest any catalogue of evil spectres is like counting shadows cast by the rising sun.
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Introduction4 cards
What legend opens the Preface, and what does the devil tell the friars?
A legend says three friars hid near the Witch Sabbath orgies to count the devils. The Chief Devil discovered them and said their army is so numerous that if all the Alps, rocks and glaciers, were divided equally among them, none would weigh a pound. Conway uses this to suggest any catalogue of evil spectres is like counting shadows cast by the rising sun.
Chapter 1
What earlier work did Conway publish in 1859, and what did it reveal to him?
In 1859 Conway contributed a pamphlet titled 'The Natural History of the Devil' as one of the American 'Tracts for the Times.' He says its chief value was probably to himself, because preparing it revealed how pregnant with interest and importance the subject was. Later research in Europe showed how slight his early conception of the subject's vastness had been.
Chapter 1
What encouraging point does Conway make about classifying the phantom hosts?
Conway argues that though the phantom hosts are unmanageable in number, when closely examined they present comparatively few types; they coalesce by hundreds, and the classifier eventually beats the bushes to start a new variety. Around a single form such as Hunger, Disease, Lust, or Cruelty, ignorant imagination has broken up nature into countless distorted reflections, which vanish if that central fact is withdrawn.
Chapter 1
Why does Conway say he kept working on demonology for years?
Conway says it was not mere intellectual curiosity but an increasing conviction that the sequelae of such superstitions still exercise formidable influence. He argues that dogmas moulded in a fossil demonology make foundations of institutions diverting wealth, learning, and enterprise to fictitious ends. He cites Bishop's remark to Father Delaporte and identifies the kingdom of God with that of Truth.
Chapter 1
CHAPTER I.4 cards
According to Conway, what was the real direction of religious evolution?
The author argues that worship progressed from the far to the near, from the great to the small—not the reverse. Things like stock, stone, and reptiles were not originally worshipped as primitive fetishes; their sanctity was later lost, and surviving superstitions point back to an original association with heavenly phenomena, such as the solar serpent standing erect with rays around its head.
Chapter 2
How does the Dahomey serpent incident illustrate linked worships?
William Craft witnessed a man kill a sacred serpent and be seized; surrounded by burning brushwood, he broke through, was beaten, and fled into a river, where pursuit ceased because passing through fire and water purified him. Conway says this shows serpent-worship associated with fire- and river-worship, echoed in Aryan and Semitic symbolism and in the orthodox Israelite candle and water basin beside the dead.
Chapter 2
What did witch-trial evidence reveal about plant and planet worship?
Conway reports that for divination witches used plants like rue and vervain, known in ancient Northern religions and often examples of tree-worship. A mock zodiacal circle was drawn around the cauldron, and each herb's potency was said to derive from being gathered at a certain hour, a particular moon phase, or a spot where sun or moon did or did not shine—reflecting ancient planet-worship still seen in village herbalists.
Chapter 2
How did primitive pantheism give way to Dualism?
The author argues primitive pantheism, the counterpart of ignorance, held the elemental powers in harmony—Maruts praised with Indra, Yama adored with Dawn. Once each deity became associated with earthly objects and human pleasure or pain, discord divided them: rebel clouds became Titans and Dragons, Maruts became Vritras and Ahis, and the universe became an arena of conflict between good and evil Powers.
Chapter 2
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According to the chapter, what did the Karens' devil Kephn look like?
The Karens, an African tribe in the chapter's account, represented the Devil (Kephn) as a huge stomach floating through the air. The author treats this repulsive image as the type of nearly half the demons haunting the human imagination, since the ancient world was haunted by a brood of Hunger-demons born of man's struggle for food.
Chapter 3
How does Miru treat the spirits who reach her nether world?
Akaanga, slave of Miru, nets the spirits and laves them in a lake; they are pulled up and brought before Miru. Her four daughters give each a bowl of kava, stupefying them, and the victims are cooked in a mighty oven. Miru and her household subsist on human spirits, and her drinking-cups are her victims' skulls. The author notes there is no gratuitous cruelty in her procedure.
Chapter 3
Why do Hindus break cooking vessels and throw out food during an eclipse?
The author traces this to the ancient myth that a demon, Ráhu, devours the sun during an eclipse. The observances come from the childhood of the world, when people called out to the demon, offering earthly fire and food so he would satisfy his appetite with something less important than the luminaries of heaven.
Chapter 3
What did the Pelsall women do after the mine flooded, and why?
When the Pelsall mine flooded and many miners drowned, the women sat beside the pit mouth and yelled down with voices unlike ordinary lamentation. They refused all food, saying that as long as they could refrain from eating, their husbands might still be spared. When one woman ate a crust, the cries ceased and the women walked home in silence.
Chapter 3
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Why did the holy Tree of Travancore grow so large, according to Conway?
Conway says the tree grew huge because for ages the blood and ashes of sacrificial victims fed its roots and swelled its trunk. The priest claimed it was large because it was holy, but Conway reverses this: it was believed holy, and that belief produced the growth. He notes the argument, not confined to India, that the dimensions of the superstition were assumed to prove its truth.
Chapter 4
How did Rum Bahâdur of Nepaul take vengeance on the gods?
After his queen poisoned herself, disfigured by smallpox, Rum Bahâdur had the doctors flogged and their ears and noses cut off, then abused the gods of Nepaul, accusing them of taking 12,000 goats, sweetmeats, and 2,000 gallons of milk under false pretences. He had artillery from three to twelve-pounders loaded and fired on the deities; after six hours' cannonading not a vestige remained.
Chapter 4
What contract does Conway say early man made with nature's powers?
Conway describes man's first contract as so much adoration and flattery on his part for so much benefit on the gods'. When benefits failed to arrive, the worshipper supposed an old sin was to blame. Offerings followed, then sacrifices, yet poverty, famine, and death continued. The priest explained that the people stinted the gods, and the theologian added that mortals must not inquire into divine mysteries.
Chapter 4
What does Conway mean by the decline of demons?
Conway argues that as man conquered particular demons through new weapons and implements, and through geographic and mental migrations to better lands and the age of metal, the early demonic forms gave way because man discovered they were not his masters. Only in realms he could not yet conquer did hostile forces retain præternatural potency. He also argues the pessimistic phase of faith made each non-anthropomorphic deity more purely a demon, on the road to becoming a devil.
Chapter 4
CHAPTER I.4 cards
How does Conway distinguish a Demon or Dragon from a Devil?
Conway argues that Demons and Dragons never voluntarily give physical pleasure or happiness to man, whereas a chief part of the notion of a Devil is that he often confers earthly favours in order to corrupt the moral nature. He treats apparent exceptions, such as the agatho-dragons, as malevolent powers forced into service by superior heroes or saints, with no malign ulterior purpose.
Chapter 5
What happens to the Dragon's wings in the Apocalyptic war in heaven?
Conway notes that the Dragon's wings are lost in his fall from heaven. His angelic relationship suggests previous wings, but after falling he is wingless, 'the old serpent' once more, while the woman escapes by the two wings given her. Wingless, the monster's shape no longer suits the moral and religious struggle to ensue, since that shape means the perfection of brute force.
Chapter 5
How does Conway trace the Devil's origin to Zoroastrian theology?
Conway states that in primitive Zoroastrian theology the Devil first appears in clear definition as the opponent of the Good Mind. The combat between Ormuzd and Ahriman spiritualises the earlier combat between Light and Darkness, Pain and Happiness, in the external world. Because these visible antagonists were thought exactly balanced, their spiritual correlatives are described as Twins who chose good and evil deeds respectively.
Chapter 5
What does Conway say about genuinely believing in an absolute Fiend?
Conway argues it is open to question how far average mankind really conceived this theological dogma. He suggests that since man is limited in subjective conceptions to his own possibilities, to genuinely believe in an absolute Fiend a man would have to be potentially one himself. He adds that anyone who would without motive corrupt as well as afflict would be universally regarded as insane.
Chapter 5
CHAPTER II.4 cards
Why does Conway say early worship began with propitiation of demons rather than pure gods?
The author argues that because evil powers seemed strongest—thorns and weeds spring up everywhere while good things come with difficulty—the best deity had a touch of the demon in him. No sacrifice would originally have been offered to a purely benevolent power, so flattering names like Eumenides must be read alongside the costly sacrifices meant to appease these powers.
Chapter 6
How does Conway illustrate the split between a beneficent god and his demonic shadow using Baal?
Conway says the relationship between Baal and Baal-zebub cannot be doubted: Baal represents the Sun in glory as quickener of Nature, while Baal-zebub is the insect-breeding power of the Sun, the Fly-god. Only later did this Philistine deity, whose oracle Ahaziah consulted, gain the reputation of Prince of Devils, his name changed by pun to Beelzebul, dung-god.
Chapter 6
How does Conway distinguish a Demon from a Devil?
Conway limits the word Devil to the conception of a purely malignant spirit—love of evil for its own sake—which required a high development of moral sentiment. Demon is applied to beings whose harmfulness is not gratuitous but incidental to their own satisfactions. Early demons had no moral character, any more than a man-eating tiger, and no moral indignation mingles with Indra's victory over Vritra.
Chapter 6
What does Conway identify as the mother-principle from which demons in the ordinary sense proceeded?
Conway traces demons to the primitive inability to conceive that a luminary whose business was to give light could be party to his own obscuration. Seeing the sun blotted out by storm, early humans came by irresistible logic to Dualism, dividing the universe into two hostile camps. This principle of existence can expand indefinitely until it includes all realms of darkness, fear, and pain.
Chapter 6
CHAPTER II.4 cards
According to the chapter, what did Agni's smoke become, and what does that illustrate?
Agni's smoke was called Kali (black), which later became the name of Siva's terrible bride. The chapter uses this to illustrate how glowing metaphors of early time undergo petrifaction: verbal inspiration turns Agni into a literally tortuous serpent and consuming fire. The author argues that such poetic imagery hardens into concrete personification over time.
Chapter 7
How was the sacred flame symbolizing Agni produced, and what phrase describes it?
The sacred flame was produced by rubbing two sticks together. Vedic hymns describe Agni as 'he whom the two sticks have engendered, like a new-born babe.' The chapter notes a curious coincidence with the phrase 'the devil on two sticks,' Asmodeus, the lame demon whose crutches appear in European romance via Persia.
Chapter 7
What was Moloch, and how were children said to be destroyed in its flames?
Moloch, meaning 'king,' was nearly synonymous with human sacrifice, likely an Ammonite personification from a shrine of Baal. The brass idol had a calf's head and a furnace stomach; children placed in its arms were consumed by heat, their cries drowned by drums—hence 'Tophet,' from toph, a drum. The chapter says prophets confirm the burnings were actual.
Chapter 7
What did Josiah do to Gehenna, and what later imagery derived from it?
Josiah defiled Gehenna, filling it with ordure and dead men's bones to make it odious, so no one would pass children through fire to Moloch, and a perpetual fire consumed Jerusalem's filth. The chapter argues that from this Gehenna—with its fire, worm, and cruelties—came the picture of a never-ending Hell. The author argues Christendom's theological god is still Moloch.
Chapter 7
CHAPTER II.4 cards
What does Conway mean by 'nondescript forms' arising from conquered demons?
Conway argues that after man conquered many specific evils, he began to generalize them into an opposing principle or power. These 'nondescript forms' were the conquered demons' bequest—attempts to represent the many-formed pain and evil in the world as a unified, preternatural conception, rather than as individual natural monsters.
Chapter 8
What is the 'Saurian theory' of dragons, and what evidence does Conway offer against it?
The Saurian theory holds that the conventional dragon is a traditional memory of huge extinct Saurians, possibly contemporaneous with early men. Conway counters that earliest written and pictorial descriptions of reptilian monsters are crocodiles or serpents, not dragons; and if the theory were true, earliest combats should feature dragons, but instead serpent enemies multiply over time.
Chapter 8
How does Conway distinguish demonic forms from preternatural forms like the sphynx or dragon?
Conway argues demonic forms are generally natural, though caricatured or exaggerated—like a werewolf or giant. Preternatural forms like the sphynx, chimæra, or conventional dragon are higher creations: combinations not found in objective nature, representing generalized types of evil—the claw-principle, fang-principle—detached from accidental forms. This effort is poetic and artistic, not mere superstition.
Chapter 8
What does Conway say about the Tannin and other Old Testament monsters as dragons?
Conway argues there is little reason to ascribe dragon significance to the Tannin, though it is generally so translated. It is used to mean whale, serpent, and various beasts—Jeremiah compares them to wild asses, Micah describes their wailing. The fiery serpents are called seraphim, but neither natural nor mythological forms anticipate the conventional dragon beyond the fiery character.
Chapter 8
CHAPTER II.3 cards
What does Conway mean by atheism ad hoc in the rise of new deities?
Conway argues that when deities representing physical needs fail to meet those needs, atheism follows, but it cannot long find philosophical expression. It is instead an atheism ad hoc that works by degrading particular gods rather than constructing antitheistic theories. Successive dynasties of deities arise this way, each representing a less arbitrary relation to nature and a higher moral and spiritual ideal.
Chapter 9
Why does Conway say a more spiritual god gains security by surrendering nature's cruel forces to the Devil?
Conway argues it is easier to maintain that prayers are heard if those prayers are limited to spiritual requests rather than petitions for outward benefits. By giving over the cruel and remorseless forces of nature to the Devil, a personification previously appealed to in vain, the more spiritual god that follows gains in security and beauty what he surrenders of empire and omnipotence.
Chapter 9
How does Conway describe the contest between alien and national deities?
Conway argues that national pride and patriotism are enlisted for the home deities, while the imported religion brings the charm of novelty and consciousness of fault and failure in the home system. Every system imported to a foreign land leaves behind its practical shortcomings and puts its theoretical foot forward, suggesting escape from an oppressive routine. He cites Napoleon I on conquest and notes Buddha, Zoroaster, and Christianity triumphed away from their native lands.
Chapter 9
CHAPTER III.4 cards
According to Conway, how did the name Diti arise and become a demoness?
Conway cites Max Müller's suggestion that Diti is a reflex of Aditi, the holy Mother of many gods, with the initial 'a' dropped by a reciter's license. Later reciters treated every letter as eternally significant, so Diti became a separate powerful being; since every niche of beneficence was occupied, she was relegated to the realm of evil as mother of the Daityas, enemies of the gods.
Chapter 10
What evidence does Conway give that demon and deity were originally identical?
Conway argues the word 'demon' originally meant something good, and that Sanskrit deva ('shining one'), Zend daêva, Greek theos, Latin deus, and Anglo-Saxon Tiw correspond, surviving in 'deity,' 'deuce,' gipsy 'devel' for God, and Persian div for demon. He also notes bogey comes from the Slavonic word for God, bog, and that Plato called good men after death 'demons.'
Chapter 10
How does Conway explain the widespread belief that demons are lame?
Conway calls the belief that demons are lame one of the most striking signs of their fall from heaven, citing Mr. Tylor on its persistence across cultures. Hephaistos was lamed when Zeus hurled him from Olympos; the Persian demon Aeshma, the Asmodeus of Tobit, appears lame in Le Sage's 'Diable Boiteux'; and the Christian devil's clubbed or cloven foot is notorious.
Chapter 10
What does Conway say about the origin of the devil's horns and the 'fall of Lucifer'?
Conway suggests the devil's horns may have originated with the aureole indicating his glory in his 'first estate,' noting Satan wears the aureole in a tenth-century miniature given by M. Didron; Pan and the Satyrs got their horns from the same high source as Moses. He says the fabled 'fall of Lucifer' signifies the morning star, as revealer of darkness, becoming an avenger and then an instigator of the evil it once disclosed.
Chapter 10
CHAPTER III.4 cards
How does the Ishtar descent myth differ from Baldur's in outcome?
In the Ishtar myth the messenger succeeds: Hea charms the Infernal Queen and Ishtar is released, receiving back her garments and jewels at each of the seven gates. In the Norse Baldur myth Hermödr fails, because Hel requires all things to weep and the hag Thokk refuses, so Baldur remains in Helheim. The author argues this difference reflects the extent of winter in each region.
Chapter 11
What does the author say the word Hell originally means?
The author calls it an irony of etymology that 'Hell' means a place of fireless darkness, noting the Scandinavian demoness Hel (Goth. Halja) whose abode was an icy hole. In regions where cold was known as well as heat, cold often appears in ideas of future punishment. Tertullian and Jerome read 'outer darkness' and 'gnashing of teeth' as suggesting extreme cold alternating with heat.
Chapter 11
How is the death of Winter still enacted in Slavonic and Scottish customs?
The author cites Ralston that Slavonic carnival rites typify Winter's death and Spring's birth: in Poland a hemp or straw puppet is flung into a pond with 'The Devil take thee!', and in Russia the 'Straw Mujik' is burned. In Scotland the Clavie at Burghead burns a tar-barrel carried round the town; sparks are cursed as fleeing witches, and a saved ember relights the cottage hearth.
Chapter 11
What is the Chenoo of the Mimacs, and how can it be slain?
The Chenoos are demons of the Mimacs of Nova Scotia, said to be fearfully cold, with a dragon's horn as weapon and a yell fatal to hearers. Their heart is a block of ice, and the demon can only be slain by melting that heart in fire; the chief precaution is not being drowned in the flood the melting causes.
Chapter 11
CHAPTER III.3 cards
What does Michelet describe about the viper's head that shook his faith?
Michelet describes an enlarged anatomical model of the viper's head, noting its keen-edged teeth, a poison reservoir that slays immediately, and a magazine of supernumerary teeth replacing any broken ones. He calls these 'provisions for killing' and 'love for this horrible creature,' and leaves feeling Nature's maternity is cruelly impartial, as though the notion of Providence were dying within him.
Chapter 12
Why does Conway think the Serpent uniquely threatened arboreal human ancestors?
Conway argues the Serpent is almost the only animal that can follow a monkey up a tree and attack its young, so no seclusion could protect early arboreal humans. He cites the King of Bonny's account of the Nomboh, a small white leaping snake whose bite is fatal and which springs from branches onto prey, showing no natural enclosure could defend against the subtlest beast.
Chapter 12
How does Conway explain superstition actually protecting the Serpent?
Conway argues the Serpent's superiority to primitive devices gave it sanctity, and this sanctity became a condition favoring its survival and multiplication. He calls this the fatal power of superstition to change fancies into realities: from being venerated as arbiter of life and death, the Serpent might actually become such in large districts, its victims outnumbering lightning deaths many thousands to one.
Chapter 12
CHAPTER III.3 cards
According to Conway, what did Zoroaster's revolt target in the Hindu system?
The author argues the Zoroastrian revolution arose against pious privilege: an Indian hierarchy that was irresponsible to moral law, whose doctrine of 'merits' consisted of costly sacrifices, rich offerings, and penances commutable by the wealthy. Conway says the first clear eye to touch that system transformed it from a Heaven to an Inferno, with the immoral god Ahriman at its centre.
Chapter 13
What does the Avesta's Gâthâ say about the two Spirits and choosing between them?
The Gâthâ states that from the beginning there were two Spirits, each active in itself, the good and the bad in thought, word, and deed. Humans are told to choose: the worst existence is for the liars, the best for the truthful. The two cannot both be served; whoever chooses the lying, evil worker chooses the hardest fate, while whoever chooses the true holiest spirit honours Ahuramazda in faith and truth by deeds.
Chapter 13
How does Conway explain the Hindu gods becoming demons in Zoroastrianism?
Conway notes that gods adored in India reappear as execrated demons in Zoroaster's religion; the Hindu word for god is the Parsî word for devil. The Avesta furiously denounces theological opponents identifiable with Brahman priests. He argues the early colonisation of Persia was likely, like New England's, the result of religious struggle rather than solely climatic change, though climate may have supplied metaphors.
Chapter 13
CHAPTER IV.4 cards
What does the German word Abgott mean, and what does it illustrate?
Abgott means "ex-god." Conway uses it to illustrate how deities were degraded into demons, alongside terms like "pagan" (villager) and "heathen" (of the heath), which denoted those who kept faith with their old gods after others had converted to a new religion.
Chapter 14
How did religions typically treat the gods they suppressed, according to the chapter?
The author argues that new religions never denied the existence of the deities they suppressed, since that would outrage popular belief and might breed scepticism endangering the new faith. Instead, propagandists kept the old gods' existence but reclassified them as devils, as when Gregory the Great told Mellitus to let converts feast the oxen to God rather than to demons.
Chapter 14
What does deva mean to Brahmans versus Parsees?
In the Zend-Avesta, deva means "deity" to Brahmans but "devil" to Parsees, reflecting the theological war between Ormuzd and Ahriman. The chapter quotes the Avesta calling the devas children of the Evil Mind, summarizing the attitude as: "Ours is the true god: your god is a devil."
Chapter 14
Why were demons and devils depicted as ugly in religious art?
The chapter argues that degrading formerly fair deities required presenting them in repulsive forms to the popular eye. A true demon, with human-like motives like hunger or lust, would not rationally be shown hideous; and a devil's function of temptation would be destroyed by ugliness, since seduction calls for an angel of light.
Chapter 14
CHAPTER IV. (part 1)4 cards
How does Conway connect the Edinburgh night-prayer circle to Hindu myth?
Conway compares the Edinburgh group, which prays through the night to restrain devils who raise storms when Christian prayers cease, to the Hindu Munasa. He says Munasa sat as a serpent on a Euphorbia branch while all gods slept, to preserve mankind from snake venom. He suggests the lady's kindly solicitude was personified in that pre-existent sister, though he doubts the serpent's wisdom is what watches at Edinburgh.
Chapter 15
How did the epithet Siva relate to Rudra in the Vedas?
Conway states that in the Rig-Veda, Siva occurs frequently as an epithet meaning auspicious. It was used as a euphemistic epithet to appease Rudra, lord of tempests, and finally the epithet developed into a distinct god. He also notes the Yajur-veda and Atharva-veda ascribe other Siva attributes to Rudra, such as nîla-grîva, blue-necked.
Chapter 15
What does Conway say accounts for demons with crooked or crippled legs worldwide?
Conway cites lame demons across cultures: the Namaqua Tsui'knap ('wounded knee'), the Bakwain god with a crooked leg like Egyptian Thau, the Mainas Uchuella-chaqui or Lame-foot, and the Australian Biam with deformed lower extremities. He says there is little doubt many crooked legs trace to crooked lightning, while allowing that fallen Titans and angels also explain lameness in popular myths.
Chapter 15
How does Conway link Helios, Elias, and storm-chariot folklore?
Conway reports Schliemann found a temple of Helios once stood near the present Church of Elias at Mycenæ, long a place to pray for rain. The storm-breeding Sun was succeeded by the Prophet whose prayer evoked the cloud, without changing the name. Local Christian folklore says a storm with lightning is 'Elias in his chariot of fire,' a phrase paralleled across Aryan countries with names like Woden or King Waldemar.
Chapter 15
CHAPTER IV. (part 2)4 cards
In Lei-chau, China, what annual object is placed in the Thunder Duke's temple and why?
Dr. Macgowan relates that in the Lei-chau (Thunder District) of China, the people annually place a drum in a temple consecrated to the Thunder Duke for that stormy demon to beat. The drum was formerly left on a mountain-top together with a little boy as a sacrifice. The Chinese also believe black stones emitting light and peculiar sounds when struck may be found after thunderstorms.
Chapter 16
Why does the Cantonese say 'The Bob-tailed Dragon is passing' during a violent tempest?
The Bob-tailed Dragon of China is a partial exception to the general veneration of dragons. His fidelity as a friend led to the ill return of an attack by which his tail was amputated, and ever since his soured temper shows itself in raising storms. When a violent tempest arises the Cantonese say, 'The Bob-tailed Dragon is passing,' in the same proverbial way Aryan peasantries attribute storms to their storm-gods.
Chapter 16
What French folklore attributes storms to clergy, and what anecdote illustrates it in the Orne?
The Melusine states that in the department of the Orne storms are attributed to the clergy, who are supposed to be circling in them. Some years before, a parishioner who saw his crops threatened by a hail-storm fired into the cloud. The next day he heard that the parish priest had broken his leg by a fall for which he could not account.
Chapter 16
According to Conway, what is the origin of the name 'Old Nick'?
Conway says many philologists trace 'Old Nick' to the German Nixy (nêchô), now merely mischievous like the British Pixy. He argues instead that the phrase owes its popularity to St. Nicholas rather than the Norse water-god whose place he was assigned after the Christian accession. Through his legendary relation to boys, St. Nicholas gave the name its modern moral accent.
Chapter 16
CHAPTER IV. (part 3)3 cards
Why was the Devil's Tower on the Longstone demolished, and what became of the Black Monk?
To supply materials for fortifications against Soliman's invading host, patriotism overcame superstition and the Devil's Tower was demolished and converted into a breastwork. The Black Monk, forcibly dislodged, is said to have cursed the intruders and chosen a new haunt in the recesses of the Harz mountains.
Chapter 17
What belief surrounds the halcyon and Æolus, and how does the author connect it to swans?
Halcyone cast herself into the sea after her husband Ceyx was shipwrecked, and both became birds. It was believed that for seven days before and after the shortest day, while the halcyon breeds, Æolus restrains his winds and the sea is calm. The author notes this fable's accent survives in swan folklore, citing an English anecdote about swans nesting and the tide.
Chapter 17
How do Russian and Ukrainian peasants protect themselves from water-spirits, and what are these spirits said to be?
Russian peasants fear the Rusalkas and Vodyanuie, led by Tsar Morskoi, and will not bathe without a cross round the neck nor ford a stream on horseback without signing a cross on the water with a scythe or knife. In the Ukrain these water-demons are thought to be the transformed souls of Pharaoh and his drowned host, increased by people who drown themselves.
Chapter 17
CHAPTER IV.4 cards
Why does Conway think the Etruscan Dii Involuti were veiled?
The author argues the veiled gods were hidden not from transcendent reverence but because they were ugly: crude early carvings that could not bear comparison with later beautiful statues. Concealing them preserved reverence and the institutions built around them, and it could then be claimed they were too divinely beautiful for the senses to bear.
Chapter 18
What did the Ark of the Covenant contain, according to Hebrews ix?
The Epistle to the Hebrews describes the Holiest of all as holding the golden censer and the ark of the covenant, wherein was the golden pot of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant. Conway notes this budding rod was the same rod changed to a serpent that swallowed Pharaoh's sorcerers' rods.
Chapter 18
How does Conway explain the 'worm' as a name for the serpent?
The author explains that 'worm' derives from a general description of things that wind or turn, traced by some to the Sanskrit root hvar, 'curved,' and gradually came to express demon serpents. In lands like Germany and England without large serpents, the snake's tortuous character was expanded into supernatural transformation, so Dante and Milton call Satan a worm.
Chapter 18
Why was the serpent hidden in the ark or coffer?
Conway ties this to the veiled gods: the serpent was concealed because it was not fit to be seen, and hiding it preserved reverence as art advanced. He notes the Eleusinian mystic coffer was said to contain a serpent, and that the occupant of the Hebrew Ark was originally concealed, its genius lingering in the Pyx.
Chapter 18
CHAPTER IV.4 cards
According to the chapter, on what doctrine does priestly power depend?
The chapter argues that priestly authority can only be maintained on the doctrine that man is 'saved' by deeds of a ceremonial law. Any general belief that morality is more acceptable to the gods than ceremonies would be fatal to the occult and fictitious virtues surrounding pious impostors. Sacerdotal power in India rested on superstitions about soma-juice, litanies, invocations, benedictions, sacrifices, austerities, penances, and pilgrimages—performances the author calls worthless to any being except the priest.
Chapter 19
How does the chapter contrast Viswámitra and Vasishtha?
Both were among the seven Rishis and composed Vedic hymns, but they represent opposing parties. Viswámitra champions the high priestly party and its political pretensions, with hymns celebrating Soma-juice and sacrifice. Vasishtha is famous for hostility to priestly power and for profoundly religious character; his finest moral hymns and a satirical hymn ridiculing ceremonial Bráhmans under the guise of a panegyric on frogs express the anti-sacerdotal spirit.
Chapter 19
In the Harischandra drama, what wager do Indra, Viswámitra, and Vasishtha make?
Indra asks which mortal has never lied or swerved from justice. Vasishtha names his disciple Harischandra; Viswámitra denounces him as cruel and a liar. Indra decides an experiment shall be made: if Harischandra can be made to tell a lie, Vasishtha's lifelong austerities and power pass to Viswámitra; if not, Viswámitra must give Vasishtha half his merits. Viswámitra may use any means, with no interference.
Chapter 19
How does Viswámitra try to make Harischandra lie about the gold?
Viswámitra demands a mound of gold as high as a missile slung from an elephant's back, then has Harischandra pledge it in writing while leaving it in the king's keeping. Later, after taking the kingdom, Viswámitra demands the gold. He offers to cancel the debt if Harischandra will simply declare he never pledged it or does not feel bound to pay. Harischandra refuses, accepting beggary and ordeals rather than utter a falsehood.
Chapter 19
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According to Conway, what do the twelve classes of demons catalog?
Conway states that demons in which men have believed form a complete catalogue of the obstacles humans have faced in the struggle for existence, while devils record the moral and religious struggles of priesthoods and churches. He lists twelve functional classes: Hunger, Excessive Heat, Excessive Cold, destructive elements, destructive animals, human enemies, barren earth, obstacles, illusion, darkness and dreams, disease, and death.
Chapter 20
How does Conway distinguish a demon from a devil?
Conway says the distinction is not arbitrary: the word demon is related to deity, while devil has a bad sense meaning 'calumniator' and no real relation to the Sanskrit deva. Beyond etymology, he distinguishes demons representing afflictive natural forces attributed to humanly appreciable motives from evils ascribed to pure malignancy or a principle of evil, noting both must be kept separate even when attached to the same forms.
Chapter 20
Why does Conway defer treating certain largely beneficent demons?
Conway notes some demons were originally beneficent and became evil mainly through theology's anathema. Examples include Teraphim, Lares, and genii, ancestors of guardian angels and patron saints, often shaped as dogs, cats, or aged ancestors watching over the house like the Russian Domovoi. Their harmfulness is partly natural but partly theological, arising from difficulty superseding them with patron saints and angels.
Chapter 20
What does Conway say is Demonology's main task regarding myths?
Conway argues the origin of myths, whether solar or otherwise, is secondary to his inquiry. A myth originates as the uncivilised mind's explanation of a natural phenomenon, not an allegory, which is why it takes manifold shapes. Comparative Mythology traces the one thread to the original myth, but Demonology's task is to discover the agencies that gave myths their several shapes, asking for instance why dogs rather than bulls.
Chapter 20
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According to the chapter, why is the fox spared in Japan?
The chapter states the fox is not to be killed on any account in Japan, and because it is spared through superstition, foxes increase enough to supply abundant material for the continuance of its demonic character. The fox is regarded as generally harmful but not always so, and is treated as a scape-goat: when trouble follows a fox's appearance, sufferers propitiate it at an ancient gnarled tree.
Chapter 21
How does the chapter explain the demonic reputation of the hedgehog?
The author argues the hedgehog's demonhood arose from its nocturnal, hibernating habits and general quaintness rather than its furtive egg-and-chicken stealing. In fables it outwits the wolf and serpent. The Devil reportedly took hedgehog form to let in the sea at Brighton Downs, and an ancient tradition says a hedgehog plugged the hole the Devil bored in Noah's Ark.
Chapter 21
What belief did the Corinthians hold about the Taraxippos?
The chapter says the Corinthians believed the Taraxippos was the shade of Glaucus, who had been torn apart by the horses he raced and fed on human flesh to make them more spirited. He remained to haunt the Isthmus and frighten horses during the races. The author notes few ancient demon-horse legends suggest anything hostile to man in the animal itself.
Chapter 21
Which legends does the chapter cite of rats acting as avengers?
The chapter reports that King Popelus II's murdered uncles reappear as rats and gnaw him and his wife to death, and that Miskilaus of Poland meets the same fate through transformed widows and orphans he had wronged. Archbishop Hatto of Mainz, who burned famine-stricken people in his barn around 970, is devoured by rats that swim to his Rhine tower and gnaw through its walls.
Chapter 21
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How does Conway interpret the elaborate coils of Apophis on Egyptian sarcophagi?
Conway rejects literalist readings of Apophis as an unknown giant snake. He argues the regular, conventional folds on the sarcophagus of Seti I and elsewhere are mystical and decorative, not naturalistic. Following William Hickson, he reads the serpent's death as symbolizing the end of time, and the labyrinthine coils as representing Time itself—the undying Worm that devours all things.
Chapter 22
What role does Apophis play in the Egyptian Ritual of the Dead?
Conway says the Ritual shows it was the high privilege of the heroic dead to be reconstructed and go forth to subdue the agents of Apophis. Apophis sends crocodiles Seb, Hem and Shui from the four directions, then the walking viper Ru, then other 'precursors,' until the hero meets and slays the prince himself, with guardian deities fixing a knife in each fold. Conway calls these the Vanquishers of Time—the immortal.
Chapter 22
How does Conway connect Apophis to the biblical 'crooked serpent'?
Conway identifies Apophis with the 'Nachash beriach' (cross-bar serpent) and 'Nachash aktalon' (tortuous serpent) of Isaiah 27:1, where the Lord punishes leviathan the piercing and crooked serpent. The Vulgate renders it serpens vectis. He reads this as the serpent's moral function of barring the way or guarding the door, and links it to the winged Seraph that guarded Eden and bit Israel in the wilderness.
Chapter 22
How does Conway explain serpent-handling as a test of divine favor?
Conway argues the serpent early became an agent of ordeal: anyone handling it unharmed was thought in league with it or protected by the deity. He suggests Moses and Aaron may have influenced Pharaoh as snake-charmers. He compares the Maltese barbarians, who first called Paul a murderer and then a god when the viper did not harm him, and notes Luke 10:19's power to tread on serpents, where patein implies walking in majesty, not hostility.
Chapter 22
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How does the chapter describe the Elohim of the Genesis creation account?
The author argues the Elohim are nature-gods, powerful but without moral quality, whose creative work in Genesis i. and ii. 1-3 is that of giants. The plural word is used with a singular verb, showing a tendency toward concentration that eventually enthroned Jehovah. The name Elohim was also applied to gods later deemed false, and actions ascribed to them reflect un-moral forces of nature.
Chapter 23
How does the chapter contrast Elohim and Jehovah in the Abraham and Isaac story?
The author argues that in Gen. xxii. it is Elohim who demands the sacrifice of Isaac, while Jehovah interferes to save him. But editors felt it inadmissible that Abraham be loyal to any god but Jehovah, so Jehovah adopts the sacrifice as meant for himself, and the place is named Jehovah-Jireh. This shows the two antagonistic conceptions being merged by editing.
Chapter 23
What two tables of law does the chapter set side by side?
The author argues the two tables—one written by Jehovistic theology, the other by the moral sense of mankind—are ascribed to a dual deity. Table I includes commands to slay brother and neighbor (Exod. xxxii. 27) and to stone the Sabbath stick-gatherer; Table II forbids killing, adultery, stealing, and false witness (Exod. xx. 13-16). The author says the second table was little supported by the first.
Chapter 23
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According to the chapter, why do people at Mozambique make hideous images of the Devil?
The name of the Devil at Mozambique is Muzungu Maya, or Wicked White Man. The people make little images of extreme hideousness, kept by people on the coast and occasionally displayed, believing that if the White Devil is lurking near, he will vanish out of sheer disgust at a glimpse of his own ugliness. The chapter links this to the hereditary horror of the kidnapper.
Chapter 24
How does the Veda distinguish Aryas from Dasyus, and what does Indra's hymn ask?
In the old Sanskrit hymns of the Veda, arya occurs as a national name and name of honour, comprising worshippers of the Brahmans' gods, as opposed to their enemies called Dasyus. Indra is invoked (Rigveda i. 57, 8) to know the Aryas and those who are Dasyus, punish the lawless and deliver them to his servant, and be the mighty helper of worshippers.
Chapter 24
Who were the Yakkhos in the Mahawanso legend, and how did Buddha subdue them?
The Yakkhos were dreaded beings believed able to become invisible, and the Mahawanso relates Buddha's victory over them in Lanka. Hovering above their assembly, he struck terror into them with rains, tempests and darkness; when they begged release, he had them grant him a place to alight, spread his flaming carpet, and transferred them to the isle of Giri. The chapter notes they are the Sanskrit Yakshas, attendants on Kuvera, generally inoffensive.
Chapter 24
What does the chapter say about the origin of the were-wolf superstition?
The chapter says many animal demons are mere fables for the ferocity of human tribes. The were-wolf superstition, still existing in Russia where the transformed monster is called volkodlák (volk, wolf, and dlak, hair), might even have originated in the costume of Norse barbarians and huntsmen. The belief was always more or less rationalised, resembling Verstegan's account of sorcerers who anoint their bodies and put on an enchanted girdle.
Chapter 24
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What does the Vedic hymn Kankato na suggest about early Indian attitudes toward serpents?
The hymn treats serpents with abhorrence, not worship. Though verse six calls serpents children of Heaven and Earth, the context associates them with evil Rakshasas, while the Sun and Agni are their haters and destroyers. The hymn invokes antidotes, the seven-sister rivers, and animals like the partridge and mongoose against serpent venom. The author argues this shows serpent-worship was not yet developed when the hymn was written.
Chapter 25
How does the author explain the serpent becoming an emblem of the healing art?
The author suggests the serpent's longevity and its power of casting its old skin, apparently renewing its youth, may be the basis of this reputation. He argues that early observers and snake-charmers who learned the snake's susceptibilities to music and how to draw its poison gained credit as practitioners, and through such primitive rationalism the serpent became an emblem of medicine across many cultures.
Chapter 25
What does the author identify as the dominant accent of Hindu serpent-mythology?
The author argues that the accent of Hindu serpent-mythology is emphatically the homage paid to the serpent as guardian of treasures. He considers but doubts Mr. C. Staniland Wake's idea that the serpent symbolized preternatural and occult knowledge, and he also questions Miss Buckland's theory linking serpent-worship to Turanian metallurgists, though he grants the serpent may plausibly have served as an emblem of gems.
Chapter 25
Why did serpents who withheld rain or rivers become enemies to be combated?
As guardians of hidden treasures like metals and drugs, serpents might be invoked for favours. But serpents that hid the cloud-cows and withheld rain, or choked rivers with drought, kept the underworld's garners fat while the upper world's stayed lean. Against them people invoked celestial deities, reminding them their own altars would lack offerings unless these thievish Binders and Concealers were vanquished.
Chapter 25
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How does Conway explain the origin of the biblical Devil's attributes?
The author argues that descriptions of the Devil in the Bible are mainly borrowed from early descriptions of the Elohim and of Jehovah in his Elohistic character. He presents parallel passages pairing Old Testament acts of God—tempting Abraham, hardening Pharaoh's heart, sending lying spirits—with New Testament attributions of similar acts to the devil.
Chapter 26
How did the Consuming Fire become the residence of the wicked?
Conway traces it through a prophet's denunciation of Jeroboam's calf altars, personifying the altar and foretelling that Josiah would burn priests' bones upon it. Centuries later Josiah dug up the Elohistic priests' bones and burned them on the ruined altars, instituting a sort of Gehenna. Conway says it was by this prosaic route that the Devouring Fire became the residence of the wicked.
Chapter 26
What does Paul's Thessalonians passage reveal about the survival of Elohist belief?
Conway says the passage shows how potent the survival of the old Elohist belief was in Paul's mind. The ancient deity who deceived prophets and sent lying spirits was dethroned but still a powerful claimant, haunting the temple and setting himself up as God, to be consumed by Christ's breath. Conway notes God even cooperates by sending 'strong delusions' so men believe the lie and be damned.
Chapter 26
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According to Conway, how do Indian famines relate to sun-spot cycles?
The author cites the conclusion that sun-spots reach maximum and minimum intensity about every eleven years, with high activity linked to magnetic-needle fluctuations and increased rainfall. In 1811 and afterward, Indian famines, with one exception, followed years of minimum sun-spots. Conway argues these facts are well enough attested that English science and skill could eventually provide for India as Joseph did for Pharaoh's seven lean years.
Chapter 27
How does Conway contrast the Demon of the Desert with India's famine demons?
In India, where drought and famine were occasional, people treated them as the varying moods of a powerful will, prompting extensive propitiation. But where barrenness was constant and visible, the Demon of the Desert represented Necessity, a power not to be coaxed or changed. Conway argues this lesson from the desert may have driven Egypt's ancient civilization, and that its decay came when that primitive faith passed into a theological phase.
Chapter 27
What does Conway say about the Sphinx as a symbol of Egyptian civilization?
Conway calls the Sphinx 'the Binder,' possibly a landmark between the rise and decline of Egyptian civilization. When the great Limitation on human powers was first personified with mystical grandeur, it stood in the desert as the riddle's solution, not its source. But once personified and outwardly shaped, the external Binder must bind thought too, and will throttle thought unless people pierce the stone to find its meaning.
Chapter 27
What does Lepsius describe about the locust plague he witnessed in Egypt?
Lepsius recounts descending into a mummy-pit and finding a snow-drift of locusts flying from the south-west desert in hundreds of thousands. The flight continued for days, covering the whole region; he rode home amid the locust shower. The Arabs lit smoke-fires and made loud noises to save their crops, which he judged would do little good. He notes the popular idea that a comet sent them, and that the same plague visited Egypt fourteen years earlier.
Chapter 27
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According to Conway, what is the likely origin of the basilisk's name?
Conway explains that certain serpents were crested or horned, suggesting a crowned imperial snake, the basiliskos. Naturalists named the genus Basiliscus mitratus for its membranous crest. Folklore, which Conway calls the science of the ignorant, instead claimed the basilisk hatched from a black cock's egg, an explanation tied to the word cockatrice.
Chapter 28
What does Conway argue about the word 'cockatrice'?
Conway argues cockatrice has nothing to do with cock or coq. It derives from Old French cocatrix, from Spanish cocotriz, meaning crocodile, from krokodeilos. He notes Herodotus used the term for a kind of lizard. The phonetic coincidence with cock, he suggests, may have damaged the ancient fame of the cock as bird of dawn.
Chapter 28
How does the Laidley Worm legend end for the princess?
The prince is told to quit his sword and bow and give three kisses. He does so, and the worm creeps into a hole while a lady steps out. The wicked stepmother Queen is transformed into a toad that spits fire to this day. Conway notes the sorceress was not turned into a dragon, since the dragon form had already gained noble associations.
Chapter 28
How does Beowulf's saga end according to Morley as quoted by Conway?
Beowulf rules fifty winters until a dragon guarding a hoard in a stone mound wins mastery. A man steals a cup, the dragon wastes the land with fire, and Beowulf fights it. The poison-worm strikes one wound in his flesh, and Beowulf dies of it. Conway cites this as a legend where the dragon prevails over its heroic assailant.
Chapter 28
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What does Conway claim about the serpent story's presence in the rest of the Old Testament?
The author argues that from Genesis 3 to the last verse of Malachi the story is never once alluded to. He says this silence would be impossible if the legend were indigenous to the Hebrews, and concludes it was a foreign 'boulder' that later became overgrown with rabbinical interpretation.
Chapter 29
How does Conway reinterpret the Genesis story using Hindu myth?
He substitutes old names: Ráhu for the serpent, Adea Suktee and Adima for the first couple, Soma for the forbidden tree, and Indra for the Lord God. In this reading the curse condemns Ráhu to remain fixed in serpent form, and the flaming sword guards the Amrita, the gods' immortality monopoly.
Chapter 29
What Vedic and Mahábhárata elements does Conway trace in the Eden legend?
He links the forbidden fruit to Soma, the gods' intoxicating plant, and the Tree of Life to the Amrita, the ambrosia of immortality. In the Mahábhárata, gods and serpents churn the ocean for the Amrita using serpent Vásuki as a rope; Siva swallows the poison, and Ráhu's stolen nectar causes eclipses.
Chapter 29
Why does Conway say the Genesis legend puzzles biblical-only readers?
He lists riddles the Bible never solves: why the serpent is cursed to crawl if it already crawled, why the Tree of Knowledge was forbidden, and why the Tree of Life was guarded only after the fruit was eaten. He notes theologians and rabbins invented answers, such as Adam Clarke's ape-serpent and camel-shaped rabbinical guesses.
Chapter 29
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According to Conway, what natural features were assigned their own demons?
Conway states that every obstruction to man's plough, his frail ship, or his migration was assigned a demon: gorges, mountain ranges, ridges of rock, unfordable and unbridged streams, and rocks that wreck raft or boat. He links these to demons of barrenness and hostile human demons, but says they retain their own characteristics.
Chapter 30
How does Conway explain why mountains became battlefields between rival deities?
Conway argues that devotees combated mountain demons and built altars in the 'high places,' making summits sacred. Each new religion then saw those altars not as victories over demons but as demon-shrines, so mountains became battlefields between rival deities, a conflict he traces from Israel's cursing of high places to the Devil's Pulpits of the Alps.
Chapter 30
What does the Ten-jo story illustrate about how such mountain demons persist?
In the anecdote, villagers warn English officers that Ten-jo, a long-nosed evil spirit, will injure anyone climbing the forbidden side. Abdul breaks his leg on the descent, and the villagers credit Ten-jo, greatly increasing his reputation. Conway presents this as suggestive of the mental atmosphere in which such spectres exist.
Chapter 30
What do Emerson and Ruskin reportedly find among mountaineers?
Conway says Emerson sought elevated men on the mountain but found 'a churl, with heart of cat and eyes of bug.' He cites Ruskin's gloomy report that Alpine peasants have no more joy in God's fair work than the wild goats, and that city audiences imagine happy peasants while the real ones kneel songlessly to real crosses.
Chapter 30
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What single feature is constant across all conventionalised dragon types?
The author states that despite various conventionalised types of Dragon, one feature is constant: the idealised serpent, which serves as the demonic or supernatural sign. The heroic dragon-slayer is not fighting mere flesh and blood but a combat against all the pains and terrors of earth and heaven concentrated in one fearful form.
Chapter 31
What does the author say the dragon's 'Eye' represents in the human mind?
The author argues the Eye of anti-human nature filled man with dismay and conjured the typical phantom. It was this Pain, purposed and purposing—the Agony of far-searching vision, subtle skill, silently creeping, winged, adapting to meet every device with a cleverer one—that gradually impressed mankind with belief in a general principle of antagonism to human happiness.
Chapter 31
How does the author interpret the myth of Prometheus in relation to dragons?
The author argues the Prometheus myth reveals 'the very dam of all dragons'—the mere terrorism of nature that paralysed man's energies. Man's first combat was with his own quailing heart. The author cites Goethe's Prometheus, where the artist defies Jove, showing gods go down before the thought-thunderbolts of the artist.
Chapter 31
According to the author, how did guardian dragons and their deities become degraded?
The author argues that as thought progresses, allies compromise their employers, and the creator's work reflects the creator's character. After many timorous ages, dragon-guarded deities go down with their cruel defenders. The Sanskrit word Asura, most ancient word for god, primarily means 'demon' or 'devil,' showing gods and dragons were tarred with one brush.
Chapter 31
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How do the Elohist and Jehovist creation accounts of man differ, per the author?
The author argues they describe different events, not variants of one. The Elohim create man in their own image, male and female, using bará (to carve out), and encourage increase. Jehovah Elohim forms man with yatsar out of aphar (rendered 'dust' but meaning seminal principle) plus breath, says nothing of his image or of male and female, and forbids certain food.
Chapter 32
What does the author say about the diabolisation of woman in Hebrew theology?
The author argues it was not evidence that the Hebrews anciently held women in dishonour, but rather a tribute to woman's powers of fascination. He compares it to the saying placed under Darius's pillow that woman is strongest, next to truth, stronger than wine or kings, and says Hebrew fables interweave her beauty and genius with every evil of the world.
Chapter 32
How does the author compare the Persian and Indian legends of the first woman's fall?
In the Bundehesch, Ahriman corrupts Meschia and Meschiane equally, with goats' milk and then a fruit; a later Parsî postscript alone says woman first sacrificed to the Devas, which the author suspects came from abroad. Indian legend, he notes, puts no special dishonour on woman, and he thinks the Persian story's woman-temptation element was borrowed from the Jews.
Chapter 32
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According to the chapter, what does the Hindu goddess Maya represent and how is she depicted?
Maya is Illusion, the most beautiful of India's goddesses. She is portrayed in colourful drapery with gems and flowers, a veil falling from her crown, and a cruciform nimbus of rays. She presses her breasts, from which milk flows into the sea on which she stands; her milk is tinctured with poppies, and the waters sustaining her are those of Lethe.
Chapter 33
How does the chapter explain the origin of the will-o'-the-wisp's reputation as a deceiver?
The author argues the will-o'-the-wisp appeared to promise warmth or guidance but led night-wanderers into bogs. Its useful directions about places to avoid were perverted by misunderstanding into wilful falsehood, and it was branded ignis fatuus. The chapter treats this as one of many natural mimicries—things seeming to be fire or water but not—that fed demonologies of delusion.
Chapter 33
What is the typical plot of the Swan-maiden legend, and what does the chapter conclude about its origins?
A maiden's garments are stolen while she bathes, and she pays wondrous prices to recover them, since without them she must remain captive of the thief. The stories appear in widely separated regions with differing details, so the chapter concludes they cannot all be traced solely to fleecy clouds; some involve seal-skins or other tissues, and the beings are always feminine.
Chapter 33
How does the Chinese legend of Ming-ling-tzu resolve, and what does it illustrate?
The farmer Ming-ling-tzu takes a bathing woman's ruddy clothes from a pine tree, refuses to return them, and argues fate intends her as his wife. She bears him a son and daughter over ten years, then ascends a tree, bids the children farewell, and glides off on a cloud. The chapter cites it as a non-feathery variant of the Swan-maiden legend.
Chapter 33
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What does Conway call the monster representing early colonists' perils, and what does it include?
Conway calls it the Colonial Dragon: the combination of terrors and perils, real and imaginary, confronted by the early colonist. It includes diseases, wild beasts, savages, and all manner of obstructions that environ a new country, as well as malaria from undrained coasts and vermin of noxious nature. The author argues these must be destroyed before man can found his city.
Chapter 34
According to the chapter, how did British Dragon-myths originate and what purposes did they serve?
Conway argues most British Dragon-myths were importations of Colonial monsters, mainly variants of one or two original myths growing from heraldic devices imported by ancient families. These were exaggerated by descendants and connected with community benefits to strengthen family tenure of estates. The myths were gradually pressed into moral and religious lessons, as in the Lambton Worm illustrating duty of attending mass and sabbath sanctity.
Chapter 34
What is the Sockburn tradition involving the Conyers family and the falchion?
The Conyers family received the manor of Sockburn after the Norman conquest, the tradition being that Sir John Conyers slew a huge Worm that had devoured many people. The falchion used is still preserved, and when a new bishop visits the diocese, the lord of Sockburn meets him in the river Tees and presents the sword, holding the manor by this tenure since 1396.
Chapter 34
How does the chapter describe the Japanese legend of Sosano-o-no-Mikoto and the serpent?
Conway says the Japanese serpent Yamati-no-orochi, with eight heads and tails stretching over eight valleys, likely represents a river annually overflowing its banks. In the legend's further evolution it reappears as the Brutal Dragon: Sosano-o-no-Mikoto obtained a piece of iron wrought into a sword, which was used to save a maiden from the jaws of a monster.
Chapter 34
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Why did Lilith flee Eden according to rabbinic legend?
Lilith was created at the same time and in the same way as Adam, and when they met they quarrelled over headship. Adam claimed to be her master; Lilith insisted she had equal right to be chief. When Adam persisted, she uttered the spell Schem-hammphorasch, obtained wings, and flew out of Eden, later refusing the angels' plea to return.
Chapter 35
What doom and compensation were given to Lilith by the three angels?
The angels told Lilith that if she would not return, she would bear many children who would all die in infancy. She was about to drown herself when the angels, moved by her anguish, agreed she should have power over all children after birth up to their eighth day, provided she never harm babes under their protection. Hence the charm bearing the three angels' names.
Chapter 35
Why were the Devils created without bodies, and what did they seek?
The Devils were the last of the six days' creation, made so late that no daylight remained to fashion bodies for them. The Creator promised bodies the next day, but the Sabbath intervened, so they were told to disperse and find bodies as they could. Ever since they have sought carnal enjoyment by nestling in human hearts and using human senses and passions.
Chapter 35
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According to Hildebrand, what is the likely origin of the word Kobold?
Hildebrand conjectures that Kobold derives from kob-old, with the first part related to the German koben (corresponding to Anglo-Saxon cofa, an inner recess or house), and the latter part from walt, meaning one who presides over. The original form would thus be kob-walt. These imaginary beings were associated with dark mine recesses and gave their name to the metal Cobalt.
Chapter 36
What does the chapter say about night as an abettor of evil-doers?
The chapter cites Job: the adulterer waits for twilight, saying no eye will see him and putting on a mask; men break into houses in the dark and are strangers to the light. The author argues night befriends and masks every treacherous foe, and that man is weakest at night both because his senses are veiled and physiologically when wearied.
Chapter 36
How does the chapter describe the nightmare demon Mara?
The chapter connects Mara to the witch Hulda, a Walkyr of the Edda, and notes nightmare is called Walriderske in Westphalia. In the Heimskringla, Drisa bribed Hulda to bewitch Vanland, who cried that Mara trod on him and died. The chapter says the Mahrt is nearly always said to be a pretty woman, sometimes a sweetheart, and that cats often take this form.
Chapter 36
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In the Herakles myth, how is the sun god Ra humanized?
The chapter states that Ra (the Sun) passing the twelve gates (Hours) of Hades (Night) is humanised in Herakles and his Twelve Labours. Herakles is Son of Zeus by a human mother, Alcmene, and his labours for human welfare, along with his miraculous conception, influenced Christianity. The divine Man assailing the monsters of divine creation represents human recognition that moral order in nature is co-extensive with the control of mankind.
Chapter 37
How does the author characterize Euripides' Alcestis relative to Greek tragedy?
The author argues Alcestis is not a tragedy but one of the few ancient Greek melodramas; it ends happily in the rescue of a victim of the gods. He calls it about the first notice served on the gods that the human heart had tired of their high-handed proceedings. Apollo, knowing no deity can legally resist another's decree, hopes for help from man, and prophesies that Hercules will come to conquer Death and deliver Alcestis.
Chapter 37
Why do the three brothers trick Azru into eating the roasted calf meat?
The brothers are Peris who want to make Azru Shemsher, the youngest, Rajah of Ghilghit. They urge him to eat the kidneys and liver first as reward for his excellent shot. Once the meat touches his lips, they vanish, saying he has touched impure food which Peris never should eat, and that they used his ignorance of this law to make him a human being who shall rule over Ghilghit.
Chapter 37
How is Shiribadatt killed, and what does he reveal about his soul?
Shiribadatt tells his daughter his soul is of snow, in the snows, and he can only perish by fire. Azru has villagers surround the fort with burning fir twigs and digs a deep pit covered with green boughs where the tyrant's horse always alights. The king, feeling ill, flees on his charger, which jumps the wall and lands in the pit, where the villagers catch him with torches.
Chapter 37
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What does Conway identify as the biblical 'Bohu' of Genesis i. 2?
Conway identifies Bohu with the Assyrian Bahu, Queen of Hades, a form of Ishtar or Allat called 'Lady of the House of Death'; the same female demon is also named Nin-cigal, 'Lady of the Mighty Earth.' In Shalmaneser's inscription the word means 'abyss of chaos.' Thus the Bible's opening verses, Conway argues, hint at this pre-existing 'Other.'
Chapter 38
How does the Babylonian account describe Bel's single combat with Tiamat?
Bel offers to settle the quarrel by single combat, which the Dragon accepts. When Tiamat opens her mouth to swallow him, he flings a thunderbolt inside before she can shut her lips; the blazing lightning pours into her, he extracts her heart, cuts open her belly, and destroys her life. Her troops then flee and scatter.
Chapter 38
How does Conway connect Bel's dragon to the Apocalypse?
Conway argues the seven distinct forms of evil are faintly remembered in the seven thunderbolts Bel takes, now gathered into the one form he combats, on their way to becoming the seven-headed dragon of the Apocalypse, where Michael replaces Bel. He also reads 'the angels her allies' as the third part of the stars the apocalyptic dragon's tail drew down.
Chapter 38
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According to the Eastern fable, how many in the city did Plague claim to have slain?
In the fable, Plague says it came from a city where ten thousand lay dead, but that only one thousand were slain by Plague itself; the rest were slain by Fear. The author uses this to suggest that epidemics in the East retain power largely because fear personifies them as demons that humans can neither prevent nor cure, before which people can only cower and pray.
Chapter 39
How does the Book of Job reflect Iranian dualism regarding disease?
The author argues that in Job the infliction of disease and plagues is fully transferred to a powerful opposing spirit, Satan, rather than to Jehovah directly. The 'sons of God' of chapter one may be the stars of chapter thirty-eight, and Satan is identified as the wandering or malign planet leading the Ahrimanic side of the Persian planisphere, where Ahriman reigns after Ormuzd's six thousand years.
Chapter 39
What were the Seven Hathors or Fates in ancient Egyptian belief?
Following the belief in Ra the Sun, from whose eyes all pleasing things came, and Set, from whose eyes came all noxious things, the Seven Hathors or Fates were born from the baleful light of Set's eyes, and their names are recorded in the Book of the Dead. The 'Song of the Seven Spirits' describes them as seven in ocean and heaven, neither male nor female, having no wives, children, rule, or prayers.
Chapter 39
How did Assyrians try to prevent the seven evil powers from entering a dwelling?
Assyrians believed the entrance of the seven evil powers into a dwelling could be prevented by setting small images in the doorway, such as those of the sun-god Hea and the moon-goddess, but especially Marduk, corresponding to Serapis the Egyptian Aesculapius. These powers were further reinforced by writing holy texts over and on each side of the threshold, and by binding a sentence from a good book around the sick man's head at night.
Chapter 39
CHAPTER XI.4 cards
What does the name Asura mean, and how did its meaning change over time?
Conway states Asura is the most ancient Aryan name for deity, meaning "the Breather." Over time the word came to signify both the good and the evil spirit. This dual meaning connects to the chapter's theme of the dragon's breath as a symbol of the recurring, indestructible principle of evil in nature.
Chapter 40
According to the chapter, why can the Dragon's breath never be killed?
The author argues that the phenomena of recurrence in evil—darkness returning, storms regathering, cancer regrowing, tyranny surviving a tyrant's death—made for man the mystery of iniquity. The serpent slipping from one skin to another symbolizes endlessness. Any temporary brood may be destroyed, but the principle in nature producing them cannot be exterminated.
Chapter 40
How did the Rabbins rationalize Behemoth and Leviathan in their sacred records?
Unwilling to admit Jehovah created foes to his own kingdom, the Rabbins worked out a theory that Behemoth and Leviathan were made and preserved by special order of Jehovah to execute his decrees at the Messianic Day of Judgment. They are represented as fattened with the wicked, who die to be food for the righteous.
Chapter 40
What conditions did Sir Lambton have to meet to defeat the Lambton Worm?
The knight was told he must wear special armour covered with large razor-blades, entice the worm into the middle of the river Wear for the combat, and vow to slay as a sacrifice the first living thing he met after victory. The razors cut the worm into sections, and the river current washed them away so they could not rejoin.
Chapter 40
CHAPTER XI.4 cards
According to the chapter, what was the devils' motive for rebellion in Cædmon and Milton?
The chapter states that the theory Cædmon and Milton made familiar—that the dragons aspired to rival Jehovah and usurp the throne of Heaven—must already have been popular in Isaiah's time. Isaiah's rhapsody against the King of Babylon ascribes to Lucifer a clear purpose to ascend above the stars and be like the Most High, though the invective changes the devil's sex.
Chapter 41
What limits does the Talmudic legend place on devils' power to take things?
In the legend, a devil ordered to repay damages explained that devils find money hard to obtain because men keep it locked or tied up. He said they have no power to take anything bound or sealed up, nor anything measured or counted; they may take only what is free or common.
Chapter 41
How does the chapter describe Ketef, and what period limits his power?
Ketef, identified with the 'terror from the chambers' and 'Bitter Pestilence' in Jeremiah, is calf-headed, made of hide, hair, and eyes, rolls like a cask, and has a terrible horn. His chief terror is an evil eye in his heart that kills any who see it. He reigns neither in dark nor day but between them, limited to June 17–July 9.
Chapter 41
What does the chapter say about the restless spirit given to Adam?
The chapter reports a rabbinic reading of Genesis ii. 7: the 'breath of life' was a holy spirit standing on Adam's right, while the 'living soul' was a restless spirit on his left, continually moving up and down. After Adam sinned, this restless spirit became a diabolical spirit and has acted as mediator between man and the realm of anarchy.
Chapter 41
CHAPTER XII. (part 1)4 cards
Why do some savage races feel every death must be avenged?
The chapter states that savage races believe no man dies except by sorcery, so every death must be avenged. The Actas of the Philippines blame the 'Indians' for deaths among them and kill the first one they find. The author describes this as a stage before the belief that the fatal sorcerer is an invisible demon, a doctrine he says becomes civilised when framed as Satan's machinations.
Chapter 42
How does Jemmy's story illustrate the belief that death requires vengeance?
Jemmy, a model Christian convert, read the Bible daily. When his mother died after a fortnight's illness, he insisted 'a Bogan black-fellow killed her' and refused to forgo vengeance despite the Sermon on the Mount. He later speared an old friend through the back, nailing him to a tree, and plaited a rope from his victim's hair. The author notes Jemmy might have cited biblical witch-slaying commands to justify himself.
Chapter 42
What does the author argue about the Bible and witchcraft superstition?
The author argues that those hoping the Bible dispels superstition should reflect on European science's long contest with bibliolators over witchcraft, which was declared contrary to Scripture to deny. He notes spells and wax effigies persist in parts of Britain, America, and Europe, with the Bible dwelling beside such superstitions, and that belief in such talismans diminishes as experience grows.
Chapter 42
How does the chapter connect Kali to war and slaughter?
The author says Kali's dance over the slain suggests pleasure in destruction, though a Deccan legend of her devouring the dead would make her a hunger-demon. He suggests she may represent a period when a vegetarian, transmigration-believing people needed stimulation to fight savage neighbours, citing Krishna inciting Arjoon to war and the Thugs claiming Kali's teeth and rib as tools.
Chapter 42
CHAPTER XII. (part 2)4 cards
How does the Vedic Yama differ from the Persian view of death?
The author argues the Vedic Yama is ever a friend, death being a happy introduction to him. In Persia, Yima reappears as a type of Golden Age and paradise, but the Persian view held death in absolute horror as the seal of Ahriman's equality with Ormuzd, producing the Towers of Silence and dread of corpses.
Chapter 43
How does the chapter compare the Alcestis drama to Christian theology?
The author argues it only requires a change of names to make Alcestis a Passion-play: unappeasable Justice satisfied vicariously, Death as the last enemy, a saintly human sacrifice, the god-man Herakles (son of Zeus by Alcmene) conquering Death, and the risen spirit unrecognized at first and consecrated until the third day.
Chapter 43
Why did the Parsis regard dead bodies with horror, and how did this spread?
Whitney explains sickness and death were thought the work of malignant powers, so the corpse belonged to the demons and defiled the living until purified by prescribed ceremonies. The chapter says this notion crept into Brahmans and Jews, citing a Chandernagore case and the rule barring a Cohen from touching a dead body.
Chapter 43
What does the legend of the knight and the saltless banquet illustrate?
In Heine's legend a knight adores a statue of the goddess of Beauty, is invited to a splendid banquet where every luxury appears but no salt, and when he obtains salt his wine turns to fire. The chapter uses this to show the devil, as heir of death-demons, hates salt, the preserving agent and foe of decay.
Chapter 43
CHAPTER XII. (part 3)4 cards
According to the author, what is the only real tragedy of Death?
The author argues that the only tragedy of Death is the ruin of living Love. He contends that the departure from life is a natural condition of entering upon it, and it is melancholy that it should be ideally confused with the pains and sorrows often attending it. He cites Watts's picture Love and Death as revealing the real horror: a remorseless force crushing hearts.
Chapter 44
How does the author distinguish Death from Disease as enemies?
The author argues that even when death comes to the young and happy, it is not Death but Disease that is the real enemy. In disease there is almost no compensation except learning its art of war. Death is Nature's pity for helpless pain, a release from sufferings that would be sheer torture if prolonged, and its presence is often recognised by the cessation of pain.
Chapter 44
What does the author say about deaths caused by poisoned food and water in cities?
The author states there are Azraëls in our cities who poison the food and drink of the people and mingle death in the cup of water. Of them there should be increasing horror until the gentler angel abides with us and death by old age becomes normal. He frames this as a contrast to the natural death of old age.
Chapter 44
How does the author describe the deaths of the aged?
The author says the aged when they die do but follow the treasures that have gone before. One by one old friends have left them, sweet ties are parted, and the powers to enjoy and help become feeble. When memory alone is left of the garden that once bloomed, friendly is death to scatter also the leaves of that last rose where loved ones sleep.
Chapter 44
CHAPTER XII.4 cards
How did the Moirai's power change from Homer to Aeschylus?
In Homer the Moira is a secondary cause carrying out Zeus's decrees, with Zeus the real Fate. Hesiod gives three Moirae as Zeus's cabinet. Later writers make them recorders of irrevocable decrees. Aeschylus makes them independent supreme powers above Zeus, so Prometheus looks to Fate, not Zeus, for liberation.
Chapter 45
Why did the Fates become hideous hags, according to the chapter?
The author argues absolutism became burdensome: as irresponsible monarch, Zeus was held responsible for the world's woes. Responsibility was gradually transferred to his counsellors until the Fates bore it all. Zeus's face then shone unclouded, while the once-beautiful Fates were blackened into aged, lame crones of popular belief.
Chapter 45
What does the chapter mean by theological 'Commutation'?
The Demon or Dragon could not have his power violently withdrawn, but might accept a substitute for the precise object he sought. Substitutes range from persons of lower rank, to animals, to nominal tokens like an effigy or wine for blood. Applying these substitutions to individuals is, the author argues, the raison d'être of every priesthood.
Chapter 45
How does the author distinguish Fate from scientific Necessity?
The author argues Fate (fatum, 'the word spoken') implies arbitrariness: power exerted without reference to the nature of things. Necessity, as taught by Science, means the supremacy of Law. Belief in Fate, especially a supreme arbitrary Will, is fatal to human culture and energy, and is opposed to Necessity.
Chapter 45
CHAPTER XII.4 cards
In Conway's account, what does the name Samaël combine and what does he rule?
Conway reports that the ancient Rabbins combined Simmé (dazzling), Sóme (blinding), Semól (the left side), and Samhammaveth (deadly poison) in the name Samaël. He is leader of the Opposition, the Soul of the fiery planet Mars, creator and inspirer of all Serpents, with Azazel, demon of the Desert, as his First Lord. He ruled over the sinister Left.
Chapter 46
How does Conway connect Esau's red pottage to Samaël's redness?
Conway says the redness of Samaël begins with the red pottage from which Esau was called Edom. The English version, he notes, does not give the emphasis with which Esau called for the pottage — 'the red! the red!' He adds that the traits ascribed to Esau are a saga built on local names: Edom means red, and Seir means hairy, probably 'Shaggy Mountains.'
Chapter 46
Why did a future punishment have to be invented for Esau, according to Conway?
Conway argues that Esau on earth fulfilled Isaac's blessing by gaining power, wealth, and independence from Jacob, and Edom revolted from Judah. Yet Jehovah had said 'Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated.' Since the curse could not be worked out in this world, a future had to be invented where Esau was relegated to desert and rock, believed changed into a terrible hairy devil.
Chapter 46
What did Samaël come to mean in abstract form, and how does Mars relate to the Messiah?
As tribal distinctions faded, Conway says the ancient hostility survived as Samaël, the satan of Strife — the spirit stirring antagonism between those who should be brethren, later instigator of persecutions against Jews. Mars was blamed for burning, blighting, desert-producing powers, and those born under it were thought quarrelsome. Yet popular Jewish belief held the Messias would be born under Mars.
Chapter 46
CHAPTER XIII.4 cards
In Conway's reading, what two principles do Jacob and Esau represent morally?
Conway treats Jacob and Esau not as individual men but as conflicting tendencies of a primitive period: historically Israel and Edom, and morally the Barter principle and the Bandit principle. Jacob embodies cunning trade and fraud, Esau the warrior's hunt and sword. The author argues this legend represents an epoch of social development worldwide, not the spirit of one race.
Chapter 47
How does Conway describe the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau at the border of Edom?
Jacob, unarmed, sends herds ahead and spends the night wrestling a phantom of Fear and Conscience. At dawn he meets Esau, saying he has appeared before him as before God. The proud Duke is disarmed; the brothers embrace and weep, and Esau accepts the presents only as proof of forgiveness. Conway concludes the tradesman learns his cleverness may summon a demon at night.
Chapter 47
What is the Mussulman (Islamic) fable of Iblis that Conway recounts?
Allah created man, placed him in a garden, and called the angels to worship him. Iblis alone refused, saying he was created of ethereal fire while Adam was of clay. God asked what hindered him; Iblis answered that he was more excellent. God then cast him down from paradise, saying it is not fit for him to behave proudly there. Conway notes the garden is hateful to the spirit of Nomadism.
Chapter 47
How did northern pagans' resistance to Christianity shape the Church's idea of Satan and Hell?
Conway says the earnestness of northern pagans impressed the finest Church minds; some Fathers cited their devotion to shame Christian apathy. Martyrs like Rand, killed by a viper at St. Olaf's order, exemplified thousands. Discovering pagan kings kept moral codes and law-courts led to a more dignified Hell: majestic devils like Satan and Beelzebub replaced grotesque imps, and Russian frescoes show a grand Hierarchy of Hell.
Chapter 47
CHAPTER XIV.4 cards
What does the Book of Job show about the origin of belief in a future life?
The chapter argues that the Book of Job presents the experiences under which the primitive secular theory of rewards and punishments perished and the idea of adjustment beyond the grave arose. Job reaches a solution of future reward in this life, an impossible one except as an exceptional case. The author notes Job strongly disowns faith in immortality, and that his expression of faith in a Vindicator became the one Old Testament text Christians adapted for immortality.
Chapter 48
How does Job's loyalty to Jehovah differ from surrounding practice in Uz?
Uz was part of Edom, territory traditionally ruled by the great invisible Accuser, where scape-goats were offered to deprecate Samaël and ordinary sacrifices included an item for the devil's share. Job refused to pay any honour to the Power of the Place. He offered burnt-offerings exclusively to Jehovah, omitted no salt, and among his twenty thousand animals the goat, Azazel's animal, is not even named.
Chapter 48
What positions do Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar take against Job?
Eliphaz stands for the Law, resting on revelation and a vision, arguing God's ways are just so afflictions imply previous sin. Bildad the Shuhite, the 'contentious,' uses invective, charging Job's children died for their sins. Zophar 'the impudent' is cynical, laughing at any argument between man and God, insisting God's wisdom is unsearchable and man can only pray and acknowledge sinfulness.
Chapter 48
What is Job's central complaint about fortune and divine justice?
Job argues that since God is so perfect, no man could be proved just by such a standard, and that the innocent and guilty are dealt with much the same way. He catalogues examples of notoriously wicked people living in wealth and gaiety, and denies the justice of punishing their children instead of the offender. He admits he does not understand it, but insists his friends' explanations are false.
Chapter 48
CHAPTER XV.4 cards
How does Conway describe Satan's role in the Book of Job?
Conway argues that in Job, Satan shows nothing diabolical: he appears as a respectable, powerful figure among the sons of God, holding the office of a public prosecutor who roams the earth doing his duties. Conway cites scholars such as Schultens, Herder, Eichorn, Dathe, and Ilgen who saw him as a faithful but overly suspicious servant of God.
Chapter 49
What did the Hebrew word 'Satan' originally signify?
Conway states that 'Satan' was at first a generic Hebrew term for an adversary lying in wait, not a special personage or an antagonist of Jehovah. He cites the angel opposing Balaam, the Philistines' fear that David might become a Satan to them, and Solomon's phrase 'neither Satan nor evil occurrent' as evidence of this general usage.
Chapter 49
What does Conway say about the trial of Joshua in Zechariah?
Conway reads Zechariah's vision as a celestial courtroom: the Angel of Judgment presides, the Satan prosecutes Joshua in filthy garments, and Jehovah himself appears to rebuke his own commissioned Accuser, calling Joshua a brand plucked from the fire and ordering clean raiment. Conway stresses this shows no general antagonism between Jehovah and Satan, but the reverse.
Chapter 49
Why does Conway think future rewards and punishments were invented?
Conway argues the doctrine of future rewards and punishments is not one a priesthood would invent while it held unrestricted power to punish in this life. Only when an alien power supersedes the priesthood, too indifferent to enforce ceremonial law, does the priest require a tribunal beyond the grave to execute his sentence. He calls Zechariah's scene a sketch of that judicial trial of the soul.
Chapter 49
CHAPTER XVI.4 cards
Why did early Jewish Christians link Herod to a massacre of newborns?
The chapter says Jews already attributed Pharaoh's hardened heart to diabolical sorcery, and a belief was forming that Edom (Esau or Samaël) instigated Roman aggression. Herod, an Idumean from Esau's realm, seemed a fitting representative of the supernatural power they dreaded. So inventing a Herod myth like Pharaoh's—conspiracy with sorcerers and massacre of all new-born children—was a powerful appeal to Jewish sympathies.
Chapter 50
What happens in the Zoroaster birth legend, and what did the interpreter say it meant?
His mother Dogdo dreamed a black cloud rained beasts on her house; her unborn babe reassured her, a youth drove the beasts off with a luminous horn, and said Ormuzd protected the infant. Zoroaster was born laughing; Magicians tried to kill him but a sword-arm fell, fire and wolves and a mountain failed to harm him, and ewes suckled him. The interpreter said the Horn meant Ormuzd's grandeur, the Book the Avesta, the three beasts three powerful enemies.
Chapter 50
How does the Krishna legend parallel the Zoroaster and Cyrus stories?
The tyrant Kansa, warned that Devaki's eighth son would destroy him, imprisoned her and killed each newborn. Krishna was born, guards slept, doors opened, the Jumna parted, and Vasudéva swapped him for Nauda's daughter. Kansa then ordered all male children killed, but messengers and Rakshasas failed against the child. As a youth Krishna attacked Kansa, and the chapter notes Kansa was liberated from the three worlds by long thinking on the incarnate one, even in enmity.
Chapter 50
How does the chapter connect Astyages, Zohák, and the Book of Daniel?
The chapter says Astyages' name traces to Ashdahák and Ajis Daháka, the biting snake, linking him to Vedic Ahi and Iranian Zohák, from whose shoulders a magician evoked two serpents. As Astyages he dreamed Mandane's offspring would rule Asia, so he gave infant Cyrus to Harpagus to kill; Harpagus spared him via a herdsman. The luminous Horn and Zohák's diabolism are recalled in Daniel viii's ram and he-goat struggle.
Chapter 50
CHAPTER XVII.4 cards
What does Conway say underlies the temptation stories of Buddha and Christ?
Conway argues that because every religion begins as an ideal, it stands in antagonism to the social and political world, which is itself the outcome of nature. Hence primitive times regarded the earth as a Satanic realm and pictured the divine world elsewhere. A legitimate result is asceticism and belief in the wickedness of earthly enjoyments; the struggle against the temptation to lead in the kingdoms of this world is therefore severe.
Chapter 51
How does Mara first tempt the Buddha-to-be at the palace gates?
Mara floats in the air and urges the Prince not to adopt a religious life, promising that in seven days he would become emperor of the world ruling the four great continents. The Prince replies that he knows he might gain universal empire in seven days, but has no desire for such possessions, since the pursuit of religion is better. He tells Mara to depart.
Chapter 51
What are Mara's eight generals as the Buddha names them?
The Buddha tells Mara his eight generals are: delight in the five lusts of the flesh (pleasures of appearance, sound, scent, flavour, touch); wrath, taking the form of vexation, indignation, and desire to injure; concupiscence; desire; impudence; arrogance; doubt; and ingratitude. He says those whose hearts are set on honour and wealth cannot escape them, but he who contends with them escapes all sorrow.
Chapter 51
How does the Earth witness for the Buddha against Mara's claim to the throne?
Mara claims the throne was created by his own merits, and his generals bear him witness. Challenged for a witness, the Buddha invokes the Earth, saying that each time he performed a great act he poured water on her. The angel of the Earth appears as a lovely woman, confirms this, wrings her long hair, and a flood issues forth that overturns Mara and his hosts.
Chapter 51
CHAPTER XIX.4 cards
In the Ophite system, who created the material world and man?
Sophia-Achamoth, the imperfect emanation of Sophia, produced the Demiurgus Ildabaoth (identified by the Ophites as Jehovah) to create the material world. Ildabaoth made Man as a soulless monster crawling on the ground, until Sophia-Achamoth transferred to him the small ray of divine light, making the 'primitive Man' a divine being. Ildabaoth's envy then took shape as the serpent-formed Satan, Ophiomorphos.
Chapter 53
How did the Ophites explain Christ entering Jesus and leaving the cross?
Christos, the perfect brother sent by Bythos at Sophia-Achamoth's urging, descended through the seven planetary regions, assuming forms related to each, and entered the man Jesus at his baptism. When Ildabaoth stirred up the Jews to kill him, Christos and Sophia abandoned Jesus's material body on the cross and gave him one made of ether, so his mother and disciples could not recognize him.
Chapter 53
What is Paul's pessimistic view of the natural world and man?
The author argues Paul's radical pessimism mainly formed the mould of later dogmatic Christianity. By implication, all the work of Elohim was natural, that is diabolical; the earth belonged to the Prince of this world, author of sin and death. In Adam all die; the natural man is enmity against God, his father the devil, born spiritually dead. Christ is a new Demiurgos producing a new creation and new man.
Chapter 53
Why did ancients and Fathers locate malignant spirits in the air?
The author explains demons were believed driven out of heaven, with the etherial realm above the air reserved for the good. Malignant spirits held more undisputed sway over the atmosphere than the earth, and demons originally representing earthly evils tended to pass into the realm least accessible to science once human intelligence conquered those evils. The belief was general among the Christian Fathers and the author says it remains Roman Catholic teaching.
Chapter 53
CHAPTER XX.4 cards
What did the Hanover schoolhouse dove and rod symbolize, and what replaced the dove?
Above the teacher's chair was a dove on an iron rod inscribed 'This shall lead you into all truth.' The dove fell and was moved to a museum, leaving only the rod and admonition. The author argues this mirrors the Christian mind: half the primitive sense of the Dove as Holy Ghost departed, leaving an emblem of mysterious terror, while the ancient view of it as the Iron Rod of judgment survives in the 'sin against the Holy Ghost.'
Chapter 54
How does the chapter link the dove to Azazel and the demon of the wilderness?
The dove's plaintive note and fondness for solitudes appear in the Psalmist's wish for dove's wings to fly away and rest in the wilderness. The author says the step from wilderness association to the demon of the wilderness, Azazel, is not difficult, citing Jeremiah passages where the word was suppressed in the ordinary English version, such as 'the fierceness of the dove' and 'the sword of the dove.'
Chapter 54
How did the seven spirits of Isaiah become seven doves, and which ranked highest?
Isaiah's passage on the Spirit of the Lord lists wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord. The sanctity of seven led to splitting the last clause into three spirits, making seven: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Strength, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear. In representations labeling each dove, 'Fear' sits at the top of the arch, since 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.'
Chapter 54
What does the chapter say about the 'sin against the Holy Ghost' and its psychological effect?
The author argues the ancient view of the Holy Ghost as the Iron Rod of judgment and execution survives in the notion of the unpardonable sin. Atkinson recounts a sensible lady whose life was made wretched by belief she had committed that sin; neither priest nor physician could persuade her otherwise, and looking-glasses had to be removed or covered because she could not bear seeing herself.
Chapter 54
CHAPTER XXI.4 cards
According to the chapter, which New Testament writer alone uses the word Antichrist?
The chapter states that the only New Testament writer who uses the word Antichrist is the so-called Apostle John. It notes that John connects the term to a dogmatic statement about Christ's nature and a definition of heresy, saying every spirit that does not confess Jesus is the spirit of Antichrist, already in the world. The author argues this language is characteristic of the middle and close of the second century.
Chapter 55
How does the chapter contrast Paul's Man of Sin with John's Antichrist?
The author argues Paul's first-century Man of Sin (or of lawlessness, son of perdition) exalts himself above all that is called God and sits in the temple of God, with Christ as Son of God confronting the Son of Destruction. Only when Christ's nature becomes a dogma is the man of sin defined as opponent of that dogma, as in John.
Chapter 55
What did Tertullian claim the Devil does regarding the sacraments?
The chapter quotes Tertullian saying the Devil, whose business is to pervert the truth, mimics the exact circumstances of the Divine Sacraments in the mysteries of idols. He baptizes his own believers, promises forgiveness of sins from the sacred fount, initiates them into the religion of Mithras, marks his soldiers on the forehead, celebrates the oblation of bread, brings in the symbol of resurrection, and wins the crown with the sword.
Chapter 55
What is the Muslim belief about Al Dajjail according to the chapter?
The chapter says Muslims call Antichrist Al Dajjail, the impostor. Mohammed told Tamisri Al-Dari that at the end of the world Antichrist would enter Jerusalem seated on an ass, but Jesus would make his second coming to encounter him. The Beast of the Apocalypse aids Antichrist, but Jesus joined by Imam Mahadi subdues him, after which Muslims and Christians are united in one religion.
Chapter 55
CHAPTER XXII.4 cards
In the Moslem legend, where does Iblis say he will dwell until judgment?
Iblis asks Allah where he shall dwell until the resurrection, and is told: in ruins, tombs, and all other unclean places shunned by man. His food is all things slain in the name of idols, his drink wine and intoxicating liquors, and his leisure is music, song, love-poetry, and dancing. His watchword is the curse of Allah until the day of judgment.
Chapter 56
How does Conway describe Samaël's petition and its relation to Jesus and Paul?
Conway recounts a Jewish legend in which Samaël appeals to Jehovah to extend to all races the arrangement saving Israel's souls, and is rebuked for not having loved God as Abraham did. Conway says the rabbis do not report Samaël's answer, but that answer was given by Jesus and Paul breaking down the partition between Jew and Gentile.
Chapter 56
What is the etymology and Zoroastrian identity of Asmodeus?
Conway, following Windischmann, derives Asmodeus from Aêshma-daêva of the Zend texts, from aêsha, 'wish,' related to the Sanskrit root ish, 'to desire.' Aêshma is an epithet-bearing spirit of the lower or impure Fire, Lust and Wrath, a prominent supporter of Ahriman, opposed by Sraosha, whom Ormuzd created to destroy 'Aêshma of the fatal lance.'
Chapter 56
How does the Book of Tobit's Asmodeus reflect its authors' social position?
Conway argues the moral reflections and casual details of Tobit show its authors were Jewish captives of the humblest working class, with a religion of a type now found chiefly among ignorant sectarians. Tobit's truisms about pride, drunkenness, and giving nothing to the wicked, Conway says, are made falsities by his puritanism, and Asmodeus defined against such asceticism had attractions for men of the world.
Chapter 56
CHAPTER XXIII.4 cards
What did the Bishop of St. Andrews claim about the Bible and Intellect?
At the Shakespere tercentenary at Stratford-on-Avon, the Bishop of St. Andrews declared there is not a word in the Bible warranting homage to Intellect. The author argues this boast, made beside the grave of England's most intellectual writer, is itself a survival of the curse on man's first effort to obtain knowledge.
Chapter 57
How does the author characterize the Church's role regarding learning?
The author argues that despite claims the Church protected learning through the dark ages, it destroyed far more important works than it produced, from the burning of books at Ephesus to the persecution of Jews. He cites the 1244 burning in Paris of twenty-four cartloads of ancient manuscripts from plundered synagogues.
Chapter 57
Who was Seth in rabbinical and Mussulman tradition?
Seth became a converted devil figure: a voluminous author who received a library from heaven and originated astronomy and many arts. Rabbinical myth made him guardian of the Tree of Knowledge, planted in Adam's grave. The author calls this apotheosis a Semitic Renaissance answering the curse on the Serpent.
Chapter 57
What is the legend of the Devil's Bible in Stockholm?
The Royal Library's 'gigas librorum,' taken by Swedes after Prague's surrender in 1648, has 300 ass-hide parchment leaves and an oak cover. Legend says a monk condemned for black arts was mockingly told he'd be pardoned if he produced all these books by morning; he invoked the Devil, who wrote the volume in one night.
Chapter 57
CHAPTER XXIV. (part 1)4 cards
How did St. Anthony react to the horned dwarf he met in the desert?
Jerome's Life of Paul relates that St. Anthony encountered a human-like dwarf with horns and goat's feet, believed it a devilish apparition, and made the sign of the Cross. The dwarf was untroubled, said he was a mortal of the desert worshipped by Gentiles as Faun, Satyr, or Incubus, and asked Anthony to pray for his people. Anthony rejoiced and cried out against Alexandria.
Chapter 58
According to Conway, how did Christianity turn pagan household guardians into enemies?
The author argues that as Christianity substituted patron-saints and guardian-angels for pagan genii, it turned the old guardians from friends into enemies, diabolising all hereditary household gods. To make the masses abandon them, the Penates, Lares, and genii had to be belittled while the superior power of saints and angels was demonstrated, especially once Christianity held political power.
Chapter 58
What does Conway say about the devil in medieval miracle-plays and Moralities?
The popular Christian devil in Northern miracle-plays had horns, wide mouth, red beard, cloven foot, and tail, attended by a buffoon called Vice. Harsenet describes the Vice leaping onto the Devil's neck and belabouring him with a wooden dagger till he roared, making the people laugh. Dr. Dasent and Max Müller are cited on the ludicrous, good-humoured treatment of the devil.
Chapter 58
What did Erasmus suggest about the origin of the two attending angels?
Erasmus, in his Adages, suggests Christians derived the notion of each person being attended by two angels, one good and one bad, from the genii of the Gentiles. Conway thinks he was only half right: peoples generally did not believe each ordinary man had a personal bad spirit; that was reserved for figures like Adam, Jacob, Hercules, or Zoroaster.
Chapter 58
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What does the illumination in Queen Mary's Psalter depict regarding Lilith?
The picture shows the Fall of Man with Lilith, the serpent-woman who tempted Adam. She has a beautiful face and ample hair, but instead of a female bust she has the body of a cat. The cat was sacred to Freyja and linked to lunar and amorous demonesses, making the image a remarkable association of myths.
Chapter 59
According to rabbinical legend, how did Asa and Asael become fallen angels?
They remonstrated with the Creator for forming man only to give trouble. The Creator said they would have done the same under similar circumstances, so they asked for the experiment to be tried. They went to earth, fell in love with the daughters of men, were embodied, and their spells could no longer return them to heaven.
Chapter 59
What was the College of Sorcery founded by Asa and Asael?
After their sin made their spells powerless to reascend, they repaired to the Dark Mountains and established a great College of Sorcery. Distinguished graduates included Job, Jethro, and Bileam. Job and Jethro were later converted, but Bileam remained hostile to Israel and stayed a teacher there.
Chapter 59
How does the chapter explain the origins of the Compact with the Devil?
The author argues the Compact was largely of Christian-Judaic origin, combining Odinistic self-dedication customs, blood-covenant practices from pagan and Christian Mysteries, astrological formulas spread by Jews, and the legend of Solomon's key. It meant conveying the soul for treasures like those the Church promised.
Chapter 59
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What did Tituba do when the Salem children were declared bewitched?
Tituba, a Spanish Indian slave of Rev. Parris, tried an experiment with fetishes familiar in the Barbadoes to find out the witch. The children then cried out against her as tormenting them. She first denied being a witch, but afterwards confessed, urged, she later declared, by her master. Marks of Spanish cruelty on her body were assumed to be the Devil's wounds.
Chapter 60
What does Conway say about the value of witches' confessions?
Conway argues their value is hardly determinable now: they were extorted by torture or by rarely-fulfilled promises of clemency, shaped by cross-examiners rather than victims, and recorded in 'substance' reflecting the priest's preconceived theory. He fears 'devil' was often written instead of some name that might now be interesting, though he thinks some seances to invoke supernatural powers likely occurred.
Chapter 60
What did the Swedish Mohra and Elfdale confessions describe about Blockula?
The 1669 Swedish confessions describe witches anointing themselves and flying to Blockula, a meadow with a house whose gate was painted in divers colours. There they denied God, devoted body and soul to the Devil, cut their fingers and wrote their names in his book in blood, and were baptized by his priests. The Devil also set them to build a great stone house that kept partly collapsing.
Chapter 60
How did Cotton Mather test the possessed girl, and what happened?
Mather tried her with the Bible, the Assembly's Catechism, his grandfather's 'Milk for Babes,' his father's 'Remarkable Providence,' and a book proving witches exist; when these were offered she was struck dead and fell into convulsions. But with Popish and Quaker books, the English Prayer-Book, and a book proving no witches, the devil let her read as long as she pleased.
Chapter 60
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Which two plants were chiefly used by the sorceresses, according to the chapter?
The chapter states it was clearly proved that the plants chiefly used by the sorceresses were rue and vervain. Vervain was sacred to the god of war in Greece and Rome and was the badge of ambassadors sent to make peace treaties; in Germany it was sacred to Thor. Rue was thought to affect the eye and bestow second sight, and was once so sacred in England that missionaries sprinkled holy water with brushes made of it.
Chapter 61
What did vervain and rue each do in medieval folk belief?
The chapter says vervain, if it had first touched a Bel-fire, was believed to snap iron; boiled with rue, it made a liquid that, poured on a gunflint, made shot as sure to take effect as a Freischütz could desire. Rue was supposed to have a potent effect on the eye and to bestow second sight; in the Tyrol it was believed to confer fine vision, and in Posen to heal serpent-bites.
Chapter 61
What conclusion does the author reach about the witches' Sabbaths and their confessions?
The author argues that gatherings in secret places certainly occurred, using some Church ceremonies and prayers with traditional deities and Oriental demons substituted for the Trinity and saints, mingled with observances preserved from the ancient world by Gnostics, Astrologists, and Alchemists. He thinks direct devil-worship was sometimes probable but oftener invocations were in other names, the 'Devil' being mostly due to legal reporters. Many confessions came from feverish dreams, hope of escape, or weariness of life.
Chapter 61
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What did Duntzer and Bayard Taylor conjecture about the origin of the name Mephistopheles?
Duntzer found the original form was 'Mephostophiles' and conjectured it was a bungling effort to combine three Greek words meaning 'not loving the light.' Bayard Taylor supported this and thought Goethe understood it that way. The transformation likely occurred amid the dreaded gases surrounding primitive chemists, so the spirit who began by 'not loving the light' became familiar to men seeking light and a lover of their mephitic gases.
Chapter 62
What does the forged preface in the Dresden Raven Book claim about Faust's secrets?
The preface is a purported papal proclamation signed by a Pope and Cardinal Piccolomini concerning secrets Faust scattered through Germany. It commands that they be committed to the Arcanum Pontificatus and guarded like the apple of an eye in the papal archive, not printed or transported outside the Vatican gates, under threat of divine malediction and excommunication. The author calls it an impudent forgery.
Chapter 62
According to the chapter, what did the Church's opposition to magic actually concern?
The author argues the Church's contention was not against the validity of magic arts but against their exercise by persons not authorized by itself. A tradition not combated by priests held that various ecclesiastics, even Popes like John XXII, Gregory VII, and Clement V, possessed such powers. The Church wished such awful potencies ascribed to itself alone, and Faust was a legend to impress the fate of those seeking knowledge in unauthorized ways.
Chapter 62
How does the 1587 Spiess Faust Book describe the compact and Mephistopheles' service?
Faust summons the Devil at night in a forest near Wittenberg; the spirit visits three times and on the third gives his name as 'Mephostophiles.' The compact to serve him twenty-four years for his soul is signed, and when Faust pierces his hand the blood forms the words 'O homo fuge!' Mephistopheles first serves as a monk, bringing garments, wine, and food, and objects to Faust's marrying because marriage is pleasing to God.
Chapter 62
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How could people safely observe the Wild Hunt, and what danger did it pose?
The hunt was thought dangerous to approach, so people guarded against it by prostration face downward with prayer, standing on a white cloth (Bertha's linen), putting the head between wheel spokes, or placing palm leaves on a table. It could be observed safely from cross-roads, which it shuns, or from a stump marked with three crosses. Bohemians said whoever sees the chase will live long but must not hail it.
Chapter 63
What blasphemous wish condemned King Waldemar to his eternal hunt?
Waldemar was so passionately fond of the chase that he said if the Lord would only let him hunt for ever near Gurre, his castle in Seeland, he would not envy him his paradise. For this blasphemous wish he is condemned to hunt between Burre and Gurre for ever. He rides a snow-white charger, is preceded by coal-black hounds, and carries his head under his left arm.
Chapter 63
How does the chapter explain the Pied Piper of Hamelin?
The chapter traces the Pied Piper, familiar through Browning's poem, to Odin of more blessed memory, who in the Havamal says he knows a song that softens and enchants enemies and renders their weapons of no effect. This aspect of Odin, his command over vermin, connects him with the Slavonic Lyeshy, the forest-demon of the Russias. Hackelberg Hill opened to receive the children.
Chapter 63
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How did Nimrod die, according to the Moslem and Hebrew doctors?
Nimrod shot an arrow toward a voice from heaven and believed he had wounded Abraham's God when the arrow returned stained with blood. He was ultimately destroyed by one of the weakest animated beings, a fly, which attacked his lip and nose and finally devoured his brain. Various myths say he may still be heard tumbling and groaning about the base of his tower of Babel.
Chapter 64
How does the chapter connect the Devil in folklore with soldiers and huntsmen?
The author traces the Devil's special folklore connection with soldiers to the old relation between huntsmen and the Devil. In the 'Annals of Leipzig' he found two cases: in 1604 the fiend tempted a marksman named Jeremy of Strasburg to suicide and then to gather fruit at a neighbouring castle, and a Dean saved him; in 1633 the Devil induced a soldier to blaspheme.
Chapter 64
What methods did King Olaf use to spread Christianity in the North?
After his baptism in England, Olaf applied forceful arguments: putting a pan of live coals under one man's belly, forcing an adder down another's throat, and offering all men the choice of being baptized or burnt. The chapter says many brave martyrdoms occurred before the chief people were convinced. Olaf also treated Odin as a genuine living foe, rejecting the poisoned meat Odin tried to have his cook prepare.
Chapter 64
Why did the Christian edict against eating horse-flesh arise, according to the author?
In the eleventh century Olaf proclaimed horse-flesh eating a test of paganism, as baptism was of Christianity, and punished it with death, except in Iceland where an express stipulation permitted it. The author argues the edict probably had a stronger motive than sentimental opposition to paganism: the Horse had been a fire-breathing devil under Odin, and became a steed of the Sun under the baptized noble and bishop.
Chapter 64
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What do children on the Burgeiser Alp do, and with what words?
Every child ascending the Burgeiser Alp places a stone on a certain heap, saying, 'Here I offer to the wild maidens.' Conway identifies these as Bertha's kindly fairies. He compares this to Frederika Bremer pouring out champagne as a libation to the 'good spirits' of Germany and America during a picnic on the Hudson heights.
Chapter 65
How is the White Lady described, and what does she do for humans?
She wears a golden chain and glittering keys at her belt and appears at mid-day or in strong moonlight. Where priestly influence is strong she is said to be half-black, half-white and sometimes a serpent. She often helps the weary farmer stack his corn and aids sorely-tasked Cinderellas in their toil.
Chapter 65
How does the rescue-of-the-princess motif relate to the Rose myth?
Rescue of the enchanted princess is usually effected by three kisses, but she must appear before the deliverer in some hideous aspect, such as a toad or serpent, so he is repelled or loses courage. Conway reads this as the rose hidden under the ugliness of winter, with variants like Aschenputtel and Sleeping Beauty.
Chapter 65
What happened to Eckhardt's role as the Church compromised with the hunting Barons?
Eckhardt, a holy friar taken as a myth and type of the Church, gained fame by being thought to go ahead of the Wild Huntsman and warn villagers. As a compromise was struck—sports and cruelties paid for with indulgence-fees—Eckhardt turned to the White Lady, declared a Wild Huntress, and warned young men against Frau Venus. Conway says he only increased her attractions.
Chapter 65
CHAPTER XXVII.4 cards
What did St. Orain report after being buried alive at Iona, and how did Christians respond?
St. Columba had Orain buried alive so a church could rise at Iona. When Columba later had the body dug up, Orain sat up alive and said he had visited the other world and learned the Christians erred, especially about Hell, which did not exist. Outraged by this heresy, the Christians covered him up again in earnest.
Chapter 66
How did Father Sinistrari argue that demons might share in Christ's atonement?
Sinistrari, a seventeenth-century Inquisition consultor, argued from Christ's words in John x. 16 about other sheep and one fold. He held that saving the Gentiles logically includes saving their inspiring demons, since there would not be one fold if these aerial beings were excluded. He timidly hinted Satan himself might be included. His book was placed on the Index in 1709.
Chapter 66
What legend about Aquinas and the Devil does Conway recount, and what does he say it signifies?
Conway relates a legend that Aquinas spent a night praying for the salvation and restoration of the Devil, and quotes a modern poem on it. He says the legend expresses the mediæval heart pining in its dogmatic prison, and that Aquinas's doctrine of resurrected bodies with senses and sex confused the lines between flesh and spirit, so the Devil could not be far behind.
Chapter 66
According to Conway, what did popular legends show about the Devil's character toward the oppressed masses?
Conway argues the humble masses imagined a Satan antagonistic to Church deities and saints, investing the supposedly infernal Powers with humanly just and genial qualities discarded by ecclesiastical ambition. Legends show the Devil rewarding those who defended him, helping poor architects and mechanics, and defending accused innocence, as when a stranger lawyer saved a soldier falsely accused by an innkeeper.
Chapter 66
CHAPTER XXVIII.3 cards
How does Conway explain the transfer of the gods' battle to man?
The author argues that the gods had taken refuge in man, so the attack was transferred to man. Priestly legends might describe gods as victorious over the Titans, but the people knew better, and the Erinnyes represent the steady supremacy of nature's laws over personifications. When man's hope turned to rest on man, all the Titans followed him, appearing as tempests of passion and the animal creation within.
Chapter 67
What is the tale of the gentleman in black in The Golden Legend?
A poor gentleman is promised vast gold by a chevalier in black on condition he bring his beautiful wife to a solitary spot in exactly a year. He lives splendidly, then asks his pious wife to ride out with him. She prays to the Virgin and accompanies him. The Devil meets them but trembles, crying that the man has brought the Mother of God, who will send him back to hell. The Devil vanishes and the wife is found sleeping quietly.
Chapter 67
What does Conway argue the celibacy ideal and the fencing-off of Eden were defined against?
The author argues the story of Eve, Sarah's childlessness, and Mary's immaculate conception mark a primitive theory of celibacy tied to a Holy Family, and that this impossible ideal practically restrained sexual passions. He suggests the fencing-off of Eden, the Abrahamic household, and the command against adultery were defined against the rape or marriage by capture practiced by the 'sons of Elohim' who took the fair daughters of men.
Chapter 67
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How does the pious negro woman answer the sceptic's objection about enough brimstone?
She concludes that "every man took his own brimstone." The author notes her instinct reached the same thought as Milton's Satan, who says "Myself am hell," and Marlowe's Mephistopheles, who says "Where we are is hell." He also compares it to the vision of Fursey in 633, where an angel told him, "That which you did not kindle shall not burn you."
Chapter 68
How does the author contrast pagan Hades with the Christian hell?
The author argues that Christendom's hell is disorderly and characterless, burning the murderer and the man who confuses the Persons of the Godhead alike in inappropriate fires. By contrast, the Hades of Egypt, Greece, and Rome relates every punishment to the offence and limits its duration to the degree of the offence. He cites Herodotus on Egyptian transmigration and Plato's vision of Er as examples.
Chapter 68
What does Plato's vision of Er suggest about souls choosing their next lives?
In Plato's Republic, Er describes punished souls returning to earth in animal forms they select, with animals also choosing. Choices are generally determined by the previous earthly life. Orpheus chose a swan out of hatred of women, Ajax a lion, Agamemnon an eagle, Atalanta an athlete, Thersites a monkey, and Odysseus the life of a private gentleman. The author calls this "Sly Plato!"
Chapter 68
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In the imagined debate, what does Dante confess to Arda Viráf about his vision?
Dante falls at Arda Viráf's feet and admits that the pilgrim's vision is purer than his own. He says he fears he carried to the invisible world the small prejudices of his little Church, which taught him to limit a Love he now sees as boundless. He asks to abandon poor formulas and ascend by good thoughts, good words, good deeds.
Chapter 69
What did Swedenborg report about his first vision at dinner in 1745?
Swedenborg said a mist spread before his eyes and he saw the floor covered with hideous reptiles—serpents, toads and the like—while fully conscious. A Man in the corner told him, 'Eat not as much.' In his Diary he described a vapour from his pores turning into vermin that were cast out and burnt, cleansing him of unseemly appetite.
Chapter 69
What does Emerson, as quoted, criticize about Swedenborg's hell?
Emerson says a vampyre sits in the prophet's seat, and Swedenborg builds a new hell and pit round every new crew of offenders—hells of jugglers, assassins, the lascivious, robbers, the deceitful and the revengeful. Emerson argues he failed by attaching to the Christian symbol rather than the moral sentiment, and that he admitted no conversion for evil spirits.
Chapter 69
How does the chapter use Spinoza and the hare-lip to explain evil and criminals?
The author notes Spinoza, pondering Evil and the theology ascribing it to a Devil, anticipated modern Evolution by over a century. The chapter compares criminals to arrested moral developments, as every lip is at some embryonic period a hare-lip. It argues those who see criminals as devil-instigated have a mental arrest, and reason should treat both calmly, like a surgeon.
Chapter 69
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What does Conway compare the evaporation of human animal desires to?
The author argues it would be like philanthropists quenching the fires and breaking the engines of every steam locomotive in England at daybreak—a brief paralysis of one country's work, but far greater if all worldly aims and joys were burnt up in fires of fanaticism.
Chapter 70
According to Conway, what was Christianity's organizing principle and central purpose?
The author argues Christianity's organizing principle was what crucified Jesus and took his tomb as cornerstone of a system modeled after what he hated. Its central purpose was to divorce man's moral from his animal nature, calling one flesh and the other spirit, one child of God and the other of the Devil—renting asunder what was really one.
Chapter 70
How does Philo describe the first joy of the redeemed earth?
Philo describes the termination of war between man and animal: when wild beasts in the soul are tamed, ferocious animals submit to man, scorpions lose their stings and serpents their poison. In consequence of suppressing that older war between man and beast, the war between man and man shall also end.
Chapter 70
What mirror does Conway say man needs to see his own animalism?
The author argues man needs a true mirror in which his animalism sees itself—not Greek art, German fairy ideals, or emasculated saints of Christendom, which are broken fragments. Only man's higher nature, polished by culture of all his faculties, can be the faithful mirror before his lower nature.
Chapter 70
CHAPTER XXIX. (part 4)3 cards
What does the author say the vacant side of the Magdalen quadrangle awaits?
The author argues the unfinished side of the Magdalen sculptures awaits a truer teaching that would fill it with the real dragons no youth could heedlessly pass—the wrongs awaiting their powers of redress and the baseness of pious fraud. He asks who will carve these and show in a stone mirror the true shape of double-tongued Culture.
Chapter 71
What double image does the author use for 'double-tongued Culture'?
The author describes a double-tongued Culture with two forks: one fork intoning litanies, the other whispering contempt of them. He sets this alongside the werewolves of scholarly selfishness and the Lamias of Christian casuistry—an intelligence fed by sages and heroes that turns them to dust and venom because it dares not be human.
Chapter 71
According to the chapter, what will the cry 'Sursum Corda' accomplish?
The author argues that once these horrors are revealed, the old cry Sursum Corda will sound over the ancient symbols on which scholars waste their strength and by which they are conquered. Then wings of courage shall bear them with their arrows of light to rescue from Superstition the holy places of Humanity.
Chapter 71
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What was William Bigwood's defense for using pills of seven herbs?
Bigwood, an herbalist, was implicated in the death of Miriam Woodham under his prescriptions. It was shown that he used pills made of seven herbs. The practice was only demonstrated to be a 'pagan survival' when Bigwood stated that the herbs were 'governed by the sun.'
Chapter 72
How did the household fiend Mania relate to child sacrifice in Rome?
The demoness Mania, probably of Etruscan origin, was used by nurses to frighten children. Her name, from an old word manus meaning 'good,' was linked through Manes to the mother of the Lares, whose revisitations were generally ill omens. An oracle saying heads should be offered for heads led to child sacrifice to this household fiend until Junius Brutus substituted poppy-heads.
Chapter 72
What did the pedlar Kate Bedwell do to Eliza Rolf in 1878?
In January 1878 at Marylebone Police Court, London, Kate Bedwell, a pedlar, was sentenced to three months' hard labour for obtaining 9s. 10d. by terrorism from Eliza Rolf, a cook. Bedwell told her she lived under three stars, one good and the others bad, and could disfigure her or turn her into something else.
Chapter 72
What did Bruce report about Abyssinian serpent augury?
Bruce relates that Abyssinians commonly keep a serpent in their houses to consult for an augury of good or evil. Butter and honey are placed before it; if it partakes, the omen is good, but if it refuses to eat, misfortune is sure to happen. Conway notes this custom seems to illuminate Isaiah vii. 15, where butter and honey are eaten to know to refuse evil and choose good.
Chapter 72
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How does Conway connect Hecate, Ishtar, and Lucifer?
The author argues they are male and female forms of the same personification: Hecate with her torch (hekatos, 'far-shooting') and Lucifer ('light-bringer') are the same in their degradation. Hecate, a female Titan and supreme ally of the gods under Zeus, was a star-spy upon earth; such spies, Conway says, are normally developed into devils, becoming accusers and instigators.
Chapter 73
Why did Lilith flee Eden, according to the chapter?
The chapter recounts the story of Lilith, who flew out of Eden on wings to escape from Adam, and then made an effort to drown herself in the Red Sea. Her diabolisation is linked through her daughter Hecate to Asteria, the fallen star.
Chapter 73
What does the note on Job i. 22 say about 'nor gave God unsalted'?
The literal rendering is 'In all this Job sinned not, nor gave God unsalted.' Dr. A. P. Peabody explains 'gave' is an offertory word appropriate to a sacrifice, and 'unsalted' is literal, rendered 'unsavory' in Job vi. 6; it may denote folly by metaphor, but 'gave' is out of place there. Waltonus rendered it 'nec dedit insulsum Deo.'
Chapter 73
What does Conway say about the Devil's fear of salt and water?
The Devil's fear of salt, and consequently of water, confirmed the perhaps earlier apprehension of all fiery phantoms of that which naturally quenches flame. Conway notes the horror with which demons and devils are supposed to regard salt, and refers readers to his earlier discussion of Demons of Fire.
Chapter 73
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What does Conway say about the Devil's role in Goethe's Faust?
The author notes that Goethe kept the Devil in good humour, scandalising Madame de Staël, who felt that in God's presence he ought to be more grim and spiteful. Goethe also hints at a passage where the Devil receives grace and mercy from God, though his poem's artistic theory permits no nearer approach than Mephistopheles' closing reproaches.
Chapter 74
How was the Holy Grail's origin described in the chapter's note?
The Holy Grail was believed to have been fashioned from the largest of all diamonds, lost from the crown of Satan as he fell from Heaven. It was guarded by angels until used at the Last Supper, and ultimately secured by Arthur's knight Percival, indirectly aided by Satan's own son, Merlin, which the author calls the irony of mythology.
Chapter 74
What does the Northumberland legend of Sewingshields say about King Arthur's sleepers?
King Arthur, his queen and court remain entranced in a subterranean hall until someone blows a bugle-horn near the entrance and cuts a garter with the sword of the stone. A farmer found the hall, drew the sword and cut the garter, but never blew the horn, so the court sank back to rest after the monarch's lament.
Chapter 74
What did Sinistrari claim about Luther and incubi?
Sinistrari names Luther as one of eleven persons he enumerates as having been begotten by Incubi, citing Codens via Maluenda and calling Luther a damned heresiarch. The author reports this as Sinistrari's claim, not as fact, presenting it among the chapter's references on demonological belief.
Chapter 74
M.4 cards
How did Lenormant characterize the Accadian and Finnish mythologies?
The author cites M. François Lenormant's chapter as showing that the Accadian and Finnish mythologies are one and the same tree, adapted to antagonistic climates. They share a similar triad, runes, charms, and in some cases even names, though their fire-worship differs in intensity.
Chapter 75
How did Finnish fire-invocation differ from Accadian fire-worship?
The Accadians exhausted praise on the flames, ascribing glory and power to them. The Finns, in their cold home, held the fire festival at the winter solstice and the mother of the family said in her libation: 'Always rise so high, O my flame, but burn not larger nor more ardent!' The author suggests this may reflect euphemism, or the more potent cold leading the Finns to recognize fire's faults.
Chapter 75
What demon did each culture dread, and why did they differ?
The author argues the dreaded demon represented the excess of the power most feared in each country. Among the Finns it was the north wind: Hiisi, riding a pale horse with monster dogs, cats, and furies, scattering pain, disease, and death. Among the Accadians it was the south-west, the most fiery wind, depicted in a bronze image in the Louvre as a dog-bodied, eagle-footed, scorpion-tailed figure with a skeletal head, four wings, and goat horns.
Chapter 75
How does the chapter connect ancient solstitial belief to New Year customs?
The author argues the old idea of war between wintry and warm powers still haunts the New Year period: the twelve days and nights once believed a fiercely contested battle between good and evil demons are still treated by many as a time for watchfulness and prayer. He notes Hogmanay observances, sacred plants at doors and windows, and Wesley's Watchnight as survivals, and describes White Russia's rich and poor Kolyadas, whose choice foretells harvest, poverty, or death.
Chapter 75
M.4 cards
What chain held the wolf Fenris, and what was it made of?
The gods could not forge chains strong enough; Fenris snapped them. Underground Elves made a chain so fine none could see or feel it, fashioned from things like women's beards, fish's breath, cat's footfall, bird's spittle, bear's sinews, and stone's roots—meaning non-existent things. It holds him until the final destruction, when he breaks loose and devours Odin.
Chapter 76
How does the Nez Perces wolf myth differ from Asian and European wolf myths?
The Nez Perces trace human origins to a wolf: a monster swallowed animals alive, and the wolf inside urged cooperation so they escaped through the monster's side, then became humans. The author notes Asian and European myths are antipodal, telling instead of humans transformed into wolves.
Chapter 76
What does the author suggest explains the good stories told of wolves?
The author argues euphemism attending propitiation of such monsters may partly explain the many good things told of wolves in popular legend. Examples include she-wolves nourishing children like Romulus and Remus, and pious wolves guarding St. Edmund's head or escorting St. Oddo—though they do not lose ferocity, devouring heretics and sacrilegious people.
Chapter 76
How does the author explain why horned animals were not demonized but horns were transferred to monsters?
The author argues superstition rationalizes: the horn defended herds against dog and wolf, so the early herdsman valued it. Though the horn-principle was cruel and retractile, man never demonized the animals whose butt was most dangerous; instead he transferred horns to a nondescript creature, making the horn a natural weapon of man-demons.
Chapter 76
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Why did St. Dunstan order the three counterfeiters executed before celebrating Pentecost mass?
Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, asked whether justice had been done on the three men convicted of coining false money. Told execution was delayed for the feast of Pentecost, he cried 'It shall not be thus' and ordered immediate execution despite remonstrances. Afterward he washed his face and hoped God would accept his sacrifice; during mass a snow-white dove descended and hovered above him with wings extended.
Chapter 77
How does Conway explain the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost?
The author argues it was an old feature of Jewish law: presumptuous language or action against Jehovah was excluded from expiation. He reasons that crimes against society were punished through common interest, but Jehovah's honour, not founded in nature, needed severe statutes. When alien rulers withheld power to execute such penalties, the sentences were adjourned to a future world, making the offence unpardonable there.
Chapter 77
What pattern does Conway find in the Third Person of Trinities across cultures?
The author argues that in Trinitarian systems the Third Person generally took the destructive role: Typhon in Egypt, Siva the Destroyer in India, Ahriman in Persia, and Hades in Greece. When the Christian Holy Ghost was constituted, he says, it inherited the fatality of these previous Third Persons while veiling them in mystery, shown in Pentecost's cloven tongues like serpents and in Ananias falling dead.
Chapter 77
Why does Conway call the Holy Ghost dogma a surviving form of belief in a Devil?
The author argues the Holy Ghost Dogma is a terrible surviving Devil-belief because, lurking in vagueness and mystery like the serpent it was born from, it passes by the self-righteous and casts shadows over the most sensitive and lowly minds, chiefly pure women prone to exaggerate their least blemishes. He cites Mr. Moody's discouraged inquiry-room visitors fearing they committed that sin.
Chapter 77
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