CHAPTER IV.

THE SHEEP, THE RAM, AND THE GOAT.

SUMMARY.

The sun-shepherd, and the sun-lamb, ram, or goat.--The dark-coloured he-goat.--The goat-moon.--Agas; explanation given by Professor Bréal; the Finnic aija.--Meshas; she-goat, ram, skin, sack.--The ram Indras.--The goats Açvinâu.--The he-goat Veretraghna.--The lamb and the goat in the forest opposed to the wolf.--The apple-tree and the she-goat; the cloud and the apple-tree.--The goat, the nut-tree and the hazel-nuts.--The wolf assumes the goat's voice; the wolf in the fire.--The witch takes the voice of the little hero's mother; the child born of a tree.--The hero among the sheep, or in the spoils of the sheep, escapes from the witch.--Pûshan agâçvas and his sister.--The brother who becomes a kid while drinking; the sister in the sea.--The husband-goat; the goat's skin burned; the monster appears once more a handsome youth; the funereal mantle of the young hero; when it is burned, the hero lives again handsome and splendid.--The children changed into kids.--The cunning Schmier-bock in the sack.--Agamukhî--Ilvalas and Wâtâpis.--Indras meshândas, sahasradhâras and sahasradâras.--The rams of the wolf eaten.--The goat of expiation, the goat and the stupidity of the hero disappear at the same time.--The devil-ram; the putrid sheep that throws gold behind it.--The goat which deprives men of sight.--The young prince, riding on the goat, solves the riddle.--The spy of heaven; the eye of God.--The constellation of the she-goat and two kids.--The lame goat.--The heroine and the goat her guide and nurse.--The milky way and the she-goat.--The goat's blood, manus Dei; the stone bezoar.--The cunning goat.--The goat deceives the wolf; the goat eats the leaf.--The she-goat possessed of a devil.--The ram-vessel.--Ram and he-goat foecundators.--The he-goat and the horned husband.--Zeus he-goat and the satyr Pan; Hêraklês the rival of a goat; the old powerless man called a he-goat.--Hellenic forms of the myth of the goat.--Phrixos and Helle; Jupiter Ammon; the altar of Apollo; the fleece of the Iberians; the golden ram of Atreus; Aigüsthos; Diana and the white sheep; Neptune a ram; satyrs and fauns; Hermês krioforos; the sheep of Epimenis; lambs, rams, and he-goats sacrificed; aixourania and the cornucopia.--The mythical goat; its threefold form; black, white, and light-coloured lambs.--Pecus and pecunia.

When the girl aurora leads out of the stable in the morning her radiant flock, among them there are found to be white lambs, white kids, and luminous sheep; in the evening the same aurora leads the lambs, the kids, and the sheep back to the fold. In the early dawn all this flock is white, by and by their fleeces are golden fleeces; the white, and afterwards the golden heavens of the east (or the west) constituting this white and golden flock, and the sun's rays their fleeces. Then the sun himself, who steps forth from this flock, is now its young shepherd-king, and now the lamb, the ram, or he-goat. When the sun enters into the region of night, the he-goat or lamb goes back to the fold and becomes dark-coloured; the sun veiled by the night or the cloud is a dark-coloured ram, he-goat, or she-goat. In the night, says the proverb, all cows are black; and the same might be said of goats, except in the case of the goat, luminous and all-seeing, coming out of the nocturnal darkness in the form of the moon. We must, therefore, consider the sheep or goat under a triple aspect; the principal and most interesting aspect being that of the sun veiled by the gloom, or by the cloud, which wears often a demoniacal form, such as that of the ass or of the hero in hell; the second being that of the grey-white, and afterwards golden sky of morning, or of the golden and thereafter grey-white sky of evening which, as a luminous, is therefore generally a divine form of the goat; and the third aspect being that of the moon.

The richest myths refer to the sun enclosed in the cloud or the shades of night, or to the cloud or darkness of night closing round the sun. The shifting shadow and the moving cloud on the one side, the damp night and the rainy cloud on the other, easily came to be represented as a goat and as a ram. In the Indian tongue, or even the Vedic, _agas_ is a word which means, properly speaking, pushing, drawing, moving (agens), and afterwards he-goat; the he-goat butts with its horns; the sun in the cloud butts with its rays until it opens the stable and its horns come out.[747] The ram is called _meshas_, or _mehas_, that is, the pourer or spreader, mingens (like the ass ciramehin), which corresponds with the _meghas_, or cloud mingens. Moreover, as in Greek from _aix_,[748] a goat, we have _aigis_, a skin (Ægis), so in Sanskrit from _agas_, a goat, we have _aginas_, a skin; and from _meshas_, a ram, _meshas_, a fleece, a skin, and that which is formed from it; whence the Petropolitan Dictionary compares with it the Russian _mieh_ (Lithuanian, _maiszas_) skin and sack.

Let us now first of all see how these simple images developed themselves in the Hindoo myth.

Indras, the pluvial and thundering god, is represented in the first strophe of a Vedic hymn as a very celebrated heroic ram;[749] in the second strophe, as the one who pours out ambrosial honey (madacyutam); in the third strophe, as opening the stable or precinct of the cows to the Añgirasas;[750] in the fourth strophe, as killing the serpent that covers or keeps back; in the fifth strophe, as expelling the enchanters with enchantments, and breaking the strong cities of the monster Piprus;[751] and in the sixth strophe, as crushing under his foot the giant-like monster Arbudas[752] or monster serpent. Thus far we have two aspects of the myth, the ram which pours out ambrosial honey, and the ram which opens the gate and crushes with its foot. In another hymn the Açvinâu are compared to two he-goats (ageva), to two horns (çriñgeva), and to two swift dogs.[753] A third hymn informs us that Indras by means of a ram killed a leonine monster.[754]

Here we evidently have a heroic he-goat or ram.

Let us compare it with other traditions. In the _Khorda Avesta_[755] we find Veretraghna (the Zend form of Indras, as Vritrahan) "with the body of a warrior he-goat, handsome, and with sharpened horns."

In the Russian tale given by _Afanassieff_,[756] the lamb, companion of the bull in the wood, kills the wolf by butting against its sides, while the bull also wounds the ferocious beast with its horns. In another variation of the same story,[757] the cat is confederate with the lamb against the wolf; the lamb butts hard at the wolf, while the cat scratches it till blood flows. In yet another version, besides the lamb, the he-goat also appears; the cat twists some of the bark of the birch-tree round the horns of the he-goat, and bids the lamb rub against it to produce fire; sparks come from it, the cat fetches hay, and the three companions warm themselves. The wolves come up, and the cat makes them run, presenting them the goat as a scarecrow, and frightening them further by ominous hints as to the strength contained in its beard. Finally, we have in the Russian stories two singular variations of the fable of the goat, the kids, and the wolf.[758] The goat is about to give birth to her young ones under an apple-tree. (We have seen in