Among the Arabs we have an addition to our sacred account of Adam—the legend of the black stone of the Caaba at Mecca, into which the angel was changed who was charged by the Almighty to keep Adam away from the forbidden fruit, and who neglected his duty.
Similar old transformation legends are abundant among the Indians of America, the negroes of Africa, and the natives of Australia and the Pacific islands.
Nor has this making of myths to account for remarkable appearances yet ceased, even in civilized countries.
About the beginning of this century the Grand Duke of Weimar, smitten with the classical mania of his time, placed in the public park near his palace a little altar, and upon this was carved, after the manner so frequent in classical antiquity, a serpent taking a cake from it.
And shortly there appeared, in the town and the country around about, a legend to explain this altar and its decoration. It was commonly said that a huge serpent had laid waste that region in the olden time, until a wise and benevolent baker had rid the world of the monster by means of a poisoned biscuit.
So, too, but a few years since, in the heart of the State of New York, a swindler of genius having made and buried a "petrified giant," one theologian explained it by declaring it a Phœnician idol, and published the Phœnician inscription which he thought he had found upon it; others saw in it proofs that "there were giants in those days," and within a week after its discovery myths were afloat that the neighboring remnant of the Onondaga Indians had traditions of giants who frequently roamed through that region.[1]
- ↑ For transformation myths and legends, identifying rocks and stones with gods and heroes, see Welcker, "Götterlehre," pp. 218 et seq. For recent and more accessible statements for the general reader, see Robertson Smith's admirable "Lectures on the Religion of the Semites," Edinburgh, 1889, pp. 86 et seq. For some thoughtful remarks on the ancient adoration of stones rather than statues, with reference to the anointing of the stones at Bethel by Jacob, see Dodwell, "Tour through Greece," vol. ii, p. 172; also Robertson Smith as above, Lecture V. For Chinese transformation legends, see Denny's "Folklore of China," pp. 96 and 128. For Hindu and other ancient legends of transformations, see Dawson, "Dictionaryof Hindu Mythology," also Coleman as above, also Cox, "Mythology of the Aryan Nations, pp. 81-97, etc. For such transformations in Greece, see the "Iliad," and Ovid as above; also Stark, "Niobe und die Niobiden," p. 444 and elsewhere; also Preller, "Griechische Mythologie," ii, 383; also Baumeister, "Denkmäler des classischen Altcrthums," Art. "Niobe"; also Bötticher as above; also Curtius, "Griechische Geschichte," vol. i, pp. 71, 72. For Pausanius's naïve confession regarding the Sipylos rock, see Book I, 215. See also Texier, "Asie Mineure," pp. 265 et seq.; also Chandler, "Travels in Greece," vol. ii, p. 80, who seems to hold to the later origin of the statue. At the end of Baumeister there is an engraving copied from Stuart which seems to show that, as to the Niobe legend, at a later period Art was allowed to help Nature. For the general subject, see Scheiffle, "Program des K. Gymnasiums," in Ell wangen, "Mythologische Parallelen," 1865. For Scandinavian and Teutonic transformation legends, see Grimm, "Deutsche Mythologie," vierte Ausg., i,
