sometimes find that marvellous, striking similarity or identity in the forms of myths, even among races that have been separated from each other since eternity as it were. This explains the universal dissemination of the symbol of the cross, perfectly independent of Christianity, of which America, as is well known, furnishes us especially interesting instances. It is impossible to agree, that myths have been made to explain meteorological or astronomical processes. Myths are, first of all, manifestations of unconscious currents, similar to dreams.[12] These currents are caused by the libido in its unconscious forms. The material which comes to the surface is infantile material, hence, phantasies connected with the incest-complex. Without difficulty we can find in all the so-called sun-myths infantile theories about generation, childbirth and incestuous relations. In the fairy-tale of Little Red-Ridinghood, we find the phantasy that the mother has to eat something which is similar to a child, and that the child is born by cutting open the mother's body. This phantasy is one of the most universal, to be found everywhere.
We can conclude, from these universal psychological observations, that the child, in its dream, elaborates the problem of generation and childbirth. As to the wolf, the father probably has to be put in its place, for the child unconsciously assigns to the father any act of violence towards the mother. This anticipation can be based on innumerable myths which deal with the problem of any act of violence towards the mother. In reference to the mythological parallelism, let me direct your attention to Boas's collection, where you will find a beautiful set of Indian legends; also to the work of Frobenius, "Das Zeitaltes Sonnengottes"; and, finally, to the works of Abraham, Rank, Riklin, Jones, Freud, Spielrein, and my own investigations in my "Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido."
After having made these general observations for theoretical reasons, which, of course, were not made in the concrete case, we will go back to see what the child has to tell in regard to her dream. Of course the child speaks of her dream just as she likes, without being influenced in any way whatever. The little girl begins with the bite in her leg, and relates, that she had once been told by a woman who had had a baby, that she could still
