Custom and Myth | Page 5

the same shelf with archaic vessels from Greece. In
the same way, if a superstition or a riddle were offered to a student of
folklore, he would have much difficulty in guessing its provenance, and
naming the race from which it was brought. Suppose you tell a
folklorist that, in a certain country, when anyone sneezes, people say
'Good luck to you,' the student cannot say a priori what country you
refer to, what race you have in your thoughts. It may be Florida, as
Florida was when first discovered; it may be Zululand, or West Africa,
or ancient Rome, or Homeric Greece, or Palestine. In all these, and
many other regions, the sneeze was welcomed as an auspicious omen.
The little superstition is as widely distributed as the flint arrow-heads.
Just as the object and use of the arrow-heads became intelligible when
we found similar weapons in actual use among savages, so the
salutation to the sneezer becomes intelligible when we learn that the
savage has a good reason for it. He thinks the sneeze expels an evil
spirit. Proverbs, again, and riddles are as universally scattered, and the
Wolufs puzzle over the same devinettes as the Scotch schoolboy or the
Breton peasant. Thus, for instance, the Wolufs of Senegal ask each
other, 'What flies for ever, and rests never?'--Answer, 'The Wind.' 'Who
are the comrades that always fight, and never hurt each other?'--'The
Teeth.' In France, as we read in the 'Recueil de Calembours,' the people
ask, 'What runs faster than a horse, crosses water, and is not
wet?'--Answer, 'The Sun.' The Samoans put the riddle, 'A man who
stands between two ravenous fishes?'--Answer, 'The tongue between
the teeth.' Again, 'There are twenty brothers, each with a hat on his
head?'--Answer, 'Fingers and toes, with nails for hats.' This is like the
French 'un pere a douze fils?'--'l'an.' A comparison of M. Rolland's
'Devinettes' with the Woluf conundrums of Boilat, the Samoan
examples in Turner's' Samoa,' and the Scotch enigmas collected by
Chambers, will show the identity of peasant and savage humour.

A few examples, less generally known, may be given to prove that the
beliefs of folklore are not peculiar to any one race or stock of men. The
first case is remarkable: it occurs in Mexico and Ceylon--nor are we
aware that it is found elsewhere. In Macmillan's Magazine {15} is
published a paper by Mrs. Edwards, called 'The Mystery of the Pezazi.'
The events described in this narrative occurred on August 28, 1876, in
a bungalow some thirty miles from Badiella. The narrator occupied a
new house on an estate called Allagalla. Her native servants soon
asserted that the place was haunted by a Pezazi. The English visitors
saw and heard nothing extraordinary till a certain night: an abridged
account of what happened then may be given in the words of Mrs.
Edwards:--
Wrapped in dreams, I lay on the night in question tranquilly sleeping,
but gradually roused to a perception that discordant sounds disturbed
the serenity of my slumber. Loth to stir, I still dozed on, the sounds,
however, becoming, as it seemed, more determined to make themselves
heard; and I awoke to the consciousness that they proceeded from a belt
of adjacent jungle, and resembled the noise that would be produced by
some person felling timber.
Shutting my ears to the disturbance, I made no sign, until, with an
expression of impatience, E--- suddenly started up, when I laid a
detaining grasp upon his arm, murmuring that there was no need to
think of rising at present--it must be quite early, and the kitchen cooly
was doubtless cutting fire-wood in good time. E--- responded, in a tone
of slight contempt, that no one could be cutting fire-wood at that hour,
and the sounds were more suggestive of felling jungle; and he then
inquired how long I had been listening to them. Now thoroughly
aroused, I replied that I had heard the sounds for some time, at first
confusing them with my dreams, but soon sufficiently awakening to the
fact that they were no mere phantoms of my imagination, but a reality.
During our conversation the noises became more distinct and loud;
blow after blow resounded, as of the axe descending upon the tree,
followed by the crash of the falling timber. Renewed blows announced
the repetition of the operations on another tree, and continued till
several were devastated.

It is unnecessary to tell more of the tale. In spite of minute
examinations and close search, no solution of the mystery of the noises,
on this or any other occasion, was ever found. The natives, of course,
attributed the disturbance to the Pezazi, or goblin. No one, perhaps, has
asserted that the Aztecs were connected by ties of race with the people
of Ceylon. Yet, when