quarter of the globe where they are not
found. Are they all derived from misunderstood words meaning 'bright'?
These considerations appear to be a strong argument for comparing not
only Aryan, but all attainable myths. We shall often find, if we take a
wide view, that the philological explanation which seemed plausible in a
single case is hopelessly narrow when applied to a large collection of
parallel cases in languages of various families.

Finally, in dealing with star myths, we adhere to the hypothesis of Mr.
Tylor: 'From savagery up to civilisation,' Akkadian, Greek, or English,
'there may be traced in the mythology of the stars a course of thought,
changed, indeed, in application, yet never broken in its evident
connection from first to last. The savage sees individual stars as
animate beings, or combines star-groups into living celestial creatures,
or limbs of them, or objects connected with them; while at the other
extremity of the scale of civilisation the modern astronomer keeps up
just such ancient fancies, turning them to account in useful survival, as
a means of mapping out the celestial globe.'

MOLY AND MANDRAGORA.

'I have found out a new cure for rheumatism,' said the lady beside whom
it was my privilege to sit at dinner. 'You carry a potato about in your
pocket!'

Some one has written an amusing account of the behaviour of a man who is
finishing a book. He takes his ideas everywhere with him and broods over
them, even at dinner, in the pauses of conversation. But here was a lady
who kindly contributed to my studies and offered me folklore and
survivals in cultivated Kensington.

My mind had strayed from the potato cure to the New Zealand habit of
carrying a baked yam at night to frighten away ghosts, and to the old
English belief that a bit of bread kept in the pocket was sovereign
against evil spirits. Why should ghosts dread the food of mortals when
it is the custom of most races of mortals to feed ancestral ghosts? The
human mind works pretty rapidly, and all this had passed through my brain
while I replied, in tones of curiosity: 'A potato!'

'Yes; but it is not every potato that will do. I heard of the cure in
the country, and when we came up to town, and my husband was complaining
of rheumatism, I told one of the servants to get me a potato for Mr.
Johnson's rheumatism. "Yes, ma'am," said the man; "but it must be a
_stolen_ potato." I had forgotten that. Well, one can't