smen, returning from an unsuccessful day's
sport, beat, in token of their displeasure, the wooden image of Pan, which
always occupied a prominent place in their dwellings.

All sudden and unaccountable sounds which startle travellers in lonely
spots, were attributed to Pan, who possessed a frightful and most
discordant voice; hence the term _pan_ic terror, to indicate sudden fear.
The Athenians ascribed their victory at Marathon to the alarm which he
created among the Persians by his terrible voice.

Pan was gifted with the power of prophecy, which he is said to have
imparted to Apollo, and he possessed a well-known and very ancient oracle
in Arcadia, in which state he was more especially worshipped.

The artists of later times have somewhat toned down the original very
unattractive conception of Pan, as above described, and merely represent
him as a young man, hardened by the exposure to all weathers which a rural
life involves, and bearing in his hand the shepherd's crook and
syrinx--these being his usual attributes--whilst small horns project from
his forehead. He is either undraped, or wears merely the light cloak called
the chlamys.

The usual offerings to Pan were milk and honey in {174} shepherds' bowls.
Cows, lambs, and rams were also sacrificed to him.

After the introduction of Pan into the worship of Dionysus, we hear of a
number of little Pans (Panisci), who are sometimes confounded with the
Satyrs.

FAUNUS.

The Romans had an old Italian divinity called Faunus, who, as the god of
shepherds, was identified with the Greek Pan, and represented in a similar
manner.

Faunus is frequently called Inuus or the fertilizer, and Lupercus or the
one who wards off wolves. Like Pan, he possessed the gift of prophecy, and
was the presiding spirit of the woods and fields; he also shared with his
Greek prototype the faculty of alarming travellers in solitary places. Bad
dreams and evil apparitions were attributed to Faunus, and he was believed
to enter houses stealthily at night for this purpose.

Fauna was the wife of Faunus, and participated in his functions.

THE SATYRS.

[Illustration]

The Satyrs were a race of woodland spirits, who evidently personified the
free, wild, and untrammelled life of the forest. Their appearance was both
grotesque and repulsive; they had flat broad noses, pointed ears, and
little horns sprouting from their foreheads, a rough shaggy skin, and small
goat's tails. They led a life