that method is
the presumed absolute loss of the meaning of, e.g. 'the Dark One.' Before
there can be a myth, ex hypothesi the words Dark One must have become
hopelessly unintelligible, must have become a proper name. Thus suppose,
for argument's sake only, that Cronos once meant Dark One, and was
understood in that sense. People (as in the Norse riddle just cited)
said, 'Cronos [i.e. the Dark One--meaning mist] swallows water and wood.'
Then they forgot that Cronos was their old word for the Dark One, and was
mist; but they kept up, and understood, all the rest of the phrase about
what mist does. The expression now ran, 'Cronos [whatever that may be]
swallows water and wood.' But water comes from mist, and water nourishes
wood, therefore 'Cronos swallows his children.' Such would be the
development of a myth on Mr. Max Muller's system. He would interpret
'Cronos swallows his children,' by finding, if he could, the original
meaning of Cronos. Let us say that he did discover it to mean 'the Dark
One.' Then he might think Cronos meant 'night;' 'mist' he would hardly
guess.

That is all very clear, but the point is this--in devinettes, or riddles,
the meaning of 'the Dark One' is _not_ lost:--

'Thy riddle is _easy_
Blind Gest,
To read'--

Heidrick answers.

What the philological method of mythology needs is to prove that such
poetical statements about natural phenomena as the devinettes contain
survived in the popular mouth, and were perfectly intelligible except
just the one mot d'enigme--say, 'the Dark One.' That (call it
Cronos='Dark One'), and that alone, became unintelligible in the changes
of language, and so had to be accepted as a proper name, Cronos--a god
who swallows things at large.

Where is the proof of such endurance of intelligible phrases with just
the one central necessary word obsolete and changed into a mysterious
proper name? The world is full of proper names which have lost their
meaning--Athene, Achilles, Artemis, and so on but we need proof that
poetical sayings, or riddles, survive and are intelligible except one
word, which, being unintelligible, becomes a proper name. Riddles, of
course, prove nothing of this kind:--

Thy riddle is easy
Blind Gest
To read!

Yet Mr. Max Muller offers the suggestion that the obscurity of many of
these names of mythical gods and heroes 'may be due . . . to the riddles
to which they had given rise, and which would have cease