that did them harm or good, worshipped the fire, offering to it noses of foxes and other game, so that one might tell by looking at furs whether they had been taken by baptized or heathen hunters.[1] The Ainos of Yesso worship Abe kamui the Fire-deity as the benefactor of men, the messenger to the other gods, the purifier who heals the sick.[2] Turanian tribes likewise hold fire a sacred element, many Tunguz, Mongol, and Turk tribes sacrifice to Fire, and some clans will not eat meat without first throwing a morsel upon the hearth. The following passage is from a Mongol wedding-song to the personified Fire, 'Mother Ut, Queen of Fire, thou who art made from the elm that grows on the mountain-tops of Changgai-Chan and Burchatu-Chan, thou who didst come forth when heaven and earth divided, didst come forth from the footsteps of Mother Earth, and wast formed by the King of Gods. Mother Ut, whose father is the hard steel, whose mother is the flint, whose ancestors are the elm-trees, whose shining reaches to the sky and pervades the earth. Goddess Ut, we bring thee yellow oil for offering, and a white wether with yellow head, thou who hast a manly son, a beauteous daughter-in-law, bright daughters. To thee, Mother Ut, who ever lookest upward, we bring brandy in bowls, and fat in both hands. Give prosperity to the King's son (the bridegroom), to the King's daughter (the bride), and to all the people!'[3] As an analogue to Hephaistos the Greek divine smith, may stand the Circassian Fire-god, Tleps, patron of metal-workers, and the peasants whom he has provided with plough and hoe.[4]
Among the most ancient cultured nations of the Old World, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, accounts of fire-worship are absent, or so scanty and obscure that their
- ↑ Steller, 'Kamtschatka,' p. 276.
- ↑ Batchelor in 'Tr. As. Soc. Japan,' vols. x. xvi.
- ↑ Castrén, 'Finn. Myth.' p. 57; Billings, 'N. Russia,' p. 123 (Yakuts); Bastian, 'Vorstellungen von Wasser und Feuer,' in 'Zeitschr. für Ethnologie,' vol. i. p. 383 (Mongols).
- ↑ Klemm, 'Cultur-Gesch.' vol. vi. p. 85 (Circassia). Welcker, vol. i. p. 663.
