"Then came the Wind and held her fast
His captive, love-enchanted;
And lo, by him a merry child
Within her womb was planted."
Buddha's marvellous birth story, retold by Sir Edwin Arnold, also shows traces of this.[10]
"Maya, the Queen . . .
Dreamed a strange dream, dreamed that a star from heaven—
Splendid, six-rayed, in color rosy-pearl,
Whereof the token was an Elephant
Six-tusked and white as milk of Kamadhuk—
Shot through the void; and shining into her,
Entered her womb upon the right."[11]
During Maya's conception a wind blows over the land:
"A wind blew
With unknown freshness over lands and seas."
After the birth the four genii of the East, West, South and North come to render service as bearers of the palanquin. (The coming of the wise men at Christ's birth.) We also find here a distinct reference to the "four winds." For the completion of the symbolism there is to be found in the Buddha myth, as well as in the birth legend of Christ, besides the impregnation by star and wind, also the fertilization by an animal, here an elephant, which with its phallic trunk fulfilled in Maya the Christian method of fructification through the ear or the head. It is well known that, in addition to the dove, the unicorn is also a procreative symbol of the Logos.
Here arises the question why the birth of a hero always
