Note 73.1 — Chapter XVIII · THE RESCUE OF ANDROMEDA: ITS RELATION TO HUMAN SACRIFICES.

Several of the foregoing examples exhibit the being to whom the sacrifice is offered as a crocodile, or some analogous inhabitant of the waters. Nor will it pass unnoticed that many of the tales of the Rescue of Andromeda represent the dragon as inhabiting a spring or lake, or keeping the waters and giving them only in exchange for the victim. A shark- or crocodile-god has, it would seem, a natural tendency to pass into a purely mythical being. Such is Ju-ju, an object of worship in the delta of the Niger, to which a young girl is commonly sacrificed in the way already described as customary at Bonny in sacrificing to the shark-god.73.1 To this origin we may probably ascribe the numerous Eastern tales of dragons and evil spirits taking possession of rivers, lakes and tanks, and demanding sacrifices to induce them to release the water. The Chinese annals of Khotan, a city in Cashgar, have preserved a legend concerning a river that dried up, to the injury of the inhabitants of the city. The king, having consulted his ecclesiastical advisers, was informed that the river-dragon had interrupted the current, and advised to mollify him by a sacrifice. No sooner was the sacrifice offered than a lady came (so we are told, if the translation be accurate) out of the waters, though it is hard to know how she could do this when the river-bed was dry. But whencesoever she may have come, she declared that her husband had prematurely died, and that his demise had stopped the flow. And she required of the monarch one of his grandees as a new husband, so that the stream might resume its course. One of the nobles, named Mieou, offered himself to supply the place of the late lamented he-dragon. Mounted on a white steed, he rode into the river-bottom, and boldly advanced till he met the returning waters. Nor then did he hesitate, but opening a passage amid them with his whip, he entered and was seen no more. The horse in a short time reappeared, on his back a drum of sandalwood and a letter assuring the king that Mieou had been elevated to the rank of a god, and would thenceforth watch over the prosperity of the realm. Meanwhile, the new deity begged his majesty’s acceptance of the accompanying magical drum, which, if suspended at the south-eastern gate of the city, would give warning in case of any hostile attack. Since that time the people of the city have had no cause to complain of deficiency in their water-supply.74.1 A somewhat different cause for the human sacrifice is alleged in the following Hindu story. The Talao Lake was made by a Bargújar rajah named Menh or Mehan. When it was finished the water all became blood-red. The pandits, consulted by the rajah, declared that the water had become impure, because the work had been done by low-caste labourers; and the only way of purifying it was by sacrificing the rajah’s son, Chattar-bhuj, with his wife, his horse, and his servants, in the lake. With the consent of the principal victim the foul water was drained off, and a room was built in the floor of the lake for the reception of Chattar-bhuj and his household. They accordingly entered it, provided with six months’ food. The room was then closed, and a temple built over it. The result was satisfactory, for when the pool was filled at the next rainy season the water remained pure. “It is the universal belief that whenever the lake overflows,” the rajah’s son “is seen by night riding down the hill from the highest point on a blue horse. Some say that two torches are carried before him, and that his servants follow behind, until all disappear into the lake. Others say that his appearance on the blue horse precedes the fall of rain.”75.1 Both these cases look like legends which have grown up, in consequence of a change of population or religion, to account for an ancient worship, and for a divinity still believed to haunt the spot, and still regarded with awe, though no longer the object of the special honours at one time rendered to him.75.2 In the latter story, as it reaches us, there is no mention of a dragon or other supernatural being. It would seem, however, to be implied in the sacrifice, as well as in the temple erected by the rajah.