Demonology and devil-lore . w seated on a barrelof Danegeld, Vit un ddable saer desusLe tresor, noir et hidus. There are many goodfables in Europeanfolklore with regard tothe misers gold, and devils money gene-rally, which exhibit afine instinct. A mancarries home a pack-age of such gold, and on opening it there drop out, insteadof money, paws and nails of cats, frogs, and bears—thelatter being an almost personal allusion to the French misers money-safe being opened, two frogs onlywere found. The Devil could not get any other soul thanthe gold, and the cold-blooded reptiles were lef
Demonology and devil-lore . w seated on a barrelof Danegeld, Vit un ddable saer desusLe tresor, noir et hidus. There are many goodfables in Europeanfolklore with regard tothe misers gold, and devils money gene-rally, which exhibit afine instinct. A mancarries home a pack-age of such gold, and on opening it there drop out, insteadof money, paws and nails of cats, frogs, and bears—thelatter being an almost personal allusion to the French misers money-safe being opened, two frogs onlywere found. The Devil could not get any other soul thanthe gold, and the cold-blooded reptiles were left as a signof the life that had been lived. In the legends of the swarms of devils which beset we find them represented as genuine Anglo-Saxon fathers, however, were quite unable toappreciate the severity of the conflict which man had towage with the animal world in Southern countries and inearlier times. Nor had their reverence for nature and itsforms been crushed out by the pessimist theory of the. Fig. 31.—Devil of a Danegeld Treasure(MS. Trin. Coll. Cantab. B. x. 2). ? ANIMALISED DEVILS. 419 earth maintained by Christianity. Gradually the repre-sentation of the animal tempters was modified, and in-stead of real animal forms there were reported the beardedbestialities which sur-rounded St. Guthlacand St. Godric. Theaccompanying picture(Fig. 32) is a groupfrom Breughel (1565),representing the devilscalled around St. Jamesby a magician. Thesegrotesque forms willrepay study. If weshould make a sketchof the same kind, onlysurrounding the saintwith the real animalshapes most nearly re-sembling these nonde-scripts, it would ceaseto be a diabolical scene. ^^- ^^-^ J^^ ^ For beastliness is not a character of beasts ; it is thearrest of man. It is not the picturesque donkey in themeadow that is ridiculous, but the donkey on two feet;not the bear of zoological gardens that is offensive morally,but the rough, who cannot always be caged; it is the two-legged c
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