A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s3.69

v1.c8.s3.69

Just as in this song in the Atharvaveda, the elf in the German incantations is exhorted to leave the houses of mortals, and to depart to the rivers and trees. Just like the Apsaras and the Gandharvas, too, the Germanic water-fairies and elves love music and dancing, with which they lure mortal men and women. Just as in the ancient Indian magic song the Gandharva appears now as a dog, now as an ape, now as a youth with beautiful curls, the elf of the German legends makes his appearance in all kinds of transformations. Again, just as the Apsaras of the Indians have their swings in the branches of the banana and fig trees, the water-fairies of German popular belief swing in the branches and on the tree-tops. As here in the Atharvaveda a sweet-smelling plant serves to scare away the demons, so too sweet-smelling herbs (like thyme) were thought by the Germans to be an excellent means of driving away elves and other spirits. These points of agreement can scarcely be mere coincidences: and we may well agree with Adalbert Kuhn, who compared Indian and German incantations as long as sixty years ago,² in assuming that not only certain phenomena of magic lore, but also quite definitely developed forms of magic songs and magic formulas may be traced back to the Indo-European period, and that the German and Indian magic songs thus give us a clue to a kind of prehistoric poetry of the Indo-Europeans.