Vagrarians, tree devils (a type of vice elemental), and phantasms of
dead trees are some of the occult horrors that haunt woods, and, in
fact, the whole country-side! Added to these, there are the fauns and
satyrs, those queer creatures, undoubtedly vagrarians, half-man and
half-goat, that are accredited by the ancients with much merry-making,
and grievous to add, much lasciviousness. Of these spirits there is
mention in Scripture, namely, Isaiah xiii. 21, where we read: "And their
houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there,
and satyrs shall dance there"; and in Baddeley's _Historical
Meditations_, published about the beginning of the seventeenth century,
there is a description by Plutarch, of a satyr captured by Sulla, when
the latter was on his way from Dyrrachium to Brundisium. The creature,
which appears to have been very material, was found asleep in a park
near Apollonia. On being led into the presence of Sulla, it commenced
speaking in a harsh voice that was an odd mixture of the neighing of a
horse and the crying of a goat. As neither Sulla nor any of his
followers could understand in the slightest degree what the monstrosity
meant, they let it go, nor is there any further reference to it.
Now, granted that this account is not "faked," and that such a beast
actually did exist, it would naturally suggest to one that vagrarians,
pixies, and other grotesque forms of phantasms are, after all, only the
spirits of similar types of material life, and that, in all
probability, the earth, contemporary with prehistoric, and even
later-day man, fairly swarmed with such creatures. However, this, like
everything else connected with these early times, is merely a matter of
speculation. Another explanatory theory is, that possibly superphysical
phenomena were much more common formerly than now, and that the various
types of sub-human and sub-animal apparitions (which were then
constantly seen by the many, but which are now only visible to the few)
have been handed down to us in the likeness of satyrs and fauns. Anyhow,
I think they may be rightly classified in the category of vagrarians.
The association of spirits with trees is pretty nearly universal. In the
fairy tales of youth we have frequent allusions to them. In the
Caucasus, where the population is not of Slavonic origin, we have
innumerable stories of sacred trees, and in each of these stones the
main idea is the same--namely, that a human life is dependent on the
existence of a tree. In Slavonic mythology, plants as well as trees are
magnets for spirits, and in the sweet-scented pinewoods, in the dark,
lonely pinewoods, dwell "psipolnitza," or female goblins, who plague the
harvesters; and "lieshi," or forest male demons, closely allied to
satyrs. In Iceland there was a pretty superstition to the effect that,
when an innocent person was put to death, a sorb or mountain ash would
spring over their grave. In Teutonic mythology the sorb is supposed to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account