Finally, it must be remarked that the nature of our inquiry renders the consideration of the origin of myths--whether 'solar' or other--of secondary importance. Such origin it will be necessary to point out and discuss incidentally, but our main point will always be the forms in which the myths have become incarnate, and their modifications in various places and times, these being the result of those actual experiences with which Demonology is chiefly concerned. A myth, as many able writers have pointed out, is, in its origin, an explanation by the uncivilised mind of some natural phenomenon--not an allegory, not an esoteric conceit. For this reason it possesses fluidity, and takes on manifold shapes. The apparent sleep of the sun in winter may be represented in a vast range of myths, from the Seven Sleepers to the Man in the Moon of our nursery rhyme; but the variations all have relation to facts and circumstances. Comparative Mythology is mainly concerned with the one thread running through them, and binding them all to the original myth; the task of Demonology is rather to discover the agencies which have given their several shapes. If it be shown that Orthros and Cerberus were primarily the morning and evening twilight or howling winds, either interpretation is here secondary to their personification as dogs. Demonology would ask, Why dogs? why not bulls? Its answer in each case detaches from the anterior myth its mode, and shows this as the determining force of further myths. PART II. THE DEMON. CHAPTER I. HUNGER. Hunger-demons--Kephn--Miru--Kagura--Ráhu the Hindu sun-devourer--The earth monster at Pelsall--A Franconian custom--Sheitan as moon-devourer--Hindu offerings to the dead--Ghoul--Goblin--Vampyres--Leanness of demons--Old Scotch custom.--The origin of sacrifices.