The Scandinavian Fates or Nornir, representing the Past, Present and Future, sat spinning the web of events of human life beneath the ash tree Yggdrasil, whose roots ran in three directions, one to Asgard, one to the Frost Giants, and the third to the underworld. Beneath each was a fountain of wonderful virtue. In the tree from which drops honey sit an eagle, a squirrel and four stags; lying at and gnawing the root is the serpent Nithhöggr, while the squirrel Ratatösker runs up and down endeavouring to cause strife between the serpent and the eagle at the top. _Rising and Setting Symbolised_ The Egyptian Horus, the hawk-headed son of Osiris and Isis, symbolised the sun’s path, or the rising sun; Ra the noon-day and Osiris the setting. Osiris, the husband of Isis, is represented by the moon, and by an eye at the top of fourteen steps and symbolises any waning luminary, as the setting sun or waning moon. Isis, to whose worship the sacred cow was dedicated, symbolises rising, becoming visible, and is represented with two horns on a stem rising from her head. The ancient Egyptian indulged in the supposition that the swelling of the Nile at the annual innundation occurred on the anniversary of the death of Osiris, and was due to the tears of the lamenting Isis. Endymion in the Greek tradition is the setting sun, with whom the moon is in love. He was visited and kissed every night by Selene on the Latmian Hills, where he was condemned to sleep, and eternal youth. _Winds Personified_ That the Winds as natural forces should become personified is easy to imagine, as in the Roman Æolus, father of Zephyr, the West wind. Aquilo or Boreas, son of Astræus a Titan, and Eos (morning) was the North Wind, and lived in a cave on Mount Hermus in Thrace. The other winds were Notus, (South), Eurus (East), Corus (North-West), Argestës (North-East), Volturnus (South-East), and Aferventus (South-West). The natural phenomenon of the Echo is embodied in the poetic tradition of a nymph, who, on account of unrequited love for Narcissus, pined away till only her voice remained. _Predestination_ To the primitive mind disaster or affliction from quite natural causes would be attributed to the wrath of some deity, even though there was no personal offence. This superstition would find expression in a belief in predestination or fatalism, as is evidenced in the tragedies of Orestes and Œdipus, and to a certain extent in the protracted return of Ulysses from Troy. _The Fates_ The Greeks and Romans believed that birth, events and death were arbitrarily controlled by the Parcæ or Fates, of which there were three--Clotho, who held the distaff--Lachesis, who spun the thread of life and Atropos who bore the shears and cut the thread when life was ended. Thus Clotho presided over birth and drew the thread of life from the distaff, while Atropos presided over death, Lachesis spinning the thread between life and death.