The same principle was laid down by Pythagoras; [200] and Herodotus [201] describes the people of Psylli…
- Date of account
- Second edition published 1896
- Source
- The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, Vol. 1 (of 2)
- Reference
- The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, Vol. 1 (of 2) · selected passage 28
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-25
Record summary
The same principle was laid down by Pythagoras; [200] and Herodotus [201] describes the people of Psylli marching in a body to fight the south wind which had dried up their water-tanks
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyThe same principle was laid down by Pythagoras; [200] and Herodotus [201] describes the people of Psylli marching in a body to fight the south wind which had dried up their water-tanks. In Ireland it is believed that a whirlwind denotes that a devil is dancing with a witch; or that the fairies are rushing by, intent on carrying off some victim to fairyland. The only help is to fling clay at the passing wind, and the fairies will be compelled to drop the mortal child or the beautiful young girl they have abducted. [202] A gentleman at Listowel not long ago was much astonished when a cloud of dust was being blown along a road to see an old woman rush to the side and drag handfuls of grass out of the fence, which she threw in great haste into the cloud of dust. He inquired and learned that this was in order to give something to the fairies which were flying along in the dust. So in Italy, Spolviero is the wind spirit which flies along in the dust eddies.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.
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