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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
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    "chunk_id": "1911:firdousi:8769cd2e7bc0",
    "title": "FIRDOUSI",
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    "verified_text": "firdousi, firdausi or firdusi, persian poet. abu 'l kasim mansur (or hasan), who took the _nom de plume_ of firdousi, author of the epic poem the _shahnama_, or \"book of kings,\" a complete history of persia in nearly 60,000 verses, was born at shadab, a suburb of tus, about the year 329 of the hegira (941 a.d.), or earlier. his father belonged to the class of _dihkans_ (the old native country families and landed proprietors of persia, who had preserved their influence and status under the arab rule), and possessed an estate in the neighbourhood of tus (in khorasan). firdousi's own education eminently qualified him for the gigantic task which he subsequently undertook, for he was profoundly versed in the arabic language and literature and had also studied deeply the pahlavi or old persian, and was conversant with the ancient historical records which existed in that tongue. the _shahnama_ of firdousi (see also persia: _literature_) is perhaps the only example of a poem produced by a single author which at once took its place as the national epic of the people. the nature of the work, the materials from which it was composed, and the circumstances under which it was written are, however, in themselves exceptional, and necessarily tended to this result. the grandeur and antiquity of the empire and the vicissitudes through which it passed, their long series of wars and the magnificent monuments erected by their ancient sovereigns, could not fail to leave numerous traces in the memory of so imaginative a people as the persians. as early as the 5th century of the christian era we find mention made of these historical traditions in the work of an armenian author, moses of chorene (according to others, he lived in the 7th or 8th century). during the reign of chosroes i. (anushirvan) the contemporary of mahomet, and by order of that monarch, an attempt had been made to collect, from various parts of the kingdom, all the popular tales and legends relating to the ancient kings, and the results were deposited in the royal library. during the last years of the sassanid dynasty the work was resumed, the former collection being revised and greatly added to by the dihkan danishwer, assisted by several learned mobeds. his work was entitled the _khoda'inama_, which in the old dialect also meant the \"book of kings.\" on the arab invasion this work was in great danger of perishing at the hands of the iconoclastic caliph omar and his generals, but it was fortunately preserved; and we find it in the 2nd century of the hegira being paraphrased in arabic by abdallah ibn el mokaffa, a learned persian who had embraced islam. other guebres occupied themselves privately with the collection of these traditions; and, when a prince of persian origin, yakub ibn laith, founder of the saffarid dynasty, succeeded in throwing off his allegiance to the caliphate, he at once set about continuing the work of his illustrious predecessors. his \"book of kings\" was completed in the year 260 of the hegira, and was freely circulated in khorasan and irak. yakub's family did not continue long in power; but the samanid princes who succeeded applied themselves zealously to the same work, and prince nuh ii., who came to the throne in 365 a.h. (a.d. 976), entrusted it to the court poet dakiki, a guebre by religion. dakiki's labours were brought to a sudden stop by his own assassination, and the fall of the samanian house happened not long after, and their kingdom passed into the hands of the ghaznevids. mahmud ibn sabuktagin, the second of the dynasty (998-1030), continued to make himself still more independent of the caliphate than his predecessors, and, though a warrior and a fanatical moslem, extended a generous patronage to persian literature and learning, and even developed it at the expense of the arabic institutions. the task of continuing and completing the collection of the ancient historical traditions of the empire especially attracted him. with the assistance of neighbouring princes and of many of the influential dihkans, mahmud collected a vast amount of materials for the work, and after having searched in vain for a man of sufficient learning and ability to edit them faithfully, and having entrusted various episodes for versification to the numerous poets whom he had gathered round him, he at length made choice of firdousi. firdousi had been always strongly attracted by the ancient pahlavi records, and had begun at an early age to turn them into persian epic verse. on hearing of the death of the poet dakiki, he conceived the ambitious design of himself carrying out the work which the latter had only just commenced; and, although he had not then any introduction to the court, he contrived, thanks to one of his friends, mahommed lashkari, to procure a copy of the dihkan danishwer's collection, and at the age of thirty-six commenced his great undertaking. abu mansur, the governor of tus, patronized him and encouraged him by substantial pecuniary support. when mahmud succeeded to the throne, and evinced such active interest in the work, firdousi was naturally attracted to the court of ghazni. at first court jealousies and intrigues prevented firdousi from being noticed by the sultan; but at length one of his friends, mahek, undertook to present to mahmud his poetic version of one of the well-known episodes of the legendary history. hearing that the poet was born at tus, the sultan made him explain the origin of his native town, and was much struck with the intimate knowledge of ancient history which he displayed. being presented to the seven poets who were then engaged on the projected epic, abu 'l kasim was admitted to their meetings, and on one occasion improvised a verse, at mahmud's request, in praise of his favourite ayaz, with such success that the sultan bestowed upon him the name of firdousi, saying that he had converted his assemblies into paradise (_firdous_). during the early days of his sojourn at court an incident happened which contributed in no small measure to the realization of his ambition. three of the seven poets were drinking in a garden when firdousi approached, and wishing to get rid of him without rudeness, they informed him who they were, and told him that it was their custom to admit none to their society but such as could give proof of poetical talent. to test his acquirements they proposed that each should furnish an extemporary line of verse, his own to be the last, and all four ending in the same rhyme. firdousi accepted the challenge, and the three poets having previously agreed upon three rhyming words to which a fourth could not be found in the persian language, 'ansari began-- \"thy beauty eclipses the light of the sun\"; farrakhi added-- \"the rose with thy cheek would comparison shun\"; 'asjadi continued-- \"thy glances pierce through the mailed warrior's johsun\";[1] and firdousi, without a moment's hesitation, completed the quatrain-- \"like the lance of fierce giv in his fight with poshun.\" the poets asked for an explanation of this allusion, and firdousi recited to them the battle as described in the _shahnama_, and delighted and astonished them with his learning and eloquence. mahmud now definitely selected him for the work of compiling and versifying the ancient legends, and bestowed upon him such marks of his favour and munificence as to elicit from the poet an enthusiastic panegyric, which is inserted in the preface of the _shahnama_, and forms a curious contrast to the bitter satire which he subsequently prefixed to the book. the sultan ordered his treasurer, khojah hasan maimandi, to pay to firdousi a thousand gold pieces for every thousand verses; but the poet preferred allowing the sum to accumulate till the whole was finished, with the object of amassing sufficient capital to construct a dike for his native town of tus, which suffered greatly from defective irrigation, a project which had been the chief dream of his childhood. owing to this resolution, and to the jealousy of hasan maimandi, who often refused to advance him sufficient for the necessaries of life, firdousi passed the later portion of his life in great privation, though enjoying the royal favour and widely extended fame. amongst other princes whose liberal presents enabled him to combat his pecuniary difficulties, was one rustam, son of fakhr addaula, the dailamite, who sent him a thousand gold pieces in acknowledgment of a copy of the episode of rustam and isfendiar which firdousi had sent him, and promised him a gracious reception if he should ever come to his court. as this prince belonged, like firdousi, to the shiah sect, while mahmud and maimandi were sunnites, and as he was also politically opposed to the sultan, hasan maimandi did not fail to make the most of this incident, and accused the poet of disloyalty to his sovereign and patron, as well as of heresy. other enemies and rivals also joined in the attack, and for some time firdousi's position was very precarious, though his pre-eminent talents and obvious fitness for the work prevented him from losing his post. to add to his troubles he had the misfortune to lose his only son at the age of 37. at length, after thirty-five years' work, the book was completed (1011), and firdousi entrusted it to ayaz, the sultan's favourite, for presentation to him. mahmud ordered hasan maimandi to take the poet as much gold as an elephant could carry, but the jealous treasurer persuaded the monarch that it was too generous a reward, and that an elephant's load of silver would be sufficient. 60,000 silver dirhems were accordingly placed in sacks, and taken to firdousi by ayaz at the sultan's command, instead of the 60,000 gold pieces, one for each verse, which had been promised. the poet was at that moment in the bath, and seeing the sacks, and believing that they contained the expected gold, received them with great satisfaction, but finding only silver he complained to ayaz that he had not executed the sultan's order. ayaz related what had taken place between mahmud and hasan maimandi, and firdousi in a rage gave 20 thousand pieces to ayaz himself, the same amount to the bath-keeper, and paid the rest to a beer seller for a glass of beer (_fouka_), sending word back to the sultan that it was not to gain money that he had taken so much trouble. on hearing this message, mahmud at first reproached hasan with having caused him to break his word, but the wily treasurer succeeded in turning his master's anger upon firdousi to such an extent that he threatened that on the morrow he would \"cast that carmathian (heretic) under the feet of his elephants.\" being apprised by one of the nobles of the court of what had taken place, firdousi passed the night in great anxiety; but passing in the morning by the gate that led from his own apartments into the palace, he met the sultan in his private garden, and succeeded by humble apologies in appeasing his wrath. he was, however, far from being appeased himself, and determined at once upon quitting ghazni. returning home he tore up the draughts of some thousands of verses which he had composed and threw them in the fire, and repairing to the grand mosque of ghazni he wrote upon the walls, at the place where the sultan was in the habit of praying, the following lines:-- \"the auspicious court of mahmud, king of zabulistan, is like a sea. what a sea! one cannot see its shore. if i have dived therein without finding any pearls it is the fault of my star and not of the sea.\" he then gave a sealed paper to ayaz, begging him to hand it to the sultan in a leisure moment after 20 days had elapsed, and set off on his travels with no better equipment than his staff and a dervish's cloak. at the expiration of the 20 days ayaz gave the paper to the sultan, who on opening it found the celebrated satire which is now always prefixed to copies of the _shahnama_, and which is perhaps one of the bitterest and severest pieces of reproach ever penned. mahmud, in a violent rage, sent after the poet and promised a large reward for his capture, but he was already in comparative safety. firdousi directed his steps to mazandaran, and took refuge with kabus, prince of jorjan, who at first received him with great favour, and promised him his continued protection and patronage; learning, however, the circumstances under which he had left ghazni, he feared the resentment of so powerful a sovereign as mahmud, who he knew already coveted his kingdom, and dismissed the poet with a magnificent present. firdousi next repaired to bagdad, where he made the acquaintance of a merchant, who introduced him to the vizier of the caliph, al-qadir, by presenting an arabic poem which the poet had composed in his honour. the vizier gave firdousi an apartment near himself, and related to the caliph the manner in which he had been treated at ghazni. the caliph summoned him into his presence, and was so much pleased with a poem of a thousand couplets, which firdousi composed in his honour, that he at once received him into favour. the fact of his having devoted his life and talents to chronicling the renown of fire-worshipping persians was, however, somewhat of a crime in the orthodox caliph's eyes; in order therefore to recover his prestige, firdousi composed another poem of 9000 couplets on the theme borrowed from the koran of the loves of joseph and potiphar's wife--_yusuf and zuleikha_ (edited by h. ethe, oxford, 1902; complete metrical translation by schlechta-wssehrd, vienna, 1889). this poem, though rare and little known, is still in existence--the royal asiatic society possessing a copy. but mahmud had by this time heard of his asylum at the court of the caliph, and wrote a letter menacing his liege lord, and demanding the surrender of the poet. firdousi, to avoid further troubles, departed for ahwaz, a province of the persian irak, and dedicated his _yusuf and zuleikha_ to the governor of that district. thence he went to kohistan, where the governor, nasir lek, was his intimate and devoted friend, and received him with great ceremony upon the frontier. firdousi confided to him that he contemplated writing a bitter exposition of his shameful treatment at the hands of the sultan of ghazni; but nasir lek, who was a personal friend of the latter, dissuaded him from his purpose, but himself wrote and remonstrated with mahmud. nasir lek's message and the urgent representations of firdousi's friends had the desired effect; and mahmud not only expressed his intention of offering full reparation to the poet, but put his enemy maimandi to death. the change, however, came too late; firdousi, now a broken and decrepit old man, had in the meanwhile returned to tus, and, while wandering through the streets of his native town, heard a child lisping a verse from his own satire in which he taunts mahmud with his slavish birth:-- \"had mahmud's father been what he is now a crown of gold had decked this aged brow; had mahmud's mother been of gentle blood, in heaps of silver knee-deep had i stood.\" he was so affected by this proof of universal sympathy with his misfortunes that he went home, fell sick and died. he was buried in a garden, but abu'l kasim jurjani, chief sheikh of tus, refused to read the usual prayers over his tomb, alleging that he was an infidel, and had devoted his life to the glorification of fire-worshippers and misbelievers. the next night, however, having dreamt that he beheld firdousi in paradise dressed in the sacred colour, green, and wearing an emerald crown, he reconsidered his determination; and the poet was henceforth held to be perfectly orthodox. he died in the year 411 of the hegira (1020 a.d.), aged about eighty, eleven years after the completion of his great work. the legend goes that mahmud had in the meanwhile despatched the promised hundred thousand pieces of gold to firdousi, with a robe of honour and ample apologies for the past. but as the camels bearing the treasure reached one of the gates of the city, firdousi's funeral was leaving it by another. his daughter, to whom they brought the sultan's present, refused to receive it; but his aged sister remembering his anxiety for the construction of the stone embankment for the river of tus, this work was completed in honour of the poet's memory, and a large caravanserai built with the surplus. much of the traditional life, as given above, which is based upon that prefixed to the revised edition of the poem, undertaken by order of baisingar khan, grandson of timur-i-leng (timur), is rejected by modern scholars (see t. noldeke, \"das iranische nationalepos,\" in w. geiger's _grundriss der iranischen philologie_, ii. pp. 150-158). the _shahnama_ is based, as we have seen, upon the ancient legends current among the populace of persia, and collected by the dihkans, a class of men who had the greatest facilities for this purpose. there is every reason therefore to believe that firdousi adhered faithfully to these records of antiquity, and that the poem is a perfect storehouse of the genuine traditions of the country. the entire poem (which only existed in ms. up to the beginning of the 19th century) was published (1831-1868) with a french translation in a magnificent folio edition, at the expense of the french government, by the learned and indefatigable julius von mohl. the size and number of the volumes, however, and their great expense, made them difficult of access, and frau von mohl published the french translation (1876-1878) with her illustrious husband's critical notes and introduction in a more convenient and cheaper form. other editions are by turner macan (calcutta, 1829), j.a. vullers and s. landauer (unfinished; leiden, 1877-1883). there is an english abridgment by j. atkinson (london, 1832; reprinted 1886, 1892); there is a verse-translation, partly rhymed and partly unrhymed, by a.g. and e. warner (1905 foll.), with an introduction containing an account of firdousi and the shahnama; the version by a. rogers (1907) contains the greater part of the work. the episode of sohrab and rustam is well known to english readers from matthew arnold's poem. the only complete translation is il libro dei rei, by i. pizzi (8 vols., turin, 1886-1888), also the author of a history of persian poetry. see also e.g. browne's _literary history of persia_, i., ii. (1902-1906); t. noldeke (as above) for a full account of the shahnama, editions, &c.; and h. ethe, \"neupersische litteratur,\" in the same work. (e. h. p.; x.) footnote: [1] a sort of cuirass. fire (in o. eng. _fyr_; the word is common to west german languages, cf. dutch _vuur_, ger. _feuer_; the pre-teutonic form is seen in sanskrit _pu_, _pavaka_, and gr. [greek: pur]; the ultimate origin is usually taken to be a root meaning to purify, cf. lat. _purus_), the term commonly used for the visible effect of combustion (see flame), operating as a heating or lighting agency. so general is the knowledge of fire and its uses that it is a question whether we have any authentic instance on record of a tribe altogether ignorant of them. a few notices indeed are to be found in the voluminous literature of travel which would decide the question in the affirmative; but when they are carefully investigated, their evidence is found to be far from conclusive. the missionary krapf was told by a slave of a tribe in the southern part of shoa who lived like monkeys in the bamboo jungles, and were totally ignorant of fire; but no better authority has been found for the statement, and the story, which seems to be current in eastern africa, may be nothing else than the propagation of fables about the pygmies whom the ancients located around the sources of the nile. lieut. charles wilkes, commander of the united states exploring expedition of 1838-42, says that in fakaafo or bowditch island \"there was no sign of places for cooking nor any appearance of fire,\" and that the natives felt evident alarm at the sparks produced by flint and steel and the smoke emitted by those with cigars in their mouths. the presence of the word _afi_, fire, in the fakaafo vocabulary supplied by hale the ethnographer of the expedition, though it might perhaps be explained as equivalent only to solar light and heat, undoubtedly invalidates the supposition of wilkes; and the rev. george turner, in an account of a missionary voyage in 1859, not only repeats the word _afi_ in his list for fakaafo, but relates the native legend about the origin of fire, and describes some peculiar customs connected with its use. alvaro de saavedra, an old spanish traveller, informs us that the inhabitants of los jardines, an island of the pacific, showed great fear when they saw fire--which they did not know before. but that island has not been identified with certainty by modern explorers. it belongs, perhaps, to the ladrones or marianas archipelago, where fire was unknown, says padre gobien, \"till magellan, wroth at the pilferings of the inhabitants, burnt one of their villages. when they saw their wooden huts ablaze, their first thought was that fire was a beast which eats up wood. some of them having approached the fire too near were burnt, and the others kept aloof, fearing to be torn or poisoned by the powerful breath of that terrible animal.\" to this freycinet objects that these ladrone islanders made pottery before the arrival of europeans, that they had words expressing the ideas of flame, fire, oven, coals, roasting and cooking. let us add that in their country numerous graves and ruins have been found, which seem to be remnants of a former culture. thus the question remains in uncertainty: though there is nothing impossible in the supposition of the existence of a fireless tribe, it cannot be said that such a tribe has been discovered. it is useless to inquire in what way man first discovered that fire was subject to his control, and could even be called into being by appropriate means. with the natural phenomenon and its various aspects he must soon have become familiar. the volcano lit up the darkness of night and sent its ashes or its lava down into the plains; the lightning or the meteor struck the tree, and the forest was ablaze; or some less obvious cause produced some less extensive ignition. for a time it is possible that the grand manifestations of nature aroused no feelings save awe and terror; but man is quite as much endowed with curiosity as with reverence or caution, and familiarity must ere long have bred confidence if not contempt. it is by no means necessary to suppose that the practical discovery of fire was made only at one given spot and in one given way; it is much more probable indeed that different tribes and races obtained the knowledge in a variety of ways. it has been asserted of many tribes that they would be unable to rekindle their fires if they were allowed to die out. travellers in australia and tasmania depict the typical native woman bearing always about with her a burning brand, which it is one of her principal duties to protect and foster; and it has been supposed that it was only ignorance which imposed on her the endless task. this is absurd. the australian methods of producing fire by the friction of two pieces of wood are perfectly well known, and are illustrated in howitt's _native tribes of south-east australia_, pp. 771-773. to carry a brand saves a little trouble to the men. the methods employed for producing fire vary considerably in detail, but are for the most part merely modified applications of concussion or friction. lord avebury has remarked that the working up of stone into implements must have been followed sooner or later by the discovery of fire; for in the process of chipping sparks were elicited, and in the process of polishing heat was generated. the first or concussion method is still familiar in the flint and steel, which has hardly passed out of use even in the most civilized countries. its modifications are comparatively few and unimportant. the alaskans and aleutians take two pieces of quartz, rub them well with native sulphur, strike them together till the sulphur catches fire, and then transfer the flame to a heap of dry grass over which a few feathers have been scattered. instead of two pieces of quartz the eskimos use a piece of quartz and a piece of iron pyrites. mr frederick boyle saw fire produced by striking broken china violently against a bamboo, and bastian observed the same process in burma, and wallace in ternate. in cochin china two pieces of bamboo are considered sufficient, the silicious character of the outside layer rendering it as good as native flint. the friction methods are more various. one of the simplest is what e.b. tylor calls the stick and groove--\"a blunt pointed stick being run along a groove of its own making in a piece of wood lying on the ground.\" much, of course, depends on the quality of the woods and the expertness of the manipulator. in tahiti charles darwin saw a native produce fire in a few seconds, but only succeeded himself after much labour. the same device was employed in new zealand, the sandwich islands, tonga, samoa and the radak islands. instead of rubbing the movable stick backwards and forwards other tribes make it rotate rapidly in a round hole in the stationary piece of wood--thus making what tylor has happily designated a fire-drill. this device has been observed in australia, kamchatka, sumatra and the carolines, among the veddahs of ceylon, throughout a great part of southern africa, among the eskimo and indian tribes of north america, in the west indies, in central america, and as far south as the straits of magellan. it was also employed by the ancient mexicans, and tylor gives a quaint picture of the operation from a mexican ms.--a man half kneeling on the ground is causing the stick to rotate between the palms of his hands. this simple method of rotation seems to be very generally in use; but various devices have been resorted to for the purpose of diminishing the labour and hastening the result. the gaucho of the pampas takes \"an elastic stick about 18 in. long, presses one end to his breast and the other in a hole in a piece of wood, and then rapidly turns the curved part like a carpenter's centre-bit.\" in other cases the rotation is effected by means of a cord or thong wound round the drill and pulled alternately by this end and that. in order to steady the drill the eskimo and others put the upper end in a socket of ivory or bone which they hold firmly in their mouth. a further advance was made by the eskimo and neighbouring tribes, who applied the principle of the bow-drill; and the still more ingenious pump-drill was used by the onondaga indians. for full descriptions of these instruments and a rich variety of details connected with fire-making we must refer the reader to tylor's valuable chapter in his _researches_. these methods of producing fire are but rarely used in europe, and only in connexion with superstitious observances. we read in wuttke that some time ago the authorities of a mecklenburg village ordered a \"wild fire\" to be lit against a murrain amongst the cattle. for two hours the men strove vainly to obtain a spark, but the fault was not to be ascribed to the quality of the wood, or to the dampness of the atmosphere, but to the stubbornness of an old lady, who, objecting to the superstition, would not put out her night lamp; such a fire, to be efficient, must burn alone. at last the strong-minded female was compelled to give in; fire was obtained---but of bad quality, for it did not stop the murrain. it has long been known that the rays of the sun might be concentrated by a lens or concave mirror. aristophanes mentions the burning-lens in _the clouds_, and the story of archimedes using a mirror to fire the ships at syracuse is familiar to every schoolboy. if garcilasso de la vega can be trusted as an authority the virgins of the sun in peru kindled the sacred fire with a concave cup set in a great bracelet. in china the burning-glass is in common use. to the inquiry how mankind became possessed of fire, the cosmogonies, those records of pristine speculative thought, do not give any reply which would not be found in the relations of travellers and historians. they say in the tonga islands that the god of the earthquakes is likewise the god of fire. at mangaia it is told that the great maui went down to hell, where he surprised the secret of making fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together. the maoris tell the tale differently. maui had the fire given to him by his old blind grandmother, mahuika, who drew it from the nails of her hands. wishing to have a stronger one, he pretended that it had gone out, and so he obtained fire from her great toe. it was so fierce that every thing melted before the glow; even maui and the grandmother herself were already burning when a deluge, sent from heaven, saved the hero and the perishing world; but before the waters extinguished all the blaze, mahuika shut a few sparks into some trees, and thence men draw it now. the maoris have also the legend that thunder is the noise of tawhaki's footsteps, and that lightnings flash from his armpits. at western point, victoria, the australians say the good old man pundyil opened the door of the sun, whose light poured then on earth, and that karakorok, the good man's good daughter, seeing the earth to be full of serpents, went everywhere destroying serpents; but before she had killed them all, her staff snapped in two, and while it broke, a flame burst out of it. here the serpent-killer is a fire-bringer. in the persian _shahnama_ also fire was discovered by a dragon-fighter. hushenk, the powerful hero, hurled at the monster a prodigious stone, which, evaded by the snake, struck a rock and was splintered by it. \"light shone from the dark pebble, the heart of the rock flashed out in glory, and fire was seen for the first time in the world.\" the snake escaped, but the mystery of fire had been revealed. north american legends narrate how the great buffalo, careering through the plains, makes sparks flit in the night, and sets the prairie ablaze by his hoofs hitting the rocks. we meet the same idea in the hindu mythology, which conceives thunder to have been, among many other things, the clatter of the solar horses on the akmon or hard pavement of the sky. the dakotas claim that their ancestor obtained fire from the sparks which a friendly panther struck with its claws, as it scampered upon a stony hill. tohil, who gave the quiches fire by shaking his sandals, was, like the mexican quetzelcoatl, represented by a flint stone. guamansuri, the father of the peruvians, produced the thunder and the lightning by hurling stones with his sling. the thunderbolts are his children. kudai, the great god of the altaian tartars, disclosed \"the secret of the stone's edge and the iron's hardness.\" the slavonian god of thunder was depicted with a silex in his hand, or even protruding from his head. the lapp tiermes struck with his hammer upon his own head; the scandinavian thor held a mallet in one hand, a flint in the other. taranis, the gaul, had upon his head a huge mace surrounded by six little ones. finnish poems describe how \"fire, the child of the sun, came down from heaven, where it was rocked in a tub of yellow copper, in a large pail of gold.\" ukko, the esthonian god, sends forth lightnings, as he strikes his stone with his steel. according to the kalewala, the same mighty ukko struck his sword against his nail, and from the nail issued the \"fiery babe.\" he gave it to the wind's daughter to rock it, but the unwary maiden let it fall in the sea, where it was swallowed by the great pike, and fire would have been lost for ever if the child of the sun had not come to the rescue. he dragged the great pike from the water, drew out his entrails, and found there the heavenly spark still alive. prometheus brought to earth the torch he had lighted at the sun's chariot. human culture may be said to have begun with fire, of which the uses increased in the same ratio as culture itself. to save the labour expended on the initial process of procuring light, or on carrying it about constantly, primitive men hit on the expedient of a fire which should burn night and day in a public building. the egyptians had one in every temple, the greeks, latins and persians in all towns and villages. the natchez, the aztecs, the mayas, the peruvians had their \"national fires\" burning upon large pyramids. of these fires the \"eternal lamps\" in the synagogues, in the byzantine and catholic churches, may be a survival. the \"regia,\" rome's sacred centre, supposed to be the abode of vesta, stood close to a fountain; it was convenient to draw from the same spot the two great requisites, fire and water. all civil and political interests grouped themselves around the prytaneum which was at once a temple, a tribunal, a town-hall, and a gossiping resort: all public business and most private affairs were transacted by the light and in the warmth of the common fire. no wonder that its flagstones should become sacred. primitive communities consider as holy everything that ensures their existence and promotes their welfare, material things such as fire and water not less than others. thus the prytaneum grew into a religious institution. and if we hear a little more of fire worship than of water worship, it is because fire, being on the whole more difficult to obtain, was esteemed more precious. the prytaneum and the state were convertible terms. if by chance the fire in the roman temple of vesta was extinguished, all tribunals, all authority, all public or private business had to stop immediately. the connexion between heaven and earth had been broken, and it had to be restored in some way or other--either by jove sending down divine lightning on his altars, or by the priests making a new fire by the old sacred method of rubbing two pieces of wood together, or by catching the rays of the sun in a concave mirror. no greek or roman army crossed the frontier without carrying an altar where the fire taken from the prytaneum burned night and day. when the greeks sent out colonies the emigrants took with them living coals from the altar of hestia, and had in their new country a fire lit as a representative of that burning in the mother country.[1] not before the three curiae united their fires into one could rome become powerful; and athens became a shining light to the world only, we are told, when the twelve tribes of attica, led by theseus, brought each its brand to the altar of athene polias. all greece confederated, making delphi its central hearth; and the islands congregated around delos, whence the new fire was fetched every year. _periodic fires._--because the sun loses its force after noon, and after midsummer daily shortens the length of its circuit, the ancients inferred, and primitive populations still believe, that, as time goes on, the energies of fire must necessarily decline. therefore men set about renewing the fires in the temples and on the hearth on the longest day of summer or at the beginning of the agricultural year. the ceremony was attended with much rejoicing, banqueting and many religious rites. houses were thoroughly cleansed; people bathed, and underwent lustrations and purifications; new clothes were put on; quarrels were made up; debts were paid by the debtor or remitted by the creditor; criminals were released by the civil authorities in imitation of the heavenly judges, who were believed to grant on the same day a general remission of sins. all things were made new; each man turned over a new page in the book of his existence. some nations, like the etruscans in the old world and the peruvians and mexicans in the new, carried these ideas to a high degree of development, and celebrated with magnificent ceremonies the renewal of the _saecula_, or astronomic periods, which might be shorter or longer than a century. some details of the festival among the aztecs have been preserved. on the last night of every period (52 years) every fire was extinguished, and men proceeded in solemn procession to some sacred spot, where, with awe and trembling, the priests strove to kindle a new fire by friction. it was as if they had a vague idea that the cosmos, with its sun, moon and stars, had been wound up like a clock for a definite period of time. and had they failed to raise the vital spark, they would have believed that it was because the great fire was being extinguished at the central hearth of the world. the stoics and many other ancient philosophers thought that the world was doomed to final extinction by fire. the scandinavian bards sung the end of the world, how at last the wolf fenrir would get loose, how the cruel fire of loki would destroy itself by destroying everything. the essenes enlarged upon this doctrine, which is also found in the sibylline books and appears in the apocrypha (2 esdras xvi. 15). see dupuis, _origine de tous les cultes_ (1794); burnout, _science des religions_; grimm, _deutsche mythologie_, cap. xx. (1835); adalbert kuhn. _die herabkunft des feuers und des gottertranks_ (1859); steinthal, _uber die ursprungliche form der sage von prometheus_ (1861); albert reville, \"le mythe de promethee,\" in _revue des deux mondes_ (august 1862); michel breal, _hercule et cacus_ (1863); tylor, _researches into the early history of mankind_, ch. ix. (1865); bachofen, _die sage von tanaquil_ (1870); lord avebury, _prehistoric times_ (6th ed., 1900); haug, _religion of the parsis_ (1878). (e. re.) footnote: [1] curiously enough we see the same institution obtaining among the damaras of south africa, where the chiefs, who sway their people with a sort of priestly authority, commit to their daughters the care of a so-called eternal fire. from its hearth younger scions separating from the parent stock take away a burning brand to their new home. the use of a common prytaneum, of circular form, like the roman temple of vesta, testified to the common origin of the north american assinais and maichas. the mobiles, the chippewas, the natchez, had each a corporation of vestals. if the natchez let their fire die out, they were bound to renew it from the mobiles. the moquis, pueblos and comanches had also their perpetual fires. the redskins discussed important affairs of state at the \"council fires,\" around which each _sachem_ marched three times, turning to it all the sides of his person. \"it was a saying among our ancestors,\" said an iroquois chief in 1753, \"that when the fire goes out at onondaga\"--the delphi of the league--\"we shall no longer be a people.\" fire and fire extinction. fire is considered in this article, primarily, from the point of view of the protection against fire that can be accorded by preventive measures and by the organization of fire extinguishing establishments. history is full of accounts of devastation caused by fires in towns and cities of nearly every country in the civilized world. the following is a list of notable fires of early days:-- great britain and ireland 798. _london_, nearly destroyed. 982. \" greater part of the city burned. 1086. \" all houses and churches from the east to the west gate burned. 1212. \" greater part of the city burned. 1666. \" \"the great fire,\" september 2-6. it began in a wooden house in pudding lane, and burned for three days, consuming the buildings on 436 acres, 400 streets, lanes, &c., 13,200 houses, with st paul's church, 86 parish churches, 6 chapels, the guild-hall, the royal exchange, the custom-house, many hospitals and libraries, 52 companies' halls, and a vast number of other stately edifices, together with three of the city gates, four stone bridges, and the prisons of newgate, the fleet, and the poultry and wood street compters. the fire swept from the tower to temple church, and from the n.e. gate to holborn bridge. six persons were killed. the total loss of property was estimated at the time to be l10,731,500. 1794. _london_, 630 houses destroyed at wapping. loss above l1,000,000. 1834. \" houses of parliament burned. 1861. \" tooley street wharves, &c., burned. loss estimated at l2,000,000. 1873. \" alexandra palace destroyed. 1137. _york_, totally destroyed. 1184. _glastonbury_, town and abbey burned. 1292. _carlisle_, destroyed. 1507. _norwich_, nearly destroyed; 718 houses burned. 1544. _leith_, burned. 1598. _tiverton_, 400 houses and a large number of horses burned; 33 persons killed. loss, l150,000. 1612. \" 600 houses burned. loss over l200,000. 1731. \" 300 houses burned. 1700. _edinburgh_, \"the great fire.\" 1612. _cork_, greater part burned, and again in 1622. 1613. _dorchester_, nearly destroyed. loss, l200,000. 1614. _stratford-on-avon_, burned. 1644. _beaminster_, burned. again in 1684 and 1781. 1675. _northampton_, almost totally destroyed. 1683. _newmarket_, large part of the town burned. 1694. _warwick_, more than half burned; rebuilt by national contribution. 1707. _lisburn_, burned. 1727. _gravesend_, destroyed. 1738. _wellingborough_, 800 houses burned. 1743. _crediton_, 450 houses destroyed. 1760. _portsmouth_, dockyard burned. loss, l400,000. 1770. \" \" \" loss, l100,000. 1802. _liverpool_, destructive fire. loss, l1,000,000. 1827. _sheerness_, 50 houses and much property destroyed. 1854. _gateshead_, 50 persons killed. loss, l1,000,000. 1875. _glasgow_. great fire. loss, l300,000. france 59. _lyons_, burned to ashes. nero offers to rebuild it. 1118. _nantes_, greater part of the city destroyed. 1137. _dijon_, burned. 1524. _troyes_, nearly destroyed. 1720. _rennes_, on fire from december 22 to 29. 850 houses burned. 1784. _brest_. fire and explosion in dockyard. loss, l1,000,000. 1862. _marseilles_, destructive fire. 1871. _paris_. communist devastations. property destroyed, l32,000,000. central and southern europe 64. _rome_ burned during 8 days. 10 of the 14 wards of the city were destroyed. 1106. _venice_, greater part of the city was burned. 1577. \" fire at the arsenal, greater part of the city ruined by an explosion. 1299. _weimar_, destructive fire; also in 1424 and 1618. 1379. _memel_ was in large part destroyed, and again in 1457, 1540, 1678, 1854. 1405. _bern_ was destroyed. 1420. _leipzig_ lost 400 houses. 1457. _dort_, cathedral and large part of the town burned. 1491. _dresden_ was destroyed. 1521. _oviedo_, large part of the city destroyed. 1543. _komorn_ was burned. 1634. _furth_ was burned by austrian croats. 1680. _furth_ was again destroyed. 1686. _landau_ was almost destroyed. 1758. _pirna_ was burned by prussians. 260 houses destroyed. 1762. _munich_ lost 200 houses. 1764. _konigsberg_, public buildings, &c., burned. loss, l600,000. 1769. \" almost destroyed. 1784. _rokitzan_ (bohemia) was totally destroyed. loss, l300,000. 1801. _brody_, 1500 houses destroyed. 1859. \" 1000 houses destroyed. 1803. _posen_, large part of older portion of city burned. 1811. forest fires in tyrol destroyed 64 villages and hamlets. 1818. _salzburg_ was partly destroyed. 1842. _hamburg_. a fire raged for 100 hours, may 5-7. during the fire the city was in a state of anarchy. 4219 buildings, including 2000 dwellings, were destroyed. one-fifth of the population was made homeless, and 100 persons lost their lives. the total loss amounted to l7,000,000. after the fire, contributions from all germany came in to help to rebuild the city. 1861. _glarus_ (switzerland), 500 houses burned. northern europe 1530. _aalborg_, almost entirely destroyed. 1541. _aarhuus_, almost entirely destroyed, and again in 1556. 1624. _opslo_, nearly destroyed. christiania was built on the site. 1702. _bergen_, greater part of the town destroyed. 1728. _copenhagen_, nearly destroyed. 1650 houses burned, 77 streets. 1794. \" royal palace with contents burned. 1795. \" 50 streets, 1563 houses burned. 1751. _stockholm_, 1000 houses destroyed. 1759. \" 250 houses burned. loss, 2,000,000 crowns. 1775. _abo_, 200 houses and 15 mills burned. 1827. \" 780 houses burned, with the university. 1790. _carlscrona_, 1087 houses, churches, warehouses, &c., destroyed. 1802. _gothenburg_, 178 houses burned. 1858. _christiania_. loss estimated at l250,000. 1865. _carlstadt_ (sweden), everything burned except the bishop's residence, hospital and jail. 10 lives lost. russia 1736. _st petersburg_, 2000 houses burned. 1862. \" great fire. loss, l1,000,000. 1752. _moscow_, 18,000 houses burned. 1812. \" the russians fired the city on september 14 to drive out the army of napoleon. the fire continued five days. nine-tenths of the city was destroyed. number of houses burned, 30,800. loss, l30,000,000. 1753. _archangel_, 900 houses burned. 1793. \" 3000 buildings and the cathedral burned. 1786. _tobolsk_, nearly destroyed. 1788. _milau_, nearly destroyed. 1812. _riga_, partly destroyed. 1834. _tula_, destructive fire. 1848. _orel_, large part of the town destroyed. 1850. _cracow_, large part of the town burned. 1864. _novgorod_, large amount of property destroyed.",
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