And they honoured the Gods of the Rivers, and the Nymph-maids, who
they fancied lived in the caves, and the fountains, and the glens
of the forest, and all beautiful wild places. And they honoured
the Erinnues, the dreadful sisters, who, they thought, haunted
guilty men until their sins were purged away. And many other
dreams they had, which parted the One God into many; and they said,
too, that these gods did things which would be a shame and sin for
any man to do. And when their philosophers arose, and told them
that God was One, they would not listen, but loved their idols, and
their wicked idol feasts, till they all came to ruin. But we will
talk of such sad things no more.
But, at the time of which this little book speaks, they had not
fallen as low as that. They worshipped no idols, as far as I can
find; and they still believed in the last six of the ten
commandments, and knew well what was right and what was wrong. And
they believed (and that was what gave them courage) that the gods
loved men, and taught them, and that without the gods men were sure
to come to ruin. And in that they were right enough, as we know--
more right even than they thought; for without God we can do
nothing, and all wisdom comes from Him.
Now, you must not think of them in this book as learned men, living
in great cities, such as they were afterwards, when they wrought
all their beautiful works, but as country people, living in farms
and walled villages, in a simple, hard-working way; so that the
greatest kings and heroes cooked their own meals, and thought it no
shame, and made their own ships and weapons, and fed and harnessed
their own horses; and the queens worked with their maid-servants,
and did all the business of the house, and spun, and wove, and
embroidered, and made their husbands' clothes and their own.
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