Shakespeare's Puck, and his folklore

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.

We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at jhttp : //books . qooqle . com/

[ > i. I!';., CoCO)

HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY

FROM THE

Subscription Fund

BEGUN IN 1858

Inmtispi<\>> tvVoll vMc]Dj'J<:Lp.?52.

Bronze a.cta.a.1 *Jit

w.

SHAKESPEARE'S PUCK,

AND BIS
ILLUSTRATED FROM

THE SUPERSTITIONS OF ALL NATIONS,

BUT MORS ESPECIALLY FROM THE

EARLIEST RELIGION AND RITES OP NORTHERN EUROPE
AND THE WENDS.

BT

WILLIAM BELL, Phil. De.

HONORARY MEMBER OF THE HISTORIC SOCIETY FOR LANCASHIRE AMD
CHESHIRE, AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY
OF ANTIQUARIES FOR NORMANDY, AT CAEN.

rod

LONDON:

MDCCCLII.

try*.

/

W*UA>4&uJCturYU flU^d/,

LONDON: C. RICHARDS, 100 ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

A'

sJ\

TO THE

BEV. J. BOSWORTH, LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A..M.R.S.L.

SOC. R. ANTIQ- SEPT. HAF5T. — COBB. 80C. B. SC. NORV. DRONTH .
AND OOTHO. SOC.

My peak Sib,

There exist in this kingdom few persons to whom
the present Work could be dedicated more appropriately
than to yourself. It is an attempt to combine the Mytho-
logies of most of the nations of our Western Hemisphere
into one creed, principally from oral agreement or verbal
conformities. Your own labours have facilitated the study
of the Anglo-Saxon, and thereby laid the best founda-
tion for a thorough knowledge of the German dialects,
which have been called by me into such copious requisition
for illustration of the following pages.

Should you bestow upon the whole work the same favour
which you expressed towards a portion of it, my ambition
will be gratified and my expectations fulfilled. In the
pleasing hope that it may be so,

I am, my dear Sir,
Your ardent admirer and most obedient Servant,

WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr.

17 Gower Place, Edston Square.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

The characteristic features of nations, like the internal con-
struction of plants spread over the surface of the globe,
were the impressions of a primitive type. — Humboldt's
Researches, i. p. 94.

After what has been written on the native my-
thology of England and of Shakespeare, or on our
indigenous supernatural beliefs, the present new
attempt may appear too bold and daring. The
" fresh hand" will be expected to strike out un-
trodden paths, to offer unattempted elucidations,
to clear up the doubts of his predecessors, and to
explain the difficulties of commentators; and
without the conscious power to do so, it will be
thought presumptuous in him to have ventured
to increase the number of writers by which our
great bard has hitherto been almost smothered by
his own progeny. Nor without some feeling of
adequate ability would the present author have
remained, as he always has been, any other than
a silent, although an ardent, admirer of our Strat-
ford poet; but having spent many years in the
northern parts of Germany and the adjoining

2 SHAKESPEARE CREATOR OE PUCK.

Scandinavian kingdoms, during which the inves-
tigations of their history, and antiquities, and
customs, formed at first a pleasing relaxation to
the severer business of life, and, when mercantile
trammels were thrown off, subjects of ardent and
unceasing research, he believes that he has dis-
covered opinions and observances amongst our
elder continental brethren that will elucidate and
explain many obscurities or difficulties, both of
text and meaning, which, the rather as they are
unexpected, cannot but prove gratifying and in-
structive to the admirers of the Shakesperian
muse, in which, no doubt, the great majority of
those are included who speak or understand the
English language; and he feels himself, therefore,
justified in laying the results of these investiga-
tions before the public. The clearing up even of
a single doubtful passage, the removal of the
slightest obstruction to the comprehension of a
thought which passed through that great intelleo*
— great for all climes and ages — deserves atten-
tion, and, if successful, applause. The present
work is confined to the consideration of —

" that shrew and knavish sprite

Call'd Robin Goodfellow,"

on which a note in Baudry's Paris edition of the
play, copied from I know not what commentator,
says : " There can be no doubt that the attributes
of Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, as described by
Shakespeare, were collected from the popular
superstitions of his own day. But Robin Good-
fellow does not find a place in English poetry

ANNOTATIONS ON, NOT YET FINISHED. 3

before the time of Shakespeare. He is Puck's
poetical creator. The poets who have followed in
his train have endeavoured to vary the character
of the c shrewd and meddling elf' but he is,
nevertheless, essentially the same.'Vr

That my labour may not be quite superfluous,
we may conclude from the words of Mr. J. O.
Halliwell, one of the most industrious and suc-
cessful investigators of our archaic words and
usages {Illustrations of the Fairy Mythology of
the M. N. 2)., printed for the Shakespeare Society,
1845) : "The whole of the popular fairy my-
thology of the tales on which the Midsummer
Nights Dream may be said to be founded, has
now become a subject for literary research ;" and
with him {Introduction to M. N. D., London,
1841), I may also exclaim as to the present
inquiry : " It remains to be seen whether the
labours of foreign commentators have, as some
idagine, exhausted all that proper and useful
annotation on the works of Shakespeare, which,
in the lapse of two centuries, and the continual
change in our language and manners, have been
rendered necessary;" — as I find, in a following
entence of the same author, an excuse as well as
xi encouragement to proceed : "We predict that
any years must yet elapse ere that complete
nquiry into Shakespeare's language and allusions
11 take place, without which the spirit of his
writings can never be fully understood or appre-
ciated/' /

Should the present attempt be favourably re-
2 ceived by the public, I have made great prepara-

4 CONTINENTAL AND ENGLISH FOLKSLORE.

tions for illustrating the incantation scene of Mac-
beth from equally new and unexpected sources. •

That all the peculiar and popular observances
of our ancestors and our peasantry, which are
now classed under the Teutonic appellation of
Folkslore (Volkslehre), should have been origin-
ally brought from the countries of these Teutons
with their first colonies from that nearest coast,
and these subsequently strengthened and aug-
mented by successive arrivals, appears so natural
that few will object, and fewer still totally deny.
For the sceptical, it is only necessary to appeal to
the almost universal conformity of usage and
opinions in every thing that bears a popular cha-
racter on both sides of the German Ocean : even
on a superficial view these are immediately ob-
vious, and they increase in a wonderful proportion
when examined with a competent knowledge of
the dialects and patois of their peasantry. It is
there that the mutual congruities of the two lan-
guages increase in such a ratio as to become all
but identical. The ploughboy of Holstein, andJj
the small hand-loom weavers of the West Riding*
of Yorkshire, when each denotes objects, or ex-) \
presses natural feelings in his own most pure**
vernacular, have little difficulty in a mutual un- :
derstanding.*

* A fact, within the personal knowledge of the author, «
which occurred to two Heckmondwicke blanket weavers, »'j
may be adduced in corroboration. Having ventured, with il
a consignment of their own manufactures, to Hamburg, I
they determined to try the experiment of proceeding to J
some interior small towns and villages, to make better prices '

1

NECESSITY OF PLATT DEUTSCH. 5

Weber, in his Germany (Deutschland, iii. p.
760), says of the Piatt, or Low German, which,
however, was the only dialect for all the country,
to the time of Charles V. and the publication of
Luther's Bible in High German (Hoch Deutsch),
" she is the mother of the Dutch and English
languages, and sister of the Danish, Swedish, and
Icelandic, which, by means of this Low German,
we can readily understand, as well as the Wends
and Bohemians, the Poles and the Russians. Had
Johnson understood Low German, his famous
dictionary would have contained fewer errors. v *
I suppose Weber here alludes to Johnson's ety-
mologies, which are universally condemned. In
the learned introduction to my friend Dr. Bos-
worth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (p. 35), is a most
valuable paper, by the Rev. J. H. Halbertsma,
on "the Ancient and Modern Friesic, compared

than the wholesale drapers in that city would offer; and
this, though totally ignorant of the language. They were
successful in disposing of their entire stock ; and on being
questioned, on their return, how they had managed in that
respect, it was found that the slight modifications in the
syntax, or the disposition of the words, had been their only
Btumbling-block : the words were too nearly alike to offer
ny difficulties. The expression they used was characteristic :
•" German was nobbut broad Yorkshire backarts way" In
Srabant and Flanders the case was much the same. A story
ppears in the travels of an officer there, some years back,
ho found his servant, a Yorkshire lad, one morning chat-
ing familiarly and laughing with a knot of peasants, though
e never had been before from home, and certainly never

I t r learned Flemish.

[| * Hatte Johnson platt deutsch verstanden se*in beruhmtes

\ Worterbuch hatte weniger Fehler.

6 CONFORMITY OP ENGLISH AND FBIESIC.

with the Anglo-Saxon" which contains so much
that is pertinent to these remarks, and to language
in general, that I regret my plan allows me to
restrict myself only to a short extract :

P. 46. " It must be observed, that the monuments of
Friesian literature are of a far more recent date than the
Anglo-Saxon ; but the development of language does not
always depend upon its age. The Friesians, encompassed
on the one side by the sea, and on the other by the Saxons,
owe it to their geographical position that they have expe-
rienced no mutations but those of a Saxon origin, and in
many respects homogeneous with their own language. I do
not recollect any intermixture of a foreign language with
the Friesian, except what was caused by the frequent in-
roads of Normans, and by the settlement of some bands of
the same race among the Friesians. — These causes would
render the language so stationary, that it would be less
altered in the twelfth century than in the tenth. In the
following comparison many instances will occur of true
Anglo-Saxon sounds still flourishing in Friesland Dis-
covering such striking features of likeness after a separation
of almost fourteen centuries, — a complete separation by the
ocean, by the adventures and the diversity of their means of
subsistence, and of the land they occupied, — I conclude
that, at the time of their union, about the middle of the
fifth century, the Anglo-Saxon was distinguished from the
Friesic only by slight differences of dialect."

And the opinion of the great philologist, Junius, ,
is adduced, "that of all the Germanic tongues,
none approached so closely to the Anglo-Saxon as*
the Friesian." After such authorities, it may
appear trivial to adduce minor ones ; but I can-'
not omit the following practical example of thej
exact conformity, at least to the ear, even yet, of i
these two languages, in a verse cited to me at 1
Bremen by a native Friesian : '

ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. 7

" Bread, butter, and green cheese,
Is very good English and very good Friese."

When spelled, or put into writing, the identity
vanished of course.

This conformity is, therefore, only oral, and
ceases entirely when the words in both languages
are committed to writing and compared. It must
be referred to that period when language had
been formed, but when words and sounds had no
inlet to the understanding but through a single
and imperfect organ — the ear.* We cannot now
determine how long the ear remained for man-
kind the sole channel to mutual communication
and intelligence; at how great an interval it was
before the increased necessities of our race induced
our forefathers, by a rude scratch or mark on any
surface sufficiently yielding, to form the first sign
or character to signify a letter. From the great
similarity between words and roots in all lan-
guages (more especially in the Indo-Germanic
family), which designate the common relations of
life, the natural affinities, tools of agriculture and
instruments of commerce, animals, localities, and
even proper names, we feel assured that this in-
terval was long, the process gradual; still more so
from the earliest nick, or scratch of rune, wedge,
or ogham, to the cultivated and comparative com-

* Buchanan, in his History of Scotland (Amst.l2mo, 1648),
is much of this opinion when he says, p. 61 : " Ex hoc opi-
nor literarum sono et familiari singularum gentium in certis
Uteris pronunciandis ratione et aurium judicio ; item ex
compositione et declinatione vocum certiora sumi posse
indicia cognati sermonis quam e singulorum verborum sig-
nificatione."

8 FOLLOWED BY HIEROGLYPHICS.

plicity of the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman alpha-
bets. Characters for ideas, rather than words, came
into use most probably later, and started, Minerva-
like, full-formed into being. The eye, the hie-
roglyphical emblem of an ever-watchful and over-
looking Providence, could be copied by every
workman from his own; the serpent, the ibis, the
scarabeus, were every day before him as copies
or representatives of those ideas and properties
within himself, to which he ascribed the greatest
congruity in the animals. ( Necessity, carelessness,
or want of skill, soon reduced the true image to
a rough outline, gradually less distinct and more
distant in its resemblance, till, in the enchorial
and demotic characters, we recognise the original^
only by deep research and a painful comparison^
The Chinese characters were also at first per-
fectly-formed and true pictorial emblems, till the
commercial and social necessities of that practical
people reduced them to the complexity of lines
and curves, which our large importations of the
delightful shrub of that country have made so
familiar to us on its packages. Even in Mexico
the hieroglyphical symbols, though evidently much
younger, had already, at the period of its con-
quest by Cortez, imbibed many conventional signs
in lieu of the primitive pictures that ultimately,
as* was the case in Egypt and China, would
have borne the same relations to them that short- i
hand does, at the present day, to our common \
caligraphy.

It was after this, and at the period when two
senses became engaged in conveying incorporeal

DIVERGENCE OF LANGUAGE. 9

and impalpable ideas to the mind — when the
imperfect transmissions of the ear were corrected
by the more certain and determinate impressions
from a much higher organ, the eye, — that diverg-
ence of language, once formed, must have been
perpetuated. In process of time, however, differ-
ing sounds were expressed by one sign, and by
the converse error, one sign was often made to
signify two or more differing sounds; nor was it
till the invention of printing by moveable types
that any fixed and unaltered form wa3 generally
admitted in our orthographies, or a certainty of
spelling attainable. But even here the imperfec-
tion of the alphabetical characters, the careless-
ness or caprice of writers, gave great latitude to
discrepancies and want of uniformity : even at what
is called the Augustan period of our literature,
the same word may be found differently spelled
in the same page, as in Addison's original Spec-
tat or; and the want of some decisive autocratic
power was sensibly felt, to settle doubts by au-
thority, to remove difficulties by decision. For the
British language, such an authority was found in
Dr. Johnson ; and, since the publication of his
dictionary, our language may be said to have be-
come fixed, and so determinate that future inno-
vations are little to be feared. It was certainly a
great drawback on the labour of our great lexico-
grapher, that he was unacquainted with many of
the modern languages of the continent, which
has caused his etymological element to be woe-
fully deficient. An analytical dictionary, which
would follow ideas and meanings to words, and

10 AFFINITY OF ANGLO-SAXON AND GERMAN.

words to their roots ; which would show, not only
where and how words had been used by our
writers, but where such use had been improper
and unsystematic, is still a great desideratum in
our literature.

Admitting, therefore, the original oral identity
of the Anglo-Saxon, the basis of our modern lan-
guage, with the cognate dialects of Germany, we
must look for their present written divergence in
the cultivation that each, but especially the Eng-
lish, has received from its writers in both coun-
tries, acting unconnectedly and independent of
each other; and it follows, therefore, as a neces-
sary consequence, that the more we recede from
the present time, the nearer we approach to the
original identity. Chaucer is now scarcely intel-
ligible without a glossary, and that glossary is
best supplied by phrases from German diction-
aries. His inflexions and grammar are all go-
verned by rules in modern German; and, if we
go still farther back, the Saxon Chronicle is easily
read by a German scholar without assistance or
hesitation, and after but a slight practice.*

Such being the facts, and with the considera-
tion that but few years will have to pass over our

* I refer those who wish more particularly to study the
agreements and the diversity of cognate tongues to the
above-cited essay of the Rev. J. H. Halbertsma, in Dr. Bos-
worth's introduction, particularly pp. 35 — 46. At p. 37 we
have the account of a small Friesian village divided by a
rivulet into seven small islands, or pollen, every one of which
had a distinct dialect ; and a female could easily ascertain
to which pol any neighbour belonged, merely by some pecu-
liarity of speech. It is clear there was no printer in the place.

AND OP MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 11

heads before we shall count three centuries com-
pleted since the bard of England was born, we
must necessarily admit that, at the period in which
he lived, our language was more Saxon or German,
our customs, manners, usages, and observances,
had a livelier and fresher tint of Fatherland than
we now find in them. On the continent, the man-
ners of the peasantry have, since that date, nearly
preserved their original features. As the smoke
from their pyroligneous fuel is less corrosive and
blackening than the murky fumes sent forth from
our tall chimneys, and by our carbonized mineral
coal, so the comparative absence of all manufac-
tures, coupled with their pastoral or agricultural
pursuits, have preserved their manners more primi-
tive and pure; perhaps in many of the nooks and
bye-corners of the country, immoveable and torpid
from the days of our great dramatist. The still
existing modes of life there are, in many instances,
the same as those which he drew at home ; and
the ideas and superstitions now prevalent abroad,
pretty much the same as those by which his con-
temporaries were influenced at home. Yet, of such
promising material, we find few commentators
have been able to avail themselves, though most
have been willing to glean a few scattered notes
here and there, at second-hand, which, because
unconnected and unsystematical, have, in most in-
stances, naturally obtained unsatisfactory results,
sometimes led to great misapprehension.* Drake,

* It would be, however, doing great injustice to the feel-
ings of the writer, and to the learning and ability of Mr.
'•\ J. 0. Halliwell, if he passed over his merits in the two works

12 drake's essay considered.

in his two ponderous quartos, has endeavoured,
and successfully as far as the Edda could suggest
conformities, to illustrate the Gothic mythology
which the plays of Shakespeare present, particu-
larly in the Midsummer Night's Dream, the sub-
ject also, in a great measure, of the present essay.
At vol. ii. pp. 302-312, he combats more manfully
than the occasion required the ludicrous assump-
tion that the belief in elves, fairies, or witches,
was first imported into this country by the Cru-
saders; as if a tendency to the supernatural, and
a desire of a knowledge of the future, tendencies
engrafted in nature, had been previously unknown
in our island; as if the imaginations of our fore-
fathers had, to this period, been silent, and even
their fears — the gieat parent of every mode of
superstition — had not suggested to their fancies
the agency of invisible and aerial beings in the
good or evil that befell them.

It is not, however, in the Eddas, or the Scandi-
navian sagas, that we must look for the direct
promptings of our bard in his wonderful and ini-
mitable machinery. Both serve admirably as
corroborative illustrations where the Mahrchen
and Volks-Sagen of Germany are obscure, or, at
most, as finger-posts where the latter are silent,

on Shakespeare already cited, p. 3, where much use is made
of German researches in his examinations of the dramas of
Gryph, and more especially of his Absurda Comica, for eluci-
dation of the Shakespearian plots of the Midsummer NigMs
Bream; but both the sources of that plot and its machinery,
as well as of individual opinions scattered throughout, have
a deeper origin.

GERMAN FOLKSLORE. 13

and analogy invites or permits their support.
Such cases are, however, rare ; for the legendary
lore of northern Europe, and of the southern pro-
vinces of the Baltic more especially, is still very
full and comprehensive, and has, of late years,
been very successfully cultivated. Foremost in
the list of native investigators of their national
tales, stand the brothers, Wilhelm K. and Jacob L.
Grimm. The Deutsche Sagen, and, still more,
the Deutsche Mythologie, is perhaps the most re-
condite work of modern times; for though we
may not concur in all the reasons and deductions
of its author, who is much biassed by a particular
theory, it is undoubtedly the richest storehouse
for the facts and opinions that have borne, or bear,
upon the progress of the Germanic mind, and
teach us more of the secret causes of their actions,
the springs of their belief, than ever were brought
together by a single individual. The Deutsche
Sagen are also a rich mine of information, fre-
quently referred to in the larger work, and both
confirmatory and explanatory. It is remarkable
that the first work (the Mythologie) has never yet
appeared in an English dress; and the reason
assigned by Mr. T. Wright, in his ingenious
essays, at p. 237, that it is " too extensive," should
surely form a principal reason for undertaking a
translation. But copious and curious as are their
labours, they by no means exhaust the subject of
Teutonic legendary lore. The provinces of the
north have each of them had separate and indus-
trious collectors. Prussia Proper, in its Preus-
sische Provincial Blatter, — a work now of some

14 GOSPELLES OF DISTAFES.

years* standing, has a monthly recipient of every
thing remarkable relating to her ancient or mo-
dern state ; but the richest collection of her cus-
toms and observances was made by F. A. V.
Tettau and J. D. H. Temme, in their Volkssagen
Ostpreussens, Lithauens und Westpreussens (8vo,
Ber. 1847) ; to which the latter subsequently
added his Alt Mdrksche Volkssagen ; and many
other districts are equally rich. The Baltische
Studien, for Pommern; Kilhne, for the three
Marks; and Bechstein, for the Austrian empire;
and many others, particularized in the Appendix,
scarcely any of which can be taken up by an ob-
servant reader without some amusing and start-
ling conformities with our own familiar tales, fre-
quently throwing over them a new light and
unexpected results, may be usefully consulted.

The great diligence displayed by Brand, in his
Popular Antiquities, successively aided by the
contributions of his editor, Sir Henry Ellis, or
Halliwell, as the latest of Bonn's Antiquarian
Series ; the publications by Thorns, and the suc-
cessive additions that contributors from all parts
of the country are weekly making to the " Folks-
lore " of the Athenteum, and its newly established
rival in this particular, Notes and Queries, may be
fully matched in the Chemnitzer Rocken Stube, of
which we had in the Gospelles of Distaves, Em-
prynted at London in fletestrete at the signe of the
Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde, a work corresponding
in name, and similar most probably in detail, but
its excessive rarity has prevented me making a com-
plete collation of the two. Dibdin's Typographia

ENGLISH STORIES FOUND ABROAD. 15

(vol. ii., p. 232, note) says it is probably a transla-
tion of Les Evangiles des Convilles, which first ap-
peared in 1475. The British Museum has only a
few stray leaves in Bagford's Typographical Collec-
tions (Harl. Mis. 9119, art. 35), the perusal of
which makes it only to be lamented that the
rest is wanting. Sir Egerton Brydges seems to
know only two copies, one of which was in the
possession of the late Mr. Heber; could this be
traced, it would be a most fitting object for the
labours of the Percy or the Camden Societies to
produce a reprint equally curious, and perhaps
more interesting, than Thy story e of Reynard the
Foxe, by Thorns.

It will no doubt surprise many readers to hear
that the entire doubles of the Dunmow Flitch of
Bacon, the swearing at Highgate, the deplorable
"Norfolke Tragedie" of the Babes in the Wood,
and of many other customs and stories which we
are apt to believe indigenous to our soil, may be
traced with some industry amongst our continen-
tal neighbours. The particulars of the first of
these instances, the Dunmow Flitch of Bacon,
may serve as an example, first premised, that the
English version, besides its relation by Addison
in the Spectator, No. 607, and so graphically
pourtrayed by Stothard's burin, may also be
found in Brand's Popular Antiquities, HalliwelPs
edition, vol. ii. p. 177. Thus in a very scarce
work, entitled Curieuse Antiquitaten, published by
Berckemeier, Hamburg, 1715, p. 373, we have
the following story, entitled " Der 01m UVtit We
SfcptCfesrite," the man and the flitch of bacon, to
the same purpose.

16 FLITCH OF BACON AT WIEN.

At Wien, also, beneath the red tower, hangs a
flitch of bacon, and appended to it these lines : —

Befind' sich irgend hir ein mann
Der mit der Wahrheit sprecken kann
Dass ihm sine Heurath nischt gerowe
Und fiircht' sich nischt vor sine frowe
Der mag desen Backen* herunter howe.

which may be interpreted in similar doggerel : —

Is there to be found a married man
That in verity declare can,
That his marriage him doth not rue,
That he has no fear of his wife for a shrew,
He may this bacon for himself down hew.

Similar stories are told in the Austrian capital of
the ludicrous failures of parties who occasionally
applied, such as tradition has handed down of its
brother at Dunmow, or the more ancient one,
perhaps, at Wichenoore in Staffordshire.

" Once upon a time a man applied, and was bold enough
to demand the flitch, and when a ladder was brought that
he might cut down the unctuous prize, he requested that
some one else would do it for him, as if he got a grease spot
on his Sunday clothes, his wife would scold him terribly.

* " Backen," for " bacon," is a word unknown to Adelung,
and may show, if we compared dialects instead of languages,
how much nearer we should find English and German than
at present. Their present denomination of bacon, " Speck,"
Wachter deduces from " bacon," through " back," by addi-
tion of the sibilant. In Beckstein (Ostreisch. Volksagen.,
s. 6), the verses are given differently, and the Red Tower ir«
which the bacon hung, is said to have been built by th<
money paid for the ransom of Richard I. to the Archduke oi
Austria, and to have been pulled down in the innovating
reign of the emperor Joseph. On the Dunmow flitch of
bacon, vide HalliwelPs Brand, p. 177, — where, without autho-
rity, it is said a similar superstition prevails in Bretagne.

AND IN EOMAN HISTORY. 17

Upon this the gatekeeper told him to be off, he could have
no claim to the bacon. He who fears is certainly not master
at home, and has certainly rued having married."

I was once inclined to believe, as Dunmow in
Essex, and Wichenoore in Staffordshire, were
both localities in which the Knight Templars had
possessions, and which order was largely doted at
Vienna, that these conformities might have ori-
ginated in some general observance of that order,
or practical joke of the jovial knights-priests, to
cast ridicule upon joys connubial in which they
could not partake ; but the custom of hanging up
flitches, perhaps as a reward for fecundity in the
marriage state, in imitation of the sow to which
the original side belonged, is much more ancient,
and is interwoven into the earliest popular anti-
quities of the Romans; for I find in Spence's
JPolymetis, p. 286, the following passage :

" Alba Longa is a place where iEneas met with
the white sow and thirty pigs, and here was a very
fine flitch of bacon kept in the chief temple even
to Augustus' time, as I find recorded in that ex-
cellent historian Dionysius Halicarnassus."* It
is evident that an actual flitch of bacon could not

* This sow with thirty pigs was an emblem, or lar, of
fertility (Montfauc. A. E. vol. i. p. ii. page 323). " Lares
qui etiam Grundiles vocabantur instituti sunt a Romulo in
honorem memoriamque Scrofae qui triginta porcellos uno
partu ediderat : a grunnitu vox Grundiles orta est." It is
curious, and in corroboration of the above, that " women in
the straw " (even this expression answers to the litter of the
pig-stye) were anciently said to be " grunting." Thus, in
the play of A Chaste Maiden in Cheapside, by Thomas Mid-
dleton, in 1620, Wittol says of his wife, —

18 LUENEBURG SCHINCKEN STUBE.

have long resisted the natural process of decay,
however well preserved, and that, therefore, as
the historian must have related the circumstance
erroneously in some respects, it is open to con-
jecture what may have been the actual fact. Pos-
sibly the bacon may have been annually renewed,
as must have been the case at Dunmow and the
other localities, and have been only the represen-
tative of iEneas' original fecund porker, though in
this respect the pagan priests might have learned
a lesson from the burgomaster and venerable
senate of Liineburg. In that very old and inte-
resting city are three gifts of nature : their
navigable river Lune; their rock of gypsum,
which supplies Hamburg and the northern pro-
vinces with superior plaster; and their brine-
spring, the most copious and productive in the
world : these three the inhabitants, with a proper
appreciation of their importance, call their gold
mines (Gold-gruberi) ; and as the legend of the
discovery of the last gives the merit of it, like
those at Bath to king Bladud, by a diseased sow,
in gratitude to such a benefactor part of her is still
preserved, though her date must be fixed before
the Christian era; but with greater prudence,
and a more economical gratitude than the Italian
priests displayed, they have restricted their relics
to the bones, boiled and charred. These are pre-
" When she lies in,

(As even now she's upon the point of grunting),

A lady lies not in like her."
I therefore cannot agree with the derivation of " lady in
the straw" in HalliwelPs Brand (ii. p. 66) ; but much in-
formation is there gained on " groaning." — Ibid. p. 70.

BACON FLITCH OFFERED TO PERCUNNOS. 19

served in a frame, like a large stable lanthorn,
over the green-baize table of the venerable fathers
(and the room of assembly is thence rather irre-
verently termed the Schincken Stube, the ham
room), which can be let down by a pulley for the
closer observance of the curious, so that I could
copy from its frame the following inscription,
which does not certainly assert the authenticity of
the relic quite so positively as Dionysius. Hie tibi
cernere licet reliquias Porci qui primus aquarum,
quce Luneburgce Salzce scatent, repiri dicitur.

But there is a second possibility that both tales
were forgeries, subsequently adapted to the be-
liefs and capacities of the commonalty both north
and south; I shall have occasion hereafter to
mention the great veneration in which swine,
often confounded really and verbally, as in boar
with the bear, were held in the north, and how
frequently the sacrifice of the unclean animal
was demanded by the indigenous deities of Italy.

Post idem inter se posito certamine reges

Stabant et csesa jungebant foedera porca.

Mntid, lib. viii. v. 639 and 641.

I am the more inclined to this belief from the
account of the offering of a flitch of bacon by the
heathen Prussians to Percunnos, the mightiest
of their triune deities. It is found in Tettau and
Temme's Volkssagen, N. n. p. 25.

" A mighty deity of the heathen Prussians was Percunnos.
An eternal fire was kept burning before him, fed by oak
billets. He was the god of thunder and of fertility, and
he was therefore invoked for rain and fair weather; and
in thunderstorms a flitch of Bacon {speck Seite) was offered

20 STOCK- AM-EISEN AT WIEN.

to him. Even now (as the relation is copied from J. L. Po-
lonus Be Diis Samogitice, and Hartknock's Alt und Neu
Preussen, the latter published in 1529, it is difficult whe-
ther to fix this now at that, or the date of the publication of
their Volkssagen, 1837) when it thunders, the boor in Prus-
sia takes a flitch on his shoulder, and goes with head un-
covered out of his house, and carries it to his fields, and ex-
claims : " God, fall not upon my fields, and I will give thee
this flitch." When the storm is passed, he takes the bacon
home, and consumes it with his household as a sacrifice."

With this superstition we may connect the be-
lief that a large Druidical stone at Erxleben, near
Ascherleben, called from its shape " the Flitch of
Bacon," becomes quite soft in rainy weather,
so that a nail can be driven into it, in this
latter respect connecting it with the famous
Irmensaule at Wien, into which each journeyman
on the tramp was bound to strike a nail, till it
was so full as to be necessitated to be clamped
with iron, and the practice finally to be discon-
tinued from want of room for more ; but if now
removed, the name of the place where it stood,
" Stock-am-Eisen" in that city, will always vouch
for its existence. It is impossible to say whether
we here again find a link in the common chain of
superstitious or religious observances which bound
the ancient world in one general bond of brother-
hood in the Roman practice of the Flamen, who
annually,* on the ides of September, stuck a

* Festus (s. v.) says it is a custom which is referred back
to a very early age, and supposed to have been adopted as
an expedient for reckoning the lapse of time before the use
of letters was understood, and subsequently retained out of
religious deference to old customs. The original account is
found in Livy. In Rich's Companion (Clavus Annalis),

DRIVING NAILS AT FRANKFURT. 21

nail into the door or temple of Jupiter Capitolinus ;
lor would the idea be irreconcilable with these
customs, however they may have originated,
which considers the immense number of about
four thousand pillars or obelisks, of which the
grand temple of Carnac in Brittany consisted in
its integrity, as so many annual commemorations
of their solemn festivals of Yule, as it would be
difficult to find any other purpose to which they
could be so feasibly assigned. Now, in reference
to driving nails by judicial personages, Grimm
[Deutsche Alterthumer, p. 832), tells us that in the
Wetterau (not far from Frankfurt a. M) there
was a water tribunal existing to a very modern
period, which had its seat at Dorheim, that had
under its jurisdiction all the mills on the rivers
Wetter, Use, and Nidda; its president, the
water-captain or grave, was dressed like his
ushers in red with red scarfs; a water -weioher
had a pair of silver scales to weigh the pales
and nails that were to be driven in. The tribunal
was in the open air, near where the pales were to
be introduced; the spectators were treated with
red and white wine ; the president laid aside his
red mantle before driving home the pale, but the
ushers kept on their red scarfs, and one after the
other they gave three knocks upon the nail to be
driven in. The village scholars sang a chorus, and
received, as a remembrance, a dole of cherries,

from which the above is taken, is the woodcut of a large
bronze nail now in the possession of tbe Italian historian,
Bianchini (Storia Univ. torn. ii. p. 156, tav. 9 a), wbich,
from the letters upon it, is believed to have been actually
jmployed for the purpose described.

22 CAILLOU DE MICHAUD.

apples, and pears, and each a red strap. It seems
this nail was partially a measure how high the
miller could keep the water, so that a fly sitting
upon the nail would not wet its feet or wings ; but
the thing appears to have been an annual or regu-
larly recurring ceremony; and it is not too much
to assume that it may also have had at first some
relation to the marking of a given revolution of
time. In England, though the traces of similar
customs have almost vanished, they are not en-
tirely gone. I learn from a friend that the mayor
of Weymouth pays an annual visit to the Isle of
Portland, and after a sumptuous dinner with the
corporation, he cuts a notch on a stick taken from
crooks fastened to the roof of the kitchen, where
at other times it rests, and that many years ago
one hundred and fifty of these visits were recorded
on such billets. Whether the annually recurring
ceremony of the lord mayor and sheriffs of Lon-
don counting the hob nails before the judges of
the Exchequer chamber may not have had a
similar origin, I leave others more versed in city
antiquities than myself to decide.

That the nail may have been held in ancient
veneration, possibly in acknowledgment of the
utility of the mode of writing called by us arrow-
headed, but which foreigners call, perhaps with
greater propriety, the cuneiform or nail-headed
characters, is remarkably apparent in the figure in
the Bibliotheque Nationale, called Caillou (pebble)
de Michaud; a woodcut of it will be found in
Layard's Nineveh, vol. ii. p. 180, where it is
figured as a wedge, placed conspicuously as an

BRITISH SUPERSTITIONS ON NAILS. 23

object of worship upon an altar covered with
hieroglyphics. Layard's words concerning it are :
"whether it became sacred from its employment
in the written characters, or whether used in the
formation of the Assyrian letters, because of any
emblematical meaning attached to it, I will not
determine." The Dublin Review, July 1845,
p. 344, expressly calls this object, which Layard
calls a wedge, a nail ; but the same word cuneus,
signifying both, shows that the Latins made little
difference in form ; and the writer, probably Dr.
Hincks, alluding to the place of this emblem upon
an altar, adds : " Such a coincidence as this could
not have been accidental, and assuredly there is
in this fact a sufficiently explicit indication of the
religious origin of the principal element of these
extraordinary writings."

The nail frequently appears upon the coins and
coats of arms of our country, particularly of the
name of Ferrers; and it may be a moot point
not considered by our heralds which is cause and
which consequence ; nails must be looked upon,
in conjunction with the horse shoe, with which
they are frequently found, as an object of mystical
veneration from the highest antiquity, and every
way worthy of a separate investigation, which it
is impossible at present to follow. I shall, there-
fore, now refer only to T. J. Pettigrew's excellent
" Essay on superstitions connected with the his-
tory and practice of medicine and surgery," to
show that the practice of driving nails, as a kind
of propitiatory sacrifice, is even yet not obsolete
in Britain ; at p. 64, we read : " Toothache. A nail

24 ILLUSTRATIONS OF FOLKSLORE NECESSARY.

driven into an oak tree is reported to be a cure
for this pain."

The preceding may serve as a specimen how, in
illustrating the Folkslore of Shakespeare's times
or our own, we can scarcely avoid adducing con-
formities from all other nations at their differing
periods of development; and if full accounts of all
the religions we are now taught to believe differ-
ing had been handed down to us by contempo-
raneous and competent authorities, there seems
little reason to doubt that they would all melt
into a congruous mass, wherein pure monotheism
or the belief in one God prevailed; this was subse-
quently modified by raising his attributes, or the
visible agents by which he was supposed to act
upon mankind, to a participation of his worship :
these agencies would be varied by climates and
localities, by special events, by particular indivi-
duals, till, after the original unity had been lost
sight of, every variety of aberration was possible
and permitted. Yet it could not happen but that
occasional conformities would be perpetuated un-
intentionally and unnoticed, even amongst the
most discordant rites ; these, when subsequently
collected and placed side by side, are for that rea-
son the more convincing that they all proceed from a
one source. If, therefore, I adduce passages, of '
the Edda and the Vedas, corresponding with the
classic poets ; if the myths of Greece and Rome
are found in accordance with sagas of Scandi-
navia, of heathen Prussia, of the numerous Wen-
die tribes, or with our own popular superstitions,,
and these again with one another, though thd

DEATHS OF BALDUR AND ACHILLES. 25

path be new, I shall tread it with the greater
pleasure, as I hope it may lead others, who have
greater leisure and better opportunities, farther
in the pursuit, and with more success. As an
instance, the fate of Baldur tallies remarkably
with the myth of Achilles. — Death of Baldur
[Malletfs Northern Antiq. Bohn's edit. p. 443).

"Aye," said Frigga, " neither metal nor wood
can hurt Baldur, for I have exacted an oath from
them all." "What!" exclaimed the woman,
"have all things sworn to spare Baldur?" " All
things," replied Frigga, " except one little shrub
that grows on the eastern side of Valhalla, and is
called mistletoe, and which I thought too young
and feeble to crave anght from." As soon as
Loki heard this, he went away, and resuming his
natural shape, cut off the mistletoe, and repaired
to the place where the gods were assembled.
There he found Hodur, standing apart without
partaking of the sports, on account of his blind-
ness, and going up to him, said: " Why dost thou
not also throw something at Baldur?" " Because
I am blind," answered Hodur, "and see not
where Baldur is, and have moreover nothing to
throw with." "Come, then, 1 ' said Loki, "do
like the rest, and show honour to Baldur by
throwing this twig at him, and I will direct
thy arm toward the place where he stands."
Hodur then took the mistletoe, and under the
guidance of Loki, darted it at Baldur, who, pierced
through and through, fell down lifeless." Inde-
pendently of the extraneous ornaments and sur-
plusage of action, this story differs from the

26 OVID FULL OF CONFORMITIES.

Grecian tale, where Achilles, invulnerable every-
where but in the heel, is there wounded by Paris,
and dies, merely in the change of situation from
subjective to objective. In the Edda, safety is
objectively gained, every thing but the mistletoe
being charmed; the safety of Achilles is gained
subjectively by security within himself, all but at
one particular point. This change from active to
passive agency is very frequent, and it is necessary
to regard it in considering and comparing the tales
of all nations ; it is not even unfrequently found
amongst ourselves at the present time, particularly
in the formation of our idiomatical forms of speech.
Ovid, amongst the Latins, because he en-
larges more than any other of the poets on their
religion, in his Fasti and Metamorphoses, is the
author in which we find most conformities. The
throwing of an old shoe backwards for luck seems
to have its prototype in his story of Deucalion and
his wife throwing stones behind them to people
the old earth; and that again in the fable of
Cadmus sowing the desert plains with dragons'
teeth; but this comparison would leave me too
little space for the moi^e particular object of my
essay; it must be reserved for a more fitting
opportunity. Sometimes the congruities are in
the expressions. Ovid, in relating the transforma-
tion of Cycnus into a swan, an especially mythic
bird in the sacred revelations of Scandinavia, says
of him, lib. ii. fab. iv. 1. 10: —

" Fit nova Cycnus avis, nee se coeloque Jovique
Credet ut injustd missi memor ignis ab illo.
Stagna colet patulosque lucus : ignemque perosus
Quae colat, eliget contraria flumina flam mis."

TALE OP CYCNTJS COMPABED WITH NIORDB.. 27

In the Edda (ut supra, p. 418) we have an ac-
count of Niord, a Vanir, or water-god, and of
Skad his wife, who was of the race of iEsir or
terrestrial deities; they marry, and by this means
peace was re-established between the JEsiv and
Vanir. Njord loved to reside near the sea. One
day when Njord came back from the mountains
to Noatun, he thus sang : —

" Of mountains I'm weary,
Not long was I there,
Not more than nine nights,
But the howl of the wolf
Methought sounded ill
To the song of the swan-bird."

Or in Resenius' Latin translation : —

" Mihi ingrata sunt montana.
LongsB fuerint noctes novem :
Ululatum ego luporum
Censui malum prre cycnorum cantum."

As, however, many of the conformities we in-
tend to adduce and establish are oral, and de-
duced from a language existing before the inven-
tion of written characters, it will be necessary to
make a few remarks on this subject, and on ety-
mology in general.* It is to the confounding the
two periods, before and after the introduction of
letters, that so much misconception and such un-
founded prejudice, such uncalled-for ridicule, has
been heaped upon this science. It is evident that
during the first period all conformities of language
depended upon sound alone, and when letters
and alphabets were invented, the laws of arti-

** Vide what I have said before, p. 7.

28 LAW OP ORAL SOUNDS.

culate sounds were unfortunately either misun-
derstood or neglected. In their primitive forms
all the newly coined alphabets were both defective
and superfluous : the first, because there existed
many articulated sounds for which they had no
character; the second, because in many instances
the same sound had two or more signs. The
introduction of alphabetic characters into Europe
is said by Herodotus, v. 58, to have been made
by Cadmus into Greece from Phoenicia 1257
years before Christ, consisting, like the Runes
(and this agreement is of consequence in any
future disquisition on written language), of six-
teen characters; but neither the subsequent addi-
tions by Palamedes and Simonides of many com-
pound characters to the Greek, nor the decree of
the Frankish King Chilperic, by which he endea-
voured to remedy the defects of the Gothic system,
could in any way cure the evil. Like all pallia-
tives of an organic disease, they may be said only
to have augmented the malady.

The simple law of oral sounds, and their expres-
sion by signs, is — all signs produced by the same
or similar organs of speech, should have the same
characters ; and the corollary, as regards our pre-
sent alphabets, is, that all their characters repre-
senting sounds produced by the same or similar
organs of speech, must be interchangeable inter se,
— that is, that they may be put, as far as the ear
only is concerned, one for another.

This law, or at least its corollary, as necessary
to his dictionary, was, if not first propounded, at
least strongly insisted on, by the great lexico-

DIVISION OP ARTICULATED SOUNDS. 29

grapher, Adelung. It is founded on the natural
perception, that all men have the same organs for
vocal sound; and, consequently, that all sounds
from the same organs must be the same. It was,
therefore, not without just reasons that the ancient
grammarians divided their letters into different
classes, according to the organs by which they
were produced. They were not always agreed as
to the number or extent of their classes, — a vari-
ation to be ascribed, no doubt, to our still very
imperfect knowledge of the anatomical construc-
tion of these organs, and of their combined action.
Every other set of organs in the human body have
had their monographies, and enjoyed a general or
special investigation ; but, unluckily, the only sys-
tem of the human frame I wished to study, seems to
be left totally unapproachable, except through the
horrors and abominations of the dissecting-room.
The usual division, in this system, is into labials,
Unguals, dentals, gutturals, palatials, and nasals; but
if we refer the gutturals merely to a harder breath-
ing from the throat, and strike out the two last as
merging in the former, we have three classes to
which all the characters of our present alphabet
may be referred; and this is, I suppose, the mean-
ing of a writer in Rees' Cyclopcedia (art. Steno-
graphy), who engages to express all ideas common
to mankind in general, by three characters, which
may be known all over the civilized world. He
intended, I suppose, to give each class a generic
instead of the specific signs now in use for their
varieties. Vowels come, of course, into no consi-
deration in our oral etymologies; in the earliest

30 INTERCHANGE OF CONSONANTS.

alphabets they had no existence. But I cannot
better conclude this subject and chapter than by
the following excellent remarks by Jones, in his
Greek Grammar, which bear admirably on the
subject: —

" To the interchange of the homogeneous consonants it is
chiefly owing that the primaeval languages of men, at first
rude and barren, became copious : the same original term
hence splitting itself into many, was afterwards diversified
into dialects, and at length lost in distinct languages. Nor
is it, I conclude, beyond the reach of philological inquiry
to prove that the simple terms of any one language have
their kindred terms in all other languages ; disguised, in-
deed, by the differences of character, terminations, and
meaning ; and that they may be traced back through the
several changes of social life, till they meet, like so many
spreading branches, in a single root."

CHAPTER II.

WENDIC DUALITIES TEACED £ND COMPARED.

Ex quovis ligno fit Mercurius.

The unity of the Deity, one universal governing
and directing power in the universe, one great
First Cause, is no doubt the earliest, because the
simplest mode by which the Creator and Pre-
server of all things can be presented to the human
understanding. The reasoning faculties of men,
unable long to embrace infinities, soon however
assumed a separate creator for all they felt or saw
around them ; and the unity of the Divinity, that
earliest creed of all nations, then became lost.
As we, however, intend to treat only incidentally
of the theogonies and creeds of the East, it will be
sufficient, as regards these, to introduce the testi-
mony of Sir Wm. Jones, in his learned parallel
of the gods of Greece and India (Works, Lond.
1799, vol. i. p. 249) in this respect.

" It must always be remembered that the learned Indians,
as they are instructed by their own books, in truth acknow-
ledge only one supreme being, whom they call Brahma, or
the Great One, in the neuter gender ; they believe his
essence to be infinitely removed from the comprehension of
any mind but his own ; they suppose him to manifest his

32 AGREEMENT OF

power by the operation of his divine spirit, whom they
name Vishnu the pervader, and Parayan, the moving on the
water."

And so much to the same purpose is found at p.
229, that I cannot avoid a quotation in which my
views are sanctioned by so great an authority.

" We cannot justly conclude by arguments preceding the
proof of facts that one idolatrous people must have bor-
rowed their deities, rites, and tenets from another, since
gods of all shapes and dimensions may be framed by the
boundless power of the imagination, or by the frauds and
follies of men in countries never connected ; but when fea-
tures too strong to have been accidental are observable in
different systems of polytheism, without fancy or prejudice
to colour them and improve the likeness, we can scarce help
believing that some connexion has immemorially subsisted
between the several nations who have adopted them ; it is
my design in this essay to point out such a resemblance
between the popular worship of the old Greeks and Italians
and that of the Hindoos ; nor can there be room to doubt of
a great similarity between their strange religions and that
of Egypt, China, Persia, Phrygia, Phoenice, and Syria, to
which, perhaps, we may safely add some of the southern
kingdoms and even islands of America, while the gothic sys-
tem which prevailed in the northern regions of Europe was
not merely similar to those of Greece and Italy, but almost
the same in another dress, with an embroidery of images
apparently Asiatic. From all this, if it be satisfactorily
proved, we may infer a general union or affinity between
the most distinguished inhabitants of the primitive world,
at the time when they deviated, as they did too early de-
viate, from the rational adoration of the only true God."

Conforming to this view, but from differing and
additional data, we shall proceed to show, from
the principal mythologies of Europe, as adduced
by their best writers, the acknowledgment of one
supreme God, —

GREEK AND HINDOO MYTHOLOGIES. 33

Father of All, in every age,
In every clime adored
By saint, by savage, or by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord,—

to whom all the other divinities of their several
Olympus, Asgard, Alborz, or Meru, were sub-
ordinate.

In Greece, the supremacy of a clouded myste-
rious fate obtained in the earliest periods when
Homer and Hesiod sang, and the subsequent phi-
losophers in vain attempted to work out the idea,
and to fix it in a first cause. Aulus Gellius (lib.
vi. cap. 2) gives us the views of Chrysippus, the
golden-mouthed, as follows :

" Fatum definit sempiterna et indeclinabilis series rerum
et catena volvens semet ipsa sese et implicans per aeternos
consequential ordines et quibus apta connexaque est."

But he proves the unsatisfactory nature of the
definition, by adding the disparaging judgment of
Cicero.

" Itaque M. Cicero in libro quern de Fato conscripsit, cum
questionem is tarn diceret obscurissimam esse et implicatis-
simam. Ohrysippum quoque philosophum expedisse se in
ea refert his verbis. Chrysippus aestuans laboransque quo-
niam pacto explicet ab fato omnia fieri et esse aliquid in
nobis intricatur hoc modo," <fcc.

This making a thing dark that was dark enough
before, though sufficient evidence of the Grecian
and Roman belief, is only another proof of the
futility of endeavouring with our present faculties
to comprehend the Infinite.

In the popular creed this fate was a shadowy
indistinct being, undefined because undefinable,
under the names of Eimarmene, Pepromene,

34 homer's idea op fate.

Moros, daughter of Erebus and Nox, like Mil-
ton's Melancholy,

Of Erebos and blackest midnight born,
dim phantoms, obscure mysteries, by which man-
kind has always endeavoured to form their own
subjective indistinct conceptions into an objective
creation of the dreadful and unknown. We find
even the father of the gods unable, according
to Homer {Iliad, xvi. 430), to save Sarpedon,
though his son. Pope's translation begins at
v. 528.

" Jove viewed the combat ; whose event foreseen,
He thus bespoke his sister and his queen.
The hour draws on ; the destinies ordain
My godlike son shall press the Phrygian plain.
Already on the verge of death he stands,
His life is vowed to fierce Patroclus' hands.
What passions in a parent's breast debate !
Say, shall I snatch him from impending fate,
And send him safe to Lycia, distant far
From all the danger and the toils of war,
Or to his doom my bravest offspring yield,
And fatten with celestial blood the field ?"

Juno dissuades him, and

" The cloud-compeller overcome,

Assents to fate, and ratifies the doom."
Bishop Warburton's note on " Say, shall I snatch
him" v. 535, is as follows :

" It appears by this passage that Homer was of
opinion that the power of God could overrule fate
or destiny. It has puzzled many to distinguish
exactly the notions of the heathen as to this
point. Mr. Dryden contends that Jupiter was
limited by the destinies, or (to use his expression)

MORS, TOD, AND MOUSE. 35

was no better than book (library) keeper to them/'
The continuation of the note, intended to refute
the opinion of Dryden, and all antiquity, smacks
more of the orthodox bishop than either of the
philologist or philosopher.

The Romans succeeded to much of the Grecian
creed : yon moros became to their view the cold
and undiscovered bourne from which no traveller
returns ; their end of all things; a mors* The idea
that mors mus and mouse have anything etymolo-
gically in common may appear to many very fan-
ciful, and yet I know districts in England where,
when merely pronounced, no difference is per-
ceptible ; where bird is sounded bud, and horses
hosses, dropping the r entirely; the connexion,
however, for both in idea was very prevalent, and
in the subjoined note from rfork?s Mythologie der
Volkssagen (Kloster, vol. ix. p. 388) many autho-
rities are adduced confirmatory.

Apollo Smintheus, from apivdog, mus, is an
unmistakable derivation, and the superstition so
generally prevalent amongst the Romans, that the
gnawing of a mouse or rat is an immediate sign
of death or misfortune to some of the household,

* " Aber auch die Begriffe Mans und Tod sind identisch
wieschon der eben erwahnte Aberglaube und die Redensart,
mausetodt bezeiigt. In den agyptischen Hieroglyphen ist die
Maus sinbild der Vernichtung (h<pavi(Tfibg). Justinus der
Martyrer fuhrt sie under den heiligen Thieren zugleich
mit dem Krokodil auf, das den Todtenbringer Typhon repre-
sentirte und noch jetzt in Indien dem Todtengott Yama
geheiligt ist. Apollo hatte auf das Flehen eines Priesters
Krinis Mause unter das feundliche Heer gesandt wie auf
das Gebet seines Priesters Chryses die Pest," etc. etc.

36 STYGIUS A SUBSTANTIAL DEITY.

vide Cic. de Divinit. ii. 27 ; Ovid, Fast. vi. 574 ;
Liv. xxvii. 23; xxx. 2;* Plin. Hist. Nat. viii. 57;
Auson. Idyll, xii. 3) is met by an equal extension in
Germany even to the present day ; and it explains
a curious circumstance, that on a fine sculpture of
the Last Supper, behind the high altar in the St.
Marien Kirche at Liibeck, in one corner, almost
imperceptible without being especially pointed
out, is the figure of a mouse, an object of great
importance to every wandernde Handwerksbursch,
as it is the principal Wahrzeichen of that old
town, with which he must necessarily make him-
self well acquainted. This, and further con-
formities, prove the regular current and unalter-
able nature of popular ideas in all countries and
ages, and show us how much remains to be done
before the workings and progress of the human
mind can be traced by a comprehensive juxtaposi-
tion of its agreements from the earliest periods.

But the Romans seem sometimes to have given
to the dimly-shadowed outline of the Greeks a
more substantive and especial denomination. To
every schoolboy it is known that an oath by the
river Styx was binding even to the gods, but it
may not be so universally understood that this
Styx, more properly Stygius, was probably ori-
ginally but the name of a deity ; at least we find
it as such in Ovid, who, in his Fasti, has proved
himself the best instructed of all the Roman poets
in classic mythology. In Metamorphoses, lib. iii.

* " Cum is, adeo minimis etiam rebus prava religio usserit
Deos, mures in cede Jovis aurum rosisse, — mures Antii co-
ronam auream arroserunt."

WENDIC SUPREME GOD. 37

fab. iii. v. 35, he tells us, when Semele has been
induced by Juno in disguise to ask of Jupiter his
dangerous visit, arrayed in all the glories of his
godhead, the unthinking deity assures her of the
performance of her request before he knows its
purport, and binds himself beforehand by an oath
that heaven itself cannot evade.

Cui Deus, " Elige !" ait, "nullam patiere repulsam.
Quoque magis credas : Stygii quoque conscia sunto
Nwrivna torrentis : Timor et Deus itte Deorum est"

The bard of love has certainly here given per-
sonality to the dreaded river ; and the numen of
it, which is in this passage mentioned, may owe
the unfrequency of its occurrence amongst the
ancients to the dread and horror which hung over
the utterance of the names of the highest divinities
in all countries : like the ineffable Tetragrammaton
of the Hebrews, the Atjm of the Hindoos, the On
of Egypt, it may have been nefas to pronounce it,
and the cloak of a river was assumed to cheat the .
conscience of rigid votaries in its use. I shall
have future occasion to mention this deity Stygius
in accounting for some of the most obscure and
most common of our popular superstitions; at
present I shall continue my parallel of the classic
supreme ones with those of other countries. For
the north of Germany, and the Slavic or Wendic
tribes, Procopius says : " Habent praeterea Sla-
vini legem cautum a majoribus traditum ut inter
numerum Deorum, Deum unum ilium qui sit
fulminis fabricator, Dominum omnium rerum ac
solum Deum esse credunt, illique bestias, &c. mac-
tant." But Helmold, their special historian and

38 CONFIRMED BY HELMOLD.

countryman, is more explicit, and uses so exactly
the words of Ovid for his supreme Slavonian god,
that a suspicion might arise that he had copied
the Roman, did we not know that none of Ovid's
works were brought to light before the death of
this historian, about 1170. Helmold writes, lib. i.
cap. 83, § 4 : " Inter multiformia verum Deorum
numina quibus arva silvas atque tristitias atque
voluptates attribuunt, diffitentur unum Deum in
coelis terrisque imperantem, ilium prepotentem
celestia tantum curare. Hos vero distributis offi-
ciis obsequentes de sanguine procecisse et unum-
quemque eo prestantiorem quo proximorem illi
Deo Deorum" This subordination of the deities,
or their resolution into mere abstractions, by the
more philosophic spirits of Italy, at a time when,
according to the satirical expression of Petronius
(p. 35), (" nostra regio tarn praesentibus plena est
numinibus, ut facilius posse deum quam hominem
invenire ") they had already reverted again into
pure theism (a natural consequence of this distrac-
tion of the mind by such an infinitude of objects),
and according to Cicero, one of the strongest-
minded spirits of the Augustan age, who tells us,
in his Natura Deorum, that philosophers then
looked on Jupiter merely as the more rarified air
or the ether, and Juno his wife as the common air
by which the globe we live on is surrounded. As
I purpose subsequently to make use of the above
conformity betwixt the passage of Ovid and that
of an obscure parish priest of Holstein, (who, how-
ever, as a missionary and neighbour to the hea-
then Wends, was in the best position to know

BRITISH AND GERMAN OPINIONS. 39

their tenets), I shall now pass them over, and
proceed to consider this monotheistical creed as
we find it in other countries as well as in our own
islands, premising that the singular agreement
by which Macrohius (Sat. i. 9) gives these exact
words, Beus Deorum, as the title of Janus, will be
noticed hereafter, when the identity of the double-
headed god with the northern Thor will have to
be established.

As to England, the late lamented Sharon
Turner (Hist, of Anglo-Saxons, chap. iii. p. 15,
&vo. edit.) in the list of his unitarian nations,
must of necessity include our Saxon ancestors,
when he says: "The most ancient religions of
the world appear to have been pure theism, with
neither idols nor temples." Nor does Ledwich,
in his Irish Antiquities, (p. 8, note), much differ
in the expression : " In certain stages of society
there is an almost complete identity of names and
usages in the adoration of the Supreme Being, as
far as clouded reason permitted an imperfect
knowledge of his attributes." I hope to prove
that in this identity of names and usages, the
conformities are much beyond what Ledwich had
any conception of. Our neighbours the Germans
are pretty much in accordance with these views.
Pfister, one of their most admired historians
(Geschichte der Deutschen, vol. i. p. 325), says of
his countrymen: " We (first) find the Germans at
that stage of society in which the original child-
like innocent conception of the unity of the deity,
when idea and perception, God and nature, were
one, had been already loosened; and in which

40

their religious views, more and more broken into
by other ideas, had already imbibed the pantheism
of the senses, which sees everything animated, and
afterwards leans towards polytheism, but yet with-
out allowing the impressions of their first joyous
innocence to be entirely effaced."*

The opinion of the same author on that passage
of Caesar (De Bell. Gall. lib. vi. c. 19), « Deorum
numero eos solos dicunt quos cernunt et quorum
opibus aperte juvantur, Solem et Vulcanum et
Lunam: reliquos ne fama quidem acceperunt," is
to the following effect: as true children of nature,
they worshipped sun and moon and fire, certainly
not as godheads, but for the beneficial effects ex-
perienced. Deities (Roman) they had not heard
of even by report.

Mr. Payne Knight (Inquiry into the Symbolical
Language of the Ancients, § 228, ff. p. 189) seems
to intimate, in the following passage, that the
step succeeding pure monotheism must necessa-
rily be trinitarianism: —

" This triform division of the personified attributes or
modes of action of one first cause, seems to have been the
first departure from simple theism, and the foundation of

# As the sentence in English may appear involved, I give
here the original : " Wie finden die Teutschen auf der Stufe
in welcher die ursprunglich kindliche Vorstellung von der
Einheit Gottes, die Begriffe und Auschauung, Gott und
Natur noch vollig eins sind, bereits aufgelost ist und in dem
mehr und mehr durch Begriffe getheilten religidsen Bewust-
sein erst sinnlichen Pantheismus der Alles fur beselt halt
dann Neigung zur VielgStterei enthalt ohne dass jedoch eine
fruhere gleichsam aus einer gliicklichen Eindheit iibrig
gebliebene Eindriicke ganz verdrangt werden."

TRINITIES CONTESTED. 41

religious mythology in every part of the earth. Hence
almost every nation that has deviated from the rude sim-
plicity of primitive theism, has had its trinity in unity,
which (not limited and ascertained by divine revelation)
branched out by the natural subdivisions of collective and in-
definite ideas into the endless and intricate personifications
of particular subordinate materials for the elegant fictions
of poetry and art."

It seems, however, more cognate to the march
of intelligence in the human mind, and its regular
and cautious proceedings, advancing to each stage
gradually from the last, that after the unity of
deity had appeared inconsistent with the almost
equal prevalence of good and evil, the next con-
clusion would have been a duality of powee,
ruling and governing the destinies of mortals*
Man, weak, impotent, and purblind, soon disco-
vered that, for the consequences of his actions he
could account only in their immediate and closest
connexion; their remote and distant workings he
found himself incompetent to unravel; events
happened perhaps as frequently for seeming evil
as for the expected and planned good; the deity
was propitiated by sacrifices in vain; holocausts
were fruitless; hence the idea of some inimical
power, that it equally behoved him to worship;
and thus originated the duality of two opposing
supernatural beings, giving light and darkness,
dispensing good and evil, causing fruitful harvests
or devastating blight; a natural, nay, almost a
necessary conclusion: to his subdued and feeble
reason, the great truth was still hidden, which
teaches

" All seeming evil universal good."

42 PERSIA AND THE MANICHEANS.

and hence the great spread of the opinion of two
equal and opposed powers.

The Persian system of theogony, the most an-
cient of which we have definite or distinct know-
ledge, had arrived at this degree of dual credence,
and had maintained it long in full integrity, under
the Magi and Gymnosophists, until the introduc-
tion of a Mithras as a mediator between these two
extremes, shadowed out a weak trinity by an in-
tervening and balancing power.

Plato finds it contrary to reason that man should
imagine a single being governing his destinies, that
could be both kind and angry, merciful and re-
vengeful, good and evil, and man therefore formed
a system of two equally infinite deities, the evi-
dence of which is found in all countries: Ahriman
and Ormuzd with the Persians; Osiris and Typhon
amongst the Egyptians, &c. The Manichean
heresy was the first and perhaps only sect in
which this doctrine was essayed to be interwoven
into the Christian creed. Manes framed a good
principle, which he called light, and which acted
solely beneficently; and another which he called
darkness, a gross and corrupt substance, which
did nothing but evil. Amongst the Hebrews,
traces of this idea are supposed to be discovered
in the Sammael of the Talmud, opposed to the
beneficent Jehovah. (J. C. Wolf de Manicheismo
ante Manicheos, Hamburg, 1707, 8vo.) And this
evil spirit is again supposed to be Azahel of Levit.
xvi. v. 8, which our translators have paraphrased
" scape-goat," though the real Hebrew word
appears as a gloss in the margin.

WAS UNITY STILL SECRETLY TAUGHT? 43

The question whether, when this doctrine had
nearly pervaded the entire world, an exoteric doc-
trine of unity was still taught in secret by the
philosophers, or depicted and explained in the
mysteries at Eleusis, or in the caves of Mithras,
is one we can at present scarcely resolve, as com-
paratively nothing is known of the first, and the
accounts handed down of the practices at initia-
tions into the latter, are principally by Christian
zealots and adversaries.

The religion of the Romans was pure and
simple, till their acquaintance with the Greek
mythology, and the intrusion of Homeric divi-
nities. Pliny tells us (Hist Nat. xxxiv. c. 10)
that only after luxury had begun to sap the
foundations of the state (which commenced after
the conquests of Greece and Macedon), were
costly statues erected to the gods; and Plut.
(No. 8) says of Numa, that he did not wish to
represent the most high things by low ones. An-
tiphanes says, God is known by no form, nor seen
by any eye, nor represented by any image ; and
the figure of Isis over the temple of Sais, to which
Plutarch ascribes the fine inscription, i am all

THAT WAS, AND IS, AND IS TO BE, Was Veiled.

How different from this the subsequent ages of
the republic and the empire ! Prudentius becomes
poetical when Christian indignation against pagan
polytheism induces him to urge the number and
objects of this worship against his unconverted
adversary, Symmachus: —

" Quicquid humus, pelagus, coelum mirabile gignunt
Id duxere Deos, colles, freta, flumina, flammas,

44 DUALITY OF THE WENDS.

H»c sibi per varias formata elementa figuras
Oonstituere patres, hominumque vocabula mutis
Scripserunt statuis, vel Neptunum yocitantes
Oceanum vel Cyaneas cava flumina nymphas
Vel sylvas Dryadas, vel devia rura Napaeas," <fcc. <fcc.

I have already mentioned the effort of Cicero
to reason away this polytheism under the cloak of
attributes or as symbols of a superior power, and
later on, Seneca pursued the same course in a
very curious passage (Quest. Nat. ii. 45), which
appears worthy of being introduced :—

" Per Jovem custodem rectoremque universi, animum ac
spiritum mundani hujus operis dominum et artificem intel-
lige : vis ilium fatum vocare ? non errabis : hie est ex quo
suspensa sunt omnia, causa causarum. Vis illam providen-
tiam dicere 1 recte dicis : est enim cujus consilio huic mundo
providetur ut inconcussus est et actos suos explicet. Vis
ilium naturam vocare ? non peccabis ; est enim ex quo nata
sunt omnia cujus spiritu vivimus. Vis ilium vocare mun-
dum 1 non falleris : ipse enim totum quod vides totis suis
partibus inditus et se sustinens via sua."

For all practical purposes, notwithstanding the
unitarian declaration of Helmold, at the period at
which we first gain any certain knowledge of the
Wendic tribes, they had advanced in their meta-
physical belief to this stage of duality: Bielbog
and Zeenibog representing in the northern parts
of Germany respectively the Ormuzd and Ahri-
man of their Persian ancestors,* by very signifi-

* Perhaps even in name or signification, for the ancient
Persian language is so nearly akin to much of the German,
that it may be allowed to find a significance for both names
in that language, so that Bielbog and Zemibog would be
but synonyms or translations of Ormuzd and Ahriman ; the

grimm's view of it. 45

cant titles expressive of good and evil; attaching
to their terms for these qualities their vernacular
bog as the unity of might and power: for biel sig-
nifies white, consequently good; and zerni, or
zriny* black, or bad.

I am well aware that Jacob Ludwig Grimm, in
the following passage of his Deutsche Mythologie
(p. 936), admits this duality of the Wends, as well
as generally in the Persian and Indian mytholo-
gies, for only a comparatively recent period: —

i

" Einen durchdringenden Unterschied zwischen gutem

und bosem Geiste, Ormuzd und Ahriman kennt weder die
Indische und griechische noch die deutsche G&tterlehre. Vor
der Gewalt des einen allwaltenden Gottes verschwindet des
KakodemoDis macht. Aus dieser Einheit erwachsen dann
Trilologien."

And in his note he adds: —

"Der alte Slavische Glaube stellt einen weissen und
schwarzen Gott auf. Bielbog und Schernebog : dieser
Dualismus scheint mir aber weder durchdringend noch
ursprunglich."

But as the venerable author gives us only a bare
opinion, unsupported by facts or authorities, it
may be permitted us to weigh and examine other

first seems plainly recognisable as Or, or Ur-mvJth, the yore
or first cause; the second, or Ahriman, would be Nimrod
the great hunter, the Irmin or Herman of later days, when
the most objectionable part of the idea had been dropped, and
only so much retained as implied force or power.

* There is very little doubt that the German zorn, anger,
is a derivative from this name, which Adelung thinks is but
an onomatopeia from the action : we have the word only in
its consequences, actively to tear; passively to terrify, the
German zerren; zer-bUd, a bogle.

46 ETRUSCAN DUALITIES.

proofs. That a duality existed amongst the ear-
liest inhabitants of Italy, no one can doubt who
has attentively studied the opened graves of Etru-
ria: in one of them was found a coloured repre-
sentation of the weighing of a soul after death,
where the attendant bad angel is conspicuously
distinguished from the good spirit, which is white,
by a dark shade; and whether they represent in-
dependent deities, or attendant and subordinate
ministers, there can be no doubt their colour was
derived from the power from which they had their
mission, and the effect of their supposed influence
for good or evil. The following extract from
Micali's Italia avanti il dominio dei Romani (plate
lii.), and his reference to Inghirami, will fully
confirm this view, if confirmation were wanting: —

" Benche le pitture della grotta sopra mentovata (sepolchri
di Tarquinia) sieno per la massima parte cadute e smarrite
a cagione dell' umidita, si rapresentano solo in questa tavola
e nelle seguenti le piu conservate delineate da un abilissimo
artista. — In tutto questo fregio vedesi espressa la dottrina
etrusca sulo stato delle anime separate dai corpi. Sono i
Genj conduttori e custodi delle anime rappresentate sempre
alate ed hanno tutti una particolare foggia di calzare zocco-
letti con pendagli simili a quelli che vedonsi su le scolture
nazionali (vede Mon. Tav, 26, 33, 34, 43, 44). I buoni Genj
destinati a condurre in cielo le anime pure tengono un sottil
bastone nella destra ; all' incontro i Genj cattavi sonfigurati
tutti neri con lunghi martelli coi quali spingono e percudtono
quelle anime impure che debbono consegnare nel Tartaro
alle Furie."

In the German mythology we have an ana-
logous representation of deity, vide Vollmer's
Bid. of Mythology, s. v. Hel, and the figure
referred to, which is half white, half black, to

SCOTT ON MANICHEISM. 47

represent the union of the two powers. The
passage of the younger Edda, on which this is
based, will be found in Mallet's Northern An-
tiquxt, (Bohn's ed. p. 423): "The one half of her
body is livid (black), the other half the colour of
human flesh (white) ." The great authority of the
feminine potence of this Hel as Frau Hela is much
worked out by Grimm and the other German
mythologists.

Another authority, that of Sir W. Scott, in his
Demonoloffy, p. 87, may carry the weight of ge-
neral principles also against Grimm's assertion : —

" The creed of Zoroaster, which naturally occurs to unas-
sisted reason as a mode of accounting for the mingled
existence of good spirit in the visible world, that belief
which in one modification or another supposes the coexist-
ence of a benevolent and malevolent principle, which con-
tend together without either being able decisively to prevail
over his antagonist, leads the fear and awe deeply impressed
on the human mind to the worship as well of the author of
evil, so tremendous in all the effects of which credulity
accounts him the primary cause, as to that of his great
opponent, who is loved and adopted as the father of all that
is good and bountiful. Nay, such is the timid servility of
human nature, that the worshippers will neglect the altars
of the Author of Good rather than those of Arimanes, trust-
ing with indifference to the well-known mercy of the one,
-while they shrink from the idea of irritating the vengeful
t jealousy of the awful father of evil."

But I should not hesitate to find both these
German names and divinities in one of the most
famous temples of the east; mBaaUbec we imme-
diately perceive the verbal conformity which its
earlier name of Tad-mor fully corroborates. Tad
(the modern pade) or pog, is still the common

48 EXAMPLE FROM MONTFAUCON.

name of the frog throughout all north Germany,
of which we have a partial glimpse when we call
the young frog a tad-pole, so that the connexion
in the name of a temple, whose ruins still fill the
beholder with astonishment, dedicated to the
Baal or Bielbog, may be traced to our fens;* but
we have still more positive testimony to the exist-
ence of this Wendic duality there in its distinct
and positive separation, from an inscription and
sculpture noted by Montfaucon, vol. ii. p. ii.
p. 389, plate clxxxix. His words are —

" Un beau monument de Rome nous donne la connois-
sance de deux divinites Syriennes de Palmyre : Tun est
le dieu Aglibolus (Aglibocus ?), Tautre le dieu Malachbelus.
Les figures des deux s'y voient avec une grande inscription
Grecque, et une autre Palmyrienne qu'il est trfcs-difficile
d'expliquer."

The figures are partly mutilated, but they appear
to have been joining their hands together in token
of peace and of amity, which is corroborated by
the copy of a similar subject from the Justinian
Gallery, on the same plate, fig. 4. I state this in
opposition to the views of Montfaucon, who does
not think the friendly action could be made out,
even if the hands and arms were perfect, which
they are not; my reason for adducing them is
more for the duality evidently expressed in the
names which is borne out by the figures; the first
being a figure without arms, but seemingly having
held in the left hand a papyrus roll representing

* I might here adduce the name of Paddock, the spirit-
frog, or toad of Shakespeare, <fcc. as confirmatory, but I
reserve that and many other deductions to a future chapter.

MELIBOCUS OF THE ODINSWALD. 49

the Bielbog; tlie other crowned and armed with
lorica, sword and spear; the latter can be supplied
from the Justinian copy; but the most singular
appendage in which both sculptures agree is a
half-moon appearing with its horns on each side
of the shoulders as if borne on the back ; this is
so distinguishing a mark of the Wendic Pucks
and the Latin Satyrs, that I shall have to recur to
it again when I come to treat of these figures,
and shall then show its curious conformity. As to
the name Malachbelus,* it bears so strong a verbal
resemblance to the most noted hill in that district
of Germany, so emphatically called Odin's or
Woden's wold (in which superstition is particu-
larly at home, and the famous myth of the wilde
Jagd found there more frequently, but also more
solemnly and officially attested than elsewhere), a
large granite cone rising conspicuously from the
neighbouring country called the Melibocus, in the
mouths of the peasantry the Malkenberg ; and
is so little to be doubted the latinised term of Zer-
nibog, Malus-boccus, that I should have no hesi-

* The deity JBemUucio, found in Burgundy — Montfaucon,
Ibid, plate bxcii. fig. 5 ; and another, called Abellio, in the
N&vem PopvJania, Ibid. p. 432, would require consideration
before we could claim them as belonging to the same cate-
gory. But he has an engraving, Ibid, plate cxcin. fig. 2,
and page 436, found at Autun, which is almost the exact
counterpart of the Palmyrene sculpture, deducting the palm
in the centre of the figures to mark the locality by a rebus :
it is true the half-moon is transferred from the shoulders of
the one in this engraving to the hand of the other, but the
regal insignia by a sceptre and a crown of leaves, mark the
identity without the arms.

D

50 8PHYNX AT THORDA.

tation in stating that its allusion was to the same
deity, though the Asiatic form of Belus had been
preferred to the European Bog. I may here add
that the characters stated as Palmyrean by Mont-
faucon have in many letters great similarity with
those of an inscription found beneath a sphynx at
Thorda in Siebenbiirgen (of which a woodcut of
the size of the original is given in the Illustrirte
Zeitung, published by Brockhaus, at Leipsig, in
vol. viii. no. 118; and again, vol. xii. no. 301);
and the figure of this sphynx is almost identical
with another discovered at Colchester, and figured
in the Journal of the British Archaeological Asso-
ciation (vol. ii. pp. 30 and 367). Another bronze
Buzogan, or Pusikan (Malleus), with similar cha-
racters, has also been found in Hungary> on which
a somewhat similar sphynx is found with many
adjuncts. The study of these monuments in con-
tact may perhaps lead to some interesting results
on all, but which it would at present be premature
to comment on.

To revert, however, to Grimm's denial of a
duality in German heathendom, Deutsche Mytho-
logie, p. 936, 2nd edit.

"Die Vorstellung des Teufels und teuflischer Geister,
welche allmahlich auch in dem volk's glauben grossen
Umfang gewonnen und so feste wurzel geschlagen hat,
war unserem Heidenthum fremd."

But it may be doubted whether the " deep root"
it took in the minds of the people could have been
introduced after they had become Christians, with
its many allusions to pagan worship and retrospec-
tions of heathendom, and it may therefore be here

FAIRIES. 51

the place to compare the philologist's ideas of the
origin of those subordinate supernatural beings
with those which on a broader basis of comparison
may appear to be nearer the truth, and from ety-
mological sources, which he has but little touched,
may be almost proved identical.

Drake (Shakespeare and his Times, vol. i. p.
315), mentions a four-fold division in our popular
beliefs, viz., fairies, witchcraft, magic, and appa-
ritions; which he respectively illustrates by his
remarks on the Midsummer Nighfs Dream, on
Macbeth, the Tempest, and Hamlet. It is with
the first of these alone we have any concern at pre-
sent in an etymological meaning, and which alone
is here intended, because the derivation of a name
often gives the best understanding of the thing.

Fairies. The inferior actors in the pagan creed
of our ancestors under this division, may be con-
Yeniently classed into three varieties: fairies,
elves, and dwarfs. Grimm (Deutsche Mytholo-
gie, ed. 1843, p. 408) mentions only " Wichte
and Elbe/' and p. 414, " Elbe and Zwerge," with
merely incidental notice of the fairies, as if the
latter were unheard of in Germany; but there can
be no doubt they were known there as the feen,
feinen, and witten, or weissen. These three species
all agree in some particulars with each other ; as
in smallness of stature; in sprightliness, sometimes
mixed with delight in mischief-making; and in
appearance by night, particularly moonlight ; the
% elves principally clothed, the fairies in different
colours, most commonly green or red; the dwarfs,
on the contrary, are often black in tint, and

d2

52 THEIR DERIVATION.

hurtful in disposition; they belong more properly
to underground haunts, where they disport them-
selves ; the elves and fairies have their vantage
ground on the earth's surface, in flowery meads,
or under the shade of some old moss-grown oak.

As to the fairies, many have been the deriva-
tions of this singular name, and some curious de-
ductions have been drawn, and differences sought
to be established, betwixt the oriental fairies, as de-
rived from the Persian peri, and the German feen,
orfeinen, as derived from the Gothic or Scandina-
vian creed; but human nature is too much alike
in all countries and ages, as that two systems of
mythology should have had room to rise from two
perfectly independent and unconnected sources;
and if we at all believe in the existence of a pri-
mitive race, it is straining our fidelity too far to
suppose that such an early family could have ex-
isted without peopling the visible world around it
with an invisible and supernatural population,
both for subjective aid to man in his varied for-
tunes through life, and afterwards of objective aid
to the trees and waters which man was feigned to
molest.

I have already mentioned the Persian peris as
one derivation of the name, and Moore's tale un-
der this name in Lallah Rookh will give the Eng-
lish reader a poetical and perhaps too favourable
account of their sphere of activity, according to the
oriental notions concerning them. Casaubon, who
saw every thing with Greek eyes, in his treatise,
De satyrica poesia, lib. i. cap. 1, finds the root in
his favourite language: " Attici et Iones satyros

FROM GREEK. 53

vocarunt #w>ac vel ^ijpcac — a word which Hesy-
chius translates by centauri (a signification which
will do good service hereafter) . And Nestor re-
lates in Homer (II. L 268) that Perithous, Dryas,
Coeneus Exadus, &c. Qnpviv, with whom Ovid
agrees, Met. lib. viii. fab. iv. v. 44.

" Et cum Peri-theo* felix concordia Theseus

et jam non femina Cseneus

Hippothoosque Dryasque et Creteus Amyntore Phoenix."

Some have derived the name from the last syllable
of the Latin nymp?ue, who are also frequently con-
founded with the fairies ; Milton sings of
" The faery ladies dancing on the hearth."
And Theocritus (ffylas, v. 44) has wakeful
nymphs, with all the attributes and customs of
our old ballads.

" And if the house be foul,

Up stairs we nimbly creep,

And find the sluts asleep."

Baxter also, in his notes to Horace (Ode ii. § 19) 3
says, " Nymphae et satyrae erant dei manes (lares)
qui vulgo creduntur etiam hodie in silvis saltitare.
Satyri vero capripedes quodprimis in temporibus
silvestres homines caprinis pellibus amiciebantur."
So again, Ovid, Met. ii. 153 : —

" Pan ibi dum teneris jactat sua carmina nymphis."
Translated by Golding : —

" Then Pan among the fairie elves that danced round
together."

* I look upon many of the classic proper names but as
translations or adaptations from older mythologies: thus
Peri-theos would be the Peri-spirit or sprite, from 0eoc,
deity : so would Hippothoosque, the horse deity.

54 FROM LATIN PAROffi.

Amongst the Romans, however, the dreaded
parcse, or fates, had much in common with the
fairies; they were invited, like them, to the
christening of infants, whose fortunes they pro-
phesied; and the euphonistic term by which the
cannie Scotch seek to propitiate their good-will,
as the " gude people," had its exact counterpart
in the Grecian term for these inscrutable cha-
racters as Eumenides, though their character, as
ireful, direful, and avenging, were in direct oppo-
sition. Nay, they partook something of the power
of fate itself (fatum), to which their Italian name
of fata, as in the fata Morgana, deceptions of the
fairy Morgana,* bears witness. So the wife of
Faunus was Fatua, by which name, according to
Donatus, ad Eun. Ter. s. 8, the nymphse were also
known, and which is also identical with the Latin
vates, the original office of the poet being that of
the soothsayer. From this appellative the modern
Italians have their word fatare, to enchant, and
fata, enchantress ; so Ariosto, Orlando Furioso : —

" Queste ch' or Fate e dagli Antichi foro
Gia dette ninfe e Dee con piu bel nome."

The French make the word nearer our English

* The name of this powerful fay has been much dis-
puted ; in lieu of a better origin, the reader may be re-
minded that one of the Virgines Fatidicae of the ancient
Germans was named Gana, perhaps generic, to which was
added the intensitive raor, signifying undefined space, or
magnitude : a similar Murgan is met with in Germany, vide
Grimm, D. M. p. 1226, note to p. 781 ; and also p. 384.
We have, Ibid. p. 431, note, gens gnana, for the fairy
people.

PROM THE ROMANCE. 55

construction, as in the Roman de la Guerre de
Troie:-

" Mout ont Jason entr' auls loe
Bient dient los qu'il est fae."

Which is pretty much the Scotch word, but, by a
slight variation, on the principle that drunkenness
is (like anger) a short madness, they neatly cloak
it when they call a man overcome with liquor, fou.

Perhaps, after all, the Persian derivation from
peri, is the one most generally followed, and it
must in that language certainly be very old to
give a name which continued through all ages to
the oldest province of that empire ; nor is it un-
known in their proper names, as we read that the
wife of Artaxerxes was called Perizatis, Peri-
zadeh, or the born peri, so that the doctrine of
peris may be as old as Zoroaster. This name
itself is said to be the old Zend word pereh, or
perekeh, which is variously interpreted by Ouseley
and Whal : the lormer says it means beautiful ;
the latter calls it winged; perhaps in that country
the presence of one may have been thought to
supply the other quality : but let us now essay a
new and more simple mode of arriving at a mean-
ing for the word, and in part from our own lan-
guage.

The/ay of the French, Scotch, and English, plur.
fairies, is the German/*?, plur./ee/i;* In the Latin

* In Dutch, veen is, upon etymological principles, the
same word, nor is it dissimilar in sense, meaning the inha-
bitants of fens, from which we gain the Finns, who, how-
ever, are said to have had their name from their practising
witchcraft. On this subject I may adduce generally on such

56 PROM GERMAN OR DUTCH,

language we have a prefix ve to the name of Jove,
Ve-jovis; also Ve-dius as a synonym or predicate
of Pluto {Aulus Gellius, lib. v. x cap. 12), which
Ovid in his Fasti, as festum Vejovis (lib. iii.
v. 427) states to have been of doubtful meaning,
even in his day. The passage is curious, though
somewhat discursive : —

"Una nota est Martis Nonis: sacrata quod illis

Templa putant lucos Vejovis ante duos.
Romulus ut saxo locum circumdedit alto,

Quilibet, hue, inquit, confuge tutus eris.
quam de tenui Romanus origine crevit !

Turba vetus quam non invidiosa fuit !
Ne tamen ignaro no vitas tibi nominis obstet ;

Disce quis iste deus, curve vocetur ita.
Jupiter est juvenis : juveniles adspice vultus

Adspice deinde manum : fulmina nulla tenet.
Fulmina, post ausos coaluin affectare gigantas,

Sumpta Jovi : primo tempore inermis erat.
Ignibus Ossa novis et Pelion altior Ossa

Arsit et in solida fixus Olympus humo.
Stat quoque capra simul : nympse pavisse feruntur

Credites : infanti lac dedit ilia Jovi.
Nunc vocor ad nomen. Vegrandia farra colonae

Quae male creverunt, vescaque parva vocant.
Vis ea si verbi est : cur non ego Vejovis redem

JEdem non magni suspicer esse Jovis f"

etymologies what Creuzer says, vol. i. p. xv., addressed to P.
C. Bauer : — " Ich habe mich gegen ihn selbst schriftlich gleich
damals ohngefahr in der Weise ausgesprochen : so ihr nicht
werdet wie die Kinder (d. h. kindlich nicht kindisch) werdet
ihr ins Paradies (des Mythos) nicht eingehen." I have even
then declared myself to him something in this manner : if
you become not as children (that is, child-like, not childish)
ye can never enter into the paradise (of mythology). And
compare vol. iv. p. 535, of the same work.

BUT TBTJLY MEANING LITTLE. 57

Here, therefore, we have, with the precision and
reason of a lexicographer, at a distance of eighteen
centuries, the meaning of small, diminutive, at-
tached to the monosyllable ve and the Vedius, as
Huto, means the deity of the lower regions; low
being looked upon as inferior not only in bulk
but in place. Independently of the technical
term of Vegrandia, adduced by the poet for
shrivelled or small-corned wheat, he might have
brought forward ve-sarms as un or little-witted;
ve-cors as sluggish, disheartened. So that the
ruling meaning of ve is little; in fact, the English
wee, the Scotch tvie, and from it all the other
qualities of beauty, sprightliness, &c. easily fol-
low; for most natural objects are more beautiful
the more they diminish in size, as miniatures are
more agreeable to the eye than larger pictures. The
converse proposition was well illustrated by Swift,
when describing Gulliver amongst the Brobdig-
nags: the maiden Glumdalclitch, who was to attend
upon him, &c., was considered by her equals as
comely and beautiful, but Gulliver declares he
could never look upon her face and naked skin
without a feeling of horror and disgust at its ugli-
ness. Let the reader examine his own skin
through a powerful microscope, or if any corrobo-
ration of this view were necessary, it would be in
the synonym which the earliest German poets use
for the modern feen, this is: feinen, our English
fine, in the sense of the poet : —

u Fine by degrees, and beautifully less."
Thus Gottfried von Strasburg, in his Tristan,
says he saw a little syren-like dog:—

58 ELVES.

" Dez wart dem Herzoge gesandc
Uz Avalum, der Feinen landt,
Von einer Gottinne,"

that was sent the duke from Avallon, the fairies'
land, by a goddess: where we may observe the
early acquaintance with our own mythology, and
the fable bower of King Arthur in fairy land.
Also in the old German romance of Isotte and
Blanche, a huntsman, who sees Isotte sleeping,
exclaims : —

" Dez sie menschlich sei !
Sie 1st schoner denn eine Feine:
Von Fleische noch von Beine
Kunte nit gewerden
So schones auf der Erden."

" Is she of human frame ? She is more beautiful
than a fairy: of flesh and bone nothing could be
more beautiful on earth."

The next species of these airy nothings are the
elfs, or elves ; but as I shall in this essay prin-
cipally confine myself to a popular exposition and
North Germany, that will not allow me to follow
Grimm (D. M. in 1. c.) in his very elaborate exposi-
tion, particularly as his principal sources are the
Eddas and northern sagas; only so much will be
apparent to the most casual observer, that the
boundaries betwixt the various divisions are very
uncertain and shadowy, and the partition (p. 414)
into a trilology of liosalfar, dockalfar, svartalfar,
the first and third white and black elfs; the
second an intermediate tint of grey (explained by
the author as obscurus,fuscus), seems hardly borne
out by his authorities. Upon this, however, there

WEISSE FRAUEN, BELIEF IN, 59

can be no doubt that the radical meaning of elf is
taken from their prevailing white colour or dress,
the Latin albus; as our fair is a legitimate child of
fairie; which again is corroborated by our wight,
more, however, apparent in the German form
trichte, and the old German wight and platt, wide:
so in Arndt's Mdhrchen (Berlin, 1843, p. 51) the
title of one of his tales, "Krengel-Kranz de Wide,"
the parent of the abused word witch : Chaucer calls
them wightes coupled with elves in the Miller's
Tale, where the carpenter addresses Nicholas : —

" And shoke him hard, and cried spitously,
What Nicholas ! what how man ! loke adoun,
Awake and thinke on Christes passioun,
I crouche thee from elves and from wightes"

Perhaps this definition of alb, elves, and white, is
borne out in nothing so much as by their modern
successors the weisse Frauen, the white ladies, a
species of spirits that to the present day is most
firmly believed to haunt the families of certain
royal and noble houses, and to foretell the death of
the head of the line, vide Grimm, D. M. 368, and
Nork's Volksagen Kloster, ix. p. 520, where she is
put directly for another name of Grimm's Frau
Holla {D. M. 245, 1042). In Nork, Ibid. 544, she
appears in the Prussian colours, partly coloured
black and white, like the black and white che-
quered figure of a Taurus or Thor in Wagner's
Handbuch der Mythologie, plate i. fig. 2, found at
Carlsburg in Hungary, or the representations
found in the graves of Etruria, above mentioned,
page 46. Whether this choice of the Prussia^

60 CAUSED THE DEATH OF FREDERICK I.

national colours* has attached the white lady-
more especially to the royal family of Prussia it is
impossible to say, but every one in Berlin knows
that she flits continually about the immense range
of buildings forming the royal palace, and appears
regularly to foretell and bewail the death of every
royal scion of the Hohenzollern. In one instance
the belief has interfered in history, and may have
had great influence on the destinies of Europe, as
the death of the first king of Prussia, Frederick I.,
was, if not caused, at least accelerated, by his
firm belief in such a superstition. Geppert's
Chronicle of Berlin (vol. i. p. 346) relates that the
second wife of Frederick the First, king of Prus-
sia, was afflicted with a degree of insanity, and in
such had a peculiar affection for being dressed in
white muslin. One afternoon, she contrived to
escape from the ladies who had her in charge, and
wandered perhaps instinctively towards the king's
apartment, and in her way thither broke through
a glass door, which cut her severely in several
places, sending the blood over her dress; she
found the king indulging in an after-dinner dose,
from which her entrance suddenly awakened him,
when her unexpected appearance, all streaming
with blood, and her white garment, coupled with
the well-known belief in the general visits of a
disquieted ancestress, so alarmed him, that he was

* The black and white stripes, which, as the original na-
tional colours of Prussia, have now become a party emblem
against the tri- colour, black, gold, and red, of das grosse
Deutschlandy are a legacy of the Teutonic knights, whose
habit was a black mantle with a white cross.

WHITE THE WENDIC SACRED COLOUR. 61

taken violently ill, and notwithstanding the ex-
planations of his attendants as to the perfectly
natural nature of the evpnjt, he died very shortly
after, in 1713, fully satisfied that the "weisse
Fran" had appeared to him, and that his doom
was irrevocable.

More particulars, and especial dates of her ap-
pearance, will be found in Spener>s Berlin Zeitung,
25th Feb. 1848.

It will be seen that this belief is identical with
Irish Banshee, of which such a graphic description
is given in Mr. T. Crofton Croker*s Irish Fairy
Tales, vol. i. p. 217. I do not know what deriva-
tion the Irish mythologists give to this national
spirit, but it appears to me that a very satisfactory
meaning is to be found in the German word
bannen, to lay a ghost, from ban, a word of wide
use in German jurisprudence of the middle ages,
and whose significations, therefore, are coexten-
sive. Luther used bannen, the verb, in his trans-
lation of the Bible, to signify the destruction of a
city, or the rooting out of a people; sufficiently
significative when applied by the Irish to an indi-
vidual worthy of a distinctive notice at his decease,
and the extinction of his race.

White was the celestial colour of all the Wendic
tribes, whence the names of most of their deities :
JFiftslaw, Serovit, Herovit, Borevit, Ruget?#,
Gerwit; and wheat is also so called from its pre-
eminent whiteness amongst the cereals, rice being
out of the question; the wheat-ear on our earliest
British and other coins was only a rebus of the
white or good God. In fact, in Kuhn's Mark-
ischen Sagen, p. 371, the wichten of other pro-

62 FAIRIES ALSO OP DARKNESS

vinces are there called Bihl-weissen, or Biel-
weissen, an actual pleonasm, unless the duplica-
tion is intensitive, as white — white. But it is im-
possible incidentally to exhaust the subject, and
we will therefore conclude it by remarking that
the Latin albus is frequently found in other lan-
guages: the Alpen, Alb-pen, the white tops or
Alps, clothed with eternal snows : the river Elbe,
from the white sands hurried along in its waters,
if not, perhaps, from a sanctity which many rivers
in the north enjoy equally with the Ganges or
Godavery, as another white river, the Wisla, or
Vistula, certainly does: so, finally, our own Albion
is Alb-oen in Danish, and still the plural of oe,
island; of which Britain, or Bright, or Brecht —
(the brecht in Albrecht, or Albert) — oen is but a
translation.

From being purely beneficent genii, in process
of time the fairies came to be considered mis-
chievous, then malevolent, particularly in this lat.
ter respect, after the introduction of Christianity.
In the prose Edda in the Gylfa Gynning, Gangler,
after having inquired concerning different objects
of Scandinavian theogony, comes to the " various
celestial regions : —

§ 17. " * Thou tellest me many wonderful things of heaven,'
said Gangler, ' but what other homesteads are to be seen
there V l There are many other fair homesteads there/ re-
plied Har : one of them is called Elf-home (Alfheim) wherein
dwell the beings called the elves of light; but the elves of
darkness live under the earth, and differ from the others still
more in their actions than in their appearance. The elves of
light are fairer than the sun, but the elves of darkness blacker
than pitch.' "

IN THE EDDA. 63

Various heavenly mansions are then described,
called Breidablik, Gletnir, Himinbjorg, and Valask-
jalf, belonging to Odin, and roofed with silver: —

"When All-father is seated on this throne he can see
over the whole world. On the southern edge of heaven is
the most beautiful homestead of all, brighter than the sun
itself. It is called Gimli, and shall stand when both heaven
and earth have passed away, and good and righteous men
shall dwell therein for everlasting ages."

It is thus spoken of in the Voluspa : —
" A hall sees she standing
Than the sun fairer,
With its glittering gold roof
Aloft in Gimli.
All men of worth
Shall there abide,
And bliss enjoy
Through countless ages."

"'But what will preserve this abode when Surtur's fire
consumes heaven and earth V said Gangler. * We are told,'
replied Har, ' that toward the south there is another heaven
above this, called Andlang,* and again above this a third

* £here is in the judicial vocabulary of the middle ages
a curious use of this word, or of Andelagium, " eadem no-
tione," as Ducange says with Adelanc, but which he does
not know how to account for. " Incertum hactenus manet
quid proprie sit Andelanga vel Anddagg in hisce formulis.
Nam quodMalbrancus, loco citato, crematurum interpretatur
non video plane. Soliti sunt, inquit, antiquitas in symbolum
juris pro-prii tradere in manus possessori. — Andelaginem i. e.
crematram si domus vel habitacvlum" Here it seems evi-
dently to mean what we now call Andirom, and, pars pro
toto, to signify the hearth, and that again, by an extension
of the same figure, the entire habitation : potwdllowping, or
boiling the pot, was in some boroughs before the Reform bill
evidence of a householder or hearthholder, and gave a vote,
as at Pontefract : whether the simple idea of burning, ere-

64 WICKED WIGHTS OF CHAUCER.

heaven called Vidblain (white plain). In this last we think
Gimli must be seated, but we deem that the elves of light
abide in it now.' "

It would seem certain from this passage that
Snorre Sturleson, the writer of the younger Edda,
has here endeavoured to graft the Christian belief
of angels and devils on the old Norse doctrines,
though no doubt the original theory, as better
preserved in our popular belief, was that both
were a separate and distinct class of beings, totally
unconnected. But that this theory was pretty
generally established in all Christian kingdoms,
we find from Chaucer, who wrote about two hun-
dred years after the compilation of this younger
Edda. From the Miller's Tale, it seems to have
been customary for our ancestors to guard them-
selves from elves and wicked wights at night by a
spell.

" What Nicholas ! what how man, loke adoun,
Awake and think on Christe's passioun,
I crowche thee from elves and from wightes.
Therewith the night-spell seyde he anon rightes
On the four halves of the house aboute,
And on the threshold of the dore withoute,
' Lord Jhesu Christ and Seynte Benedight
Blesse this house from every wilckede wight? " etc.

A favourite kind of mischief with these elves
was the tying the hair of sluttish maids, like the
manes of ill-kept horses, into elf locks, which de-
generated into malevolence when it produced that
loathsome disease, the plica polonica.* So in

mare, brought this name into the Edda, by a curious substi-
tution of word and idea, I shall not. at present determine.

* The German name for this disease, "weichsel zopf"
may be perhaps adduced as a proof that those afflicted with

shakespeaee's elf locks. 65

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act i. s. 4, Mer-

cutio says : —

"This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elf locks in foul sluttish hairs
Which, once entangled, much misfortune bode."

And in King Lear, Edgar says : " Elf all my hair
in knots." The interfacings found on obelisks
and monuments, in many northern parts of Britain
and the continent, are but their sculptured and
tangible representations; they are frequently found

it were not looked upon with any great degree of aversion
or horror, according to the merciful creed of our pagan an-
cestors, which esteemed most mental or physical defects but
chastenings of a benevolent deity, to be received with affec-
tionate submission : thus goitres in a child caused it to be
more tenderly cared for, more kindly nurtured, and an idiot
was only known as an innocent. Weichsel, as the indigenous
name of the Vistula, though it may have suggested the
Latin denomination, plicus polonica, and the belief that the
disorder is more particularly banned to the shores of that
river, whereas it only appears there more frequently from
the unsurpassed filthy habits and customs of the inhabitants,
is yet merely a corruption of the Polish word wisla for white ;
the river itself being esteemed in the ancient traditions like
Ganges or Godanery, white or sacred ; in another dialect bielor
or bU. This would strengthen or explain the meaning of
Shakespeare, why intangling these locks would " much mis-
fortune bode," as if flying in the face of omnipotence. We
have, however, in German, amongst its synonyms, besides
dp zojpf also hftllemopf (hell tail), truten zopf (Druid tail)
— Nork's Kloster, vol. ix. p. 489 ; but these names may have
been obtained much later, and on the introduction of Chris-
tianity. Grimm adduces a story of a girl who had not
untangled or combed her locks for twelve months, when
Frau Holle came and combed them for her, and drew out of
them pearls and precious stones as a reward.

66 RUNIC KNOTS AND ELF LOCKS.

conjoined with Runic inscriptions, whence they
are called Runic knots, and hence the prestige of
secresy ; or within the folds of a serpent's tail,
whence, as in Mercutio's allusion above, the
danger of unfolding it; a similar fatality hung
over unfolding the sphynx's riddle in antiquity,
and death was the fatal consequence either to the
propounder, if found out, or to the expounder, if
unsuccessful. Fine examples of the elf-locks are
given, with woodcuts, for Scandinavia, in Thorn-
sen's Leitfaden zur nordischen Alterthumskunde,
p. 63 ; and for Scotland, in Wilson's Prehistoric
Annals, pp. 540 and 542. The Builder, July 25th,
1846, contains an engraving of a curious font,
rescued from premature destruction, with such
ornaments; and three obelisks are in the church-
yard of Bakewell in Derbyshire, covered with
them. Our locks have their names from nothing
but their intricacy, and the difficulty there is, or
ought to he x in opening them, unless with a
proper key; and two carriages wheel-locked are
frequently not separated without much damage,
or at least danger, to both. That the Scottish
war-locks, though now transferred from a thing to
a person, and become a witch or wizzard, were
originally the same, appears plain from their
Wendic name of Ber or B'drlocks: the tangled
locks of the bear afterwards changed into amu-
lets, of which we have in Ledebur's Museum vater-
landischer Alterthumer (Berlin, 1838, p. 81) the
following description : —

" Verschiedene Berlocks aus Silberblech meist einen
Halbbogen bildend in dessen mitte auch pferdekopfchen,

DWARFS. 67

an dessen Peripherie Kettchen herabhangen an deren Enden
wieder kleine platten befestigt sind die bald Dreicke bald
ovale bilden, zum Theil den Braktealen des Mittelatters
ahnelnd auf die mannigfaltigste weise veziert sind.*

The dwarfs (Grimm's Zwerge, p. 414) are our
next division. That writer finds as a derivation of
their name nothing nearer than the Gothic doergr,
and the doubtful Anglo-Saxon tverc, etc. etc., but
as this merely re-echoes the word, without aiding
the mind in a comprehension of the meaning, it
may be as well to endeavour, by considering the
fflgnification as well as the sign, to give a defini-
tive idea concerning these mysterious beings to
the understanding.

The great figure that the fibrous plants, parti-
cularly hemp, cut in all popular mythologies, is
well known ; if sown on Midsummer's night eve
(Brand, Pop. Antiq. by Halliwell, vol. i. p. 332),
it gives each longing virgin the envied pleasure
of a sight of her future husband.

" Lo, shuddering at the solemn deed,
She scatters round the magic seed,
And thrice repeats : c The seed I sow
My true love's scythe the crop shall mow.'
Straight, as her frame fresh horrors freeze,
Her true love with his scythe she sees." — Cottage Girl.

The same is allowable on All Hallow's eve, Ibid.
pp. 382, 386, 396; and there is little doubt the
superstition passed from the seed to the plant,

* Various berlocks of very thin silver plates, to the middle
of which a small horse's head is appended, and round whose
circumference small chains dangle, on which again small
plates are fastened, that form partly triangles, partly ovals,
horned like mediaeval bracteates in the most varied manner.

68 HECKLING HEMP,

particularly as the heckling it, and the heckle, an
instrument by which it and flax are broken,
cuts so great a figure in the superstitions of the
north. It is necessary that this hempseed be har-
rowed. Ibid. p. 382, note.

" Steal out unperceived, and sow a handful of hempseed,
harrowing with any thing you can conveniently draw after
you. Repeat now and then : ' Hempseed, I saw* thee ;
hempseed, I saw thee ; and him (or her) that is to be my
true love come and pou thee.' "

The importance of the harrow for all charms,
&c, must be deferred at present. Now the refuse
of hemp and flax, the entangled fibres, in English
called tow, is, in Germany, werg, or perhaps as
otherwise, and more correctly, spelled werch; for
Adelung derives the word from werrich, raffled.
If we suppose a prefixed article, like the Low
German and Dutch het, as a contraction Hwerg,
we have the word without going out of the lan-
guage; and many considerations concerning the
plant give us an insight into the nature of these
supposed tiny beings. The plant, male and female,
on separate upright stems, may be compared, in a
field, to the thickly-planted bodies, such as their
ideal assemblies are represented, and of the fan-
cied dwarfish size as compared with man. The
Latin name of cannabis, perhaps rectius can-
nevas, as the Italian name is cannevacchio (our
English canvass was made from it) would con-
nect it with the Eleusinian Mysteries, where

* Saw here for sow is remarkable ; and shows how much
mere verbal approaches of sound were allowable to the
vulgar mind.

ITS CONNEXION WITH SORCERY, 69

the cannephoroi, as bearer of baskets* made from
the bark of canes, or cannabis, were important
personages in the processions, and lead us on to
the Mystica Vannus Iacchi. But the northern
names are fully as rife with mysteries. Our tow
is the Dutch touw, or tov ; and taveraar is a con-
jurer; toverkomt, sorcery; the German zauberer,
and zauberkunst. From hemp, the Germans have
a spirit which they call Hempelmann. Grimm's
D. M., p. 470, says : " lachen wie ein HempeU
man." Farther, the name of the feminine hemp
in German, is funmel or femmel, which may be
derived from its gender as female, but more likely
from the fe or feen noticed before, because the
German word would, if distinction of sex were
intended, have been taken from weib (wife) . The
provincial English name for the male stem is
Carle-Hemp.

And that our own ancestry were imbued to the
full with the magical properties connected with
this useful vegetable, we may learn from its fre-
quent recurrence in their fairy verses and incanta-
tions, either as the subjective idea of heckling, or
as the thing heckled; of which we shall imme-
diately perceive the value, for it could not be
banished from their fears, as a means of avoid-
ance, or from their wishes, as a mode of attain-
ment: thus, in the Shepherds Dream (Halliwell's
Introd. p. 173), a kobold is introduced, saying : —

" How clatter d I amongst their pots
And pans, as dreamed they,
My hempen hampen sentence where
Some tender foole would lay."

* In Austria the name of the hemp plant is Blistling.

70 WITH ROBIN GOODFELLOW.

And in Robin Goodfellovfs Life: —

" Because thou lay'st me Hempen Hampen,
I will neither bolt nor stampen ;"

with the note: " These words, or two very similar
lines, are given in Reginald Scott's Discoverie
of Witchcraft, as what Robin Goodfellow said if
any one gave him clothes instead of milk and
cream. Reginald Scott says he would, in that
case, " chafe exceedingly." Also, from the same
large storehouse of fairy lore, p. 139 : —

" And whilst that they did nimbly spin

The Hempe he needs must tow,
He grown'd, he thumpt, he grew

So cunning in his arte ;
He learnt the trade of beating hempe
By bussing his sweet-heart."

In Pranks of Puck {ibid. p. 167) : —

" Yet now and then the maids to please,
I card at midnight up their wool ;
And whilst they sleep and take their ease,
"With wheel to thread their flax I pull ;
I grind at mill
Their malt up still,
/ dress their hemp, I spin their tow :
If any wake,
And would me take,
I wend me laughing ho ! ho ! ho !"

Though this peculiarity of laughing be fre-
quently repeated, as a distinguishing mark of
Puck (Halliwell, pp. 145, 147, 148), yet I cannot
agree with Grimm (D. M. } p. 469), as if it were
the principal agreement with our English Puck
and his German Hempelman. Hemp, the vege-
table, as one of the most valuable productions

AND WITH GERMAN SAGEN. 71

from the earth to a rude people, is much more
likely to have pervaded their thoughts, aud been
a mutual bond of ideal and devotional imagery,
amongst all their cognate tribes.

Nor are Puck, or Robin Goodfellow's, noises
always of a joyous or laughable nature : they are
frequently foreboding of sorrow, sickness, and
death, which is never the case with the cacchina-
tory words of Hempelman. Halliwell, at p. 153,
says, "he cries at sick men's windows, which
makes the hearers so fearful that they say the
sick man cannot live ;" or even otherwise (Ibid.
p. 147), " sometimes he would goe, like a bellman,
in the night, and with many pretty verses delight
the eares of those that waked at his bellringing."
Having lost these watchmen since the introduc-
tion of our present excellent police, the race and
knowledge of our ancient Dogberries will have
passed away with the present generation ; and to
form a perfect idea of what is meant by many
pretty verses, our children must travel to Copen-
hagen, where each hour has its particular rhyme.
A slight idea of what these former guardians of
the night were wont to perform, as disturbers of
our sleep, may be entertained by consulting The
Bellman and his History, in Notes and Queries,
April 26th, 1851, with additional remarks, parti-
cularly on the Cambridge Bellman (Ibid., May
10th, 1851). Also in the same work, June 7th,
1851, The Old London Bellman, and his Songs
and Cries.

To complete, however, the connexion of this
plant with the mythology of the north, from the

72 OF THE WILDE JAGER.

subjective idea of this heckling, by which any
thing is heckled, or in the process of its manufac-
ture in reducing hanf to twerg, in heckling it;
whence the famous spirit, Hackelberend. Grimm
(D. M., p. 873) and Nork {Kloster, vol.ix. p. 38)
are very diffuse on this curious name, and both
relate sagen, which connect him indisputably with
" der wildejager" We find, in the former, the
following varieties of the name, Hackelbarend,
Hackelbernd, Hackelberg, Hackelblock* I agree
with him at p. 875, where he says : " Ich bin
geneight die westphalische form Hackelberend fur
die alteste echteste zu erklaren," but not for the
reason he deduces, from old German words sig-
nifying mantle, cape, or armour, and therefore
an armed knight; because such recondite, far-
fetched meanings are always repugnant to the
vulgar minds in which these thoughts and words
were first concocted, and because the meaning of
hecklebearing, or hecklebearer, is not only more
simple, but answers to the general ideas which
appear in the northern mythologies, and which
will become more apparent when we come to con-
sider the man in the moon as a collector and
bearer of sticks.

* Nork, Kloster, vol. ix. p. 370, produces a proverb : In
Eichel f'dngt das Schaf den Wolf, which he refers to a
church, " Maria zur Eiche," but Eiche is so ready a cor-
ruption of Egge, that I should be inclined to deduce
the saying from the common and constant superstition of
the harrow. I shall for the present avoid going into the
conformities which the English Egg and its cognates
would give in various long usages : unde derivatur, to egg
him on?

CONNEXION OP HECKLE AND EGGE, 73

This idea seems particularly strengthened when
we consider the derivation of the German Hackel,
the English heckle, which Adelung s.v. Ege justly
derives, because of its sharp teeth, from Ecke, pro-
perly an angle, a corner ; but thence also Edge :
and it is curious, this German word, aspirated as
hecke, answers exactly to its English synonym, with
a similar addition — Hedge ; thence the English
haggler agrees with the German hacklicher (at
present more usually spelled ekeliger), which the
lexicographer describes as a person who has some
things to condemn in all things — " ein Mensch der
in alien Dingen etwas zu tadeln hat."

So Jamieson, Scottish Dictionary, gives for the
second, or metaphorical meaning of Heckle, " to
tease with questions." Adelung's root of ege
brings us, however, round again to the egge, or
ploughman's harrow, with which we started, as so
necessary for the perfecting the charm of hemp-
seed ; and one or two tales will best give the sig-
nificance of this agricultural instrument for
purposes of magic, or its counter-charm. Thus,
in Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie } 961, the power
of seeing spirits pass on Shrove Tuesday is given
by an harrow.

"Wer rich zur STachtzeit im Walde unter eineEgge setzt
der kan alles mit ansehen, alle Thiere die durch das Holz
Ziehen, der K6nig auf dem Wagen welchem Fuchse voran-
gehen und alles was in dieser Nacht yorgeht. Das wusste
ein Schafer und wolttes (sic) versuchen, er gieng in den
Wald unter die Egge sitzen und schaute durch die Locher ;
als nun der Spuk voriiber war woltte er unter der Egge
wieder hervor kriechen, allein er sass fest und der Teufel
stand neben ihm und wiess ihm die Zahne." " He sat thus

7*4 THE SAME, OB THE GREEK CHELE.

till the morning, when, as people that passed the wood were
not able to release him, he delivered to the devil the black
sheep with a single white hair as demanded, and was let
loose."*

In Greek mythology this serrated or angular
power is transferred to the XHAH forfex, specil-
lum bifurcum, but also promontorium, for a reason
afterwards apparent. We have, in Saxo Gramma-
ticus, a curious instance of the use of the human
fork, the distention of the two legs from the trunk,
for a similar purpose, S. 37, which Grimm also
adduces, Deutsche Mytholoffie, p. 891.

" An jenem Schauen durch den Arm erkennt man recht die
uralte Sage. Saxo Grammaticus meldet s. 37 dass Bearco
nicht vermochte den Othin der auf weissem Rosse reitend
mit weissem Schilde bedeckt dem feindlichen Heer der
Schweden beistand, zu erschauen : da redet Bearco zu
Ruta : —

'At nunc ille ubi sit qui vulgo dicitur Othin

* Sometimes the Egge, though but nominal, instead of
its subjective power of withstanding the evil one, acts objec-
tively in reducing him to subjection ; thus in Grimm's
Deutsche Sagen, No. 214, der w&rwolf stein. An unknown
old man resided for a long time in the neighbourhood of
the Hackelberg, and worked for the neighbouring farmers,
but being denied a speckled lamb bj one of them, for re-
venge he turned himself into a warwolf, or gar-lou, but,
being pursued to the town of Eggenstedt, he there loses his
power and begs for mercj. In the preceding story, a warwolf
says to a man who had discovered him — " had you done
that before you had left the bush I would have eaten you."
Bush here evidently standing for hedge or hecke. And
in the same book a witch flies to a bush to regain her hu-
man form, ringing the changes on subjective and objective
operation.

PROVED FROM SAXO. 75

Armipotens, uno semper contentus ocello ?

Die mihi, Ruta precor, usquani si conspicis ilium?'

u Buta antwortet —

Adde oculum proprius et nostras prospice chdas
Ante sacratura8 victrici lumina signo
Si vis prsesentem tuto cognoscere martem.

" Bearco. — Sic potero horrendum Frigae spectare maritum
Quantum cuique albo clypeo sit tectus et album
Flectat equum, Lethra numquam sospes abibit," &c. <fcc.

Grimm would seem, from the passage preceding
this, to look upon this chele of Saxo's as an angle
formed by the bend of the arm, propped against
the body ; to this he may have been led by the
single instance of a tale of a man " who went
once over the Odin hill, and all at once heard the
noise of a drum, without being able to see any-
thing, when a wise man advised him to look
through the ring that he should make with his
arm stuck against his body ; he immediately saw
a number of people in arms go in and out of
the Odin's hill." But, in opposition, it may be
urged that the position thought most powerful
to avert the warwolf is to look at him with the
head placed beneath the fork, and, therefore, even
any forked branch has power to drive away each
evil spirit. One showed itself in Woltersdorf,
near the Kranich mountain, in shape of a sow,
that forces every one she nieets to ride some dis-
tance upon her back. A man going once late
through the place saw this sow making violently
towards him, but he carried (einen kreuzdorn
Stock und wer den hat dem konnten die bosen
Geister nichts anhaben) & forked thorn branch, and

e 2

76 LOOKING THROUGH THE FORK,

the evil spirits have no power over any one bear-
ing this. This peculiar position of the head
occurs in our country on sculptured monuments,
which have never yet been explained. I saw on
an out-house, or barn, immediately approaching
the entrance-gate of the ancient residence of the
Vernons, at Haddon House, near Bakewell, a
figure represented bending the head between its
knees, as far as I can recollect at a distance of twenty
years, very distinctly and neatly carved in relief.
On the wall of Chalk Church, in Kent, is another
similar, only the head is brought conveniently
betwixt the feet, as the figure is seated, of which
a plate and the following description is given in
the Antiquarian Repertory, iii. p. 134 : —

" Chalk Chuboh. — This ludicrous figure, which seems to
represent a deformed fool or buffoon, is placed over the
south door of the parish church of Chalk, in Kent. He
holds in both his hands a mighty pitcher, the contents of
which, from the maudling grin on his countenance, he seems
to have freely tasted. His looks are directed upwards, either
to the figure of the Virgin Mary or tutelary saint of the
church, which probably once stood in the niche over his
head, or to a grotesque figure in the frize over that niche,
who, tumbler-like, looks through his legs, which are raised above
his head. What could be meant by such strange sculptures
is difficult to conceive, particularly in such places, for they
frequently occur over arches on capitals or frizes of churches
and chapels, and are constantly to be met with under the
seats of the monks in the choirs of conventual churches, j
where they often infringe on decency. ^ There is no tradi-
tion respecting it. The church of Chalk has many vestiges
of antiquity."

The caduceus of Mercury, with the head be-
twixt two serpents, which are all legs, will be

WHENCE THE TEIQUETRA. 77

best explained by referring it as a more artistic
and classic form of giving this ancient supersti-
tion, by which Mercury could make departed
spirits visible ; but this will be subsequently
adverted to.

It is very evident that we have here the origin
or cause of the famous triquetra, the three legs
joined, which, as a double chele, would have a
double or continuous magical power. Some-
times this connexion is made from three wheat
ears, as on the coins of Metapontum, &c. ; but,
as before remarked, wheat, whit, white, or biel,
was but one of the names of the universal deity,
and was therefore only the more sacred symbol.
Sandford's Genealogical History, by Stebbing,
foL 1707, gives it on Seal 102, with the variation
of three lions' bodies united to one head, as be-
longing to Edmund Crouchbach, with the legend,

Sbtgilfom & «mroiflrt filii IRegfe anglte. Un-
doubtedly, however, its more general appearance
is that of a junction of three human legs ; and
from the frequency with which islands jut out
into promontories may be derived the secondary
meaning of x^v as a promontory (ut supra, p. 74),
and its appropriation as the arms of islands gene-
rally. The legs of Man are too well known to
require more than to be mentioned. Less known
are they as the arms of Malta joined to a centre
head (De Boisgellin Ancient and Modern Malta,
4to, Lond., vol. ii. p. 18) ; or of Sicily, whence its
second name as Trinacria, and thence quartered
in the royal Neapolitan escutcheon. In Rud-
becVs Atlanticum, vol. ii. p. 172, is also a curious

78 CHOSS UOADS AND CEOSS-LEGGED.

woodcut of the three legs, which he refers to a
Swedish island. This seems also to be induce-
ment for sorcerers and witches to frequent cross
roads* as scenes of incantations and magic; and
even the cross itself, which, in the Maltese equi-
lateral form at least, was used long prior to the
introduction of Christianity, may have been an
emblem of ancient supernatural power, which was
^//-^^ greedily seized on by the earliest Christians, and
- " transferred to a more sublime and protective
type, and which we still receive, particularly if
Catholics, as the great safeguard against all the
machinations of evil. I shall leave the cross-
legged statues of the Mithra divinities, as well
as those commonly attributed to the Templars of
our churches, to another opportunity, merely re-
marking, that in ancient German Jurisprudence
it was imperative on a king or judge to sit ,
cross-legged all the time he was hearing a cause;
and Grimm (Deutsche Rechts Alterthiimer, p. 763),
adduces a passage (from the Soest laws), where a
judge is told he must change his legs one hun-
dred and twenty-three times (3x40+3) before
he gives up the cause as undecidable. A writer
in an early number of the Foreign Quarterly Re-
view has evidently mistaken this passage, when
he supposes the judge is told he must consider
the matter this number of times. The German
word here used, uberlegen, has undoubtedly this

* On roads, as through life, the maxim, " in medio tutissi-
mus ibis," seems to have held good. So Grimm's D. M.,
p. 876, the wilde jager calls out to a peasant mocking him,
midden in weg, as his means of security.

CROSS GIVE8 POWER TO THE SHEARS. 79

metaphorical meaning at present and perhaps
from this very practice ; but its literal and origi-
nal sense of overlaying was not only received by
Grimm as the true one, from his calling it Bein-
verchraubuny, but is proved by the words of
another old precept in Carinthia: the judge
soU ainpain auf daz ander legen. Exeter Cathe-
dral offers, in its west front, fine and numerous
examples of our kings and princes cross-legged.
The remarks of Rich, in his Dictionary of Anti-
quities, on the word \rikri, are so apposite, that I
have pleasure in adducing them : —

" Chele, properly a Greek word, which signifies a cloven
foot ; a pair of crooked and serrated claws, like those of a
crab ; the talons of a bird, or the claws of a wild beast,
whence in that language it is used to designate several dif-
ferent instruments, possessing, in their forms or manner of
usage, a resemblance to any one of these natural objects — as
a knitting needle, a breakwater to protect the mouth of a
harbour, when made in the form of a claw set open, a pair
of pincers with bent arms like claws."

Just as the Germans use Scheere for a lobster's
claws ; a pair of scissors ; the shears to draw up and
let fall the ram of a piling engine ; and, that no
meaning of the Greek word may escape, the long
row of rocky islands forming natural breakwaters
along the Southern and Eastern coasts of Sweden
in the Baltic, are called " die Scheeren" We
have at the mouth of the Thames the Shears, at
present only a forked beacon, but it may occupy
the place of former rocks, of which only the dan-
gerous base remains under water.* It will be

* That the shears, in their common form, were not un-

80 AND ITS TAIL TO THE SWALLOW.

seen, however, that in all these objects the angle
or fork is the radical idea, and may have been
the principal reason why the cloven foot forms
the great and unalienable feature of the evil one.
The Swallow was called Cheledon, from its forked
tail; thence a degree of sanctity got affixed to
the bird, which is still in force at the present
day, and in our own country, as the following
very common proverbial rhyme shews : —

" The Martin and the Swallow
Are God Almighty's birds to hallow.' 1

Before we finish entirely with these Dwarfs, it
may be as well to adduce, as an additional proof
of their subterranean and malignant origin, that
the names of most of them are derived from
metals, and especially from those of rare occur-
rence, or difficult extraction. Grimm (D. M. 9 p.
414) has no explanation of the name that is satis-
factory ; he has found an assonance in the Goth.
Doerger, which only removes the difficulty a
little higher up. The Anglo-Saxon tverc he con-
siders doubtful; but surely the consideration of
the meaning, rather than the letters, would have
given him, as above, a probable solution.

known as a popular charm, we learn from Herrick, in his
Hesperidcs, p. 334, a charm for stables —

" Hang up hooks and shears to scare

Hence the hag that rides the mare,

Till they be all over wet

With the mire and the sweat ;

This observed, the manes shall be

Of your horses all knot free."

GOBLINS, THEIR NAME. 81

Goblin — French, Gobelin; Latin, Gobelinus.*
(Ordericus Vitalis, b. 5, Demonem enim quern de
Dianae fano expulit, adhuc in eadem urbe degit
et in variis formis apparens neminem ledit. Hunc
valgus et Gobelinum appellat) — is in German Ko-
a bold: "er lacht wie ein Kobold" is amongst them
common proverb to express a hearty cachinnation,
and points, evidently, to the valuable ore called
kobalt, whence all mineral blues are extracted,
for painting in porcelain or enamel. From these
laughing propensities of the Kobold, Grimm
draws his principal proof of identity with our
Puck; but he might have found the identical
word, for the genus at least, if he had looked
somewhat farther. We have, in Hey wood's Hierar-
chie of the Blessed Angels, (foL Lond. 1635,
p. 514) :—

" In John Milesius any man may read
Of devils in Saimatia honored,
Galled Kattri, or Kibaldi, such as we
Pugs or Hobgoblins call"

The Wends seem to have had a special hobgoblin
under this particular title. Speicher (Kirchen
Geschichte der Marken, p. 458} says, " Aus den
Hausgottern der Wenden Kolki §• Kobal sind die
Kobolde entstanden;" though I think he here
mistakes cause and consequence, f

• The Latin Cobalt, known as hurtful spirits by us, were
a guild of Priests of Bacchus ; but they had their names
from the sound of metals : — " Dicebantur Cobali, doamones
immites et inhnma ni quidam et Satyri et Bachae et Sileni
ipsum comitari cum cymbalis et strepitu quocunque incede-
Tet"—tfatali8 Comitis Mytholog., lib. v. p. 261.

+ So much was the idea of grimy, black, like miners, as-

e3

82 NIXEN, PROM NICKEL.

Nixen, or Nichsen, have their only satisfactory
meaning in the metal nickel, now so well known
in England. All the similar names hy which they
are known in every country, as Nisse, Nissar, in
heathen Denmark and Sweden, mean any noisy
or troublesome spirit ; so, in the latter language,
Nocfca, or Nika, was the northern Neptune. It
does surprise me, therefore, that Sir Henry Ellis
(in Brand's Popular Antiq. by Halliwell, vol. ii.
p. 520) sanctions the name of Satan, or Old
Nick, as derived from the northern Nix; for
more apparently is the famous patron of sailors
and fishermen, St. Nicholas, to be referred to
the same vocal origin, as the metal is not unfre-
quently called Nichol.* The three children for

sociated with the idea of dwarf, that it is hardly doubtful
but the modern High German, Schwarz (black) is thence de-
rived. — Niebelung's Lied, v. 397.
Do-ne chund-im nicht gestriten, daz starche ge-twerch
Al-sam die lewen vvilde, si liefen an den berch
Da er die taren-chappen sit Alberiche ail-gevaan.
Closely allied to the Dutch, Zwaar und Zwarte, and the
Tarn-kappe, by giving invisibility, rendering subjectively
dark ; from the latter we have the word tarnish, to begin to
grow dim or black. • Johnson curiously defines Tarn as a
Bog, a Fen, a Marsh ; to which we shall return.

* Even the verbal conformity of Nichel with Puch is fur-
nished by Adelung, s. v. Speise, p* 559. In Behm. ist Pice
ohne Zischlaut Futter, and s. v. Speise, 558 — " Nicht selten
fiihret diesen Nahmen auch eine metallische Vermischung
aus Kobalt, Nickel, <fc Wismuth." Adelung was rather
doubtful as to the derivation, for he adds: "Es scheinet
hieraus zu erhellen dass der Bergmann jede metallische
Vermischung deren Bestandtheile ihm unbekannt sind,
Speise zu nennen pflegt." Here we find Pice, and I shall
hereafter show the identity of Pice, or Petze, and Petz, with

SWEDISH TROLLS. 83

which the Roman Catholic church has found a
comfortable and corresponding legend, I look
upon originally as mere personifications of those
dwarfs, of whom the metal was the gift and the
name the sponsor. Our " Old Harry" would be
easily comprehended (for at present it seems to
have no connexion with any Satanic agency or
relation), if, in conformity with what has been
written a few pages back, we were to say Old
Harrow. Other metals also lend their denomi-
nations to the demons who are supposed to attend
and guard them. Nork (Kloster, vol. xi. p. 357,
note), where we find " GoW-emar zu den unterirr-
dischen Zwergen gezahlt," and an Indian demon,
Kuversas, most probably from a word cognate
with the Latin 'cuprum, Fr. cuivre — copper ;
and why not from the Greek, *«wrpoc, Stercus;
which can only have this name from the dung-
like form in which nodules of native copper are
frequently found.

The Swedish Trolls (from them the Troll-hcete,
or fairy canal) have left only mirthful reminis-
cences in our language in the word droll, and to
troll, or trundle, either from their frequent merry
antics and clever somersets, or from their fat
rotundity : the fishing cant word, trowling, or

Puch. Wismuth (Bismuth) may perhaps be added to the
list of metallic denominations of rare minerals derived from
spirits — as the white-mind, or ghost ; if not, perhaps, Wiss-
matter, the white mother, for white-m&hre, or m&hre, the
white-mare. Another spirit that haunted the mine of the
Coronea Rosacea, the richest in Saxony ; for want of a pecu-
liar metallic name, went by the name of the district of An-
naberg, as Annabergius {Quarterly Review, vol. xxii. p. 346.)

84 SAME AS PUCKS.

trolling, is restricted to turning the line round
a wheel* The frequent burthen of a " right
merrie melodie/' of " troll de loll loll, loll de
loll/** &c., would strengthen an opinion that the
other equally used refrain, "Berry doum" &c., was
the remnant of a song in honour or sung by the
Druids, as this may have been in honour of the
Trolls, with Tralleral, Tralleral, &c.— "Er trollte
sich mit vielem Pochen" would be applicable, even
in name, with our Puck.

CHAPTER III.

" All is bot gaistes and elriche fantasyis ;
Of Brownys and of BogiUa full."

Douglas's Virgil, viii.

" Ghaist nor bogle shalt thou fear ;
Thou'rt to love and heav'n so dear,
Nocht of ill may come thee near,

My bonnie dearie."

Burns.

It may, perhaps, at present be useless to in-
quire hdw the monosyllable Bog* came to ex-
press, over an immense tract of the old globe,
a supreme omnipresent and omniscient Deity.
On the analogy of our English Big, it might first
have been used as an expression of extension or
greatness, undefined, because undefinable. All
our English etymologists are strangely puzzled
with this said little word big, beginning with

* In Ertsch and Gruber's Lexicon we have, a. v. Bog, Boh>
and Buh t as synonyms ; so that Bogle=Boh is a mere pleo-
nasm, or intensitive, by repetition : on Boh, vide Jamie&orCs
Scott, Did. 8. v. Bogill, 60, as the name of one of the most for-
midable Gothic generals, after Wharton, <fec. <fec. Compare
Grimm's D. M., 1213, for the derivation of Bogatyr.

86 BOG, PROM DANISH BYGGEN.

Junius, who filches it from the Greek flayaos,
through Skinner, from bug, which he says means,
in Danish, belly; and Minshew, who calls it a
contracted form of Dutch buychigh (German
bauchi&ch is better), great- bellied ; so numerous
others, equally unsatisfactory. The probability
is, that all these are rather derivatives from, than
roots of, a word, which in a primitive language
signified rule and authority, from which implied
greatness or bigness was a consequence ; though
the metaphorical meaning was afterwards almost
exclusively transferred to corporeal greatness.
There is, however, a word in the Danish lan-
guage which seems to have retained this meaning
in full integrity; this isByggen,to build,* to render
firm, to establish, and by a kindly supposition
that all rule is to establish order and well-being;
also to govern; or the converse may be correct;
and from the idea of governing, that of building
or founding, takes its rise. In this sense it is
found as the first words of an old code of Danish
laws : —

" Mbd Low seal mew Land Byoobn :"

" The country shall be supported by laws ;" which
words, in huge capitals of gilt brass, form a
suitable ornament to the town, and an excellent
charter to the people, being fixed on the frieze
which runs along the front of the new Rath-haus
at Copenhagen.

But, whatever the derivation and original
meaning of Bog, we cannot hesitate to admit
that it has given appellative and proper names to
* Whence our provincial Bigging, for Barn.

B0CH4JEUA AND BALK. 87

many extended districts of the ancient world,
some of which have either remained unchanged
to the present hour, or left sufficient echo in their
sound to be easily recognised even now. Bucha-
ria is readily resolved in Zfo^aria, and has within
it the more modern province of 2toA:-hara, with a
holy city of the same name. Bactria has for its
capital Balk, which latter name we shall subse-
quently connect more intimately with this di-
vinity, Bug, when we come to the subject of
direct caprine worship. It will prepare the
readers for this connexion, and its sanctity as
a holy city, if we here adduce what Creuzer says
concerning it (Symbolik, i. p. 300), " As oldest
centre of the (Persian) kingdom, we find Bactria
(Boctria Bochara), or that province which, since
Darius Hystaspes, is the 12th Satrapy in the
Persian geography. In this land, all the rays of
ancient Iran's glory concentrate themselves; and
which are to be found, in the sacred as well as in
the civil relations of the biblical muniments,
the Zend-writings, and from those of Greece
and Borne to the Schahnameh of Ferdusi, or the
history of Moses of Chosrene, in which they are
resuscitated in marvellous colours." (Joseph v.
Hammer, now Baron v. Purgstall, in Jahrbuch-
era der Litteratur, ix. 30) . Besides, the Grecian
myths, which sought to attribute to their semi-god
Bacchus, by reason of the conquest of Bactria, an
unequalled fame, he asserts the historians of those
countries attributed to that kingdom a peculiar
signification (see Heeren below) ; and truly this
district was the seat of a civilization stretching to

88 THE MOTHER OF CITIES.

the bounds of time, the centre of a large commer-
cial tract for the East : and gold and silver, most
probably from trade with Turkestan, was there
in large circulation. Even now, Balk (Boktra)
is called the Mother for Parent) of Toums, and
considered the most ancient city in the world (See
Heeren On the Religion of the Old World, and
Ritter's Geography, ii. 502). But, though inex-
orable Fate has made havoc with the last remains
of this yore town of Iran, still the site will always
retain its hold on the pious memories of nations ;
for hitherto no modern investigator has ever suc-
ceeded in discovering an older abode of human
culture; for the remarkable concurrences of the
oldest records press upon us a conviction, that all
civilization proceeded from the Bactrio-Median,
or Aramic empire.*

* The importance of this fact to the future consideration
of our inquiry, induces us to give the entire passage from
the original.: —

"Als altester Mittelpunkt des (Persischen) Beichs tritt
Boktrien (Boktra, Bokara), oder diejenige Provinz hervor
die in der Persischen Geographic, seit Darius Hystaspes,
die zwSlfte unter den Satrapien bildete. In diesem Lande
concentriren sich die Strahlen der alten Iranischen Herr-
lichkeit die in den heiligen wie in den weltlichen Sagen der
biblischen Urkunden, der Zendschrift, der Griechen und
B5mer bis auf den Schanameh des Ferdusi, und die Ge-
schichte des Moses von Ohorene im wunderbaren Farben-
glanze wieder erscheinen (Siehe v. Hammer's Jahrbucher der
Lit. ix, heft 30 ff.) Abgesehen von dem Mythus der Griechen
welcher seinen Halbgott Dionysius aus der Ueberwindung der
Bactrier einen unvergleichlichenBuhm zu bereiten sucht, fin-
den wir in den Geschichtschreibern selbst diesem Lande eine
hohe Bedeutung beigelegt ; vergleiche Heeren uber die Bel.

FROM CREUZER. 89

So far Creuzer and Heeren. We reserve to
ourselves for future remark the curious agree-
ment of the modern, probably also of the ancient,
name of the capital, Balk, with its verbal and real
signification, connected with the caprine worship,
or what may be truly called the religion of the
Bock, or Goat, and which will establish beyond
doubt its dissemination over this entire kingdom,
as well as for the whole of northern Europe.
Another name will bring a corresponding proof
of the intimate connexion between the far East
and our native shores, in the proved correspond-
ence and presumed identity between Budha and
Odin, as the two superior divinities; and in the
ease with which these two names glide into verbal
agreement, in the following insensible grada-

der alten Welt,i. 381. — Und in der That war dieses Land der
Sitz einer uralten Cultur, der Mittelpunkt einer grossen Han-
delstrasse des Orients, und gold und silber war durch Han-
del, wahrscheinlich aus Turkestan, im Umlaufe — Noch jetzt
wird Balk (Boktra), die Mutter der Stadte genannt und
fur die alteste der Welt gehalten (Heeren, ut supra, and
Hitter's Oeographie, ii. 502). So unerbittlich hier das
Schicksal uber die letzten Reste der altheiligen Hauptstadt
▼on Iran gewiithet wird aber ihre Statte im Andenken
der VSlker immer ehrwurdig bleiben, in dem es bis jetz
wenigstens dem Forschergeist der neueren noch nicht ge-
lungen einen alteren Wohnsitz menschlicher Sittigung
nachzuweisen— denn die wunderbare Uebereinstimmung
der altesten Urkunden drangt una die historische Ueber-
zeigung auf, dass alle Cultur vom Baktrisch — Medischen
oder Aramischen Reiche ausgegangen — Ausser den Munzen
scheint sich wenig oder nichts von Boktra erhalten zu
haben, was nur in die Zeiten Alexander's unds einer Nach-
folger, viel weniger in die Zeiten der alt-Persischen Mo-
narchie, zuruckgienge."

90 BOGAHA TREE IN CEYLON.

tions : — Odin, Oden, Woden, Wood, Vood, Bood,
Bhnd, Buddha;* the traces of the oldest name,
Bog, are also still very prominent in the oldest
Eastern traditions, and traceable in their legends
and localities to the present day. In the follow-
ing extract from Colonel PercivaPs Description of
Ceylon, p. 208, the stronghold of modern Bud-
hism from its first origin, the miracles of Lo-
•retto, and the bogles or gude people of Scotland
and Ireland, meet in one of the most exclusive
fastnesses of her superstition.

" It is to Adam's Peak that the Ceylonese repair
to worship at the great festival of Buddow, The
Cingalese of the coast, in particular, repair to it
in great numbers. A large proportion of the
Candeans likewise attend, but whether from a fear
of mixing with foreigners, or from ideas of the
superior sanctity of the place, they seem more in-
clined to hold their great festival under the shade
of the Bogaha tree, which stands at Annaradg-
burro, an ancient city in the northern part of the
King of Candy's dominions ; and none but his
own subjects are permitted to approach the sanc-
tuary. The Bogaha Tree, says tradition, suddenly
flew over from some distant country, and planteditself
on the spot where it now stands. It was intended
for a shelter for the god Buddow, and under its
branches he was wont to repose while he sojourned

* The connexion between the Budhist religion and the
Wendic superstitions is not a new idea, it was early acknow-
ledged. Frenzd de Bits Soraborwn, sect. ii. cap. xxv. 105,
in a chapter de Pusceto, quotes for it Knox's History of
Ceyhn, lib. ill. cap. iii. and mentions this tree.

BOGDO LAMA, BIO BO HUN E. 91

on earth ; near this hallowed spot ninety kings
are interred, who all merited transplantation to
the regions of bliss, by the temples and images
they constructed for Buddow. They are now sent
as good spirits to preside over the safety of his
followers, and to protect them against being
brought into subjection to Europeans — a calamity
against which they continually pray. Around the
tree are a number of huts, erected for the
use of the devotees who repair hither; and, as
every sort of business, of uncleanness and dust,
must be removed from the sacred spot, people are
retained for the purpose of continually sweeping
the approaches before the worshippers, and to
attend the priests during the performance of the
ceremonies."

The Bogio Lama, in Thibet, the personification,
or eternal incarnation of the supreme deity, or
Fo, is met in Ireland by a shadowy being of great,
because undefined, power, called the Big Bohune,
as well as by a Silesian deity, or ghost, the Bo-
chusa, of which a statue was dug up near Liegnitz.
In Prussia and Lithuania, we have a peace festival,
named the Bockweihe (vide Vollmer's Mythol. Lex.
s. v.), which may be all mentioned, but which we
reserve for more particular description when we
come nearer home. But as Ireland has been
mentioned, I may just remark, that I can explain
one verse of the popular Irish song, " St. Patrick's
day in the morning," where it is said of the
national saint (I take the words from Hone's
Every- Day Book, vol. i. p. 370) —

92 MABOG, IN SYRIA.

" He's a desperate Big, little Erin-go-brah,"
in no other way than by supposing the transfer
of name and veneration which the old Irish
bore to the universal Pagan deity,* on their con-
version to Christianity to the sanctified mortal
who succeeded to his honours, f It seems,
however, from the following extract from Sal-
verte's Essai sur les Noma, fyc. v. viii. p. 37,
note, that even the Thibeteans call their deity
Bogle :— " Le traducteur de la relation de Bogle
sur le Thibet (imprimfee a la suite du Roman de
Bryltophend in 8vo, Paris, 1789), d'apres Pau-
thoriti P. Gaubel." And he goes on to state,
that the pontiffs of Budha and this religion can
be traced uninterruptedly, from authentic and
official documents, from 1,343 years before the
Christian era.

The following extract is from the English trans-
lation of Calmet, Fragments, DXLV: —

" Mabog, in Syria, probably Maha-Baga. In the ancient
town of Mabog, now called Menbiez or Men-&#r, by the
Greeks Hieropolis, a place of great antiquity, was a famous

* My Milesian brethren must not be offended if I find the
name even of Patricius, or Padricius, as a derivative from
Padde, the German for Frog — the Paddock of Shakespeare,
which Stevens has remarked with him invariably means the
toad ; and as this animal is supposed to be able to drive away
all other venomous animals from its haunts, it is most pro-
bably thence that St. Patrick is supposed to have driven all
venomous animals from Ireland. Padde is the same as Pogge
or Poch, for the Frog ; a locality in Hamburg is named
Poggenmuhle, or Frogmill.

f For Patricius as Padrig, vide Archaeol. Cambrensis, vol.
i. p. 84.

BOGDO HILL OF SABATOW. 98

temple, dedicated to the Syrian Goddess, whose statue of
gold was placed in the centre, between those of Jupiter and
Juno. It had a golden Dove on its head, hence some sup-
posed it was designed for Semiramis, and it was twice every
year carried to the sea-side in procession. This statue was
evidently that of the great goddess, or Maha-bhaga-Devi,
whose history is intimately connected with that of the dove
in the modern mythologists, as well as in the Puranas. The
Syrian name of Mabog is obviously derived from Maha-
bhaga. This contraction is not uncommon in the western
dialects, derived from Sanscrit ; and Hesychius informs us
that the Greeks pronounced the Hindu word Maha (great)
Mai. Mabog is mentioned by Pliny, where we read Magog.
This is confirmed by the modern name, Maubig or Maubeg.
The temple of Mabug, according to Lucian, was frequented
by all nations, even by Indians." *

The Bal-bec of Coelosyria has been noticed
already, p. 48 et seg.

The name still continues in more modern times,
and still eastward. We have a mountain chain
in Thibet, called Bog do, probably fifteen thousand
feet high, and covered with eternal snow, which
name is interpreted, like Olympus, into the abode
of the gods. In the government of Saratow, in
Asiatic Russia, there is a hill called Bog da, or
itoyrf-voola, four hundred and fifty feet high,
situated, however, on such an extensive plain, that
you have from it an uninterrupted view for thirty
German miles (two degrees) . The Calmucks have

* I have marked in this extract two passages in italics, to
which I shall again refer : to the first, when I come to treat
of the Rhetra deities ; to the second, in confirmation of a
similar ablution for the deity Herthum, Nerthum, or Hertha,
in a lake, situated in an unviolated grove (castum nemus)
on an island in Northern Germany (De mor. German, cap. xl.)

94 THE RIVER BUG— BOCHTJSA.

an unbounded veneration for this hill ; and no
traveller of their creed passes by without first
taking a stone and carrying it to the top, where
he offers a prayer, and leaves, as a sign of his de-
votion, if rich, a piece of money, if poor, a part
of his apparel, or even a common rag. (Pallets
Travels — Georgi Geograp. phy. ty natur. Hist.
Beschreibung des Rmsischen Reiclies.)

The Bug, or Bog, and Dneipr, were two holy
rivers of the Slavonians, in south Russia, (Mone's
Europaisches Heidenthum, vol. v. p. 113), not less
Vistula or Weichsel, or Wisle, and Bug flowing
into it a little below Warsaw, were also rivers
considered holy, and thence called after the name
of the deity simply, or as good and white.

Proofs are also not wanting that statues existed
to the divinity with this widely-extended name.
Vollmer's Mythologie, s. v. Bochusa, gives the fol-
lowing description of a granite statue found in
digging a well near Liegnitz, in Silesia : —

" Bochusa. — Ein schlesischer G8tze nach einer Statue von
grauem granit welche man unweit Liegnitz beim Ausgraben
eines Brunnens gefunden haben soil ; das Gesicht dieses
GStzen hat einen Bockbart und Bockshorner, seine Rechte
Hand tragt einen grossen Ring."

From this description the resemblance to the
universal God, To Pan, is undoubted; and the out-
stretched ring, to the practice of taking judicial
oaths by a ring, of which a fine example, weighing
five pounds, of purest gold, was found in Denmark,
and is now preserved in the Royal Museum of
Native Antiquities, in the Christiansborg Schloss
at Copenhagen.

SUPEBSTTTIONS OF THE JEWS 95

Before, however, we quit these Eastern testi-
monies to the widely-extended, perhaps universal,
deity, Bog, we will attempt to prove that an
undercurrent of this superstition pervaded the
Hebrew mind, even under the most pious and
renowned of her kings. In looking for such
proofs from sacred writ, I do not deem myself,
and I trust I shall not be deemed by others, irre-
ligious or profane. If it was allowed, in the
miracle of Joshua commanding the sun to stand
still, to speak to the common apprehensions of
the multitude, and in the Scape Goat of the wil-
derness to follow much of profane propitiation,
we cannot think that it was unallowed or incon-
sistent with the Divine authority, to permit a
credence in subordinate agency, which, whilst it
satisfied the mind, did not directly controvert any
of the Commandments. William of Malmsbury
[Gesta Regum Anglorum, lib. ii. edit. Hardy, vol. i.
p. 278) is already aware that Solomon used ma-
gical arts for discovering hidden treasure, in
which he was followed by the high priest Hyrcan.
William is endeavouring to excuse Gerbert (after-
wards Pope Silvester) in using illicit means for
discovering the treasures of Octavian.

" Talia, ilium adversis prestigiis machinatum fuisse, con-
stans vulgi opinio est. Veruntamen si quis verum diligen-
ter exsculpat, videbit nee Salamonem cui Deus ipse dederit
sapientiam, hujusce inscium commenti fuisse ut enim
Josephus (Antiq. Jttd. } lib. vii. c. 15 ; lib. viii. c. 2), auctor
est thesauros multos cum patre defodit in loculis, qui erant
(inquit) mechanico modo reconditi sub terra. Nee Hircanum,
prophetia et fortitudine clarum qui ut obsidionis levaret
injuriam, de David Sepulchro tria millia talenta auri arte

96 IN STONE PTJCHS.

mechanica emit ut obsessori partem enumeraret, parte xeno-
dochia construeret. At vero Herodes, qui magis presump-
tione quam consilio idem aggredi voluerit multos ex satelli-
tibus igne ex interiori parte prodeunte, amiserit."

This extract would supply sufficient evidence
that what we call occult practices were not un-
known to the Hebrews through a good part of
their separate history ; nor is it necessary to be-
lieve, with Malmsbury herein, a diabolical agency,
which he cannot account for : " nee tamen affirm o
quod dederat :" the infirmity of the human mind,
the universal craving for power and riches, is the
same in all ages, and under every dispensation,
and would furnish sufficient excuse and ample
cause for the practice.*

The word Puch fia occurs twice in the sacred
volume. The first, 1 Chron. chap. xxix. ver. 2 : —
" Now I have prepared with all my might for the
house of my God : the gold for things to be made
o/gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the
brass for things of brass, the iron for things of
iron, and wood for things of wood : onyx stones

* We learn from Pettigrew's excellent Treatise on Medical
Superstitions, that even yet " the Mischna permits the Jews
to wear amulets, provided they have been found efficacious
in at least three cases by an approved person ;" and the fol-
lowing extract from Oalmefs Dictionary of the Bible, art.
Hebrew Magic, is too apposite to be omitted : — " We may
trace the existence of the practice by the laws made to re-
press it, for all legislation is necessarily but a register of the
sins of the people, although they had been forbidden recourse
to it on pain of death. — Lev. xix. 31 ; Lev. xx. 6. Saul was
required to do what he could to repress it, yet many re-
mained, and the Israelites were always much addicted to
these superstitions. — 1 Saml. xxviii. 3 <fc 8."

HEBREW PUCHS 97

and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers
colours, and all manner of precious and marble
stones in abundance." Luther's corresponding
translation of the stones, which alone are the
things in question, gives — "Onichsteine einge-
fasste Rubinen und bunte Steine und allerlei
Edelgesteine und Marmelsteine die Menge ;" so
that both pretty nearly conform. The other pas-
sage is found in Isaiah, liv. ver. 11 — " Oh thou
afflicted, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and
lay thy foundations with saphires." Here in the
original we find the same word translated " stones
to be set/' and " stones with fair colours," and a
common and congruent explanation has given
great trouble both to English and foreign commen-
tators. — Gesner*s Commentatio Hebraica gives :
"Fuci significatio certa est. Nempe cum ex 2 Reg.
ix. 30 et Jer. iv. 30. constet mulieres earn ope hujus
rei, puch dictse, augere ; audimus, Job, xlii. 14y
patrem vocasse imam filiarum, Cornu ra puch, Ke-
renhap/wcA, quasi copia omnis pulchritudinis." The
general opinion, however, that it was antimony,
he does not coincide in — " At interim inde infero
7© non esse stibium hoc enim cum sit coloris
csesii obscurioris et preterea adhiberi solitum sit
denigratum fuligine admixta ut legitur apud,
Ludol£ in Comment, ad Hist. Habess, Li. n. 51, 10,
ideo non pertinet ad omnes ne quidem ad multas
pulchritudinis partes. Hoc cum ita sint merito
plerique interpretes, 2Reg.ix. 30, et Jer. iv.30, non
dant voci "pa strictam significationem stibii sed
utuntur generali nomine fuci." By seemingly
another hand has been added — " Sed cum de alia re

98 IN CHRONICLES AND ISAIAH

agitur non admitto interpretationem lapidis pre-
tiosi. Est potius gypsus : nam hie sedificiis pluri-
mum confert, deinde affinitatem habet cum fuco
ac proinde vix equivocationem efficiet : — cerussam
verbi gratia, quae fuci species est, gypsus semule-
tur." His conclusion, however, though near, is
not quite the truth. " Haec distinctio docet 71&
non censeri inter lapides; sed esse aliquid quo
mediante (quae to Q vis est) lapides stabilantur."
And the following consideration is very material
to the right understanding of the term 1 — " Nota
etiam nomen lapidis prope nomen Tia non com-
pareri nisi ubi agitur de adificandis: nusquam
vero ubi mere de ornamentis : quod vix futurum
credas si esset aut carbunculus aut rubinus aut
gemma ejusmodi. Mallem generali expositione
sumere prospicie lapidum sed pro uso ad incrus-
tatione fucandos muros, sed id nullo pacto in
. Isaiah admitti potest."

After this full exposition, the views of Park-
hurst in his Lexicon sub voce seem of less con-
sequence. They are directed more to the passage
of Isaiah than of Chronicles, and consequently he
dilates more on the signification of a means of
attraction, by painting the eyelashes, and inside of
the eyelids with antimony, than as David's stone;
and he finds many and true difficulties in recon-
ciling the account of the substance stibium in
Pliny, which was soft and crumbling, with the
nature of antimony, which is a very hard sub-
stance.*

* In Matthew's translation of the Bible, a passage with
a word from the same root as the above, in Psalm xci. v. 5,

RECONCILABLE, 99

However, by the aid of metaphor, both the
passages in Chronicles and in Isaiah are recon-
cilable ; and our own vernacular translation of the
first passage comes nearest the truth, if we take
the words : stones that are set, in its objective in-
stead of subjective sense, of stones that cause
others to set, or remain fast and firm. Gesner
was right when he said the word was only used
when building was the subject; and those who
have followed closely the superstitions of all na-
tions, in calling magical and adventitious means
to their aid, for strengthening and rendering firm
the foundations of all buildings, well know how
necessary, as the real stones, was some charm or
mighty conjuration for the purpose. It is there-
fore certain that the writer adduced by the author
of the article Puch, in the Leipzig Universal Lexi-
con, would not be wide of the mark when he
looks upon the word as designating the philoso-
pher's stone : — " Der Schriftsteller des Deutschen
Tropfsteins der Scheidekunst schreibet das dieser
Stein Puck, der Stein der Weisen bedeute, denn
also ruhmet David (Chron. i. cap. xxx. v. 23), er
hinterlasse seinem Sohne Salomon. 'Umillum
iEbni Puch : impletionum Lapides Puch/ Anfiil-
lungen, Stein des Spiessglases welches nichts
anders als den stein der weisen bedeuten konne :
immassen solches sonnenklar aus der Stelle
(Esaia liv. cap., 11 v.) erhelle da Gott trostet:
Er lege die Steine im Puch und auch in folgen-
den versikeln die ganze Bereitung hinzusetzt

is translated, " Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any bugs
by night."

p 2

100 AS MAGICAL CHARMS

und der Chaldaischer Ausleger eben dieses aus-
driicklicli zu erkennen giebt wenn er sagt : Puch
sei eben soviel, als Dobat oder Spiessglass." In
fact, why, if the original summum bonum, at
least for building, was not a stone, trying all the
succedanenms of gases, tinctures, and elixirs, is
still called searching for the philosophers* stone,
it would be difficult to imagine. It would have
been well if this magic had been confined to the
bloodless practices of David, and restricted, as most
probable, to some charmed stone ; but we have
abundant evidence that subsequently, living inno-
cence, male or female infants, were immured alive
under any wall or building of sufficient impor-
tance to command, or of such difficulty as to re-
quire, supernatural aid. Bridges, as the most
difficult to found, give the most frequent examples;
but as this would more appropriately illustrate
another play of Shakespeare, and the incan-
tations of Macbeth, I shall refer at some future
time more particularly to this usage and foreign
sorcery in general, if the present work prove
acceptable to his admirers; it must at present
be admitted upon my mere word. The Puch
of David was, therefore, one or more objects,
most probably stones, which were thought of
efficacy by some supernatural agency, towards fas-
tening and strengthening his intended magnifi-
cent edifice. Nor would its use in Isaiah and
elsewhere, as a collyrium, be any other than me-
taphorically in the same sense. Fascination and
Fast are as nearly allied in sound as in sense, and
both have a common root in fas : permitted, subse-

AND EYE FASCINATIONS. 101

quently sacred ; and they differ only in expressing
the subjective and objective sides of the same
idea — the obverse and reverse of one medal. The
fascination of the serpent transfixes the bird, the
object of its powfcr, and sets it fast The fasces
of the Roman consuls are sometimes supposed to
have had their name because their rods were
bound fast together like a fachine. But it might
as well typify the strength which the observance
of law and authority infused into a state. The
potency of the EYE, however, makes fascination
principally applicable in Scripture and elsewhere
to that organ. Cotgrave interprets fascination
by "to eyebate," and Bacon, Nat. Hist. p. 944,
"We see the opinion of fascination is ancient for
both effects : of procuring love and sickness caused
by envie, and fascination is ever by the eye."*

We may conclude this subject by observing,
that the last verse of the 54th chapter of Isaiah,
already referred to, seems, as the consequence of
setting their stones in Puch, to embrace the objects
more peculiarly sought for by the modern Ger-
mans in being or making fest, vide infra, viz.
security of person and success in litigation. " No
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,
and every tongue that shall arise against thee in
litigation thou shalt condemn;" or, as Luther's
translation more plainly denotes — "Denn aller
Zeug der wider dich zubereitet wird, dem soil es

* It is not quite foreign to this subject to remark, that the
name of the axe forming part of the fasces was securis, thus
near in sound with securus, because passively bound fast ,
and actively causing things to become fast.

102 PUCH AS BACCHUS.

nicht gelingen : und alle Zunge so sich wider
dicli setzt sollst du im Gericht verdammen."

With such nominal vestiges of our divinity in
the East, it is not wonderful that the Romans have
retained the name pretty much unchanged in one
of the most prominent members of their classic
Olympus, and in the only one which they con-
fessedly received from the East, in Bacchus. The
myths relating to, and formed concerning this
god are too ramified and worked out by the fan-
cies of their poets, or the theories of their philo-
sophers, to be here gone into extendedly ; my pre-
sent purpose will be served by pointing out such
verbal congruities as appear to ripen the open-
ing promise of his common title into the perfect
fruit of truth and certainty. No deity had more
synonyms; in various authors we find him de-
signated as Bromius, Evan, Thyonaeus, Dionysius,
Biformis, Brisoeus, Jacchus, Dithyrambus, Messa-
toeus, Lampter (Egobulus, Mychelius, Pocturnus,
Polites, Melanegis. Of these, two, Bacchus and
Poc-turnus, are perfectly apparent — the latter
giving us additionally the name Torn, Tor, as mo-
difications of the denominations of the arctic-god,
Thor, whom I shall subsequently prove to be the
same with Janus, to whom the epithets Biformis,
Dithyrambus, are equally suitable or with greater
propriety, than to Bacchus, but who, like Janus,
seems to have been the universal deity. Mac-
robius (lib. i. Sat.) teaches us — " Bacchum eun-
dem quam Solem." The (Egobulus and Melanegis
are but translations of the Bock, or Goat ; and
the latter exactly tallying with Zernibog in sense,

ASATYE AS A SATYE. 103

with the almost indispensable accompaniment of
goats to a complete picture of the deity, prove
this signification. Madame Dacier, and other com-
mentators on the first satirists of the Latin tongue,
have lost themselves in endless disquisitions on the
name and origin of Satyr ; the simple prefix of an
A, and the consideration of the universality of all
creeds, would find this name perfect, and the pic-
ture true, in the oldest cosmogony of the world; for
the Edda is but the revelations of a later age for
the world traditions that, driven into the farthest
regions of the north, have there been preserved
safe by the very distance and difficulty of ap-
proach. One of the principal deities recorded in
this poem is Asa-Tyr, or Tyr of the Asi or Asians.
Of this Tyr, Grimm has satisfactorily shown, that
the Skan. Djans gen. Dwas gr. Zevc gen. At6c. Mso-
Goth. Tuis gen. Tivis N. Tyr gen. Tys are cognate
words, signifying God; and the great figure which
goats make amongst these arctic deities is sufficient
to establish the resemblance. The Edda says —
"Thor has a car drawn by two goats called Tann-
gniost and Tanngrisnir. From his driving about
in this car, he is called Anku Thor. Strabo (lib.
10) tells that the priests of Bacchus, amongst
other names, were called Ti-tyri, the first syllable
of which may be the article, or a mere prefix,
just as the Mohammedan revelation went by the
name of Alcoran, till our eastern conquests taught
that the article was improperly included in the
word. If we knew more of the domestic manners
of ancient Persia, we should perhaps find that the
name of the deity, like that of Mithras, was an

104 OPHITIC WORSHIP

appellative, or designation of their higher orders
of society. We know that the name of the un-
grateful satrap who slew Darius, his fugitive and
unfortunate master, was Bocchus ; and the addi-
tion to the name of another Darius, Ochus, may
have been colloquial, or a Greek corruption. So
Bagoas was onq of the attendants on Pharnabazus,
sent to slay Alcibiades (Cornel. Nepos, vita Aid-
biadis, cap. x.) This will prepare the reader for
a curious, but, perhaps, more controverted con-
formity ; the more startling because hitherto mis-
construed, but the more satisfactory if established.
We find with the goat a concurrent emblem for
this great divinity in the serpent. Ophitic wor-
ship runs parallel in importance with veneration
for the goat in all the mythologies of the north,
and in many of the classic creeds. Six centuries
of Christianity have not yet entirely obliterated
the ancient veneration of the goat, as future
proofs of recent sacrifices will establish ; and the
care and kindness with which a Lithuanian boor,
or a Prussian peasant, will place milk (the
favorite victual of Robin Goodfellow) for a pet
serpent, that haunts his house or yard, is related
by many of the historians. Thus, for Sweden
(Ihre. Jonas Monan, p. 26) : —

"Serpen turn familiarum cultus adhuc (1750) quoque
vestigia in nonullis regionibus invenitur, qui vernacula de-
cuntur; Tomte-Ormar. Angues isti familiares ingentis
plerumque sunt magnitudinis nigrique coloris, sub pave-
mentis oedium domicilia elegunt, cum domesticis conversari
quin et una cum iis cibum capere ducuntur, nulli noxam
inferunt. Horum tanta est veneratio ut ex iis pendere
dextra et sinistra omnia creduntur ; unde et illorum posses-

IN SWEDEN, ETC. 105

sores anxie observant ne quid damni illis inferatur nee quic-
quid ad eorum sustentationem deficiat ; inauspiciatum vero
totique familise exitabile creditor illos violare, dehonestare
autlethefera maim aggredi. So in Temme's (an author'now
living) AUpreusische Volks Sagen, p. 258, Schlangen wnr-
den in Preussen fruher fur heilig gehalten ; man verehrt
sie noeh jetzt an manchen Orten besonders wenn sie unter
dem Ofen oder sonst an einem yerborgenem Platze in Hause
rich aufhalten. Man lockt sie dann mit besonderen Gebeten
hervor auf einem mit einem weissen Tuche bedecktem Tische
wo ihnen der Wirth selbst allerlei Speisen aufgesetzt hat.
Wenn sie davon kosten so bedeutet das Gliick : Ungliick
kommt aber liber das Haus wenn sie nicht heraus kommen
oder wenn sie sich wieder zuruck ziehen ohne von den
Speisen etwas zu beruhren." (Acta Boruss. ii. p. 407.
Hartknock's ah und neues Preussen, p. 162.)

Though, therefore, the symbol of the deity is
changed, and the Serpent introduced as the re-
presentative of the Goat, the name remains but
slightly varied, as BAUG.

106

NUMINI BATJG EXPLAINED,

The annexed votive
tablet, kindly lent
from their Glouces-
ter Book by the Bri-
tish Archaeological
Association, p. 150,
is commonly read,
"numinibus Angus-
fa" which, I con-
tend, should be read
as the letters plainly
indicate, and no
more, numini Bang,
It would be curious
\ in an inscription
in which there is
not a single in-
stance of contracted
writing besides; in
which even the
! word ET is dis-
played in full, and
iEDEM PRO

PARTE, &c, with-
out the slightest abbreviation; that we should
believe the principal words only signified by
an exceptional contraction or conventional let-
ters. The following is another inscription, where
the numen BATJG is taken as a synonym, or
addition to the Penine Jupiter: vide MedaiUes,
Inscriptions, Statues, fyc. du Valaispar M. Laurent
Joseph Murith, Mem. de Antiq. de France,
No. 7:—

FROM INSCRIPTIONS AND NAMES. 107

NVMINI BAUGG

IOVI POENINO

SABINEIIVS CENSOR

AMBIANVS

V.S.L'M.

There seems to be only a single and undivided
invocation here to one deity, the Appenine Ju-
piter, to whom also the addition of the universal
deity, as Baug, was most applicable,* for under
exactly this name he was not unknown in India.
In Ferguson's Rock Temples in India (Lond. 1844,
p. 27) — " In a small valley or ravine penetrating
like that at Ajunth, into a table-land resting on
the GMt, on the north side of the Vale of Taptee,
and about three miles from the small town of
Baug, are situated four caves, which have been
described by Lieut. Dangefield in the second
volume of Trans, of Lit. Soc. of Bombay" I have
very little doubt that the sanctity of these cavern
temples, which are beautifully and elaborately
sculptured, and in which parts of the frescoes
painted on the walls still remain, were dedicated
to such deity by name, which it has left indelibly
fixed on the neighbourhood. If my prescribed
limit permitted, I might dilate and strengthen
these views from other Roman and Romano- British

* Had the author taken my view of this name he would
not have had reason to inveigh against the profaneness or
flattery that could place the Augustan names before the
divinity of Jupiter. "Le numinibus Augg. le trouve ici
avant le nom de Jupiter Poenin une preuve certaine de degree
auquel les Bomains etaient capable de pousser leur baisse
flatterie en donnant la preference aux empereurs sur les
dieux meme."

108 THE VAUGHAN AEMS;

inscriptions, e.g. in Ly son's Cumberland, p. cliiL
No. 7; and in Horseless Brit. p. 192,No. 68; but I
must at present forbear, and shall, therefore,
merely point out, in the stone before us, the con-
gruity of the carving at the end, with the ophitic
worship I have described, and the name of the
deity. I know not at what time the family of
Vaughan may have assumed their present coat of
arms, but it evinces a singular acquaintance with
the mythology of ancient Britain. These arms are
thus described mArchaol. Cambr. i. p. 45:— "The
arms of the Vaughans of Brecknockshire were
sable three Boys' Heads, coupled at the shoulder,
argent, armed, or, each having a snake wreathed
round his neck, azure. Sometimes they were
borne on a chevron, argent/ 1 (Vide also Notes and
Queries, Mar. 22nd, 1851, No. 73, p. 223.) The
name Vaugh, or Baug-nn or on (the boy), was no
doubt suggestive of the marshalling of this coat,
and most appropriately. The same arms are
borne by Maddocks, of Tiddenham — perhaps but
a corruption of Paddocks — which, as used by
Shakespeare, I have before shown is identical with
Puck. Symbolically, at least, the virtue of the
snake round the neck continues to the present
day. In Notes and Queries, May 24^,1851, No.82,
p. 405, we have the following piece of Folks lore:
" I send you two remedies in use here, for the
cure of the common complaint called large neck
(qr. Goitre) ; a common snake, held by its head
and tail, is slowly drawn, by some one standing
by, nine times across the front part of the neck
of the person affected, the reptile being allowed,

THEIE ILLUSTRATIONS. 109

after every third time, to crawl about for a while.
Afterwards the snake is put alive into a bottle,
which is corked tightly, and then buried in the
ground. The tradition is, that as the snake de-
cays the swelling vanishes." The second charm
differs from the first only in the greater mercy of
killing the snake after the operation ; and both
have, as to their principal feature, their prototype
in the efficacy of the snake deity; the subsequent
immolation of the victim alive is but another
superstition engrafted on the first. {Vide p. 100.)
Something akin to this is a practice which Nork
(Kloster, vol. ix. p. 552) adduces from an English
authority, which he does not name : " Weil im
Nord England im Herbst noch jetzt vermummte
einen riesen Tanz (qr. Giant's Dance) auffiihren
bei welchem zwei Schwerter um das Hals eines
Knaben geschwungen wurden, ohne ihn zu ver-
letzten." These two swords are symbolical of
the serpents, and the absence of injury from dan-
gerous weapons is in full accordance with the
heathen views of the innocence, if not the benefit,
from otherwise venomous and offensive reptiles.
The localities which abound in Britain and else-
where, will be collected in a future page ; at pre-
sent I shall content myself with the district of
Buch-an, in Scotland ; which, even if like the
Buconia, near Fulda, we derive from the size or
number of its beech trees (Buche), would still
have the universal Puch for its root — as this beau-
tiful tree, in its indigenous woods, along the
Weser, and in the entire Cimbric promontory, often
Attains the height of eighty feet, with an upright,

110 FIGURES IN FRANCE.

even and tapering boll, and was, therefore, worthy
to receive the name of the god who was often
worshipped beneath its umbrageous shades, and
sought for in the deep solitude of its groves.

We have in Prance numerous figures of ser-
pents, which appear entwined round human
images ; of these the most famous and best known
are on an octagonal building, at Montmorillon,
which were particularly described by Montfaucon
and in Bulletin Monum. torn. vi. p. 345, with others
there noted and engraved ; as at St. Servin, at
Bordeaux. (lb. torn. xi. p. 192.) Sometimes a
basilisk supplies the place of the serpent, as at St.
Andre in the same town. (Ibid.) Then, again,
toads and other noxious animals, as in the famous
portal of the Abbey of Moisac, and the church
of St. Croix at Bordeaux (Ibid.) ; and another on
the capital of a column at St. Nicholas Church,
at Angers (Bui. Monum. torn. vii. p. 517). Fo*
similar myths in England, we have a beautiful
example, carved in wood, at Hulme Hall, in Lan-
cashire, and engraved in Hibbertfs Philosophy of
Apparitions, p. 441. Most French authors follow
the opinion of Montfaucon, that such reptiles
are intended for representations of those noxious
animals sucking the breasts of the human figures
they entwine. This, however, the nature of ophitic
worship and Hibbert's example would controvert,
particularly as the attitudes of the figures, which
are all somewhat indistinct (from age and ill
usage), are perfectly in accordance with the Grecian
tale of the infant Hercules strangling two ser-
pents in his cradle. These are subsequent ex--

GOAT WOBSHIP, 111

planations of emblems from misconception, but
were eagerly seized upon by the poet and sculptor
as the fields of beautiful imagery and description.
The Laocoons of Virgil and the Vatican (not ex-
actly the same), were the wonderful conceptions
of great minds, embodying popular views, with all
the powers of the style and the chisel — and the
caduceus of Mercury was their prototype. For
convenience of carrying by the hand, the ser-
pents in the latter twine round it till they face
the head of the human figures by which it is
crowned; but in ante-fixes, or on . tympanums,
as in the monument of the Secundines at Igel,
the Head alone appears. (Vide C. Roach Smith's
Collect. Ant. vol. ii. p. 4, and Schmeller Disserta-
tion : Abhandlung der Philosoph. Philolog. Classe
der konig. Baierischen Academie } Miincken, 1847,
4to, p. 68, with engravings of the bas reliefs of
each of its four sides, on a very large scale.) The
cherubims of our Christian churches seem to have
become favourites, from their great resemblance
to this pagan emblem.

The ophitic worship, however, of the ancients,
and the practices which have arisen out of it at
the present day, deserve their separate investiga-
tion, and can be here only slightly alluded to.

The antiquity and wide-spread adoration for
the goat is also attested by its frequent recur-
rence in ancient Egypt. Creuzer {Symbolik, vol. i.
p. 476, 2nd edit. 1819) particularises it, more es-
pecially for the male species, or Bock {Widder, our
Wether, now restricted in English to the male of
sheep,) as pervading from Syene's rocky defiles to
the desert and the sea, in the Thebaid, in Middle

112 IN EGYPT AND PRUSSIA.

Egypt, and the Nile Delta. "Their keepers
treated them with holy awe ; and, when one of
them died, it was a matter of general mourning
for the entire Mendic nome. Deity, town, and
beast had a common name, or, at least, the se-
lected animal that visibly represented the God
(Pan), was called Mendes, whence, according to
Herodotus {Euterpe, c. 46), the city was also so
called." On this subjeqt consult also Payne
Knight 9 s Inquiry on Symbolical Language, § 33,
p. 24. The form of this deity among the Egyp-
tians had the goatish* lineaments of the face, and
the usual horned hoofs ; and we may fancy the
pitch of fanaticism to which the inhabitants of
Mendes could carry their devotion, when we find
it creditably stated, how improbable soever it
may now appear, that the women submitted
themselves to the unnatural lusts of the animal.
To revert, however, to the Western devotion for
this animal, we find, as well as in Prussia, so also
in Lithuania, that a propitiation feast had the
name of Bock-weihe — goat consecration, which is
thus described from Vollmer's Mythologie, s. v. : —

" The inhabitants of a village assembled in their largest
barn. Whilst the women kneaded the dough, the Weidelot
held a black goat by the horns, and the men laid their right
hand upon its back, and confessed aloud their misdeeds.
Every one present was beaten by the priest according to the
measure of his sins, or feelingly punished in some other way.
The Weidelot then slew the goat, thus laden with the sins
of the congregation, and sprinkled those present with the
blood, that they might be purified ; but he took the meat,
that he might, as he said, offer it to the gods. Afterwards
they drank of the intoxicating liquors they had brought
with them, whilst the priest related the heroic deeds of their

VELLEDA AND DIE WEIDLERINN, 113

ancestors, as long as he could speak ; and whilst the beastly
drunken peasants gained in plenty fresh matter for another
confession. These rites continued to be celebrated to the
middle of the seventeenth century."

One thing is curious in all these Teutonic rela-
tions : the name of the principal performer, which
runs through them. Veltlin Supplit is evidently,
in his first name, identified with the early Weide-
lott, or Priest of the Wends :* so a reputed witch,
burned at Konigsberg, 5th May, 1570, was called
Stacy die Weidlerin (Tettau and Termors Volks-
Sagen Ost Preussens, p. 138), and Weidlerei was
the provincial term for sorcery. Thus, also, in
the relation above, called the " Goat Sacrifice" we
have the election of a Weideht } to act as priest
for the occasion, and to take the confessions of
the accused, to enjoin or inflict penance, and to
give absolution. But who does not see in all
these names, and particularly in the first, the
identity with the Velleda, of whose actions and
power we have such an accurate observer and
such an excellent reporter in Tacitus Hist., lib. iv.
59-62, where, speaking of Civilis and his victory
over the Romans, he says : —

" Mumius Luperchus Legatus legionis inter dona missus
Yelledse. Ea virgo nationis Bructerce late imperitabat, vetere
apud Germanos mores quo plerasque feminarum fatidicas
et augescente superstitione arbitrentur deas. Tuncque
Velledae auctoritas adolevit nam prosperas Germanis res et

* Vide Masch Religion der Obotriten, p. 25. Die dritte
art der Priester hiessen in wendischer Sprache Veidels oder
Vaidalottes von dem Wendischen Worte Waidin Gelehrs-
amkeit. And (Ibid. -p. 117) we have on the figure of a Satyr,
of which more anon, the word veidelbot engraven in Runic
characters on the sole of the right hoof.

114 THE LATTER A WITCH.

excidium legionum prodixerat. — Sic lenitis Teucteris legati
ad Civilem et Velledam missi cum donis cuncta ex volun-
tate Agrippinensium perpetravere. Sed coram adire alio-
quique Velledam negatum. Arcebatur aspectu quo vene-
rationis plus inesset. Ipsa edita in turre delectus e pro-
pinquis consulta responsaque ut internuntius numinis por-
tabat."

More is told, also (lib. v. chap. 22, and De Mor.
Germ. chap, viii.), and all has been wonderfully
adapted to modern belief by the great Wizard of
the North in his Noma of the Fitful Head, in the
"Pirate" The unfortunate Stacy, or Eustatia,
above-mentioned, fell upon that unauspicious in-
terval in the world's age, when she could neither
be venerated as a deity, nor, though feared, yet
tolerated as a witch. She was even brought to
convict herself by a confession; for, besides much
other then criminal matter, she admitted a carnal
intercourse with the evil one, whom she more
particularly describes "as a fine tall fellow in
grand clothes, with puckered hose and doublet,"
(ein schlanker Geselle in schonen Gewandern mit
geschlitzten Hosen und Wamms bekleidet). It
seems, however, that the first syllable of the
name Velleda (though originally derived from the
deity Bel) may in time have become generic for
vaticination of any kind; thus one of the parts
of the Edda is named Vol-u-spa, perhaps the
oldest portion of that poem, and described by
Mallet as a kind of Sybilline lay, which con-
tains the whole system of Scandinavian mytho-
logy — the creation, the origin of man — how evil
and death were brought into the world — and con-
cludes by a prediction of the destruction and re-

LATE HEATHEN BITES IN PRUSSIA. 115

novation of the universe, and a description of
the future abodes of bliss and misery.

All these are fitting subjects for a prophetic
virgin, or a spae-wi£e, as our northern countrymen
would possibly call her, still retaining the last
syllable of the Scandinavian denomination; as I
think I find also our English Beldame in the in-
tegrity of the Romanized Velleda.

The existence to comparatively recent periods
of superstitious practices, deduced from Heathen
or Druidical rites, is too well vouched in most
countries of Europe to admit of denial. The
Christian religion was obliged to connive at prac-
tices which it could not suddenly eradicate or
counteract; sometimes even, as in future ex-
amples, with the direct sanction of the ruling
powers ; but in general the Church put forward
all her terrors, ostensibly at least, against any
practices tainted with heathendom. Voigt, in his
History of Ancient Prussia, relating (vol. vi.
p. 75) the great ignorance in spiritual matters
which obtained there towards the middle of the
fifteenth century, and close upon the Reforma-
tion, particularly in the diocese of Samland (the
scene of Veltlin Supplies magic in 1525), adduces
the following extracts, from the episcopal decrees
to remedy the evil, in support of his assertion : —

" Ut de cetero in silvis et nemoribus nullas facient con-
gregationes seu celebritates contra Statuta S. Matris Ecclesie
et eorum Kresse non amplius celebrant sub pena rigide cor-
rections et privationis ecclesiastice sepulture.

" Ut de cetero multum vel in secreta vel eciam in publico
occidant, nee detnoniis in eorum contuberniis immolent.

" Omnino probibature eis ne cantaciones vel divinationes

116 LIKE IRISH WAKES.

in cerevisia vel pullis vel aliis quibuscunque modis exerceant
sub pena, <fcc.

" Quod nullus Pruthensis vir aut mulier in sylvis quos-
cunque abusus aut abominaciones de cetere exerceat juxta
ritus paganorum, cum ipsi Christiani sunt effecti, presertim
juxta tumulos et sepulchra eorum, que vel Geten vel Cappyn
juxta idiomata eorum nuncupantur in potationibus, et com-
meationibus sub pena strictissime flagellationis et pena
trium marcarum ecclesie et judici. Item de cetere nullus
vir aut mulier ritus pannorum exerceat post mortem de-
functorum amicorum seu proximorum in cemetriis circa se-
pulchra flendo vel salutando secuti usque modo facere con*
sueverunt sub pena," <fcc.

We may observe on these quotations that with
this feast of Kresse are coupled, in another docu-
ment, Ibid., " heidnisse qwasse als mette, krysse,
Snyke und dergleichen." This qwasse signifies
here, evidently, intoxicating liquors in general, as
the modern Russian quass, of which mead (mette)
and the other kinds, are subdivisions. So the
cantaciones in cerevisiam strongly remind us of
our daily Irish wakings of the dead ; as the ritus
pannorum is still practised in many places, espe-
cially round holy wells : that of St. Winnifred, in
Flintshire, has the neighbouring bushes, at parti-
cular seasons, adorned with votive rags in a large
circuit around, cf. supra, p. 94, the CalmuckBogda.

We have the relation of an eye-witness, a few
centuries before, that the practice of these dead
wakes with continued drinking obtained thus
early in an eminent degree, which shows the an-
tiquity of the practice, and the necessity of these
priestly prohibitions. Our great King Alfred, in
his translation of Orosius into vernacular Saxon,
intercalates, amongst other matters, the relation

POLKSTONE OP ST. WILFRED. 117

of Wulfstan, a Baltic trader to the Vistula, about
the end of the ninth century, into his narrative,
who tells him: —

"-) licgaft hufan eorpan on hyra husum. 3 ealle "5a
hwile lie J>aet lie bi# inne. Jaer sceal beon gedrync."

" (The body) lies above ground in their houses, and all
the while, the corpse bides therein, there shall be drink-

It is well known that even yet in many seques-
tered spots of our country, the grossest supersti-
tion and secret rites exist, which can most of them
be traced to anti-christian practices, of which
one instance occurs as late as the Reformation in
the (now Episcopal) fane at Ripon, mentioned in
the TVinchester Book of the Brit. Archseolog. As-
sociation, p. 440 : — " To quote an illustration from
the magical practices of our canons, I have dis-
covered that they possessed, even at the Reforma-
tion, and used liberally, a mysterious instru-
ment, called in the papers St. Wilfred's birnyng
iron; and a still more indescribable article, called
the Pokstone of St. Wilfred." Of this latter
article, later on, I shall be able to give a satisfac-
tory explanation; and it were well if all our
superstitious practices were restricted to such
harmless objects ; but the following relation will
show how often, even with all the boasted civiliza-
tion of our age and country, cruelty is mingled
with the rite. The Prussian sacrifices, above re-
lated, are all practised on the slaughtered animal;
but with us the sacrifices to Moloch are revived,
and a slow and lingering death by fire is a neces-
sity for the victim : —

118 BURNING A CALF ALIVff.

" An ignorant old farmer having met with some severe
losses in his cattle about the year 1800, was much afflicted
with the misfortune. The malady still continuing, and all
remedies failing, he thought it necessary to have recourse to
some extraordinary measure. Accordingly, on consulting
with some of his neighbours, equally ignorant with himself,
and evidently not less barbarous, they recalled to their re-
collection a tale which tradition had handed down from re-
mote antiquity, that the calamity would not cease until he
had actually burned alive the finest calf which he had on his
farm, but that when this sacrifice was made the murrain
would afflict his cattle no more. The old farmer, influenced
by this counsel, resolved immediately on reducing it to
practice. He, accordingly, called several of his friends
together on an appointed day, and having lighted a large
fire, brought his best calf forth, and, without ceremony or
remorse, pushed it into the flames. The innocent victim, on
feeling the intolerable heat, endeavoured in vain to escape.
The barbarians that surrounded the fire were armed with
pitch-forks, or pikes as in Cornwall they are generally called,
and as the burning victim endeavoured to escape from
death, with these instruments of cruelty the wretches pushed
the tortured animal into the flames, until the dying victim
poured out its expiring groan, and was consumed." ( Vide
Hitchin's History of Cornwall.)

It is impossible not to agree with the historian
who relates the fact, that this was an ancient relic
of Druidism — a sacrifice to Fate or Fortune. In
their undefined reminiscences of the long ex-
ploded rites of our pre-christian priesthood, it
was dimly suggestive to these biped brutes, that
a living victim was the most acceptable offering,
and the substitution of a calf for the Prussian
goat was perhaps an accident ; it is the same idea
upon a reduced scale that prompts, perhaps, at the
present day, the immolation of a shrewmouse alive,

ADELUNG ON BOCK. 119

or the corking up a serpent in a phial bottle, till
both expire in lingering torments. (Vide Notes
and Queries, quoted p. 109.) But it is sickening
to find that we have such a public and flagrant act
of blended ignorance and superstition recorded
against the inhabitants of Cornwall in the present
century.

That this divinity of Bog has been transferred
to the Goat, which has in Germany no other name
than Bock, this not merely verbal permutation,
but identity, may assure us. We English use the
word Buck only as signifying the male species of
certain definitive animals — a buck rabbit, and
the buck, or roebuck. Adelung finds, as he con-
ceives, five different meanings of this word, from
five different roots, which, however, he cannot
enumerate. Had he considered, for his principal
objection, the meaning of Bock : as a thing on
or by which any thing rests or hangs (Shake-
speare's buck-baskets, are the objective idea, be-
cause hung or slung by two handles, through which
a pole is passed) as also bucket* and buckle ; in
connexion with the old city of Balk, the capital
of Bocharia (vide page 87) ; and its significations
both in English and German, as a balk, balken;
to which, curiously enough, the Latin caprificus,
as the bearing timber of a king-post roof, or the
principal beam in it, answers, and thereby returns,
the name again to the animal, without metaphor,

* The usual expression, " kicking the bucket" has never
been explained. It is merely a suggestion that it may allude
darkly to an insult to, or driving away, the guardian angel,
or Puck.

120 BALK, CAPBIFICUS

by a mere translation. Had Adelung taken- all
this into Ms consideration, his objections must, I
think, have vanished ; so far is this carried, that
the word Bow, in German Bogen (arch), seems
most satisfactorily accounted for in the active
sense of Bock, from its peculiar power and strength
of bearing. We know St. Mary le Bow was so called
from the arches on which it was built ; and many
streets in British towns have their names from the
gates or arches at their terminations, as the Bow
in Edinburgh, Stratford le Bow, &c. &c.

The Greek name of the goat, rpayoc, would, I
have little doubt, have also its verb with the sig-
nification of to carry ; though rpayaw has only the
meaning of bearing luxuriantly leaves in the
vine, and rpwyw, to nibble, as the goat, at the vine ;
yet the German tragen, to carry ; our drag and
draw, would most decidedly point to this signifi-
cation, as of yorest use : rpay-w&a, tragedy, would
also have its signification, as odes to this god
Bog, in its translation of Goat : the w&a, I look
for in the Phallus worship : the German oden, of
which their use in klein-odien, for jewels and
gems, is a curious exemplification; and the many
allusions to the generative power, in sculpture, of
figures with bags depending from their necks, of
which one in bronze was lately found in London,
now in possession of William Crafter, Esq. of
Gravesend, and etched by my friend, H. Burkitt,*

* The accompanying etching, from the amateur burin of
that gentleman, has been kindly placed at my disposal by
its friendly artist.

GOITRE-LIKE BAGS. 121

Esq., F.S.A., of the Bank of England; in which
other marks of a Puck are found ; but the deli-
cacy of our age prevents the following of this sub-
ject of a Phallus farther.

We have, moreover, in the earliest German
language, the verbal identity of Goat, or Bock,
with Puch. Notger, a monk of the famous Ab-
bey of St. Gall, in Switzerland (fl022), published
an excellent vernacular translation of the Psalms
towards the close of the tenth century, and he
uses the word Poccho for the Goat.*

It is another curious proof how language fol-
lows thought, that our English name for this
Goat, an animal deified in all countries, should
in our own be identified with divinity : its de-
signation as Goat is too closely allied to God,
for the identity to be disputed ; and as it
stands isolated with us in such a sound, so it
admits therefore of no other etymology or compa-

* How significant, however, this goitre-like protuberance
under the neck was, in our Roman period, may be conjectured
from its potency still continuing, though for that evil into
which all pagan spells were converted, under the Christian
dispensation. I copy, as an instance, from Hone's Table
Book, vol. i. 674, a correspondent signing u Carte," and
writing from near Milnthorpe, in Westmoreland, who, speak-
ing of witches thereabout, says : " There is generally, also,
a protuberance of flesh on some part of the neck or jaw, by
which it is known that she has sold herself to the evil one."
In the Antichita oTErcolano, vol. v. 29, is the bust of a
youth, of the most beautiful proportions ; but under the chin
is a pendulous bag, like the dew-lap of a cow ; and in a re-
cent number of the Academich Transactions of Berlin, is a
long dissertation on a bust of Trophonius, where the swell-
ing under the chin is totally different from the appearanc
of a beard.

G

122 DESIGNATE PUCHS.

rison. We have retained the name ; our conti-
nental neighbours have kept their reverence for
this animal as a divinity. Instances of sacrifices
to a late period are recorded in Prussia, where the
Goat was subjectively the sacrifice, or objectively
the thing adored ; and we should, as for Apis on
the banks of the Nile, have to ask :

" Why now a victim, and now Prussia's God ?"

The following are two remarkable instances,
copied from Tettau and Temme's " Preussische
Volkssageri' : —

Veltin Supplit. — " In dem Jahre 1520, als der Herr
Albrecht der Aeltere Markgraf zu Brandenburgh, und der
Zeit Hochmeister des Deutschen Ordens mit dem Polen
K&nige Sigismund im offenen Krieg lebte und von diesem
in grosse Enge getrieben war liessen sich auch plfftzlich
die Schiffe der Pohlen auf der See, und in Haff blicken,
und drohten einen Einfal in Sammland. Dort lebte da-
mals an dem strande ein Freibauer, namens Valtin Sup-
plit sehr angesehen unter alien seinen Landesleuten, denn
er stammte ab yon den alten Priestern des Landes und
war auch im stillen der oberste Weideler oder Priester.
Dieser sagte dass er wohl Rath wisse den Feind von dem
Lande abzuhalten wenn er nur die Erlaubniss der Obrigkeit
hatte. Das wurde dem Markgrafen iiberbracht welcher
in der grossen Noth des Landies zu Allem seine Einwilli-
gung gab. Als dieses der Valtin horte, versammelte er die
Bauern aus alien benachbarten Dfirfern : hier nahm er einen
ganz schwarzen stier und zwei tonnen bier und begaben
sich alle damit an den strand. Als man dort ankam hat er
den Stier geschlachtet und dann zerhauen : das Eingeweide
aber nahm er heraus und verbrannte es sammt den Enochen
und das Fleisch wurde in einen grossen Kessel gekocht.
Dieses alles begleitete er durch seltsame Qeberden durch
Hande und Flisse und dabei sprach er viele Gebete zu den
alten G6ttern des Landes. Darauf wurde das fleisch und

THE PEUSSIAN GOAT SACRIFICE. 123

das bier verzehrt bis nichts mehr da von iibrig war wobei
wiederum seltsame Gebete gesprochen wurden.

" Einige Tage liessen sich wieder die Schiffe der Pohlen
sehen aber es gelang ihnen nicht weder mit grossen noch mit
kleinen schiffen noch mit den boten obgleich es das beste
wetter und kein feind sich ihnen entgegenstellte. Das
konnte nun der Markgraf und seine Krieger nicht begreifen.
Ala aber nach Beendigung des Krieges, mehrere so in den
schiffen gewesen nach Sammland gekommen, haben sie den
Grand angegeben wie sie namlich durch seltsame Verblen-
dungen abgehalten worden. Bald war ihnen der Strand wie
ein grausamer und entsetzlicher Abgrund vorgekommen,
bald wie hohe unersteigliche Sandberge. So ist es ihnen
uberall ergangen bis sie zuletzt unyerrichterer Sache wieder
umgekehrt.

" Allein seit der Zeit ist den Bauern jener Gegend das
Ungluck widerfahren dass sie keine Fische mehr in die See
haben fangen konnen, so viol Miihe sie sich deshalb auch
gegeben. Das hat sieben Jahre gedauert und es ist dabei
grosse Noth in der Gegend enstanden. Da hat endlich
Valtin Supplit bekannt, dass dieser grosser Unheil aus
seinem eigenen grossen Versehen geschehen, da er bei der
Opferung des Stiers Alles zuriickgewiesen was sich dem
Ufer nahere und mit grosser Unbedachsamskeit die Fische
auszunehmen vergessen habe. Urn ihnen nun wieder zu
helfen hat er darauf eine Saukaufen und wohl masten, auch
zwei Tonnen Bier anschaffen lassen, damit ist er unter
Begleitung der Bauern an den Strand gegangen. Alsdann
bat er die fette Sau mit vielerlei sonderbaren Geberden ge-
tchlachtet, sie rein gemacht und die abgeschnittenen Zitzen
in die See geworfen, das andere aber in einen Kessel gethan
und zum Trunk wohl gesaltzen. Als dies nun gekocht ge-
wesen, haben alle davon gegessen auch das Bier getrunken
bis nicht mehr davon iibrig gewesen. Darauf sind die Fische
wieder gekommen in grosseren Haufen denn je.

"Der Pfarrer zu Pokethen hat zwar die Sache angezeigt
und Supplit und die Bauern haben Strafe gethan, allein dies
haben sie gem gethan da sie wieder Fische hatten."— Zmc.
David Bd. I. s. 118 <fc 123 ; Vergl. Hewruberger, s. 351.

G2

124 TRANSLATED.

Veltin Supplit (vide Tettau and Temme's Volks Sagen
08t-Preussen8 y 133, No. 128). — " In the year 1520, when
Lord Albrecht, the Elder, Markgraf of Brandenburgh,
and then Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, was in open
war with Sigismund, King of Poland, and driven by him
to great extremity, the vessels of the latter suddenly ap-
peared in the Haf, and threatened a landing on the coast of
Samland. At that time there lived on this strand a small
farmer, called Veltin Supplit, much looked up to by all his
countrymen, for he was descended from the old priests of
the district, and was covertly their highest Weideler, or
Priest. This man said he knew the means of driving the
enemy from their shores, if he had only permission from his
superiors to use them. This was related to the Markgraf,
who, in the imminent peril of the country, gave him his
fullest permission. When Veltin heard this, he collected the
farmers from all the neighbouring villages, and took a per-
fectly black ox and two hogsheads of beer, with which they
all went to the strand. Arrived there, the ox was slaugh-
tered, and cut into pieces ; but the entrails, with the bones,
were burnt, and the flesh put to boil in a large kettle. All
this he accompanied with strange twistings of hands and
feet, accompanied by many prayers to the old divinities of
the country. Afterwards the meat and beer were consumed,
so that nothing was left, attended, as before, with many odd
prayers and ceremonies.

" Some days afterwards, the ships of the Poles came again
in sight ; but they could do nothing either with their great
or small vessels, or with their boats, though they were fa-
voured by the finest weather, and no armed force was opposed
to them. This appeared inexplicable to the Markgraf and
his generals ; but when, after the war, many who had been
on board these vessels came into Samland, they explained
the matter, by declaring that- they were prevented landing
by a strange illusion. At one place there appeared in the
strand a dreadful and hideous gulph, and in another a high
impracticable cliff ; and so it happened all along the coast,
that they returned home without having accomplished their
object.

CONSECRATION OF THE GOAT. 125

" However, from that time forwards it happened, unfor-
tunately for the peasantry of the district, that they could
catch no fish in this sea, notwithstanding every endeavour.
Thus it continued seven years, and the country suffered the
greatest need in consequence. At last Veltin Supplit con-
fessed this great misfortune arose from a mighty inconsi-
derateness on his part, having, when he offered up the black
ox, driven back every thing from approaching the shore,
bat at the same time forgotten to except the fish. To make
matters good again, he bought and fattened a sow, and, with
it and two hogsheads of beer, he again proceeded to the
strand. This masted sow he slaughtered there, with a re-
petition of the same strange gestures, cleaned out the en-
trails, and threw the paps into the sea, but the meat into a
kettle with much salt, to promote drinking. When it was
sufficiently boiled, all partook of it, and drank out the beer,
till nothing was left. Afterwards the fish appeared in
greater shoals than ever. It is true the pastor of Polkethen
denounced the matter, and Supplit and the peasants were
punished ; but they bore all willingly, since they had gotten
the fish again."

Das Bock Heiligen (Tettau and Temme, p. 261). — " Die
Ceremonie des Bockheiligens soil noch jetzt hin und wieder
in Preussen zur Yerehrung und Yersd'hnung der alten Gotter
des Landes obgleich sehr im geheimen geschehen. Es kommen
n&mlich aus meheren Dorfern die Bauern zuzammen. Dort
w&hlen sie unter sich einen alten Mann zum Waidelotten
(so hiessen die alten hiednichen Priester) dann machten sie
in der Mitte der Scheime era grosses langes Feuer und
nun bringen die manner einen Bock herbei, die Weiber aber
Weizenmehl welches geknetet wird. 1st dieses fertig so
setzt sich der Waidelot auf einen erhtihten Sitz von wel-
ohem er an die Yersammlung eine Rede halt liber die Ur-
ankunft des Preussischen Yolks und das Land ; liber dessen
Helden-thaten und Tugenden ; uber die Gebote der G6tter
und was sie von den Menschen fordern. Dann fuhrt er den
Bock in die Mitte der Yersammlung, legt seine Hande auf
ihn und ruft alle die alten Gotter nach der Reihe an, dass
sie gnadig herabschauen wollten. Darauf fallen alle An-

126 IN PRUSSIA.

wesenden vor dem Waidelotten in die Knie und beichten
ihm mit lauter Stimme ihre Siinden mit welchem sie ver-
meinen die Gotter zum Zorne gereitzt zu haben. Darauf
stimmen sie einen Lobgesang an die G5tter an, fassen nun
atte den Bock an, heben ihn in die Huhe und halten ihn to
lange bis der Lobgesang zu Ende ist. 1st dieses geschehen
so setzen sie den Bock auf die Erde und der Waidelotte
ermahnt nun das Yolk das Opfer mit tiefer Demuth zu
verrichten und so wie es von ihren Vorfahren auf sie ge-
kommen es auch auf ihre Nachkommen zu bringen. Als-
dann schlachtet er den Bock, fangt das Blut in einer Schiissel
auf und besprengt die Herumstehenden damit, giebt auch
jedem etwas davon in ein Gefass urn es nachher dem Vieh
zum trinken zu geben welches dadurch gegen Krankheit
beschiitzt wird. Darauf wird der Bock in Stiicke gehauen
welche auf Brettern iiber das Feuer gelegt wird um es zu
braten. Wahrend des Bratens fallen sie alle wieder in die
Knie vor dem Waidelotten, der sie nun fur die vorher
gebeichteten Siinden straft indem er sie schlagt, an den
Haaren reisst u. s. w. Doch bald kehrt sich dieses um und
sie fallen iiber den Waidelotten her, den sie eben so reissen
und schlagen. Wenn ' dieses geschehen so machen die
weiber aus dem mitgebrachten Mehl Kuchen. Diese wer-
den aber nicht in einen Backofen gebraten sondern sie
geben sie den Mannern welche sich zu beiden Seiten des
Feuers stellen und die Kuchen wieder einander durch das
Feuer so lange zuwerfen (therefore the long fire) bis sie gar
sind. Zuletzt geht dann das Essen und Trinken an,
welches den ganzen Tag und die folgende Nacht dauert.

" Was von dem Mahle tibrig bleibt wird sorgfaltig ver-
graben : durch ein solches Opfer glauben sie die Gotter sich
besonders gnadig zu machen.

" In Sammland wird auf diese Weise eine Sau goheiligt
oder geopfert besonders um dadurch einen reichen Fisch-
fang zu erwerben. Diese Opfer werden iibrigens alle sehr
heimlich getrieben : und als einstmals ein Fremder zufUl-
lig dazu gekommen, hat er nur mit vieler noth sein Leben
retten kSnnen."

The Goat Sacrament.—" The ceremony of a Goat Sacra-

TRANSLATION. 127

ment is said still to take place here and there, in Prussia, as
a worship of the old divinities of the country, though kept
extremely secret. The farmers of many Tillages meet and
choose amongst themselves an old man as Weiddott — for so
the old priests of the land were called — and then they make
in the centre of a barn a large and long fire ; the men then
fetch a goat, and the women wheaten flour, which they
knead. When this is done, the Waidelott places himself
upon a raised seat, from which he addresses a speech
to the congregation, on the primeval settlement of the
Prussian people and their country ; on their heroic deeds
and virtues; on the behests of their deities, and their
demands upon their votaries. He then leads the Goat into
the middle of the crowd, lays his hands upon it, and invokes
all the old gods in succession, to look down graciously upon
them. All the assembly, then falls down on its knees before
the Waidelott, and confesses with a loud voice the trans-
gressions, with which they believe they have incited their
gods to anger. A hymn of praise to their deities is then
chaunted in chorus, and they all lay hold of the goat and
raise it on high till the song is finished. They afterwards
put the animal on the ground, and the Waidelott warns the
people to perform the sacrifice of the Goat in the deepest
devotion, and to continue the ceremony to their posterity as
they received it from their ancestors. He then slaughters
the goat, and receives the blood into a dish, with which he
sprinkles all present, and pours every one some of it in a
vessel to give to his cattle to drink, which are thus defended
from sickness. The goat is then hewn in pieces, which are
placed on boards over the fire to roast ; and during the
process all fall again on their knees before the Waidelott,
who applies penance for all the sins previously confessed, by
striking them, pulling their hair, <fcc. But the scene is soon
changed, for the assembly, in their turn, attack the Waide-
lott, whom they pull about and beat. After this the women
make cakes from the meal they brought with them. These
are, however, not baked in the oven, but are given to the
men, who place themselves on each side of the fire, and
throw the cakes so long across it till they are done. After-
wards the eating and drinking commences, which lasts all

128 CONFORMITIES IN ENGLAND.

that day and the entire night following. What remains of
the flour is carefully buried. By such a sacrifice they be-
lieve their gods are made especially propitious..

"In Samland, a sow is sacrificed, with the same ob-
servances ; more particularly to obtain a successful fishery ;
but all these rites are conducted very secretly, and when
once a stranger had accidentally intruded on them, he had
great difficulty in escaping with life."

The very peculiar rites of raising the goat till
they had finished the hymn of praise, in this latter
instance, may have given rise to the curious
custom of "Lifting" vide Hone's "Every Day
Book :" and the throwing the cakes backwards and
forwards over the fire till baked sufficiently, be
but a modification, or symbolical representation,
of passing children through the fire to Moloch, as
represented in various parts of Scripture — it is to
be hoped in the same harmless and bloodless
manner as not unfrequently practised in Britain
at the present, by driving horses and cattle be-
twixt two burning lots of faggots, or as boys jump
over bonfires, without now looking upon it as any
thing but a feat of activity, but formerly believed
to be a great purifier and protection from evil.
The black bit of the bettane cake, in Scotland
(vide Jamieson's Dictionary, s. v. Bettane), which
determines by lot the devoted person who is to be
sacrificed to Baal, to render the year productive,
represents the black goat, or sow, of former times,
and more potent rites ; and these again may have
been, as Jamieson supposed, " but the substitutes
of human victims ;" although they now pass from
the act of sacrificing, and only compel the devoted
person to leap three times round the fire.

CHAPTER IV.

Zevg iff, Zcvc «OTt, Ztvc eaaerai, o peyaXoc Zevc"

PH(EMONE.

u Ehe die Erde war, und die Tiefe des Meers und der

Himmel
War Allvater derselbe, der ward, der ist, und der sein wird
Wandelos fest und des Wandelbaren ewiger Urgrund."

Having brought this God Bog, both in name and
substance, to the west, we find it there perma-
nently fixed as the pure indigenous designation of
their deity to the majority of the inhabitants of Eu-
rope, the Slavonians. The Slavonian population of
this quarter of the globe is greater than any other
nationality, and the principal, nay, the only, word
by which the Christian or any other God is there
denoted, is BOG. The German archaeologist,
Worbs, in an article in Ertsch and Grater's En-
cyclopadie, s. v. Bog, says — Bog, Boh, Buh, is
the name of God amongst all the Slavonic nations ;
and Grim, D. M. p. 14, — " The supreme deity is con-
sidered as omnipresent, and, like the host, to take
the stranger under his immediate protection, so
that the Slavonian says to the approaching guest,
u Bog te usprimi — God receive you." Weber,

g3

130 SCHEDIUS* DESCRIPTION

in his description of Germany, speaking of both
Upper and Lower Lausitz, says the inhabitants
are called by the Germanized Bohemians, on the
other side of the Erzgebirge, as a kind nickname,
Pomeloi Bog, because of their frequent use of this
pious ejaculation, meaning " Preserve you God."
From the frequent use of a phrase of, I am sorry
to say, a directly contrary tendency, Englishmen
have frequently received, amongst the denizens
of Fatherland, the unenviable sobriquet of Herr,
or Milord Godammee.

The shortest, and perhaps the truest, exposition
of the Wendic religion is certainly found in Elias
Schedius de Diis Germanorum (Ed. Amst. 1648,
12mo),p. 505: —

"Malum deum lingua sua Zernebuck; bonum Belbuch
Yocantes (Vandali) teste Miinster l.iii. Cosmographies; Zceme
autem apud Vandalos nigrum sonat ; hinc Zcernewitz nigrum
lumen, Zcernebitz niger fundus est. Bel vero albus est et
Belbuch deus albus ; Zernebuck vero deus niger ; bonum et
malum putabant genium et Satanam quasi boni et mali
authorem juxta Manichssum errorem. Sed et Belbuch ilium
alii Juterbuch vel Juterbock vocant, et nescio quam fabulam
de Juttse cujusdam capro subnectant." *

* I quote, in addition, the following account of the Roman
duality, from Spence's Polymetis, p. 2 : — " The deities of the
Romans were so numerous, that they might well complain of
wanting a nomenclature to their names. Their vulgar reli-
gion, as indeed that of the Romans in general, was a kind
of Manicheism. Whatever was able to do good, or to do
harm to man, was immediately looked upon as a superior
power, which, in their language, was a deity.' 1 And his note.

There is a gem in the cabinet at St. Genevieve, at Paris,
in particular, which was formerly used as an amulet, with
this inscription — Awo wavrog kqkh Aat/xovoc. In the

OF BIELBOG AND ZERNIBOG. 131

It is strange that the author, a native of Meck-
lenburg, and a denizen of Gustrow, should not
have perceived that the Juterbock is but a transla-
tion of bonus deus y corrupted into the well-known
patois of the Marks, from guter Bock, the good
goat ; it is a pity that he disdained to recount the
popular relations of this Biel or Bilbog, as they
might have given us possibly some curious and now
forgotten traces of the ancient worship. A very old
town exists in the heart of the old Mark of Bran-
denburg, called Juterbock, which, famous at the
time of the Reformation for the forced disgorging
which Luther's adversary, Tentzel, there made
of the produce of his Absolution bulls, is yet more
famous for a fane of Wendic worship, which worse
than Vandal hands destroyed within a century
only of the date at which I am writing.

It would require the enthusiasm of a Stukely
to express indignation adequately at this piece
of gratuitous barbarism. The destruction of his
round temple to Consus, on the Carron, could not

same manner the vulgar scheme of religion among the
Romans admitted as easily of bad as of good deities, as
one learns from Pliny, 1. 2. c. 7 : — " Fragilis et laboriosa mor-
talitas, in partes ista digessit infirmitatis suae memor ut
portionibus coleret quisque quo maxime indigeret. Itaque
nomina alia aliis gentibus et numina in iisdem innumerabilia
reperimus ; inferis quoque in genera descriptis morbisque et
multis etiam pestibus : dum esse placata trepido metu cu-
pimus. Ideoque etiam publice Febris fanum in palatio
dicatum est: Orbonse ad iEdem Larium ; ara malse Fortunes,
Exquiliis ; Quamobrem major caelitum populus etiam quam
hominum intelligi potest. — Petron. Sat. p. 35. Nostra regio
tarn prsesentibus plena est numinibus ut facilius posse deum
quam hominem invenire."

182 THE TEMPLE OF JUETEBBQCK

have long preceded the demolition of the Temple
of the Bielbog at Jiiterbock. Luckily, in 1617,
we have the description of it by a cotemporary,
Pastor Hannemann, of Wittenberg, in a place
we should least expect to find it, viz., in the printed
edition of a sermon, preached on the occasion of
the fiftieth anniversary of his holy office. The
translation of his words is as follows : —

" Even now we see on the new market (at Jiiterbock), a
round hill on which the inhabitants of the suburb, on fes-
tive occasions, marriages, <fcc, perform dances. This hill had
a Wendic Idol Temple. The yore fane, which gave occasion to
the foundation of the town, was pulled down some forty good
years ago, and served for the worship of the Pagan deity of
the dawn of day. It was in length, breadth, and height
to the roof, a cube of 40 feet, and built of brick, but had a
groined vault (ein kreuz gewdlbe) in the gable roof, over the
square. The door, southwards, was so low, that it was ne-
cessary to stoop on entering. It had no window, but only a
round hole, guarded by a strong iron railing, towards the
east, and exactly towards sunrise at the time of the equi-
noxes, of the size of the bottom of a cask, through which
the sun could shine." *

* The Oratory described by Wakeman (Irish Archaeology,
p. 59), has very curious coincidences with this account The
south door, small eastern window, and parallelogram form,
are common to both. It is curious that the oldest temple in
Rome, that erected by Romulus to Jupiter Ferretrius (Ziv. i.
10), was of the same oblong form, but considerably smaller,
about 15 feet at its longest side, but was enlarged by Ancus
Martius, as we may infer from Liv. i. 32 and 33. Its size
is taken from the translation of Dionys . Hafccar. i. p. 34, by
Lasus of 1480, which preceded the earliest edition of the
Greek text by 66 years, where the dimensions are given much
smaller. I have no hesitation in comparing these most
ancient fanes of Italy, Prussia, and Ireland, particularly as

I4KE AN IRISH ORATORY. 133

This simple eastern window is exactly in ac-
cordance with the description of an Irish Oratory,
adduced by Petrie in his Ecclesiastical Antiquities
of that eountry, where, though the dimensions of
the edifice seem smaller, the west door one foot
nine inches wide at top, and two feet four inches at
base, may have been equally difficult of access
with its Wendic prototype. It is to be lamented
that we cannot trace further conformities ; but on
a visit to the ruins of Chorin, once a celebrated
Cistercian convent^ near Neustadt-Eberswalde, I
saw the walls of a very old stone edifice, on a
slight eminence towards the west, which appeared
to me, in dimensions and some other particulars,
in accordance with the description of that at
Jiiterbock; and I only lament that my short stay
did not permit an accurate and measured survey.

It is not my intention, at present, to enter fur-
ther into the tenets, ritual, and customs of the
heathen religion of the Wends, further than is
illustrative of our own Shakespeare's Puck : I
shall, therefore, only mention at present the
deities, Swantovi* or Sw&tovit, Gerovit or Herovitf,
fovevit, Rugiaw*, in all of which, as the final
syllable, vit, answers to the Biel in Bielbog, we
can only find provincial varieties or synonyms of
the white god. For, as I have before observed,

in the dispute about the Ferretrius addition, to the name of
Jupiter, its derivation from Fercullus, connected with the
Suovetaurilia, deserves the preference, and would connect it,
at least verbally, as ur-sus (hoar or yore sow) subsequently
the great Northern Bear and Zam-bor of the Slaves— with
the Bor of the Edda.

134 WHEN GOAT WORSHIP BEGAN

Biel is the Slavonic still for the presence of that
color which Newton's laws of optics teaches us
combines every other in itself, and the very-
symbol of the deity of day or light — Helios, the
great god of the Greeks, the sun, the emblem of
sanctity.

" In pure white robes, like very sanctity

Did she approach."

— Winter's Tale, Act. iv„ sc. 2.

It would be curious and instructive, as to the
progress of the human mind, and for tracing the
civilization of our race, if we could discover the
period at which the idea of one supreme over-
ruling and beneficent Deity was superseded in
the West by that of a duality of power, typified
respectively as a white and black divinity; and
also when the emblem of a goat, an animal re-
markable neither for physical strength nor beauty,
nor for any peculiar benefit to man, was taken up
by him as the sacred type. In all these respects
it was surpassed by the well-proportioned and la-
borious ox y which, however, in Europe never rose
above the dignity of a victim. Looking upon
central Asia as the common diverging point of
the human race, its southern and eastern
branches seem, it is true, to have fixed their
devotion on this animal, as developed in the
sacredness of the cow amongst the followers of
Bramah, and in its natural prototype found by
them at the Cow's Mouth on the Ganges ; as well
as in the cultivated worship of the Bull Apis of
the Nile. In the West Tppology y perhaps a later
heresy, partially divided the votaries of the goat,

OR IPPOLOGY IN BRITAIN. 135

and may have been a tardy acknowledgment of
the superior utility and finer formed outlines of
the noble and fiery horse, when the milk of the
mares, and the flesh of the foals, formed a large
preponderating portion of human sustenance ; so
that the earliest name by which the Thracians are
known to Homer, was that of l7nro/zoXyo«, or milkers
of horses. To this creed we may suppose the
majority of the first British colonizers of our
island more especially devoted, as the earliest
traces of their existence and veneration in the
white horse cut on the chalk cliffs of Berkshire
and elsewhere, Bede's account of the conversion
of Ooifi (to which I shall subsequently recur), our
earliest coins, and other existing monuments, suf-
ficiently testify. Yet the general name of the
Deity was Bog, as taken from the goat, which,
while it attested its earlier and superior venera-
tion, may account for the absence of monumental
or graven traces of its existence amongst us.
The only outward features of this animal com-
manding awe or affection was the beard,* and
in many species, e.g. the Ibex (Steinbock), a pe-
culiarly vigorous and graceful development of
the horn; the former would give it weight and
dignity in the eyes of ruling elders, but it is most
probably to the latter that it owes its mythic
power and uncontrolled hold on the minds of so
many ancient nations. It would be superfluous

* So Schedius de Diis Gerrtiarwrum, p. 494, attributes,
after Lucian, a beard as an essential mark of Jupiter, as well
as his horns. " Lucianus enim in sacrifices cum multorum
Deorum formam describit solem Jovem id prsecipuum ha-

136 HORN, THE GOAT SYMBOL,

here to insist, in any degree commensurate to the
subject, on the veneration and sanctity that has
in all times and in all countries attached itself to
horns. The Scriptures abound with passages
where power, ghxry, brightness, fuid authority, are
attributed or accompany horns. The face of
Moses was encompassed with shining radiating
horns, when it was intended figuratively to repre-
sent the brightness of the holy sechinah to which
he had stood face to face, reflected in his features,
and too powerful for the children of Israel to look
upon, and which Moses was consequently obliged
to cover with a veil. Horns are in the ram the
principal, and a powerful weapon of defence or ag-
gression, and they therefore frequently symbolise
strength, as, the Lord exalteth the horn of the
mighty: he breaketh the horn of the ungodly,
Moses compares Joseph, for his power, to the
horn of the rhinoceros. The vision of Daniel
(chap, viii.) is the most ample illustration of
Scriptural symbolical language in reference to
horns, especially of the unicorn and double-
horned ram, which have here their peculiarly ex-
pressive significance, as especially the emblems of
Macedonia* and Media. The ram's head must,
however, have been also a symbol of the highest
Persian power, for we learn from Ammimmus,

bere dicit quod sit barbatus. In conailio proterea Deorum
cornua etiam ille jungit arietis. So that the goat would
answer most perfectly amongst the brute tribe to the des-
cription or picture of Olympic Jupiter.

* Hereon consult the very learned Essay of Taylor Combe,
on the ancient symbol of Macedon, with many illustrations,
in the Archaeology vol. xiv., p. 14.

POUND IN MANY COUNTRIES. 137

lib. xix., chap, i, that when the King of Persia
took the field he wore, instead of a diadem, a
golden ram's head adorned with gems. " Insi-
dens autem equo ante alios celsior ipse preibat
agminibus cunctis aureum capitis arietis figmen-
tum instructum capeHis pro diademate gestans -"
and we learn from Xenophon that the ram was
signified in the Persian language, no doubt, as a
derivative, by the word cwaunus, also meaning
horns, like the Greek primitive tcepag. Finn
Magnusen, the learned expounder of the Edda,
finds, in the twelve names of Odin, the twelve
signs of the Zodiac ; and as Aries is the first in
the series of these heavenly bodies, so is AUfadir
its corresponding denomination; the highest in
power and authority in this arctic Olympus. But
in the intermediate stages, from the Indus to Ice-
land, the veneration of the goat may be followed
in tradition and history. We have no accounts
of the present internal state of the European pro-
vinces of the Turkish empire, so that we cannot
learn how much at present of ancient reverence
and popular belief may attach to the goat ; but
that it was originally of great force, and inter-
woven into their most remote history, their ear-
liest myths plainly show. We find in the life of
the first King of Macedon, with the significant
name of Keraunos, and whose reign, according to
Justin (lib. vii., chap, i.), is generally ascribed to
814, B.C., that he placed goats before his ensign :
"religioseque postea observavit quocunque agmen
moveret, ante signa easdem capras habere, caepto-
rum duces habiturus* quas regni habuerat auc-

138 MONASTERY OF BIBLBOG.

tores." The legend of the country being, that he
was led by a goat to the sovereignty and the city
of Edessa, which, consequently, had its name
afterwards changed into JEge, or the Goat.

The enumeration of all the localities to which
the name of Puck attaches, in different countries
of Europe, would exhibit a very long list of moun-
tains, rivers, districts, and places; and it may
suffice to restrict my present catalogue, as a spe-
cimen, to some of the most prominent, in which
the existing traces in our country will naturally
claim a prominent share.

The monastic establishment of Bielbog,* in
Pomerania, continued in great vigour and venera-
tion to the Reformation; and as it was the papal
practice to choose for its ecclesiastical establish-
ments the seats of ancient worship, we may fairly
deduce that here previously a fane existed to the
heathen good deity; and this the more readily, as
it was, I believe, from this convent that a curious
unique brazen image of the Bielbog, now preserved
in the " Vaterlandisches Museum," at Berlin, was
taken, where it had been fixed as a trophy over
the demolished temple in which it had previously
been worshipped. It has the figure of a full
round-featured human face, with rays surround-

* Vide Baltuche Studien (vol. ii. lstes Heft lstes Stuck),
where its ancient state is described as having on an adjoin-
ing hill an idol, temple, and statues to the Bielbog wor-
shipped by the ancient Slavonians. Belg&rd is a considerable
town in the same province ; and Belgrade, on the Danube, is
only a variation in the latter part of the Slavonic Gorod, for
town, as Novogorod, or JStargard, in Mecklenburgh, Pom-
mern, <fcc, answering to our " Garden" as inclosure.

EUPES PICARUM AT HOXTBR. 139

ing it completely, and fixed upon a bust, with
prominent breasts, but destitute of arms. In the
Lausitz, the most famous convent, which still
exists, is called Doin-luc, the first part of which
word is also Slavonic for good. In the same
duchy is a hill still called Zernibog, rich in the
ancient traditions of the neighbouring peasantry.
The Hoxter, or Exterensteine, a curious natural
conformation of Rock, used certainly for pagan
worship, on the Weser, is called by the chro-
niclers in Latin, Rupes Picarum, or Pocorum.
We have soon to show the identity of Bog with
Puff, the Frog, and Pogge; thence, also, with
Padde, the same animal, and the English Parf-
dock and Pede, or, as some read, Bede {Merry
Wives, act v., sc. 4) ; and J. P. Collier, in his
Biographical Catalogue of Early English Litera-
ture y vol. ii. p. 389, has a note here : " where's
Bead spelt Bede in the folios, and Pead in the
quartos." Malone printed the name " Pedde"
without assigning any reason ; and surely he was
right, or nearer so, than any of the others ; for
Mr. Collier's supposition, that the name was
chosen to indicate the smallness of the fairy, I
think untenable. (Vide supra, p. 144, under which
phase the names of places are very frequent).
Poggesanien* was an ancient division of heathen

* That the Platt-Deutch use of Pogge continued to the
seventeenth century, is plain, from the following version of
the Fable of the Frogs asking a King, in that dialect, copied
from an Hamburgh edition of "Reyneeke Vow" dated 1660 :

" Ich ward andenchen der Poggen all
De eins tho God repen mit grotem schall

140 PUCH NAMES NUMEROUS

Prussia. Buchonia, near Fulda, may divide its
origin betwixt Book, or Buche (the Beech-tree).
The territory of Buchan, and the family of
Buchanan, in Scotland, most probably have the
same origin. The German authors who have dis-
cussed the history of the branch of this family in
Austria, where it became numerous and powerful,
write, as a synonym, or explanation, Buch-hain,
and say their arms are still the same as those of
the Scottish branch ; they seem to think that the
Continental one left Scotland as early as the year
700, when David Cuming had the entire county
Buchan. The modern Pech Jam on the Danube
was an old and famous town at the time of the
Singer of the Nibelungen Lied, v. 5285.

"Diu venster un den muren, sach man offen stan
Diu buret* ze Bechelaren, diu was uf-getan."

Families, with names derived from Pogge, are
Pogarell, or Pogrell, principally in Silesia, which
spread itself thence into Slavonia and Bohemia,
and, as early as 550, with Prince Lecho, into Poland.
— The Pogtmsch are principally found as a yore
old family in Holstein and Schleswig. In the year
1322, a nobleman of this name lost eight sons in a

Dat he en einen Koninck wolde geven
Dat se in dwange mdchten leven."

The boys in Scotland have a superstitious feeling respect-
ing the yellow Goldring : and when they see it, exclaim, in
reference to its mysterious nature : —

" Half a puddock, half a toad,
Half a drap o' deil's blude,

On a May morning."
— From " Chamber* 8 Edinburgh Cyclopcedia"

IN ITALY, ENGLAND, ETC. 141

battle with the inhabitants of the Ditmarschen,
and was himself sorely wounded. In Steiermark
we have the Pogner. The traces are frequent in
Italy: the Poggios have given many names to
literature, and either received or impressed their
very general denomination on hills, and on a
town of the same name in Poggibonzi, on the Flo-
rentine territory; nor is it too forced to derive
from the primitive root their Pucci Puccinelli, our
Polchinello, corrupted now into Punch, who, ih
the round of ages, represents many of the wild
freaks and merry jests of our ancient Puch.

My opportunities of searching for vestiges of
ancient veneration for this deity in England have
been greater and, therefore, perhaps more suc-
cessfttl. In Berkshire they are interesting, as the
following extract from Biblwtheca Topograph. Brit.
xvi. p. 65, will prove : — " Manor of Woolley, in Chud-
dleworth Parish. There is a ruined monastery in
the south-eastern corner of the parish, commonly
called Poughley, pronounced Porfly, the true name
they say is Pog-hill: in Carey's Map, Pogley.
There is part still standing, it belongs to the Dean
and Chapter of Westminster, in consequence of
which they have the rectorial tithes, and the pre-
sentation to the vicarage." Great Caxwell, Ibid.
No. xiii. p. 15, ex MS. in Bibl. Bal. — " Matilda
de Glovernia Priorissa eccl. conv. de Littlemore
tenementum, quod tenuit Matilda de Trog-Puce
in Samford. In carta protremo citata occ' Walter
de Trog-Puce." We have in the same work
notice of one of the charters of Poughhele, with
the seal and inscription, sigil. Wilhelmi Prioris de

142 EEFERENCE TO ALLIES

Poghele. Padwick lanes, an old high road, are
in the immediate neighbourhood; and we find
in the adjoining county of Bedfordshire, Pud-
dington, Patton and Potgrave. Berkshire gives
us also that fine remnant of yore antiquity, the
Pusey Horn. In Atkins' Gloucestershire we meet
with a Dennis of Pucklehwr&t.

After the above paragraph was written, I have
been referred, by the kindness of M. A. Lower,
Esq., of Lewes, to the very curious work of Jabez
Allies, Esq., on Ignis Fatuus (London, 1846,
8vo.), in which I find my researches for evidences
of Puch localities in England anticipated, and
more successful, though the author has principally
confined himself to Worcestershire and the neigh-
bouring counties. It gives me great pleasure to find
my idea, that all these names are traceable to our
fairy mythology, confirmed by such excellent au-
thority. At p. 7, he says : "The peasantry in Alfrick
are sometimes what they call Poake-ledden ; that
is, they are occasionally way-laid in the night by
a mischievous sprite, who leads them into ditches,
bogs, pools, and other such scrapes, and then sets
up a loud laugh, and leaves them quite bewil-
dered in the lurch." For the full enumeration
of all these Puch names, I must refer the reader
to the work itself; but I may mention, that he
finds three of them in Staffordshire; seven in
Gloucestershire (including those mentioned by
myself) ; four in Herefordshire ; and one in each
of the counties of Warwickshire, Hertfordshire,
and Somerset. Those quoted subsequently, from
Mr. C. Landseer, in the Isle of Wight, are also

AND HORNE TOOKE. 143

mentioned ; with the Cwn Pwcca in Wales, now
translated Devil's Bridge ; and the Celts will have
much difficulty in explaining away this proof of
true Saxon belief in, most probably, their earliest
dialect. Tribes having the same gods cannot be
so totally distinct as it is now the fashion to
affirm of English and Irish.

It may offend a large number of aspirants to
the dignity of plush and the shoulder-knot, per-
haps also many female admirers of sentimental
novels, to hear it, but the truth must be told,
that Pages and Frogs have the same origin.
Home Tooke, twea xrcpocvra, ii. 369, 370, classes
together Pack, patch, smipage, "as the past par-
ticiple pac (differently pronounced, and therefore
written with k, ch, or ge), of the Anglo-Saxon
verb, Paecan, Paeccean, to deceive by false pre-
tences." As servants were conspicuously called
Harlot, Varlet, Valet, and Knave, so they were
called Pack, Patch, and Page ; and from the same
source is the French Page, the Italian Paggio (and
the German Pogge) . Agreeing, however, with the
learned expositor of our prepositions and conjunc-
tions, &c, in the concurrent signification of pack,
patch, and page, it must be still on differing data,
and mine will point to a less offensive genealogy.
From an excellent article in the Atherueum, in
May, 1850, entitled, " Notes on Fools," are some
curious facts and remarks on the court fools of the
kings of England, in which we find the remark :
" The name Patch* applied to the court fool and

* Mr. J. P. Collier, Introduction, <fcc, p. 38, enumerates,
from an old song, called " Robin OoodfeUow, and his mad

144 NAMES OP COURT FOOLS.

to Wolsey's fool, about this time, seems to have
been more a generic name than that of any indi-
vidual •" and in the same essay we may almost
trace, in a retrograde movement, the steps by
which the name diverged from its old form of
Puch : thus Henry the Seventh had a fool called
Peche, who was required occasionally to superin-
tend the court entertainments; but this, even
like Patch, may have been a generic name. We
have then William Picolf * (Puch-eilf), to whom
King John granted some land, on condition of
performing fool's service. The Berdic, who is
mentioned in Doomsday as " joculator regis/' will
be identified with another phase of the universal
deity, the Berstucs — so Page will be identified
with Poff, still the familiar of every Mecklen-
burgh and Pomeranian skipper, without which
he never undertakes a voyage — in this like a
lady's page, who is, or ought to be, ever at her
side.

Pranks and merry Jests" from an unique copy in the
Bridgewater Library, republished by the Percy Society, a
lot of fairy names : —

" Pinch and Patch, Grim and Gull,
Sib and Tib, Lick and Lull,"

which would have afforded the anonymous author a very
satisfactory confirmation of his opinion. Vide the remarks
on the names of Puch and Patch, by Jabez Allies, p. 19.

* Picol was, in heathen Prussia, the God of Darkness,
and, with Percunnos and Protrimpos, formed their indi-
genous trinity. This name calls to mind Picus, the suc-
cessor of Saturn, the first king of Italy — and the Peucini,
one of its oldest tribes. Butzow, in Mecklenburgh, has
Peucinum for its Latin name ; and a thousand other con-
formities might be clustered round the root.

puck's pool, etc., isle op wight. 145

In the Isle of Wight are two places, called
Puck's Pool and Puckaster's Cove, concerning
which I borrow from Crofton Croker's Introduc-
tion to the third volume of his Fairy Tales, the
following remarks of Mr. C. Landseer, as they
chime in, at least, with my opinion of such names,
taking their designations from Puck much ante-
rior to Shakespeare :—

u When I visited this fairy spot," continues Mr. Land-
seer, " and recollecting how large a portion of Shakespeare's
life there is of which nothing is known, and reflecting how
impossible it is to suppose that any portion of his life could
have heen inactively spent, my fancy was quite ready to fill
part of the hiatus with a supposition that our great bard
was, some time during the period, rambling with strolling
players ; and that, in the course of those rambles, he had
visited the Isle of Wight, and gathered there some of his
fairy lore."

The source of Shakespeare's fanciful and fairy
embodiments was, perhaps, much more distant ;
but of that at some other period.

For, whatever may have been the earliest creed
of our ancestors,, and how much soever it re-
mained as an under-current of superstition, when
the Christian religion had obtained the mastery,
the name of Puch as a goblin seems to have
vanished from the mouths and minds of the
people, till Shakespeare's unequalled creation
again gave life and currency to the word, and in-
fused by the brilliancy of his colouring, and the
vigour of his sketch, almost an equal brightness
and spirit into the verses of his followers; for it
gave rise to the beautiful Nymphydia of Drayton,

H

146 puch's name forgotten.

the learned verses of Ben Jonson, the polished
couplets of Herrick, &c. &c. Much to a similar
purport will be found admirably told in Halli-
well's Introduction to M. S. N. D. ; and it seems
to me that this revival of the name is partly re-
duced to an allegory at p. 121, under the title of
" Long Tayles," where a child's, or Robin Good-
fellow's name, has been forgotten by its god-
mothers ; and where, at p. 124, the knowledge of
the real name is partly admitted ; but Puck's was
not fully known till Shakespeare reproduced it,
from a very unexpected and little surmised
source. I perfectly, therefore, agree with Mr.
Halliwell, in his edition of Brand's Popular An-
tiquities, vol. ii, p. 499 ; but include Puck among
the "jolie rampagine," which, "however, did not
consist of the little dancers on the green. These
were a later introduction. Spenser was contented
with the fairies of romance, but Shakespeare
founded his elfin world on the prettiest of the
people's traditions, and has clothed it in the ever-
living flowers of his own exuberant fancy. How
much is the invention of the poet we shall, per-
haps, never be informed ; and his successors have
not rendered the subject more clear by adopting
the graceful imagery he has created, as though it
had been interwoven with the popular mythology,
and formed part of it."

How long Puck superstitions remained, even
in the Catholic Church, and how much they were
afterwards forgotten, we may learn from a curious
paper already mentioned, and contributed to the
Winchester book of the British Archaeological

8T. wilfeed's pokstone. 147

Association, p. 53, by Mr. John Richard Walbran,
on the crypt in Bipon cathedral, called Wilfrid's
Needle : " It was usual, in the middle ages, to
dignify places and objects with sainted names,
with which they had no original or direct con-
nexion. Thus, to quote an illustration from the
magical practices of our canons, I have discovered
that they possessed, even at the Reformation,
and used liberally too, a mysterious 'birnyng
iron/ and a still more indescribable article, called
the PoK-stone of St. Wilfred."*

In Suffolk, the vestiges of Puck's early pre-
sence are pretty clear, as the following extract
from T. Burrel's diary, in Sussex Archaeological
Society, vol. iii. p. 125, may serve to show: —
"There are many farms and closes in Sussex
which owe their names to having been the re-
puted haunts of fairies — such as Pookryde, Pook-

* I recall the reader's attention to this passage, that I
may mention the representations of a very curious carving
in stone from the same work, p. 440, found in altering the old
church at Bishop Wearmouth, a remnant of the monastic
residence of the Venerable Bede. The carving has many
tendencies to heathen worship, and no possible allusion to
Christianity. The wheel, yule, or juel, round which figures
and monsters are grouped ; the serpents, and the naked figures
in combat or junction with them, speak all so strongly of
the Sagas of the Edda, and have such a remarkable resem-
blance to the figures on the two Oimbric golden horns found
near Tondenu and formerly the greatest ornament of the na-
tional museum at Copenhagen, that I have no hesitation in
referring both to the same mythology. It is more than
probable that this stone was part of a heathen temple, de-
stroyed to make way for the Christian Coenobium, and there-
fore, perhaps, the oldest sculptured stone in this kingdom.

H2

148 PUCH PLACES FROM JABEZ ALLIES,

bourne, Pook-hole, Pook-craft. The sharpened
end of the seed-vessel of the wild geranium,
called by the common people Pook-needle, pro-
bably meant Fairy's needle/' In Devonshire, the
Pucky Stone is a rock above Teignmouth, near
Chadworth, where the Pixies are called Denies —
possibly a corruption of the high German zwerg,
or its low equivalent, derg. For Cornwall we
have an amusing story of the Piskies, a Cornish
legend, in Ainsworth's Journal for 1850, No. 88,
p. 40. In Notes and Queries, Dec. 28, 1850,
p. 509, one equally so, anent a luckless wight's
adventures with the Padrig fairies in the bishopric
of Durham, more than* two centuries ago.

Since the above names were collected, my at-
tention has been drawn by my friend, M. An-
tony Lower, Esq,, of Lewes, so well known by
his works on nomenclatures, to the very careful
and curious volume of Jabez Allies, On Ignis
Fatuus y Will-tf-the-Wisp, and the Fairies (Lond.
1846, 8vo.). On this subject his industry far ex-
ceeds mine. He has collected, and enumerates,
thirty-four places (some of them the same as
those mentioned) named after Puck or Tuck,
which he considers synonymous (the Friar Tuck
of the Robin Hood Tales would bear him
out). Of these he finds three in Staffordshire,
seven in Gloucestershire (the author's own
county), four in Herefordshire, one each in War-
wick, Hertford, and Somerset, &c. &c. ; and he
cites Mrs. S. C. Hall's Travels in Ireland, that
Pouke, or Pooka, there signifies, literally, " the
Evil One;" and Puc means the Goat, &c. Also

i

AND IN GUEBNSBY. 149

F. C. Lukis, from the Archaohgical Journal,
p. 144, says of the names " Pougue" and laye, or
fei, as occurring in those (Channel) Islands,
meaning the place of the Fairies." Laye, or Lye,
is found on the Rhine, also, as the Nymph of the
Bock, Leirfei, famed for its echo and traditions. So
in Allies, p. 19, the variations of Pucket and Pixse
are noticed ; and Tom Thumb is truly noted as the
Daumling of the Germans and Scandinavians, a
regular dwarf, or duergar : " a small person is, in
way of ridicule, called deirgie in these parts
(Worcester)."

The following instances from Jersey may serve
to conclude these Puch reminiscences in Britain,
which I adduce the more readily, as they may
also serve to connect our lively sprite with France,
where I have been able to discover no other verbal
reminiscences of his existence. I quote from
Herbert's Cyclops Christianus, an author well ac-
quainted with the island, at p. 115 : " So in Jersey,
all the meglethic works are, or in Folle's time
were, called des Poque-laces, or lapides Poqui. —
Ph. Folle's Cesarea, cap. vii. p. 256. They were
considered as the Stones of the Puck, Puke, or
Helle Powke."

Whether the present Essay will have any effect
on our commentators on Shakespeare, or on our
painters and sculptors in their representations of
this frolicsome deity, 1 know not. I think figures
of this Puck should have always something of the
romantic and sublime : if considered as a pagan
divinity, something commanding and beneficent; if
after the spread of Christianity, " nothing less than

LOUGH AND PITTS* STATUES. 151

archangel ruined/' For the latter period an odd
statuette maybe named, as figured in the Illustrated
News, July 7th, 1849, which has, quite in keeping, a
frog beneath his feet, copied from the figure exhi-
bited by Mr. J. O. Lough, in the south transept of
the Great Exhibition, No. 3, only that a too great
dash of the boor mixes with the stern sensibility
of the deity. I am indebted for the loan of the
beautiful engraving of this figure on the opposite
page, to the kindness of the proprietors of that
interesting and adorned weekly periodical. The
engraving which succeeds it has been kindly lent
me by the proprietors of the Illustrated Catalogue
of the Great Exhibition of 1851, attached to the
Art Journal. It is a beautifully-modelled group
of Puck, left unexecuted by the late Mr. Pitts,
but finished by his son, and brought out by
Messrs. Rose and Co., of the Coalbrook Dale
Works, in that species of porcelain technically,
but absurdly, termed parian.

We have here certainly nothing of the real
mythological character of this elf, if we except
some traits of an eastern juvenile Bacchus, of whom
the artist would have no idea, and therefore
accidental ; but the inferior group of sprites danc-
ing in a ring are accompaniments of Robin Good-
feUow from the first dawn of graphic embellish-
ments, and their more perfect form and action
here may be favourably compared with the rude
choir on the block at p. 156.

Though Mr. J. P. Collier, in his Biographica^l
Catalogue of Ancient English Literature, intimates
his belief, from Tarlton's expression in his News

152

NAME OP PUCK LOST,

out of Purgatory, 1590, that Robin Goodfellow
" was famosed in every old woman's chronicle,"
yet the inference we must then draw seems to be
that the name of Puck, as appropriated to a spe-
cial elf, was then unknown, and only revived by

till Shakespeare's revival. * 153

Shakespeare; for though the curious woodcut
has every rough feature that a rude draughtsman
would furnish for Puck, the name of Hobgoblin
is still retained. It is true we have earlier men-
tion of a Powlce, or Pouke. The first notice of a
Puck which I find in the English language is the
metrical romance of Cceur de Lion, Ellis, Met.
Rom., by Halliwell, p. 291.

Sir Fulk, unable to reconcile the strength and
bravery of the white knight with such strange
conduct, firmly believed him to be some preter-
natural personage.

" ' Y-wis, Sire King," quoth Sir Fouk,
* I ween that Knight was a Pouk.' "

Ellis, in his Introduction, speaking of it as a
translation from the French, says, ibid. p. 282,
"Indeed there are strong reasons for believing
that the first French original, and even the earliest
English version, contained an authentic history
of Richard's reign, compiled from contemporary
documents ; although that history was afterwards
enlarged and disfigured by numerous and most
absurd interpolations." But such interpolations
could have been the gradual work of time, and
argue a high antiquity, perhaps contemporary
with the lion-hearted sovereign.

In the vision of Piers Plowman we have the
second mention of the word, when in this poem
the Seer beholds Abraham, the personification,
with his
" Wyde clothes, within which lay a Lazar,*

Wyth patriarkes and prophetes playing to gedres ;*"

* Vide Keightley's Fairy Tales, vol. ii. p. 119.

154 • THE POUKB ANTOENT.

and asks him what was there :

' ' Loo, quath he, and leet me see lord mercy ich seide
Hit is precious present, quath he, ac the pouke hit hath

attachede
And me ther wyth, quath he wye, may no wed ous quite,
Ne no berne be our bocghe, ne bring ous out of daunger
Fro the pontes pondfolde, ne maynpryse may ous fetche,
Till he come that ich carpe of, Christ is his name,
That shall delyvery ous some day oute of the develes

powere."

Golding, in his translation of Ovid, unequivo-
cally uses the word pouke for the devil :

" The country where Chimoara, that same pooke
With goatish body, lion's head and breast, and dragon's
tail."

But in the following allusion of Spenser, the ap-
proximation to Shakespeare's noisy, mischievous,
but cheerful Puck, is nearer :

" Ne let housefires nor lightnings helpless harms ;
Ne let the pouke, nor other evil sprites,
Ne let mischievous witches with their charms;
Ne let hob-goblins, names whose sense we see not,

Fray us with things that be not."
Bpithalamion.

We have also mention in another passage of
the same writer, frdhi The Scourge of Venus :

" And that they may perceive the Heaven's frown,
The powkes and goblins pull the coverings down."

Scourge of Venus.

Though I cannot perceive the strong distinction
seen here by Keightley; on the contrary, the
conjunction is copulative. It is plain, however,
that none of these authors here adduced, and,

BROWNE TO OCCLEVE. 155

therefore, most probably English Folks-lore gene-
rally, had but very imperfect and immature ideas
on the nature, attributes, and action of onr
favourite sprite, till Shakespeare created the
wondrous birth; and so excellent was the forma-
tion, so beautiful and various the play of colour
and refraction, that his contemporaries and suc-
cessors seized the new fairy world he had pro-
duced, to revel in with almost equal powers of
invention and fancy. It will be for future in-
quiry, if our immortal bard received a fillip to
his fancy from foreign aid, until his time unknown
and unheeded by his countrymen.

At page 2, is an extract from a Shakesperian
commentator unknown to me, which would bear
me out in this assertion, if confined to Puch as
an individual sprite; the earlier poukes being
merely generic.

To Shakespeare, as the remodeller, and almost
the inventor, of our fairy system, may with the
utmost propriety be addressed the elegant com-
pliment which Browne has paid to Occleve :

" Many times he hath been seene
With the fairies on the greene ;
And to them his pipe did sound,
As they danced in a round :
Mickle solace would they make him,
And at midnight often wake him,
And convey him from his roome
To a field of yellow broome,
Or into the meadows where
Mints perfume the gentle aire ;
And where Flora spreads her treasure.
There they would begin their measure.

156 BALLAD OF ROBIN GOODFELLOW,

If it chanced night's sable shrouds
Muffled Cynthia up in clouds,
Safely home they then would see him,
And from brakes and quagmires free him.
They are few such swaines as he,
Now-a-days, for harmonie;"

See Shepherd's Pipe, eclogue i., Chalmers 9 English PoeM,
vol. vi. p. 31 5, col. ii. Vide Drake, Shakespeare and his Times,
ii. 348.

The accompanying woodcut, from a unique
copy of the Robin Goodfelloiv, his Mad Pranks
and Merry Jests, in the Egerton Library (vide
a Catalogue, Biographical and Critical, of Early
English Literature, fyc. London, 1837, 4to.),

AND ITS FRONTISPIECE. 157

is found at page 257, aiid seems the earliest
pictorial attempt to embody the form and sym-
bols of Puck under his earlier denomination.
Mr. Collier says : " And much hesitation cannot
be felt in deciding that this tract was in print
before the death of that most- applauded .actor"
(Tarlton.) But surely it is not necessary to
suppose that these " mad pranks" necessarily pre-
ceded Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night's Dream,
because in 1588 we find a passage in a work
stating the popularity of the stories relating to
Robin Goodfellow ; perhaps the converse of the*
proposition is more tenable. Robin Goodfellow
and his Pranks was a general favourite; Shake-
speare seized the rough materials, and made
therefrom a perfectly new and artistic edifice,
which took even more than the prototype with
the people, and thence descriptions and pictures
were multiplied in a much greater proportion
than before. The Egerton copy of 1628 is unique,
and a subsequent impression in 1639 exists also
iu a single copy, so that the presumption is, the
great demand and earnest "thumbing" of its
readers will have destroyed all the rest. But the
wood-cut remained a favourite, and is found fre-
quently on subsequent ballads and broadsides,
wherever it was thought suitable. In the collec-
tion of ballads from the Roxburgh Library, now in
the British Museum, we have this block in vol. i.
No. 230; in a Messe of Good Fellows, No. 260;
also iii vol. ii. No. 145 and 531 ; in vol. iii. 183 ;
and possibly in others. Exactly the same sub-
ject, with very trifling variations, is found there, in

158 SAME FIGURE ELSEWHERE.

a collection of Ballads and Scraps, made by Bag-
ford, in three volumes, on the second column, of a-
broadside, No. — ^j — on which is printed the
ballad, Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow,
ascribed by Peck to Ben Jonson, though not in-
cluded in Chalmers' edition of his works. This
original has many variations from the text pub-
lished by Mr. Halliwell, in his edition of Brand's
Popular Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 509. The hunting
horn, the besom on the shoulder, the horns and
cloven feet of the goat, and his hairy loins, all
correspond with the continental legends : the
only variable or doubtful symbol is the torch car-
ried in the right hand, which, with the owl flying
on the left, may be intended to .denote that the
night was the most favoured time of his appear-
ance. Mr. Halliwell, in his reprint of this scarce
tract, has of course prefixed to it a copy of this
cut. I have also met with the same representa-
tion on the frontispiece of a small quarto, entitled,
" Hell broke Loose/ 9 with the Colophon, " printed
for Charles Gustavus, mdclv."; and, viewed with a
printer's eye, this seems an impression from the
identical block used in the ballads. This book
would, therefore, give at least an approximative
concluding date to their production.

But, perhaps, stiD more curious and important
are other popular representations of Puck, the
Man in the Moon, &c, which are on other broad-
sides in this ourious collection by Bagford. The
first, A, on the following page, and the second, B,
at p. 164, are found at the top of the first and
third columns of a broadside, on the second of

MYTHIC BALLAD FIGURE

159

which is the woodcut referred to in the last para-
graph, of Robin with the besom. These two seem
to me full as curious as the one edited by Mr.
Collier, and of sufficient importance to be consi-
dered more at large. Figure A is, in all its associa-
tions, completely mythic; the party-coloured
black and white limbs and body, the numerous
figures of suns on the light parts, and moons on
those that are dark; the two large feathers project-
Fig. A.

160 DESCRIBED.

ing from each temple, and the ancient javelin, or
ger, Gerstang of the Niebelungs Lied, v. 3946 :

" Im ragete von dem herzen ein ger-stange lanch ;"

give very prominent differences from all other
representations I have seen or read of. A party-
coloured dress was once the favourite court
fashion, where each limb and body were formed
of differently tinted material, according to the
fashion of the wearer ; very often, however, in
the higher aristocracy, in accordance with the
principal tinctures of their arms, giving the latter
the denomination that they at present retain, of
Coats of Arms ; the reality of which, after de-
scending more especially to the court fools —
whence, probably the generic title of Patch, for
the early princely appendages {vide supra, p. 148)
— is now only found in the party-coloured plush
or cloth habits of the liveried servants of our aris-
tocracy; and it were to be wished that this adhe-
sion to old customs and heraldic display did not
bring about such absurd and tasteless combina-
tions as the servants' halls of our nobility, or the
lobbies of either House of Parliament, exhibit.
The tabards, as the official dresses of our heralds,
may be tolerated, from the infrequency of their
appearance, and as archaeological evidence of the
early usage. For them " mottley's your only
wear."

This dappled figure is not unknown to earliest
Scandinavian mythology, but joined in conjunc-
tion with such horrible ideas as the frozen north
alone could engender for the terrible Hell, or

STREAKED AND MOTTLED FIGURES. 161

Hela (vide Prose Edda, Bohn's edit., p. 423),
the third child of Loki, whom All-fadir cast into
Niflheim, and gave her power over nine worlds,
into which she distributes all those who are sent
to her ; that is to say, all those who die through
sickness or old age. Here she possesses a ha-
bitation, protected by exceedingly high walls and
strongly-barred gates. Her hall is called Elvid-
nir; Hunger is her table ; Starvation, her knife;
Delay, her man; Slowness, her maid; Precipice,
her threshold; Care, her bed; and Burning
Anguish forms the hangings of her apartments.
The one-half of Iter body is livid (or black), the
other half the colour of human flesh." Milton's
alternation of heat and cold for the Hell of his
creation, guarded by Sin and Death, is hardly
less poetic in conception than this arctic accumu-
lation of the horrible; but more softened was the
Etruscan fancy, which contented itself in the de-
picting of Evil and Good, as we find in the curious
frescoes of their tombs, by the simple representa-
tion of a black-and-white Genius. In a lower
and more prosaic view, the draughtsman of this
figure might only wish to designate the alter-
nations of light and darkness, which the moon
(with whom the man within her was often con-
founded) so sensibly offers to the inhabitants of
our earth; or, again, to the dark spots and light
prominences which have been the proximate cause
of the legend (as Grimm, D. M., p. 681, suggests),
that besides our existing traditions, there must
have been others now lost concerning it :
" E* miissen noch andere Ueberlieferunren

162 DARK SPOTS OP THE MOON.

gegeben. Ein niederlandischer dichter des 14
Jahrhundert, redet von den dunkeln streifen welche
stehen : —

' Recht im middem yon der Mane,
Dat man im deutsche heet Ludegher.' "*

Of the 'f dark streaks/ 9 the figure before us may
be evidence; and the efficacy of a dappled sub-
stance as a charm, is the objective view of this
quality and must be very old, as we find it in the
well-known practice of Jacob {Genesis xxx. v. 37),
with his peeled rods, to increase his portion of
the flock's increase, at the expense of Laban his
father-in-law. The black-and-white streaks with
which all public posts and sentry-boxes are dis-
figured throughout the Prussian dominions, are
not retrospective of this superstition, but the ac-
cidental acceptance of the colours of the Teutonic
order as a legacy, with all the broad provinces of
Prussia proper ; unless we suppose these priestly
warriors to have adopted this combination of con-
trary colours as those of their conquests.

The above lines, however, quoted by Grimm,
with his subsequent remarks, "An einer anderen
stette heisst es Leudegher und Willems Messager
de Gand, i. 195), liest nach einer Handschrift von
1351, 'dat men deutsch Lodeger'; mir ist keine die-

* Translation. — " There must have been some other tradi-
tions, as a Netherland poet of the fourteenth century speaks
of the dark streakes which are

' Eight in the middle of the moon,
Which, in German, are called Ludegher.' "

GRIMM ON LUDOER. 168

ser Formeln verst'dndiich : vielleicht liegt der eigen
name Ludger als Liutker (Leodegarius) im Spiel
nnd eine jetzt ver^hollenef&gedesMittelalters/"*
Perhaps this figure might have settled Grimm's
doubts, and have given him a glimpse of the lost
tradition. I have already stated that the spear
borne by the figure in its hand, has for one of its
oldest German names the word Get, the Persian
Jerrid, of which we have traces in our language
in Jerk, as verb and substantive; and Jerkin, or
more properly Ger-falcon, so called from the
arrow-like quickness of its dart on its prey. In
Ludger we have a near approach to our load, the
German Laden; the AS. Made, which at present
signifies only to burthen. Adelung, s. v., laden
(verb), says : "the idea of heaviness is inseparable
from it" ; but as every carrying implies something
felt as heavy, it is not impossible that among the
many meanings of this very old word, one more
directly denoting bearing, or carrying, may have
been lost. Lode-gur would then mean the Spear-
carrier, exactly in conformity with this figure of
Robin; with the Gog and Magog of Guildhall,
which are but his colossal representatives ; with
their Biblical names, and with the wild man of the
Prussian arms, with his torn-up pine-tree, which,
curiously enough, is also on the same broadside,

* Translation.— At another place we have Leudegher and
Willems (Mmager de Qand* i. 195), reads from a manuscript
of 1351 : " Dat men in deutsch, Lodegur." None of the
formulas are intelligible to me ; perhaps the proper name
Ludger, as Liutkar (Leodegarius) may have been here in-
tended, and a now lost myth of the middle ages.

164

WILDE MAN ON A BALLAD;

as if explanatory, like a synonyms an( i to the
clearing up of which I now arrive.

On the same broadside, then, we find the follow-
ing woodcut B, which exactly represents the pre-
sent supporters of the reigning Prussian royal, and
many other princely families in Saxony and north
Germany. That a Puch is here intended, can, I
think, be little doubted, after the agreement in
this particular expressed by Grimm, D. M. p.
454 : — " Der wilde mann mit dem entwiirtzelten
Baume in der hand wie er bei den wappen mehr-

Fig. B.

BORNE BT ANHALT FAMILY. 165

erer Fiirsten Niederdeutschlands verkommt, stellt
auch einen solchen Faun dar : es ware der Nach-
forschung werth wann er zuerst angegeben wird.
Auch Griutenschmidt im Berge (D. S., i. 232),
heisst c der wilde man/ " *

Had Grimm made a little further inquiry, he
would, I believe, have found that these supporters
are a legacy from the family of Bernhard of An-
halt, whose last descendant died in September,
1320; unless, indeed, the Waldemar, who subse-
quently appeared to reclaim a lost throne and his
hereditary provinces, was really the personage he
pretended to be— an historical riddle, like those
to be solved for nearly every country in Europe ;
for England, we have Perkin Warbeck ; for Por-
tugal, the real or pretended Sebastian ; for Russia,
their false (?) Demetrius; for France, the Man
with the Iron Mask; for Turkey, the brother of
Solyman the Great; with other debateable per-
sonalities of lesser notoriety. I have not been
able, as yet, to meet with v. Ledebur's " Streif-
ziige im Gebiethe des Preussischen Wappens, where,
possibly, the subject is fully discussed ; but when,
after nearly one hundred years (in 1417) of agita-
tion and uncertainty, Frederick of Hohenzollern
founded the present dynasty and gained the elec- .
torate, it was but a decent compliment to the

* Translation. — " The Wild Man (savage) with a fir-tree
torn up by the roots in his hand, as he appears in the arms
of many lower German princes, represents this Faun. It is
worth inquiry when they were first introduced. The Griu-
tensmith in the Hill (German Tales, i. 232), is also called
'der Wilde Man.'"

166 ITS CHAPLET OF LEAVES;

ancient gods of the country, and its old Ascanian
dynasty, to take these wild figures for the props
of their heraldic insignia, the just supporters of
their territorial blazon;*

Their conformity with the woodland deities of
antiquity, with the Sylvanus, Faunus, Pan, and
Satyrs of the Classics, would prove their identity
with Puck. The leafy honours of their head are
but the Bush, or Kid, or Faggot of our ballads;
and in the sculptures of antiquity (as will be sub-
sequently shown) ; for the " burthen he beareth" is
as often on the head as on the shoulders. The
Persian radiated crown, with its spiked points,
appears to me to be the best symbolical repre-
sentation of this chaplet of thorns that could be
applied to regal ornament, and was a suitable in-
signia for a monarch at once priest and king : as
the representative of the deity Bog, he wore his
thorns : as supreme ruler, the imperial diadem in
its earliest purity, merely a plain white fillet en-
circling the temples. For this reason I look upon
the crown of thorns with which a rude and brutal
soldiery invested the sacred head of a suffering
Saviour, intended not so much for an additional
object of pain" 1 or martyrdom, as rather to in-
crease the severe irony of the purple robe and
the sceptre reed, when "they hailed him King of
the Jews," and fell down and worshipped him.
Mark xv. 17—20.

* The Ascanian Platz, before the Leipsic Gate, in Berlin,
is a tardy, and the only, recognition of their ancient founder
and dynasty, which the inhabitants of Spree- Athens have
thought proper to establish.

LIKE A GUELPIC ONE WITH DOG, 167

I think it a confirmation of my views of the
Prussian supporters, that amongst the other nu-
merous armorial cognisances in Lower Germany,
(where they appear as Grimm remarks most fre-
quently), I have met with an example in one of
the most ancient families of that part of Father-
land (I mean the Guelfs), by which it is greatly
strengthened. In Behtmier's Braunschweigsche
Chronik, vol. ii. p. 1109, is the engraving of a
curious medal of a wild man with a dog at his feet —
an accessory to Robin the least satisfactorily ex-
plained, and the rarest graphically exhibited; for
the figure to the left of the Bridgewater cut may
be either an ape dancing to the piper on the
opposite side, or some other animal; and the dog,
therefore, in this Brunswick blazon is the more
valuable, as it illustrates more especially Shake-
speare's two-fold allusion, from the Tempest,
act ii. sc. 2 : —

" Cat. Hast thou not dropped from heaven ?

" Ste. Out of the moon I do assure/thee, I was the man
in the moon when time was.

" Cal. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee ; my
mistress showed me thee, thy dog and biuh"

Also Midsummer Night's Dream, act v. sc. 1 : —

" Moon. All that I have to say is, to tell you that this lan-
tern is the moon ; this thorn bush my thorn bvsh, and this
dog my dog"

In Butler's time the learned had become ra-
tionalists ; his astrologer had an instrument —

"It would demonstrate that the man in
The moon's a Sea Mediterranean ;

168 ON A BRUNSWICK MEDAL.

And that it is no dog or bitch

That stands behind him at his breech."

The legend round this Brunswick medal is in
initials, and the various readings which Rehtmier
gives sufficiently prove their uncertainty, and the
doubt that must hang over any, even specious,
solution; a circumstance the more to be regretted,
as perhaps some curious allusion to this lunar
myth is hidden beneath them.*

In the same author, p. 954, we have the same
wild man with a candle in his hand, exactly as in
the Bridgewater cut, and in none other do I re-
coUect a similar symbol; but it is a congruity
that would remarkably confirm the identity of the
Guelfic figure with our wild man. The motto
attached seems to have been given when the bear-
ing of the figure had been lost ; it expresses the
common-place — " Aliis instruendo consumor." t

The figure, however, has taken deep root in the
minds of the Teutonic people ; there is scarcely a
town in Germany of any consequence, from Ham-
burgh to Basle (Rhine tourists will immediately
call to mind I/Homme Sauvage, in the latter city) ,
where one of the principal or oldest inns does not

* In the Roxburgh Collection of Ballads, vol. ii. 358, the
same wild man is introduced, to usher in one entitled " Kobta
feooti, 3123 til &caftlorft, an* ILtttle Join/' along with these
three && Bowmen. This will give support to the idea explained
in chap. vii. of the mythic character of all our traditions of
Robin Hood, Friar Rush, or Tuck, and all their feats " in
merrie Sherwood." Grimm, D. M. p. 355, had already started
this idea, to which I shall there refer also.

t Much to the same purpose will be found farther on, at
the explanation of Berstucks.

"PINE TREE8 OP DBR WILDE MAN. 169

bear the name and sign of " Der Wilde Man-"
and close to one of the gates of Miinchen a house
front was hardly large enough for the colossal
fresco of a hermit, whose name of Onuphrius, and
his rough and hairy appearance, brings him in ac-
cordance partly with the classic Aselli, partly with
our ragged Puch; but which the Catholic reli-
gion, which seizes with avidity objects of ancient
veneration on which to build a new structure
of faith, has transformed into a frequent and
favourite saint. The remaining symbol, the up-
rooted Fir Tree, has such verbal assonance with
Fire, that on the one side it well represents the .
Bridgewater Candle ; on the other, from its cones,
it assimilates with the priests of Bacchus, whose
favourite insignia, like all the followers of the
Eastern God, was the Pine Cone. It should be
borne in mind, that our name of Fir is but the
positive of First, its superlative, which, with a
phonical identity, is written Fiirst in German, but
there means prince. The whole species of Pinus
and Abies seems, from some northern associations,
to have received or given terms of command and
authority ; thus another German name of these
trees is Tanne, which represents, in the Tanistry of
Ireland, the powers of the ancient Erse Princes of
that distant island.

To revert, however, to the original Wendic
denomination. Change of dialect, through a long
process of time, and an extended tract of country,
has given to this monosyllable Bog a great variety
of form, particularly in Mecklenburg and other
northern countries of Europe, which sometimes di-

170 VABIOUS FORMS OF PUCH.

verge provincially to such different animals as have
in part divided the veneration of their inhabitants
with the Goat. This is particularly the case with
the Bear ; but whether its worship was originally
coeval with the true Bock, or only a consequence
following the name, it would now be difficult
to determine. We find still prevalent amongst
these northern peasantry the following successive
varieties from Bog: — Pog, Peg, Pece, Petze,
Batze,* Petz, Pet, Pes — the two last of which are
now, however, in the language of the Forest,
restricted to the wild Bear. Adelung, s. v. Petz:
t€ der Nahme des Baren im gemeinen Leben."

" Und wo ein Bar den anderen sah
So hiess es Petz ist wieder da." — Hagbdorit.

As, however, we shall have to refer in a future
chapter to Bruin and his fortunes amongst the
deified brutes, it may at present suffice to note

* It seems that this variation of the word or Betze is the
parent of our English Bitch, and of the French Bicke, which
not only signifies the female of the dog species, hut also, as
with us, a woman of dissolute character; and is only another
proof of the indefinite ideas entertained hy our ancestors on
most of the subjects of natural history, at least in their
nomenclature. It has also been often a subject of inquiry,
why Peg, which is one of the above varieties, should he also
our familiar appellative for Margaret. It may be ventured
as a suggestion, that since the sainted Lady has invariably a
dragon for her symbol, which, as a figurative representation
of the Devil, would also bear the name of Peg, whether
symbol and actuality may not have been so confounded in
the common mind, as afterwards to be inseparable, and the
shorter appellative finally to have gained the ascendancy for
every-day use.

MECKLENBURG PECE. 171

this verbal connexion with the Goat, in the cycle of
brute idols which influenced the north. The Pece
are more particularly described in A. G. Masch's
Gottesdiemtliehen Alterthumern der Obotriten, 4to.,
Berlin, 1771, p. 31, section 39, describing the
"half gods" of the Obotriten (ancient inhabitants
of Mecklenburg), he says:* — "Die Wendischen
Halbgotter sind von einer anderen Art. Sie
heissen Berstucn, Marco-Peten und Coltki." We
shall consider the first name in the next chapter ;
the second the author derives, for its latter part,
from Peze die GeschafFtigkeit, or activity. He
proceeds: — "Diese Gotter wohnten gem unter
den Hollunderstrauchen. Man setzte ihnen des
Abends Speise hin, dass man sie ins Haus locken
mochte, damit sie den Vorrath aus anderen Hau-
8ern abholeten und ins Haus ihres Herren eintrii-
gen. Sie gaben ihre Ankunft zu erkennen dass
sie von der Speise gegessen oder in der Nacht

* Translation. — " The Wendic half-gods were different.
They were called Berstucn, Marco-Peten, and Coltki, and
dwelt willingly beneath elder trees. Food was placed for
them each evening to entice them into the house, that they
might fetch the provisions of the neighbours into their mas-
ter's dwelling. They signified their presence by having
eaten of the food, or else by leaving, during the night, a
heap of sticks and dirt, or throwing filth into the milk-bowls.
If these dirt-heaps were left untouched, and the master and
his household drank of the milk thus defiled, these wayward
creatures took it in good part, settled themselves in the
house, and ^ did all manner of useful service." These, no
doubt, are what Heywood, in his Hierarchie, calls (p. 272), —

" Koltri and Kilbalde, such as we
Pugs and Hobgoblins call."

12

172 answer to milton's lubber fiend;

aUerlei Reisig und Unrath zusammentrugen oder
die Milchgef asse mit Unreinigkeiten anfiilleten.
Liess man ihnen jene Haufen ungestoret, speisete
auch der Haus-vater mit seinem Haus-gesinde
von der verunreinigten Milch ; so nahmen diese
Art der Gotter solches sehr gnadig auf dass sie
in das Haus kamen und allerhand niitzliche
Dienste leisteten."

We have in this description every principal
and discriminative feature by which Shakespeare
and his followers have painted to us their Puck.
The possibility of gaining them over by victuals
placed for their use ; their thieving propensities
in favour of their masters — but another method
of expressing the good luck accompanying them;
their capricious kindness, and the valuable ser-
vices they could render, — will all be found in our
English stories working out the features and
accessories first drawn by Shakespeare.

Milton's beautiful picture (AUegro, 105) em-
braces many features : —

" Tells how the drudging Goblin sweat,
To earn his cream bowl duly set,
When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-lab'rers could not end ;
Then lies him down the lubber fiend,
And, stretched out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
And, crop-full, out of door he flings, *

Ere the first cock his matin sings."

Randolph, in his Amyntas, has depicted their
thieving propensities in poetry that, but for its
rhymes, might be thought Augustan : —

THEIE GOOD LUCK TO THEFTS ELSEWHERE. 173

" Nos beati fauni proles,
Quibus non est magna moles,
Quamvis lunam incolamus,
Hortos ssepe frequentamus.

" Furto cuncia magis bella,
Furto dulcior puella,
Furto omnia decora,
Cum poma deliciora.

" Cum mortales lecto jacent,
Nobis poma noctu placent,
Illae tamen sunt ingrataa
Nisi furto sunt parat»."

I have in general supposed a circle of readers
to whom translations from Latin would be super-
fluous ; in giving, therefore, the following Eng-
lish version of these lines, it is more for their
beauty and closeness to their original, than for
its comprehension, that I add them : —

" We, the fairies, blithe and antic,
Of dimensions not gigantic,
Though, the moonshine mostly keep us,
Oft in orchards frisk and peep us.

H Stolen sweets are always sweeter,
Stolen kisses much completer,
Stolen locks are nice in chapels,
Stolen, stolen, be your apples.

" When to bed the world is bobbing,
Then's the time for orchard robbing ;
Yet the fruit were scarce worth peeling,
Were it not for stealing, stealing."*

* Without asserting the absolute derivation of the name
of Robin from robbing or robber, it may be assumed that
the name, when given, was found so apposite to these thiev-

174 THE DIM THEY PUT EXPLAINED,

The placing, however, dirt in the rooms and
filth in the milk-bowls, might appear diametrically
opposed to the cleanly habits of our English
" Merry Wanderer of the Night," as Puck chooses
to call himself. Herrick says in his Hesperides, —

" If ye will with Mab finde grace,
Set each platter in its place;
Rake the fire up, and set
Water in, ere sun be set ;
Wash your pails and cleanse your dairies;
Sluts are loathsome to the fairies.
Sweep your house, who doth not so,
Mab will pinch her by the toe."

And in Britannia's Pastorals (p. 41), —

u Where oft the fairy Queen
At twilight sat, and did command her elves
To pinch those maids that had not swept their shelves."

As also in Ben Jonson's Robin Goodfellow, —

" Where house or hearth doth sluttish lie,
I pinch the maidens black and blue ;
The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,
And lay them naked all to view."

This trait may, however, be accounted for as a
mad frolic or mischievous prank of the elf, to try
the faith of his intended proteges, and the firmness

ing propensities, that it was universally retained. The
Dutch and low German rdver has given us the word rover,
which more especially designates Robin's power and pro-
pensity to flitting, as Will o' the Wisp, from place to
place ; but as rover — Sallee rover, pirate — it returns to the
primitive signification of robber : German, rauber. In Scot-
land the fairies are also called the " Restless People." — Scott's
Demonohgy, p. 71.

FROM FRENCH IDEAS, FROM VIRGIL, 175

of their credence in his power ; but much similar
practice can also be found in our British lore. In
Wrighfs English Legends of Hobgoblins and Pucks
(Essays, vol. ii. p. 12), "Geraldus tells us many
stories of the domestic and playful elves of his
native country of Pembroke, where they were
very common, and plagued the people by throwing
dirt at them, and cutting and tearing their gar-
ments," &c. Analogous, also, is the practice at
the Feast of St. Ferriol, at Marseilles, (vide Honefs
Every Day Book, p. 1298 :)— "The Butchers also
make part of this procession, clothed in long
tunics, with a hat a la Henri IV., armed with a
hatchet or cleaver. They lead a fat ox, dressed
with garlands and ribands, and gilt horns, like
the ox at the Carnival (boeufgrasj at Paris. His
back is covered with a carpet, on which sits a
pretty child dressed as John the Baptist. Every
one wishes to have the animal in his house, and it is
a prevailing superstition among the people that they
shall have good luck throughout the year if this
beast leave any trace of his visit, however dirty that
may be."" It would lead us at present too far to
consider whether the crowd of Virgil's Harpies
(JEn., lib. iii. 209;, and his " Polluit ore dapes,"
may be traced to the same general idea ;* or that

* Some slight conformity with these trying practices may
be found in the following extract from the Life of Eobin
Goodfettow, which I copy from EalliweU's Fairy Mythology,
p. 153, 154, though retributive dirt enters here partly into
the idea :— " To walke nightly, as doe the men Fairies, we
use not ; but now and then we goe together, and at good
huswives fires we warm and dress our fairy children. If we

176 AND PROM DUTCH BELIEFS.

the belief of the Amsterdam Bawds, that horse
shoes, or "horses' dung dropped before the house,
and put fresh behind the door, would bring good
luck to their houses," (HalliwelVs Brand, iii. 18),
has a similar origin. It may be considered as a
feature in the curious chapter of ancient heathen
Ippology.*

Puch himself even officiates as dirt-cleanser —
which is but the change from objective to subjec-
tive, so frequently found in the views of our
ancestors and peasantry on supernatural themes,
— when, at the close of the piece, (M. N. D., act
v. so. 2) he says : —

" I am sent with broom before,
To sweep the dust behind the door."

And from much the same sources of opinion
comes the maxim of the Chemnitzer Rocken Stube

finde cleane water and cleane towels, we leave them money
either in their basins or in their shoes; but if we find no
cleane water in their houses, we wash our children in their
pottage milke or bere, or whatever we finde," <fcc.

* This popular idea in France, and of the Mecklenburg
peasantry, that dung left by the beasts or by the Pece in
the milk-bowls at night was acceptable, and a sign of good
fortune, appears to corroborate my idea, that all spirits
were originally derived from the mines, or mining terms ;
for KvwpoQy or copper, is so nearly allied, or rather identical
with Kowpog, dung, that both must necessarily have been
confounded in the common mind. The nodules of native
copper must have strengthened the belief, if not have pro-
duced it ; and when the metal was personified as the Indian
Kuversas (vide p. 83), it was still linked with the filth which
the Indo-Germanic tribes yet acknowledge as part of his
benefits.

PEZE AT PRESENT PUKS. 177

(a collection of popular maxims and superstitions
published in Leipsig, 1712), No. 8: — "Es ist
nicht gut wenn man iiber das Kehricht geht." —
"It is not good to step over sweepings."

In tracing these Peze farther, we find that in
the modern language of the country the name is
reduced to its very lowest denomination, as Puk ;
and the following extracts from A. C. Arndt's
celebrated collection of Mahrchen, or popular
tales, from the writer's native country on the
south shores of the Baltic, will show that the former
deity of its inhabitants has, by the revolution of
manners and creeds, dwindled now into the mere
familiar of our witches and witch-finders of the
15th and 16th century, without, however, having
attributed to it the substantive power of inflicting
mischief on others, but rather the sole power of
acting for either good or evil on the possessor,
according to the treatment it receives. This is
also the principal feature of the Pucks of our
Shakespearian age, though the inimitable arch-
ness superadded to this supernatural power seems
entirely Shakespeare's own. The original of
Arndt's tale is in the Piatt Deutsch vernacular of
his country (vol. ii. p. 63). This gives the rela-
tion a vividness and spirit which I fear may have
evaporated in the following translation, notwith-
standing the endeavour to give all the Doric dress
it was capable o£ Captain Gau was a native of
the Gars (Scottice, Carse) — a district dividing
Mecklenburg from Pommern, and the scene of
the story is laid in the strait separating Riigen
from the latter : —

178 AKNDT*S 1IlL& Otf

Skipper Gait and his Puk. -----

" You Ve often heard how plenty of witchcraft and devilry
was carried on with cats and goats, and scabby Pogs, and
how Old Nick was at the bottom of it, and so cheated the
poor benighted people into hell. The skippers have much
superstition of this kind, and many such secret practices.

" I '11 tell you somewhat that happened with us to a man
frae Barth, or frae the Carse in Pierow, that all the folk
knew about when I was but a youngster. There lived in
Barth the captain of a coaster, that was the luckiest and
daringest fellow of all the East Sea, and with whom every-
thing prospered. He ventured Where no other skipper durst,
and he said he could sail with all winds, and, if needs be,
against the stream. There was, however, a very good reason
why ; but for all Gau's luck and money I wouldn't have
had a share in the means by which Gau managed it. For
folks muttered something about a bright cockchafer, or a
green frog in a glass bottle, and that was a Puk, that made
him his luck and his winds ; and his crew will have seen
the strange creature close by when it blew a stiff gale, or
the night was parlous dark, (gefahrlich duster answers
exactly to the Yorkshire parlous, for perilous, dark), when
it ran along the boom like a tiny bairn in a black jacket and
a red cap top o' the head, and snuffled about everything ;
or else like a wee old grey-beard with a wig on as white as
chalk, and sat down on the tiller and looked at the stars,
and showed the boat the way. The skipper had once gotten
into a desperate drinking bout, and after lifting his elbow a
little too often and too high, he clean forgot schooner and
Puk and all the world besides. He had tippled two live-long
days at Stralsund, and let the poor creature on board starve
the whole time, so that it became savage and broke the
bottle in which it was kept, and kicked up the deuce of a
wind, so that the boat began to draw with every sail, and to
drag from both anchors. The folk on the quay and landing-
place wondered desperately, for in, close to the town, not a
whiff was felt, yet the boat flew round and round, like an
old sow that had got too much liquor. Gau tried to pacify
it. Yon chap, however, desperately angry at being left to

SfcOTER GATJ VHTD SIN PUK. 179

hunger- so long, would be neither cozened nor coaxed. It
kept making the storm worse, and more bedlam-like work
on board, so that at last ship and skipper went to pieces,
and were lost with man and mouse. But I fancy that there
are folks yet that take such little devilkins with them to

* The original is at once a curious specimen of pure Ger-
man and a test of the accuracy of my translation : —

SCHIFFER GAU UND SIN PUK.

"Ye hewt woll oftermals hurt wo velle Hexerei und
Towerei mit Katten Zegenbocken Heimchen un Schorfpog-
gen drewen ward und wo de olde Fiend sick darunter steckt
und den armen verbiesternden Minschen in de Holl herin
spelt. — De S'chippers hebben veelen sodhanen Awerglowen,
und mennigerhand und heemliche Eiinste.

" In Barth lewde ein Schipper Henrich Gau dat was de
ghicklichste und vorwegenste Schipper in der ganzen Ostsee
dem ook alles to Faden leep. He understund sich waat kein
anner Schipper dorste,und he sede he kunn mit alien Winden
segeln, und wenn he wull, ook wedder de Strom. Dat Ding
hedd awerst so sinen egen Haken; und um all dat Gauscke
Gliick und Geld mugt ick an dem Haken nicht hangen
woran Gau fast was. Denn de Liide munkelnden so was
yon enem blanken Kawer edder eener gronen Pogg in
einem Glase, und dat war sin Puk, de em den Wind und dat
Gluck machte und de Matrosen wullen dat diiwelsche Ding
unerwielen sehn hebben wen it steef weehde edder de nacht
gefahrlich duster was, wot as een liitt winzig Juneriken in
eener swarten Jacke eene rode Miitz up 'm Kopp up dem
Schipp herum lief und alles nachsah edder vok een old gris
Manniken mit eener kridwitten Pariick up dem Kopp dann
am Sturroder satt und in Howen keek und dem Schipp
den Weg wisde — he was in ein woist Gelag geraden und se
hedden so deep in 't Glass keeken dat Gau Schipp und
Puk und de ganse Welt forgatt. So hedd unser Schipper
hon utgeslagene dage in Stralsund vordrunken und sine
Dinger de he hungern let weren grimig worden, hedden de
Glaser terbraken worin se zeten und blosen einen Storm up,

180 ENGLISH BELIEFS IN CAULS.

So that in the opinion, at least, of the veteran
Arndt, and from his own experience to the com-
mencement of this century, the belief in Puch's
power was deeply prevalent among his country-
men; and I have no doubt the same delusions
prevail there still, notwithstanding the boasted
march of intellect and the increased spread of
education in Prussia : perhaps they are now more
covertly followed, and less candidly mentioned. I
scarcely know, however, if Englishmen can be al-
lowed to cast a stone against them, as long as the
British seamen put more value on a child's caul
than on perfect seamanship. HalliwelTs edition
of Brand, vol. iii. p. 117, gives us the following
recent example, as late as May 8, 1848, in a Times
advertisement: — "A Child's Caul, price Six
Guineas. Apply at the bar of the Tower Shades,
corner of Tower Street. The above article, for
which fifteen pounds was originally paid, was
afloat with its late owner thirty years, in all the
perils of a seaman's life, and the owner died at
last at the place of his birth."

da* dat Schipp anfung mit alien Segeln to spelen, und sich
von alien Ankern losret. De Liide" de up der, Bragg
und Lastadie stunden vorunderen sick, denn bi de Stadt
weehde kaum ein Lufbken wo dat Schipp rumdhuselde as
ein Swin dat to veelen Branwins barm supen hedt. — Sin
Biirshchen de wegen des langen Hungers to grimmig weren
leten sick yon em weder locken noch hissen ; se makten jum-
mer gewaltigern Storm und dullere Arbeit un kuselden tc-
letz so arg dat Schipp und Schipper, mit Man und mus, to
grund gingen. Awerst ick gl5w et gifft noch van der art, de
ehre liitten Duwelkins in Shachteln und Glasern mit an
Boord nehmen.

PIXIES RIGHT PLURAL OF PUCH. 181

The only redeeming feature in this announce-
ment is the rapid decrease in price for such a
favoured specimen, from which we may, I hope, .
feasibly conclude that the number of purchasers
is on the decline.

Not a slight confirmation of the connexion of
our English Puch with his German namesake is
found in the construction of the plural of the de-
nomination, which is pretty generally, through
Britain, from Devon to Scotland — pixies. The
rules of German syntax require that substantives
ending in ch or chs, with a or u as their vowels,
change the latter for their plural by diaeresis, into
the dipthongs ii and a, giving the u, to an English
ear, the sound of i, and for a the sound of e ;
thus Lachs (salmon) has for its plural Lachse,
pronounced Lexe; and Fuchs, Fiichse, pro-
nounced Fixe. Analogous also is the formation
of their feminine nouns : the female Fox is
Fiicksinn, regularly formed from Fuchs by diaere-
sis of the u, and the feminine ending inn ; thus
wolfinn from wolf. In the English language,
without referring to the construction of the ra-
dical word, we have transferred this Fiicksinn to
our dictionaries as vixen, which is its exact pro-
nunciation as given by a Saxon at Dresden or
Leipsig. So, therefore, Puchs has its plural Piichse,
phonically Pixe.

I borrow my notices of the use of Pixies in
this plural, for England, from one of the great
storehouses of popular and archaic literature fur-
nished by my friend, Mr. J. O. HalliweU. In his
Popular Rhymes, p. 190, we find —

182 EXAMPLES OF ENGLISH PIXIES.

"A great variety of stories in which fairies are frightened
away by presents, are still to be heard in the rural districts
of England. Another narrative relates that, on one occasion,
a woman found her washing and ironing regularly performed
for her every night by the fairies. In gratitude to the 'gude
people/ she placed green mantles for their acceptance, and
the next night the fairies departed, exclaiming ;

' Now the Pixies? work is done,
We take our clothes and off we run.'

Mr. Bray tells a similar story of a Devonshire Pixy, who
helped an old woman to spin. One evening she spied the
fairy jumping out of her door, and observed it was very rag-
gedly dressed ; so the next day she thought to win the ser-
vices of the elf further, by some smart new clothes, as big as
those made for a doll, by the side of her wheel. The Pixy
came, put on the clothes, and, clapping its hands with de-
light, vanished, saying these lines, for fairies always speak
in rhyme :*

( Pixy fine, Pixy gay, Pixy now will run away.' "

In Devonshire, for Pixies, we have the variation Pisgics
(vide Notes and Queries, Dec. 28, 1850, p. 509). In some
parts called Derricks {ibid. p. 504), which suggests the
a. s. derg, the German zwerg, werg, and perhaps the prin-
cipal word in the oldest burthen of a song in our language,
Heigh derry down. At all events, we have here a better
origin for the common expression, please the pigs, from these
ancient divinities, equivalent to the Latin, Si Di volunt, than
by reverting to the Catholic pix for a solution, as the ex-
pression originated, most probably, before either Catholicism
was known, or hosts elevated in pixes. Without wishing to
cast an unnecessary stigma on their religion, I certainly

* Mr. Allies mentions a Worcestershire fairy legend, which
says, that upon one occasion a Pixy came to a ploughman,
and exclaimed :

' Oh, lend me a hammer and a nail,
Which we want to mend our pail.'

PLEASE THE PIGS EXPLAINED. 183

should rather adduce this sacred utensil of their worship, as
far as the name goes, from the early sanctity it obtained
amongst the religions which Catholicism superseded. As
theMS.of this work has been now (Feb. 1852) some months in
the printer's hand, it can only be an agreeable coincidence to
find the same derivation for this proverbial expression ad-
duced by an anonymous contributor to Notes and Queries,
Jan. 24th, 1852. For Scotch Pixies, vide Jamieson's Sup-
plement, s. v. The Colpixies of Hampshire, perhaps better
Coal-pixies, are an addition to the mineral sprites already
adduced ; and some confirmation of this latter opinion may
he found in the circumstance, that the fossil belemnites, vulgo
thunder-bolts, are termed in Devonshire ' colpixies' (Halli-
welTs Brand, ii. p. 513). " In addition to the colpixy men-
tioned by Mr. Barnes, the common fossil belemnites are
termed ' colpexies' fingers,' and fossil echini ' colpexies 1
heads.'"

CHAPTER V.

" Written and spoken words are visible and audible
thoughts. Words, however, are not only the signs of ideas,
but sometimes also the representatives of things, so that
etymology may be said to include also many other 'ologies.' "
— Lucubrations by the author of " Rejected Addresses."

Having shown, qt p. 56, that the generic name of
the Deity God, disguised as Goat, was adopted
in England for the Slavonic Bog, or Bock, a
reason may seem necessary why we, as English-
men, should have hidden the true term under a
synonym ; and why, as the verbal connexion be-
tween goat and deity was thus broken, no sur-
viving traces of veneration to the actual goat are
found in Britain ; for I look upon the weak ves-
tiges of a goat in the annals of our witchcraft
as but the faint echoes of its fulness from the
original key-note of the Continent. The Portunus
and Grant of Gervase of Tilbury are in form of
horses and foals. Wright's Essays, ii. p. 14, gives
us, from an unedited MS. Chronicle of Ralph of
Coggeshall, the story of one Gobelin, who, at the
entreaties of his sweetheart, revealed himself to
her visibly, "in specie parvissimi infantis qui

ON THE DEFINITION OF GOAT AND GOD. 185

induebatur quadam alba tunica." The name of
Malchin, by which he was known, is pure Ger-
man, and often at present the domestic denomi-
nation of the cat, like our Gri-malkin its deriva-
tive, so that the goat feet and hairy form of Puck
seem to have been lost or dormant till their
revival by Shakespeare.*

* The following extract from Dr. Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon
Dictwnary bears the usual stamp of the author's great learn-
ing and acumen; though, according to my theory, I should
place none of the words God, Good, Goat, in the relation of
parent or child, but rather as " children of one family,"
from a root which would, perhaps, have to be found in a
deep investigation of the component consonants g and d,
tending to an illustration of all the alphabetic signs of
the West, as genuine ideagraphic characters, i. e. true

HIEROGLYPHICS.

"God. In A.S. God both signifies God and good; but
man is used to denote man, and wickedness, sin. The
Saxons call him God, which is literally the good; the same
word signifying both the deity and his most endearing
quality.

" Gun. The name of God is justly derived from Good, but
not after the usual manner of thinking, because he is kind
and beneficent, but because he is furious and destructive. It
is a common error of etymologists to attribute to savages,
who composed our words, the ideas of a civilised age. Good
and a-yad-0Q are the same word. The first notion of
ayafloc, is that of being quick and vigorous. Ayadoi avtipoi
are Goths, and Gotnar stout men. A coward was called
kclkoq. Apioroc comes from apnc, virtus from vis. When
bravery in battle was the first of virtues, and cowardice the
meanest of vices, evil and good were indicated by words im-
plying those notions. The intrepid man alone was deemed
worthy to be obeyed as a judge or commander. The Persians
give a further proof of my assertion, for choda, is not only
God, but a lord, commander, H."

186 TRUE NAME OF DEITY INEFFABLE.

The cause may have to be searched for in a
mystic reverence which attached to the true name
of the Deity in many countries, and prevented its
pronunciation, perhaps its knowledge, beyond the
select circle of a few of the higher priesthood.
The obscure and shadowy has always been a
source of the sublime and terrible. The Latin
maxim, " Quicquid ignotum pro mirifico," is
founded in truth and nature. Sir William Jones
(Works, i. p. 249) says, on this Indian mystery: —

" The triple divinity, Vishnu, Siva, Brahma — for that is
the order in which they are expressed, by the letters AUM,
which coalesce* and form the mystical word OM, a word
which never escapes the lips of a pious Hindoo, who medi-
tates on it in silence. Whether the Egyptian ON, which
is commonly supposed to mean the Sun, be the Sanscrit
monosyllable, I leave others to determine."

The awful Jewish tetragrammaton is well
known in this respect. To the commonalty it
was totally forbidden; to the high priest a rare
and solemn licence was permitted at the annual
benediction of the people in the Temple. On this
subject consult Schedius de Diis Germawrum,
p. 196:—

"Prima autem hujus nominis reverentia apud Judeeos
mos, at omnino fere in superstitionem abiit. Plebi sub poena
mortis ejus pronunciatio vetita fuit : summi sacerdotes illud
in templo Hierosolymitano, non alibi et semel duntaxat in
anno in solemn ilia benedictione populi in festo propitia-
tionis pronunciarunt."

To the Romans this was inexplicable; and
when, therefore, Caius Caligula, in his audience
of the Jewish deputation from Alexandria (of

STYX A ROMAN SUBTERFUGE. 187

which Philo was the head and the historian), in
remarking upon the peculiarities of the Jewish
creed, gave profane and impromptu utterance to
the sacred sound, this seems to have rankled
most in the breasts of the embassy : Caius very
probably did not intend a gratuitous and un-
called-for insult to a powerful province and a
suppliant crowd bending before him, but gave ut-
terance to the sound from mere inadvertence or
thoughtlessness.

An offset of this peculiar veneration for a word,
and that word the name of a deity, may be found
very prominently worked out in the poets and
historians of Borne. Styx might be pronounced,
but, when sworn by, the oath was irrevocable
and binding, even upon omnipotent Jove. It has
been elsewhere noted, that though a river was
usually taken for convenience, the original au-
thority and power was derived from its presiding
deity: " Stygiae numen aquae." Thus, when
(Ovid, Met. ii. 101) Apollo says to Phaeton :

" Ne dubita, dabitur; Stygias juravimus undas."

The correspondence of this^Styx with the Stuccas
and Ber-stuccn of the Wends, and even with the
Man in the Moon, will be the subject of future
inquiry. It is curious that, in its present spell-
ing, the word Styx itself is a tetragrammaton,
and in full opposition to Fur, by the brand of
which thieves became homines trium literaxum.

In India the veneration changes to dread, when
the object is terrible and immediate. Mont-
gomery Martin (Hist, and Antiquities of India)

188 SILENCE THEREFOBE POLITIC.

says : " When a tigar is heard in the forest at
night, a Bengalese will not venture to say, ' that
is the roar of a tigar/ as, in the case of so irreverent
a disclosure, he apprehends that the tigar would
instantly rush into his hut and eat him up."

It is, therefore, a wise and natural precaution
that silence in general is inculcated on all that
visit or view Fairy Land. The Scottish legends
enjoin it expressly, as the following quotation,
in Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (ii. p. 253),
from Thomas the Rhymer, proves : —

" If you speak word in Elfin land
Ye'll ne'er get back to your ain countrie."

More fully expressed in Ben Jonson's Pranks of
Puch, from the original ballad in the Roxburgh
Collection of the 'British Museum, though not in-
serted in Percy's copy of it, in his Relics of British
Poetry : —

" When, as my fellow elves and I
In circled ring do trip a round,
If that our sports by any eye
Do happen to be seen or found ;
If that they
No words do say,
But mumm continue as they go,
Each night I do
Put groat in shoe,
And wend out, laughing, Ho, Ho, Ho ! "

The "favete Unguis" is the well-known introitus
to all the Roman sacrifices, from Hor. (Odes, lib.
iii. 1), Ovid's Fasti (lib. i. 71, 72) :—

" Linguisque animisque favete.
Nunc dicenda bono sunt bona verba die."

THENCE CHANGES OF NAMES, 189

A word of ill omen, spoken during the sacrifice
to Janus, here alluded to on the Kalends of
January, was supposed to influence for evil the
whole of the succeeding year.

Some traces of this reverence may be found
amongst the Wends, in the circumlocution by
which they seem to have veiled the true name of
their highest divinity; so that Helmold, in de-
scribing their religious tenets, can express himself
only by the words Dens Deorum, and thence we
gain the silence necessary to most charms and
incantations ; and this established, the e converso
reasoning followed of course, that noise and
clamour were distasteful to the superior powers ;
and bells, as the noisiest, the most powerful to
drive away demons. Another indication is the
change of name which a recurrence to the de-
moniacal practices involved. Jamieson, sub voce
Warlock, says: "It seems to have been a re-
ceived opinion in this country (Scotland), that the
devil gave all those who entered into his service
new names, by which they were to be called in
all their nocturnal meetings ; and that if any one
of them was accidentally designated by his or her
proper name, the spell was dissolved (vide Satan's
Invisible World, p. 24). Whence comes it that
each pope, on his accession to the tiara, must
take another name, and that the monastic vows
require an abnegation of the baptismal patro-
nymic, total and for ever? Silence and secrecy
were next transferred to the places of meeting
for religious worship ; the deep recesses of a thick
grove were chosen abodes of all the deities, and

190 AND ISLANDS CHOSEN FOR SECRESY,

these in preference fixed in islands, which added
also security to these other qualifications. It will
be found in every theogony, that originally all the
most favoured seats of their divinities were inac-
cessible but by water ; the first cradle of Hindoo
theology is transmitted down to us, as the moun-
tain island Meru, and the four rivers of Paradise
isolated it on every quarter. In Greece the
island of Euboea was the original seat of the
twelve great gods of the Cabiri ; and in the reli-
gions of the North, if no existing historical rela-
tions proved the sanctity of Mona, Iona, or
Rugen, as they do for the island Sena, on the
coast of Brittany, or our nearest colony, Heligo-
land, answering in almost direct latitude to the
holy island of Northumberland, St. Cuthbert's Seat,
yet their still-existing monuments would prove to
us the ancient prestige of holiness which they so
pre-eminently possessed.*

To this circumlocution we owe, undoubtedly,
as the principal synonym of the universal Slavonic
deity, our vernacular Robin Goodfellow ; t amongst

* The latest publication of Mr. J. 6. Squier's Nicaragua,
<fec, allows me to add the islands in the lake of that name,
and the adjoining one of Monagua, as remarkable instances,
to those in the text, though for a totally differing creed and
hemisphere.

t The English seem conscious that Robin Goodfettow, by
which name the sprite was distinguished, Halliwell says,
" in the thirteenth century," was but a circumlocution, per-
haps, of the real ineffable appellative, that, like the tetra-
grammaton of the Hebrews, was too sacred to be lightly
pronounced. I think the following is an allusion to the

WITNESSED IN PUCH's NAME NEARLY LOST. 191

the Scotch, as a generic, " the gude people?' exactly
answering to the Greek Eumenides (from ev/u^c*
benevolus) ; and it is curious that they were
served by silent priests.* That they were after-
wards looked upon as furies, and gained the un-
enviable name of Erinnyes, lay in the more sub-
jective views of the Greeks, who, looking solely
upon the dark side of man's character, from their

loss of the original denomination, or its restriction to the
priesthood (vide Life of Robin Goodfellow i Halliwell, p. 123) :

" In briefe christened hee was, at the which all this good
cheare was doubled, which made most of the women so
wise, that they forgot to make themselves ready, and none
of them nest day could remember the child's name but the
clarke, and hee may thanke his bookefor it, or else it had beene
utterly lost."

Would the resuscitation of the name of Puck by Shake-
speare be a discovery of this lost denomination ? or was that
only generic, and the secret have to be still farther traced
back through Pez and Per, to the Percunnus and Percullos
of the Wends ? I think it must. That Robin Goodfellow
was not the right name seems also intimated at page 126 : —

" Doe thus, and all the world shall know
The prankes of Robin Goodfellow ;
For by that name thou call'd shalt be,
To ages' late posterity."

The " gude people" of Scotland are a similar circumlocu-
tion to what we find all the myths of antiquity ; it is danger-
ous and forbidden to inquire the names and abodes of the
heroes. The Knight of the Swan at Cleves and Nymwegen
takes his departure the moment his wife, who has borne him
three children, inquires whence he came, and he returns no
more.

* " Sola fuerint Eumenidum sacrificia quern ilium pre-
cipuum ritum habuerunt ut a tacitis sacerdotibus ageren-
tur."— Natalu Comes. Mythd. p. 20.

192 ROBIN A BAD FELLOW ONCE.

own propensity to the grave and severe and their
aversion to all noisy hilarity, clothed our merry
Puck with all the attributes of a troubled and
angry consciousness of evil.* I know of only one
instance in which our ancestors have found suf-
ficient fault with his mad pranks to give him an
ill name. In a tract by Samuel Rowlands, en-
titled, "More Knaves yet; the Knaves of Spades and
Diamonds." reprinted by the Percy Society, is
the following passage of " ghosts and goblins," in
which we meet with a Robin Bad-fellow : —

" 'Twas a mad Robin that did divers pranckes,
For which with some good cheare they gasre him thankes,
And that was all the kindness he expected ;
With gaine (it seems) he was not much infected.
But as that time is past, that Robin's gone,
He and his night-mates are to us unknowne ;
And in the steed of such Good-fellow sprites
We meet with Robin BadfeUow a-nights,
That enters houses secret in the darke,
And only comes to pilfer, steal, and sharke ;
And as the one made dishes cleane (they say),
The other takes them quite and cleane away.
Whate'er it be that is within his reache,
Tho filching trick e he doth his fingers teache.
But as Goodfellow Robin had reward
With milke and creame that friends for him prepared ;
For being busy all the night in vaine,
(Though in the morning all things safe remaine),

* Natalii Comes, p. 266, tells us that this epithet of
Goodfellow, is also especially applied to Bacchus, the lineal
ancestor or descendant of our Puck : — " Mos fuit apud an-
tiquos ut Bacchi, datoris laetitiae, quern bonum Dcewiontm
apj>ellabant,])oc\il\xm extremum postcaenam remotismensibus
circumferetur."

UNLIKE IN THAT THE GREEK FURIES. 193

Robin BadfeUow, wanting such a supper,
Shall have his breakfast with a rope and butter.
To which let all his fellows be invited,
That with such deeds of darkness are delighted."

HaiiLIWBll's Brand, vol. ii. p. 514.

So that, after all, in the worst view taken of his
character, but a few petty thefts can be laid to
his charge; not, as amongst the severe Greeks,
even when puritanism began to run rampant
through our land, do we x find him in all those
" Gorgon terrors clad" with which Sophocles and
Euripides invest his classic namesakes, in their
embodiment of the guilty conscience of Orestes
the matricide. But from the latter author we have
another striking conformity of the furies with
our fairies, in their fondness for milk, and the
oblations of it which were brought them. In the
Journal of the British Archaeological Association,
vol. ii. p. 318, is the following passage : — " At
Argos (as is evident from the words addressed to
them by Clytemnestra's ghost), these infernal
powers (Eumenides) received worship, and for
their use a table was spread at night :

t( Oft have ye tasted
My temperate offerings, mix'd with fragrant honey,
Grateful libations ; oft the hallowed feast
Around my hearth, at midnight's solemn hour,
When not a god shar'd in your rites."

Collier's Introduction to Shakespeare, vol. ii.
p. 480, tells us a "coarse character, under the
name of Robin Goodfellow, is introduced into the
play of Wily Beguiled, the first edition of whic^t

194 SAXO's DEITIES COMPARED

must have been acted perhaps ten years earlier
than 1606, in which year it is dated."

As my principal intention in the present work
has been to bring the ideas which the classic
authors have transmitted to us, into juxtaposition
with those entertained by our own countrymen,
this may be the proper place to set side by side
the enumeration of the Scandinavian deities by
Saxo Grammaticus, with a somewhat similar list
left us by Lucretius. Saxo is describing a noc-
turnal apparition to Schwanhuita, lib. ii. p. 22
(Edit. Stephanus) : —

" Trux lemurum chorus advehitur procepsque per auras

Cursitat et vastos edit ad astra sonos.
Accedunt fauni satyris, Panumque caterya

Manibus admixta, militat ore fero.
Sylvauis coeunt aquili larvteque nocentes

Gum Lamiis callem participare student.
Saltu librantur furise, glomerantur eisdem

LarrBS, quas Simis Fantua juncta premit."

The enumeration by the Epicurean is shorter,
but his language more beautiful: —

" Hoc loca capripedes satyros, nymphasque tenere
Finitum pingunt et faunos esse loquuntur ;

Quorum noctiyago strepitu ludoque jocanti
Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi

Chordarumque sonas fieri, dulceisque querelas
Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentem."

Stephanus, the editor of Saxo, justly complains
that his author's classical aspirations prevented
his giving the indigenous names of the different
kinds of spirits which he has clothed in these
Latin disguises; and in Olaus Magnus (lib. iii.

WITH THOSE OP LUCRETIU8, ETC. 195

p. 107) we remark the same perversity of talent,
who also enumerates the Danish goblins of his
day, as

"Lemures, Faunos, Satyros, Larvas, Aquilos, Striges,
lamias, Manes, Panumque catervas ; "

Here we have, perhaps, more reason for vexation,
as he wrote from prose.

In pursuing this parallel, we may give the
following enumeration of British hobgoblins, in
1655, from Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witch-
craft (p. 85) :—

" In our childhood, our mother's maids have so terrified
us with an ugly devil, having horns on his head, fire in his
mouth, and a tail in his breech, eyes like a (barber's) basin,
fangs like a dog, claws like a bear, a skin like a niger, and
avoyoe roaring like a lyon, whereby we start and are afraid
when we hear one cry Bough? He adds : " And they have
so frayed us with bul-beggars, spirits, witches, urchins,
elves, hags, fairies, satyrs, pans, faunes, sylens {sic), Kit with
the canstick, tritons, centaurs, dwarfes, gyants, imps, cal-
cars. conjurors, nymphes, changelings, incubus, Robin Good-
fellow, the spoorn, the mare, the man in the oak, the hell
wain, the fire drake, the puckle, Tom Thumbe, hobgoblin,
Tom Tumbler, Boneless, and such other bugs, that we are
afraid of our own shadowes."

Of our other denominations or circumlocutions
of Puck — such as Hobgoblins, Perriwiggin, To-
malin, &c. &c, shown in Poole's Parnassus (Hal-
liwelPs Brand, ii. p. 499), &c. &c, there can be
here no necessity to speak. The only one re-
quiring or permitting elucidation, is Milton's
Lubber Fiend, as the name stands isolated, and
without any illustrative associations. Lubber
seems rather its derivative than its root; and

k2

196 ON LUBBER FIEND AND

there are curious assonances in Piatt Deutsche as
Lopen, to run, which would approximate more
to the Will-o'-the-Wispe than to Jonson's "idle,
fat bulky losel;" and Lob> in high German,
is praise; but neither suits exactly: Lobe (from
Gr. Aofioo), with Globe, in the form of promi-
nences, seem nearer, and would be borne out, in
part, by a curious custom which formerly pre-
vailed at Halberstadt, where was a large flat
granite altar in the cathedral-close before the
west door. Grimm (D. S. p. 276) calls it the
Lugen Stein; more probably Luggenstein, as in
English the Lug is also the lobe of the ear, and
Luggage a man's personal bulky effects. On it
every Whit-Sunday another stone was placed,
which the canons of the cathedral severally at-
tacked and beat till it was thrown off the Lubben-
stone, and which was generally supposed to typify
symbolically the triumph of Christianity over the
indigenous deity, this Lubbe, or Lob; for that
such a one existed anciently in that immediate
vicinity, an undoubted and very large Druidical
circle, still intact, in the neighbourhood, the Lub-
ben-stone near Helmstadt, sufficiently proves. It
was described by Conringius, the famous rector
of the Helmstadt University, and a poor print
may be found of it in Eccard, " De Origine Ger-
manorum" (Gotting. 1750), tab. vii., who, p. 84,
describes it rather meagrely, from ocular inspec-
tion, as follows : "Triplici lapidum majorum cir-
culo constitit. Maximi omnium medium tenent
locum, quibus quatuor ingentia saxa superincum-
bunt, stupendo labore. Versus viam publicam

THE HALBERSTADT LUBBENSTEIN, 197

aliquot alios tumulos partem disjectos adsitos
habet. In uno eorum, Vir summe reverendus
D. J. And. Schmidius Abbas Marienthalensis et
SS. Theol. in Acad. Julia Professor carbones et
ossa equina invenit." In the neighbouring ca-
thedral of Hildesheim, this ceremony of deposing
this Lubben was more formally conducted (Grimm,
D. M . p. 1 73) . "Amongst the remarkable payments
here (in Hildesheim) was the Jupiter money, which
continued to our own time. The village of Grossen
Algermissen had to pay yearly nineteen dollars
and four gulden, under this denomination, to the
sexton. A principal Algermisser peasant had to
bring yearly an octangular log of wood, four feet
high, to the cathedral-close in a sack, which the
choir boys clothed in mantle and crown; and
then they attacked this so-called Jupiter with
stones, first on one side, then on another, and at
last burnt it. This Folk's feast, being accom-
panied by frequent riots, was often forbidden;
but when the royal exchequer relinquished the
Jupiter money the practice ceased" (see Luntzers
Bduerliche Lust in Heldesheim, 1830, p. 205). In
the Hanovers. Magazine, 1833, p. 698, are the
protocols of 1742, 1743, on the stoning of this Ju-
piter. The period of the year when this took place
is not mentioned, but may perhaps be gathered
from the following note to p. 172 : " The Hildes-
heim Register, of the fourteenth, or beginning of
the fifteenth century, says : € Die abgotter so
nun abends vor Laetare von einem Hausman von
Algermissen gesetzet, davor im eine Hufe Landes
gehort, und wie solches von dem Hausman nicht

198 AND HILDESHEIM JUPITER.

gesetzt worden gehort Cantori de Hove Landes
Hanov. Landes blatter, 1 832, p. 30) . " Of the Idol,
which a cottager of Algermissen has to place, on
the eve of Laetare Sunday (three Sundays pre-
ceding Easter), for which service he holds a hoof
of land ; and if this log is not delivered by the
cotter, the land reverts to the cantor for the time
being." It is evident that Jupiter here means
heathendom in general ; and the concurrent testi-
mony in three neighbouring and important lo-
calities for the name and practice, would be a
pretty convincing proof of the existence of a deity
under this name of Lubben, our " Lob of Spirits,"
and "Lubber Fiend." Our English loiterer is
German Lotter bube (Adelung,s.v. FigiirUchunstat,
fluchtich); and in the immediate neighbourhood
of the Lubben- (Lubber, Angl.) steine, we have
a very old convent, the burial-place of an empe-
ror, called Koniffs-lutter.*

* By accident the following note on the Lubbenstein, from
Grimm, D. M. p. 492, was overlooked till the above was
written. The synonym for Lubbe, pilosus, with the conjunc-
tion of Milton's Lvtiber fiend and hairy length in the same
stanza, is curious, and shows, perhaps, that the poet who
sang so well the Christian mysteries, was also more versed in
lore of heathendom than is generally believed. "Auch
Lubbe Liibbe schon scheint in Nieder Sachsischen Gegenden
gleichviel mit plumper Riese; den Lubbenstein auf dem
Cornelius Berg bei Helmstadt. Nach Brem W.B. (iii. 92).
bedeutet Liibbe einen ungeschickten faulen menschen :
es ist das Englische Lubber Lobber (Tolpel), bei Michael
Beham (Mone's Auz. 1834, 450 b.) Liipel. vgl. altn. lubbi,
hirsutus (pilosus) — hierzu eine merkwiirdige Urkunde des
B. Gerhard v> Halberstadt der noch in 1462, uber heidnische
V erehrung eines Wesens klagt den man ' den guden Lub-

PUCH'S NAMES FROM FRENZELTU8. 199

Having, at page 170, stated the various names
by which our Puck is noted in Mecklenburg, from
Masch and elsewhere, it may now be convenient
to adduce the Latin forms of Pusceto, which we find
in Abraham Frenzeliw fde Diis Soraborum, in Hoff-
man's Scriptores Rerum Lusiticarum, sect. ii. cap.
xxv. p. 307: — " Puscetum deum sub sambucam
arborem collocarunt cui pane et cerevisia sacra fece-
runt : imperium quoque Pusceto in Barstuccas id
est spiritus, attribuerunt, et Puscetum orationibus
defatigarunt ut MarcopolumDeum Supanorum seu
nobilium placaret ne ab his grave ac dura servitute
jugoque premerentur. # * * Pusceti nomen ut
barbarum, ita a slavica litteratura prorsus pere-
grinam alieno modo scribi solet. Apud Melitum
(Ep. ad G. Sabinum, p. 167, 169) dicitur Putscoetus
et Petsccetus. Paschvitus apud Martin. Marinium
et Puschkaitus apud alios et Puscmtos apud Hart-
knock. (Dissert. 16 p. 115.) Sub sambuco etiam
Deos habitare credidit coeca olim Prussorum gens;
sed et nostris temporibus (about 1750) quibusdam
in locis vana haec persuasio mentes hominum occu-
pavit ut credant sub sambuco morari homuncu-
los subterraneos Barstuccas veteribus Prussis

ben,' nenne und dem man auf einem Berge bei Schochwitz
in der Grafschaft Martsfeld thierknochen darbringe : nicht
nor haben solche uralte Knochenanhaiifungen dort am
Lussberge vorgefunden (man vgl.den AugBb.perleich 1271),
sondern auch an der Kirche des nahegelegenen Mullersdorf
das eingemauerte Bild eines G6tzen welches der Sage noch
▼on dem Lussberge dahin gebracht worden (N. Mitsheilg.
der Thur. Sachs. Vereins, iii. 130—136. v. 110. 12), die
Abbildung entbalt aber nicht riesenhaftes : eher eine Gtittin
auf einem Wolfe stehend."

200 BERSTUCCAS EXPLAINED BY THE

dictos quod et mihi puero mulierculus aliquoties
referrememini."

Now, besides other synonyms or variations of
nomenclature for our Puck, this passage, and the
extract from Masch (p. 67), gives us the other
name of Berstuccas or Berstucks, as a deity which,
by a verbal affinity, throws a new and hitherto
unregarded light on another legend of great anti-
quity and considerable spread, but which we are
frequently induced to consider indigenous and
almost exclusively English, viz., the "Man in the
Moon." For the following particulars of this
curious myth I am partly indebted to Grimm's
Deutsche Mythologie, 679-682; to Nark's Kloster,
vol. ix. 496 ff. and p. 920 ff. ; as well as to J. O.
Halliweirs Introduction to Shakespeare? s Midsum-
mer Nighfs Dream, s. p. 52; both the latter have
principally availed themselves of Grimm's labours.

Nork says the fable of the man in the moon
seems an etymological one. In Indian mythology
Menu (man) is called, as first-created being,
manusha, after proceeding from the moon, (ma,
priv) . This man is the Egyptian menes, and the
Cretan Bull-Sire, Minos, with allusion to the
horns of the moon.* The Germans deduced them-
selves from Mannus, son of Thuisco, the air god,
as Menu was a son of Brahma. This melting of
both meanings {manu and moon) into these so

* Manu took, when he first exercised generation, the form
of a bull. As lawgiving bull, Dherma, (who, like Minos,
judges the dead in the new moon, i. e. in the realm of
shadows), he goes through all the four world-ages (moon

8.)

FABLE OP MAN IN THE MOON. 201

very nearly allied words, is also shown in the
northern mana-ffarner, as the all-devouring dog is
called which is nurtured by the death of all, and
which, as Wolf, will swallow up the moon. Hagen
compares, also, the old German mane (moon) with
maenish, monish, mortal, and adds: — "If we
reflect that the northern mani is rather the leader
of the moon-time than the moon itself, the widely-
extended idea of the man in the moon will h^ve
another meaning and origin than the spots on the
moon's disc, in which he is as little to be seen as
what the Swedes take them for, viz., two men who
carry on a pole a large bucket (Ling Eddornas
Sinnebildslara, i. 78). The Edda calls these two
Bil and Hiuki, sons of Bidhfinnis, and declares :
Mani took the boys from the earth as they carried
the bucket (s'&gr) from the well (borgir) on the
pole (sivulj (Sn. Edda 9.) These obscure names
refer possibly to the changeful phases of the moon,
and her waning and filling her horns; for bila
means lessening, and Hjuka nourishing, saegr,
fullness (v. Finn Magnusen's Lew. Mythologicum,
507) ; which signifies the bucket drawing water
from the hidden spring. Not much clearer than
this bucket are the accompaniments of our own
moon-manikin, his thorn bush, and dog ; which
latter, again, would be to construe for the wild
huntsman (or Diana, Lady Holle, or the dog-
headed Hecate) (Hagen, ibid. p. 360) . In the Ger-
man myth the man in the moon is a cabbage thief,
for which, as a punishment, he was put into the
moon. In the Mark (of Brandenburg) near Ben-
zendorf, they say it is no man we see in the moon,

202 VARIATIONS OF THE TALE,

but a woman that spun on a Sunday, and for this
was put up there with her spindle, as a punish-
ment (Kuhn Markische Sagen, n. 26) ; most
probably the same Maria mentioned, p. 494, that
was not ready with her spinning on the day of the
Assumption of the Virgin, and therefore taken up
into the moon; probably Maria herself who, in
the Apocalypse, is represented standing upon the
moon, and, according to a legend, has actually
her abode there (cf. Naubert'sNeue Volksmahrchen,
vol. i.)

In Ditmarschen, they say the inhabitants of
Biisum sit in their church steeple and hold the
sun by a bell-rope. They keep it there the night
through, and must thrust it upwards again in the
morning. They also say, when it comes in the
evening into their neighbourhood, the boys tie a
piece of string to their pocket knives, and throw
them towards the sun, and so pull it down to
them. Others, however, declare that there is a
village in the neighbourhood of Hamburg whose
inhabitants do the same to the moon. They pull
her up and down, and from the cuts of their
knives are caused her large holes and black spots
(Mullenhof, Schteswig-Holstein Sagen, No. 351) .

Grimm says (Deutsche Mythologie, p. 679) :

" The spots and shady holes on the disc of the full moon
have produced amongst many people curious hut similar
mythic ideas. To the Indian popular mind they represent a
Iiare, namely, Chandrae, the moon god, carries a hare (sasa);
and the moon is therefore called sasanka (hare spot or blot)
(Schlegds Ind. Biblio. i. p. 217). According, also, to Mongo-
lian tradition, the moon's shadows form a hare (Bergmann's
Streifereien 3, 40, 204, Majer* Mytholog. Worterbwh, LMO)."

PROM DITMAKSCHEN, EDDA, ETC. 203

On the myth from Scandinavia, of Bil and
Hiuki, Grimm remarks farther : —

"That the moon phases cannot be hereby meant, but its
spots, follows plainly from the picture itself. The change
of moon cannot produce the figure of two children with the
water bucket on their shoulders. What appears to us the
most singular is, that a Christian modification has afterwards
proceeded from this heathen idea of a children-stealing moon-
man, which, beyond Scandinavia, obtained throughout Ger-
many, and perhaps farther. They tell us the man in the
moon was a wood-thief, who stole sticks during church ser-
vice on a Sunday, and now, as a punishment, is charmed up
into the moon. There he may be seen, with axe upon his
shoulder, and his bundle of sticks in his hand. Quite clear
is it that the pole of the heathen story has been transformed
into the axe, and the bucket into the bundle of thorns. The
idea of theft was retained, but the keeping of the Christian
Sabbath holy was principally inculcated;* the man suffers
not so much for stealing firewood, as because he did it on a
Sunday. This intruded view was based upon Deuteronomy
xt. 32-36, where we read of a man who had gathered sticks
on the Sabbath, and whom the Israelite people stoned to
death, but all without mention of the moon or her spots.
When this fable first appeared in Germany I cannot ascer-
tain, but it is now universally prevalent. 1 *

The following curious version is from Tobler^s
SpracAschatz in Appenzel : —

"An anna ma het alawil am sonnti holz ufglesa. Do
hedem der lieb gott dwahl gloh, 6b er lieber wtftt ider sonn
verbrenna oder im mo verfrura (andere sagen ; in kalta mo
ihi oder i dholl abi) do wilier lieber inn mo ihi. dromm siedma
no ietz an ma im mo inna wenns wedel ist. er hed a puscheli
uffem rogga."

* According to a Westphalian version, the man had
blocked up the church with thorns on a Sunday, and for
that was pot into the moon with his bush.

204 SCRIPTURAL VERSIONS.

Kuhn's Markische Sagen, Nos. 27, 104, 130,
have three different relations; according to one, a
besom-maker collected broom, or a spinster span;
according to another, a man spread dung; and to
the third, that he stole cabbages; and this form,
with the broom, faggot, the spindle, the dung-
fork, or the cabbage-plant, make the moon's spots.
The first relation I know of is from Fischart's Gar-
gantua, 130 b. : " Sah im mon ein mannlin das
holz gestohlen het ;" and still more precisely says
Praetorius (Weltbeschreibung, i. 447) the super-
stitious people pretended the black spots in the
moon are the man who gathered sticks on the
Sabbath, and was stoned for it. The Dutch
Volksagen (the national predilections here pre-
vailing) make the man a filcher of garden stuff,
who shows himself in the moon with the bundle of
" moes" upon his shoulder (Westendorp, p. 129).

Two other varieties of interpretation for the
spots on the moon have biblical support — Impri-
mis, it is Isaac who carries a bundle of wood for
his own sacrifice up the Hill Moriah (Praeto-
rius, Weltbeschreibung, i. 447). Afterwards Cain,
with a load of thorns upon his shoulder, to make
to the Lord, as an offering, the smallest possible
produce of his fields ; for this latter we have the
early authority of Dante, Paradies, ii. 50 : —

" Che sono i segni bui
De questo corpo, che laggiuso in terra
Fan di Cain favoleggiare altrui ;"—

and Inferno, 20— 126, "Cainoele Spine." Lau-
dino remarks on this passage: "Ciod la luna

HBBEL'8 SWISS POEM OP 205

nella quale i volgari vedendo una certa ombra, cre-
dono che sia Caino c' habbia in spalla unaforcata
di prum.^ Another commentator : " Accomo-
dandosi alia favola del volgo, che sieno quelle
macchie Caino che inalzi unaforcata di spine"

All these interpretations unite in this, that
they view a human figure in these moon spots,
that carries something on its shoulder, whether
hare, or pole with the bucket, or the mere burthen
of thorns.

The following is a Swiss song in the dialect of
Appenzel, called, " Der Mann im Mond" [vide
Hebel's Allemannische Gedichte, 12mo. Arau,
1821, p. 43), praised by Grimm (p. 680, note),
and mentioned by Halliwell (Introduction, &c.
p. 56), but which I believe has not yet been
printed in England : —

" ' Lueg, Muetterli, was isch im'Mo ' ?
He ! siehsch's denn nit, e Ma !
' Jo wegerli, i sieh ne scho ;

< Er het e TschSpli a.'

1 Was tribt er denn die ganzi Nacht.'

< Er ruehret io kei Glied V

' He siehsch nit, ass er WeUe macht ' ?
' Jo ebe dreiht er d' Wied.'

* War i, wie er, i blieb dehei

« Und machti d'Welle do.'
He isch er denn us user Gmei ?

Mer hen scho selber so.

1 Und meinsch, er chSnn so, wiener well 1

Es werd em, was em g'hort.
Er gieng wol gern— der sufer gsell

Muss schellewerche dSrt.'

206 MAN IN THE MOON,

' Was het et bosget Muetterli ? '
Wer het en bannt dorthi ? '

'Me het em gseit der Dieterli. 9
E Nutznutz isch er gsi.

' Ufs Bete het er nit viel gha,
Uffs Schaffen o nit viel ;

Und obbis muss me triebe da
Sust het me langi wil.

' Drum, het en 6bbe nit der Vogt
Zur Strof ins Husli gspert,

Sen isch er Ebe z'Chander g'hockt
Und het d'Butelli g'lert.'

* Je Muetterli wer het em's Geld

Zu so'me Lebe ge ! '
Du Narsch er het in Hus und Feld

Scho selber wisse z'neh.

Ne mok, es isch e Sunntig gsi

So stoht er uf vor Tag
Und nimmt e Biel und tummlet 6i

Und lauft in Lieler Schlag.

Er haut die sch5nste Biiechli um
Macht Bohne-Stecke drus

Und treit sie furt und luegt nit um,
Und isch scho fast am Hus.

Und ebe goht er uffem Steg
Se runscht em 5bbes fur

' Jez, Dieter, gohts en andre Weg
Jez Dieter chumm mit mir.'

' Und uf und furt und sieder isch
Kei Dieter wit und breit

Dort obe stoht er im Gibusch
Und in der Einsamkeit.

i Jez haut er jungi Buechli um
Jez chuchet er in d'Hand.

AND BBCKSTEIN'S GERMAN MYTH, 207

Jez dreiht er d' Wied und leit sie drum
Und's Sufe het en End.'

1 So gohts dem arme Dieterli'

Er isch e gestrofte Ma !
< bhiitis Gott, lieb Muetterli

I mochts nit mittem ha ! '

Se hut die vorem b8se Dinjr,

'S bringt numme Weh und Ach !
Wenn's Sunntig isch, se bet und sing

Am Werchtig schaff di Sach.' "*

The following version may be useful even to
those whose knowledge of German is more than
superficial ; for the author thought it necessary,
as in the case of our illustrators of provincial
dialects, to add a glossary. It is attempted rather
to be literal than poetical : —

" ' Look, mother, look ! what's that i'th moon V
' See'st thou not it's a man V
1 Aye, surely now I see the loon,
His doublet too I scan.

' What does he, then, the live-long night ?

He moves, it seems, no limb?' —
' Why, see'st not how he makes kids right ? ' —

* Aye, now he's twisting them.' "

* In Beckstein's Deutsche* Mahrchen Buck, the author
gives, from a verbal relation, the tale of the " Man in the
Moon" which has the usual fact of cutting wood on the
Sunday, with the addition that he is warned against the
desecration by God himself (" Dem lieben Hergott,") in vain.
The wood-cutter answers : " Sunday on earth, or Monday in
heaven, what matters either to me or thee ;" and his doom
follows thus : " Therefore shalt thou bear thy bundle of
sticks for ever ; and since the Sunday on earth is so worth-
less to thee, thou shalt have in future, for ever, an eternal
black Monday (Moonday), and be set up there an everlast-
ing warning to all who desecrate the Sunday by working."

208 TRANSLATED

' Were I like him I'd stop at home,
And bind my furze kids there.

Is he then from our parish come ?
I think I've seen him here.' —

* Think'st thou he could so if he willed ?

He's got his full desert.
Gladly he'd 'scape ; because he swill'd.

He's now in chains and dirt.' —

' What has he done, then, mother dear ;

Who sent him there to delve V — .
' His name is Dierdeli, I hear,

A good for nothing elf.

' For praying he had not much fame,
For work perhaps little more ;

For one or t'other must we aim,
Or grievous is our hour.

' For these the beadle yonder not
Him sets to pine i'the cage ;

He's look'd too often in the pot,
And known the tankard's gage.' —

' But, mother mine, who gave him gold,
Such jovial life to lead 1 '—

( Thou silly boy, in house and fold
He had no siller's need.

' The thing thus on a Sunday pass'd ;

He rose afore the sun,
His bill he took with quickest haste,

And to the woodlands run.

' Down fall the beeches high and sound,
To make him hop-poles tall ;

He drags them off, nor looks around,
And now is nigh his hall.

' But 'fore he gets him in the yard,
A voice sounds high and dree —

" Now, Dieter, try a path more hard!
Now, Dieter, come with me!"

AND EXPLAINED. 209

' And up and down, for never more

Is Dieter far or near ;
The bush above there holds him sore.

In solitude and fear.

' He now cuts brushwood young and low,

And blows his frozen hand ;
He twists his faggots cold and slow ;

Tippling's now at a stand.'

And thus with Dieterli it fares,

He's a hard punished man.*'
" May heav'n forbid thy mother-cares

E'er find me in such Bann ! "

1 Then keep thee from the wicked thing,

It brings still grief and pain ;
On Sunday prayers and praises sing,

Work-days for work remain.' "

It will be seen the above embodies the mythic
features contained in fables of all ages concern-
ing the Man in the Moon, with some, perhaps,
peculiarly Alemannic or Southern Germanic. Of
the latter is the fact of tippling, which seems to
be put forward as the ultimate reason for the
theft, which other countries deem the prime
crime; being an excellent example of the old
tale, that when the tempter offered the choice of
two horrible crimes, or getting drunk in the alter-
native, and the latter was accepted as a minor
evil, the deluded sinner, when senseless from
liquor, committed the other two. To this Cruick-
shank's excellent series of prints, entitled " The
Bottle" offers a beautifully graphic commentary.
The main features, however, of our story, the
man, the bush, the watery coldness of his habita-
tion, his being placed there for punishment, his

210 REFERENCES TO, FROM OLD BALLADS,

axe, and the kids or faggots he has to twist, are
all the more general features of the picture ; and
to the latter I shall have again to draw particular
attention.

Our English traditions have been principally
collected, by the zeal and ability of Mr. Halliwell,
at p. 52 of his Introduction, elucidating the device
of the Athenian play-wright, with Peter Quince
at their head, to bring in the Man in the Moon,
with his bush at his back* I must, however,
demur to the motto of his chapter, taken from
Butler's Hudibras, part ii. canto iii. v. 251 :—

" Who first found out the Man-i'-the-Moon,
That to the ancients was unknown.*' —

as I mean to prove that every attribute given to
him has been copied from classic authorities, or
runs parallel with them from a common origin;
and that, at the utmost, the name we give him
is modern ; but I agree with him in finding, from
Ashmole's following pun (taken from his MS.
36 and 37), that at his time the legend itself had
well nigh been forgotten : —

" 'Tis strange, yet true, he's but a month-old man,
And yet hath liv'd ere since the world began ;"

for ever after the breaking out of the civil wars
we hear little more of the olden tales; they
smacked too much of popery. The poem copied
by Bitson, from the Harl. MS (2253), has been
reprinted by Mr. Halliwell; but though the
original is written extremely clear, I think, from
the difficulty of making sense or correspondence
with other legends, that its writer has copied

AND FROM CHAUCER) 211

from a faulty legend, or himself not fully compre-
hended its sense. Mr. H alii well thinks this MS.
probably of the thirteenth century; and as his
knowledge of antique parchments is too great for
doubt, this document would be a very old, per-
haps the earliest, proof of the story in the northern
parts of Europe. The next evidence of our ac-
quaintance with it is from Chaucer, at the close
of the fourteenth century. In the poem entitled
the Testament of Creisside," printed in that poet's
works, there is this allusion to the legend : —

" Next after him come Lady Cynthea,

The last of all, and swiftest in her sphere,
Of color blake, busked with hornis twa,
And in the night she listeth best t'apere,
Hawe as the Leed, of colour nothing dere,
For all the light she borrowed at her brother
Titan, for of herselfe she hath non other.
Her gite was grey, and ful of spottis blake,
And on her brest a chorle painted ful euen,
Bering a bushe of thornis on his bake,

Whiche for his thefte might clime no ner the heven."

Amongst the few evidences of its existence and
popularity, the following nursery rhyme must
also have place, though it is clear the legend in
the first lines is but the peg to hang the subse-
quent rhymes upon : —

" The Man in the Moon

Came tumbling down,
And asked his way to Norwich ;

He went by the south,

And burnt his mouth
With supping hot pease porridge."

212 IN ROXBURGH BALLADS,

Passing the mention from Missingham's Diary,
1601, and that from Middleton, as well as the
well-known passage in the Tempest, we come to
the quotation from a very old ballad, beginning —

" The Man in the Moon drinks claret,
With powdered beef, turnip, and carrot ;"

with the variation communicated orally by a
Somersetshire friend to Mr. Halliwell, who could,
unfortunately, recollect only the first verse : —

" The Man in the Moon drinks claret,
But he is a dull Jack o 'Dandy ;
Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot,
He should learn to drink cyder and brandy."

It is to be lamented that this fragment is all that
is now likely to be recovered, of what must have
been once one of the most popular of our ances-
tral melodies. Independently of the Roxburgh
Collection of Ballads in the British Museum, there
are also three volumes of various scraps got toge-
ther by the industrious Bagford (library mark,
643 m. 9, 10, & 11), and amongst them a number
of curious broadside ballads, many of them not in
the Roxburgh Collection. More than one that
Bagford got together bear the title of " The Man
in the Moon drinks Claret."

No. g<8 i % m ' The Man in the Moon drinks Claret, as it
was lately sung at the Court in Holywell."

This woodcut is very curious ; it represents a
man in a ruff and Spanish dress, of about the
time of James the First, standing in the crescent
of a large half-moon, with a wine-jug in one

AND BAGBOBJrS COLLECTION.

213

hand, a glass raised in the other. The words are
remarkable; but beyond the title and conclusion,
we find nothing allusive to the moon-man.

The following are the only verses in which any
allusion is made to the very taking title: —

" Our Man in the Moon drinks Claret ;
If he doth so, why should not you
Drink until the sky look bleu 1 " —

and the conclusion —

" If then you do love my host's claret,
Fat powdered beef, turnip, and carrot ;
Gome again and again,
And still welcome, gentlemen ! "

And that the popularity of this emblem was not
confined to verse, we find from Akerman's curious

214 MAN IN THE MOON ON TOKENS,

volume of " Tradesmen's Tokens/' where it is
shown to have been a favourite tradesman's sign
of the sixteenth century.

No. 75 has the inscription : — " John Clark, at
the Man in the Moon in Waping, his Half-
penny," with the date 1688 ; and on its obverse,
the figure of a man standing upright in the cres-
cent. Mr. Akerman remarks: "We have seen
the subject most quaintly treated on village sign-
boards, but the man in the moon is here not in-
elegantly represented, however preposterous the
idea. No. 49, stated as the " Man in the Moon,
Waping," does not correspond with Mr. Aker-
man's description. No. 87, The Shepherd and
his Dog, Tooley Gate, is the only allusion to
the dog, which is also an attribute to ourlunar
denizen {vide p. 165).

The previous broadside of these ballads is en-
titled, " New Mad Tom of Bedlam ; or

" The Man in the Moon drinks Claret,
With Powder-Beef, Turnip, and Carrot"

The woodcut here, also, is remarkable. A
wild, savage Sylvan man, with large chaplet over
his head, the face with full beard and mustachios ;
huge hunting horn slung from right shoulder;
staff in right bent arm, a loose vest round the
loins, and sandals. The whole of the ballad is
too long for insertion ; but the following is a spe-
cimen, with the allusion, at the end, to the Man
in the Moon : —

" Last night I heard the Dog-Star hark,
Mars met Venus in the dark ;

PROOFS OP ITS POPULARITY 215

Limping Vulcan het an iron bar,
And furiously ran at the God of War;
Mars with his weapon laid about,
But Vulcan's temples had the gout ;
His broad horns did so hang in his sight,
He could not see to aim his blows aright.
Mercury, the nimble Poast of Heaven,
Stood still to see the quarrel ;
Gorrel-bellied Bacchus, gyant like,
Bestrid a strong beer barrel ;
To me he drank,
I did him thank ;
But I could get no Cider.
He drank whole butts,
'Till he crackt his gutts,
But mine were none the wider.
Poor naked Tom is very dry.*
A little drink for charity.
Hark, I hear
Action's hounds,
The huntsman whoops and hollows ;
Ringwood, Royster,
Bown, Joyler,
At the the (sic) chase now follows.
The Man in the Moon drinks claret,
Bats powder'd beef, turnip and carrot ;
A cup of old Malaga Sack
Will fire his bush at his back."

This title, and the burthen of our Man in the
Moon in the songs, which have so little to do with
to general tendency, could only have been given
from' the wide spread of the fable, and its popu-
larity with the great bulk of the people, for whose
musement these broadsides were intended; but
^ith full as little reason does Lilly give the

* "Edgar. Poor Tom's a-cold." — King Lear, act ill. sc. 4.

216 FROM ITS FREQUENT U8E AS A TITLE.

"Man in the Moon" as the second title to his
"Endymion," which was calculated for a higher
class of society, and where, under the name of
Cynthia, the Virgin Queen is principally extolled.
Vide "Halpin's Oberon's Vision" (Lond. 1843)
p. 50, where is the following extract from Lilly's
Preface : " It was forbidden, in old times, to dis-
pute of Chimaera, because it was a fiction ; we
hope in our times none wil} apply pastimes, be-
cause they are fancies; for there liveth none under
the sun that knows what to make of the Man in
the Moon. We present neither comedy, or tra-
gedy, nor story, but whosoever heareth may say
this : ' Why, here is a tale of the Man in the Moon/
It seems — to speak according to present popular
parlance — this title was a taking one." *

* Lest any one should be led astray by the title of the
following work, we copy its description from the Rev. Br.
Whitaker's History of Craven, which is, however, an addi-
tional instance of the popularity of the tale : —

" It will now give pain to no one, if I notice Mr. Wilson,
formerly curate of Halton Gill, near Skipton in Graven, and
father of the late Rev. Edward Wilson, canon of Windsor.
He wrote a tract, entitled " The Man in the Moon" which
was seriously meant to convey the knowledge of common
astronomy in the following strange vehicle.

" A cobbler, Israel Jobson by name, is supposed to ascend,
first, to the top of Penigent, and thence, as a second stage,
equally practicable, to the moon ; after which he makes the
tour of the whole solar system. From this excursion the
traveller brings back little information which might not
have been had upon earth, excepting that the inhabitants
of one of the planets were made of ' pot metal.'

" It (the book) is rarely to be met with, having, as I am
told, been industriously bought up by his family."

BERSTUCKEN SLAVONIC OP PUCK. 217

Leaving to a future chapter the consideration
of the watery Moon, or, in Lydgate's words, in
his Storie of Thebes : —

" Of Lucina the Moone, moist and pale,
That many showre fro heaven made availe" —

as well as the true source of her claret-bibbing
propensities — we will proceed to the consideration
of another peculiarity of Puch, as Hackelberend,*
or Back-Berend, back-bearing in general, or more
especially of the bush or thorns at his back. At
p. 199, the extract from Frenzelius gives us another
Slavonic name for their Puck, or Puscetus, that
of Berstuccas, which is also fully confirmed by
Voigt's Preussische aite Geschichte, vol. i. p. 594.
Speaking of the lesser deities of the heathen
Prussians, one of this species of spirits were the
Berstucks, or Perstucks — " Sylvan deities and elf-
like were the Marcopeten, which, leaving their
night-haunts in the twilight, sought for food, and
were sought to be propitiated by offerings of
food, for they were the guardian angels of house
and barn." He adduces as his authority the
, oldest historian of the Teutonic order, Lucrs

But this title seems to have been, in the seventeenth cen-
tury, very generally taken for any work of fiction or charac-
ters, though the subject-matter have as little to do with our
popular mythology as any real denizen in the Moon itself ;
thus " The Man in the Moone, or the English Fortune Teller"
edited by Halliwell, for the Percy Society, which has no
connexion with the Queen of Night, or any of her sub-
jects, farther than their appearance on the title-page.

* For the importance of this term, cf. p. 72, ff.

218 PROVED FROM VARIOUS AUTHORS.

David, i. s. 86. 127; Hartknock, 162; Oster-
meier, 15, 21 ; and we find the same in Masch,
Alterthumer der Obotriten, p. 81, § 9. "The
Wendic half-gods are of a different kind; they
are called Berstucn, Marcopeten } and Coltki* (per-
haps our Colpixies, or Coltpixies) ;" and that the
superstition continues in full vigour to the present
day, we find in the following observations from
Tettau and Temme's Preussische Volkssagen, pub-
lished in 1841, at p. 119 : " The Holy Limetree. —
This holy tree, near the town of Rastenburg, has
been long famous as chapel and place of pil-
grimage. In the time of heathendom there stood
here an immense lime, beneath which many
deities were worshipped. A species of small un-
derground mannikins, called Berstuccs, had here
their more especial habitations. They made their
appearance by bright moonshine, and made them-
selves then comfortable. They fetched corn for
those to whom they were attached, from the barns

* There can be very little doubt that these Coltki are
what Heywood meant at 272 of his Hierarchic, in the pas-
sage—

" In John Milesius any man may reade
Of devils in Sarmatia honored,
Called KoUri or Kibaldi; such as we
Fugs and Hobgoblins call ; their dwellings be
In corners of old houses least frequented,
Or beneath stacks of wood, and there convented,
Make fearful noise in butteries and dairies.
Robin Goodfellows some— some call them fairies."

And this is a very early and complete testimony to the
identity of British and Slavonian mythology.

DIFFERENT OPINIONS CONCERNING. 219

and warehouses of such neighbours as had proved
themselves inhospitable towards them. To wor-
ship or oblige them, a table was placed towards
evening, covered with a clean cloth, on which
were set bread, cheese, butter, and beer, and they
were invited to sup. If the next morning nothing
was found on the table, it was a favourable omen ;
on the contrary, if these victuals stood undis-
turbed throughout the night, it was a sign that
the gods had departed from the house of him who
made this offering (Acta Borussica, i. 245 ; Leo.
Hist. Pruss. p. 10; Clagius de Linda Mariana,
i. cap. xv. p. 84 ff. ; Hartknock's Kirchen Hist.
190 ff.)" Farther, at p. 285, No. 17, « The Fu-
neral Urns. — Many believe, of the urns found in
heathen tombs, that they were the utensils which
the subterraneous deities (Barstiicken) used, and
which they had either put into the grave after
their friends, to use in the next world, or that
they had left behind them when they forsook
their habitation. Others believe that the earth
bore them from her womb, when she was, as it
were, therewith pregnant, in the fruitful month of
May. If milk were kept in such urns it gave
richer butter ; and if hens were let to drink out
of them, they not only improved wonderfully, but
were never troubled by the pip; seed corn, kept
therein before it was sown, was sure of a rich
harvest. (Reusch. de Turn, et Urnis Sepulchris
Regiomontan. 1724, iv. c. iii. § 2, 3. Compare
Erlautertes Preussen, W. § 95) ." And finally, in
the paragraph. headed Barstucto, we have some
farther particulars : " The Bar studs are little earth

l2

220 CONFORMITIES WITH REGINALD SCOTT, ETC.

mannikins, which cause either great injury, or
bring much luck, accordingly as they are in a bad
or good hnmour, and every one, therefore, seeks
to make friends with them. In the evening a
table is laid for them in the barn, which is
covered neatly with a cloth, and the master of the
house places on it bread, cheese, butter, and beer.
If, on the following morning, nothing is found on
the table, it is occasion of great joy, and great
hopes are entertained of increase in all domestic
concerns. If, on the contrary, the victuals re-
main the night through untouched, it causes
great sorrow, as it is supposed that the Bar-
stucks have left, and will cause great damage.
This belief is particularly prevalent in Samland,
near Konigsberg (Hartknock, 161; Luc. Dav. i.
§ 86, 127; Voigt, i. 594; Act. Boruss. ii. 406,
v. 112)."

Who, on reading the above accounts, does not
call to mind a similar dupery in the earliest cir-
cumstantial relation that has reached us of priestly
trickery, in that portion of the Apocrypha called
Bel and the Draff on ? — and of its continuance as a
belief amongst the Greeks, the passage put into the
mouth of Clytemnestra, at p. 75, is a convincing
proof. Our English fairies are less selfish ; they
mostly are content with objective cleanliness in the
house and hearths they frequent, but their re-
wards can consist in nothing but eatables, and are
not invariably given; though from Reginald Scott's
Discoverie of Witchcraft, it would seem to have
been an obsolete practice in 1588 to 1651, p. 61 ;
for he speaks of it as practised by " their grand-

BEESTUCKS BRONZE STATUE 221

dames :" " Your grand-dames maids were wont to
set a bowl of milk for him (Robin), for his pains
in grinding of malt and mustard, and sweeping
the house at midnight ; his* white bread and milk
was his standing fee." Sometimes, however, Robin
is represented as begging for his portion, and
he used this song, to the tune of " The Jovial
Tinker" :—

" Good people of this mansion,
Unto the poore be pleased
To doe some good, and give some food,

That hunger may be eased.
Oh, give the poore some bread, cheese, or butter,
Bacon, hempe, or flaxe,
My need doth make me axe."

And when these dues are denied, or, for his fa-
vourite white bread and milk, he finds an inferior
quality, his anger rises into threats: —

" Brown bread and herring cob !
Thy fat sides shall have many a bob.'*

These coincidences, I think, fully prove that the
continental Mecklenburg and Prussian Berstucs
are legitimate Robin Goodfellows, or Pucks; and
if further proof were wanting, the following
figure, being one side of a bronze image, of
the size of the original, in the collection of the
Grand Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, will estab-
lish the fact beyond a doubt ; for in the inscribed
runes we can plainly read the conjoint names of
Berstuck and Crive, as synonyms and names of
the image, which has in form and character every
feature of our own merry Puck, with all the goat-

222

IN A COLLECTION AT STRELITZ.

like members of the Oriental Bock, so that we
may fairly take it as a genuine representation;
and as its antiquity will be proved indisputably to
the eighth or ninth century, also as the oldest
extant. Leaving a full disquisition on its dis-
covery, together with numerous other figures of

F€w£

Wendic idols to the next chapter, I shall for the
present content myself with a description of it,
and the runes graven on it, from p. 116 of
Masch'8 Alterthumer der Obotriten, § 214 : —

" This figure is of mixed metal (bronze), two inches and
a half high, and four and a half loth (about three English
ounces) heavy. The head is largely protruded ; the body

MEANING OP BERSTUCK 223

that of a naked man, somewhat bent ; the knees are like-
wise bent, and the entire figure, as if bearing a burthen, has
also on the back a small pack, which the Satyr bears. The
i one foot, which is more bent, and therefore smaller than the
other, seems a horse's hoof:* the latter is a human foot. Both
arms are broken off. Small as the figure is, so beautifully
and neatly is it worked and adorned with numerous Runic
characters, amongst which are many whose sense it is not
easy to determine. On the pack is zu ; under the left arm,
on the breast, /; on the back, to the bend of the knee, Ber-
ttuck; on the left side of the back, Crive ; beneath the left
arm to the bend of the knee, Veiddbot ; beneath the right
flat foot, 8, and beneath the left, u."

Leaving for the present all the other names,
we shall proceed, by a grammatical consideration
of the name of Berstuck, to point out its coin-
cidences with our popular ideas, and the views
and sculptured relics of antiquity.

That Berstucks is a compound word, its very
appearance must persuade us. Its first syllable,
Ber,t is identical with the German Bar (pro-
nounced Bare), our English Bear. As oppor-
tunity will again offer to enlarge upon the verbal

* The figures, which were drawn by the court painter,
Wogen, who was at the entire expense of the work, and
therefore often gets the credit of its authorship, do not quite
bear out this description ; though it must be recollected that
our cloven foot always goes, in Germany, by the name of
Horse's-foot (Pferde-fuss). Langbein calls the devil "der
Herr mit Schwanz und Pferdefuss."

t This word is the root of the name of many towns, sup-
posed to have been originally the lair of bears in the pri-
meval woods. Berlin bears in its arms a rampant bear,
sirmounted by seven towers, representing so many united
boroughs — Bernau, in its neighbourhood, Bernburg, (fee.

224 EXPLAINED FROM ADELTJNG AND GRIMM,

peculiarities of this word, it will be sufficient here
to mention, that one of its terms, with German
hunters, is Petz, which would identify it with
Peze, Pece, Puce, which Masch gives to his Meck-
lenburgh Pucks. Adelung, s. v. Bar, admits that
any large animal was originally called by this, or
perfectly cognate terms; and Grimm, D. M. p.
633, proves that the Germans, who gave to each
species of the brute creation their proper kings,
held the bear as the monarch of the beasts.*

* Grimm's passage is curious, and therefore I adduce the
original : —

"Unter den wilden Waldthieren die der Mensch mit
Scheu betrachtete, denen er Ehrerbietung bezeigte : vor
alien Biir, Wolf, Fuchs : ich habe dargethan class diesen
dreien nach weit und fruhe in Europa verbreitete Sitte,
ehrende Namen beigelegt wurden und dass unseren Ahnen
der Bar fur den Konig der Thiere gait, Eine Urkunde von
1290 (Langs, reg. 4, 467), liefert den Beinamen Chuonrat
der Heiligbar wozu man den alteren Manns und Frauens
namen, altn. Asbiorn; ags. Osbiorn; ahd. Auspero; und
altn. Asbiorna ; ahd. Auspirin (in Wall. Ospirn) halte :
damals scheinen noch unter dem Yolke Sagen von der
Heiligkeit des Thiers im Gange gewesen zu sein. Biorn
war ein Beinamen der Thors und nach der walschen Sage
wurde Konig Arthur als Bar und Gott dargestellt ; was man
nicht erst aus einer Ahnlichkeit des Namens mit apicrog
zu leiten hat. Oeberraschend ist die in Victor Hugo's
Notre Dame de Paris, ii. 272, mitgetheilte Nachricht dass
die Ziegeuner den fuchs, piedbleu, courier des Bois : den
Wolf pied gries, pied dore : den Baren vieux oder grand
pere nennen."

Mone (Europdisches ITeidenthum, i. p. 211) says of the
Berstucks : " Berstuck — that is, Woodspirit — was worship-
ped by the Crive and Veidelbolts, and was, as the name im-
ports, at the head of all the Sylvan deities. He had a goat's

AND FROM LATIN STYX. 225

Their knowledge of natural history was then,
most probably, bounded by the terrors of their
native forests; though, when the lions and tigers
became known, these Eastern beasts assumed the
pre-eminence assigned to them by nature. To
the great veneration of the ancient Germans for
the bear, or some animal like it, Tacitus De morib.
German, cap. xliii. : "iEstiorum gentes alluuntur,
quibus ritus habitusque Suevorum, lingua Bri-
tannicce proprior — MatremDeum venerantur: in-
signe superstitionis formas aprorum gestant."

The second syllable of this word Stiicks is cer-
tainly identical with the classical Styx, even to an
identity of pronunciation, and, without doubt,
also of meaning. At p. 37, I have already given
the quotation from Ovid, which proves that Styx,
as a river, was but the substitute of an actual
deity, Stygius, of whose existence I certainly have
hitherto met with no other instance ; but this con-
cealment or retention of his personal name, may
have originated in the same feeling which obtains
in all the Eastern nations {vide p. 37) ; for with
Ovid, like the river, which seems to have become
the mezzo termine, or compromise, by which their
consciences might not be hurt, and yet the name
pronounced, a river of the name was feigned, by
which gods and men could make a binding oath.

form, very like a Satyr, and is called expressly, Zlebo^, the
angry deity." But Mone candidly admits that he is unable
to explain the name ; and, as a wood deity, he adduces for
their Wendic frequency the following passage from Hel-
mold : " Adorabant lucos atque penates quibus agri et op-
pida abundabant."

L2

226 AGREEMENT OP STYX, STUECCS, AND STICKS.

A similar compromise is found in the present day
betwixt duty and fervour, in the expression, Odd
rot it, for God rot it. But Ovid's Deus, Stygius
Timor ille Deorum, exactly answers, as I have be-
fore remarked, to Helmold's similar circumlocu-
tion, for his principal Slavonic deity: "Deus ille
Deorum," and most probably, therefore, both meant
the same ; whose proper appellative was Styx, or
Stucc8, in our English pronunciation, Sticks, as
we shall find subsequently corroborated; for Sticks
is but the Bush denuded of its leaves, which, as

" The Bush borne by the Man in the Moon,"

is a principal attribute, and the cognizance by
which this fabulous being is most generally known
in all countries.

Daniel O'Rourke, according to the veritable
account of his Voyage to the Moon, preserved by
his historian, Crofton Croker, in what he pleases
to call Fairy Legends, is left by an eagle, dang-
ling by the reaping-hook sticking out of the
moon's side : " You may be sure I was in a dis-
consolate condition, and kept roaring out for the
bare grief, when all at once a door opened, right
on the middle of the moon, creaking on its hinges,
as if it had not been opened for a month before;
I suppose they never thought of greasing them;
and out there walks — who do you think, but the
Man in the Moon. / knew him by his bush* 9

In reference to this Bush of the Moon, and
to give my readers an opportunity of seeing
how the Germans could form a scene for their
theatre, from the comic side of the tale of the

STICKS FEEQUENTLY A BUSH. 227

Man in the Moon, I will give, from Griphius'
Absurda Comica, (who was almost cotemporary
with Shakespeare (fl664), and who, in this play,
copied much from Midsummer Night's Dream),
the scene where the artisan playwrights discuss
the subject of their scenic effect for a moon, as
follows : —

" P. H. Cheerily, cheerily, my lads. The moon will most
assuredly shine when we play to-night.

" M. Kricks. All very well ; but I have always found that
it rains when fine weather stands in the almanack.

" Pet Squince. Pooh ! never mind ; the moon must be
here when we play, otherwise our business will go to pot —
that is, the comedy will be lost.

" M. Kricks. But hear what I have thought of. I will tie
a bush round my body, and carry a lanthorn, and so tragicate
(tragieren) the moon. Is not my notion a good one 1

« P. H. By Valtin, that will do. But the moon ought to
be aloft — how can we manage that ?

" Pet Squince. It would not be amiss if you were to place a
large basket for the moon, and let him up and down with a
rope.

"Master Kricks. Aye, but if the rope broke I should tumble,
and break, perhaps, my neck or bones. It will be better to
place the lanthorn upon a demi-bartisan, so that the light be
somewhat raised," <fcc.

We see, on a comparison with our own bard,
the words

" Without sweetness long drawn out"

lose much of their racy quaintness and point.
The Bush, howevery round the loins of the Moon,
shows how interwoven a chaplet or cincture of
leaves was into the popular idea of that planet, or
her man, throughout Germany, so late as the
middle of the seventeenth century.

228 EXAMPLES.

The bush was certainly one of the most general
attributes of a Puch, and by which he is most
commonly and universally known. At p. 66 we
have its double mention from Shakespeare; we
may add the following from that other famous
dramatist, Dekker, in his " Honest Whore" (4to.
Lond. 1633, signat. o 2) :—

" Thou art more than the moone, for thou hast neither
changing quarters nor a man standing in thy circle with a
bush of thorns."

Drayton has also a double allusion to it, in his
Nymphidia : —

" This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt,
Still walking like a ragged colt,
And oft out of a bush doth bolt,
On purpose to deceive us."

And again : —

" By the whirlwind's hollow sound,
By the thunder's dreadful sound,
Yells of spirits underground,

I charge thee not to fear us.
By the screech owl's dismal note, 1
By the black night raven's throat,
I charge thee, Hob, to tear thy coat

With thorns, if thou come near us."

From Grimm's ample Storehouse of Mythology,
p. 681, 1 again borrow a Netherland confirmation
of this idea, taken from Van Wyn's Avonstonden,
i. p. 306, which may also be referred to what
I have said at p. 161, on the name Ludeger.
Grimm's quotation is : —

" Belderijk verklarende geschachtlegst der Naamwoorden
(ii. 198) hat Ludegaar Ludegeer und deutet sicher falsch
luikenaar (leodensis). Ubrigens berichtet er die bekannte

THENCE THE BESOM MYTHICAL. 229

Fabel f t mannetjen in de maan dat geregd werd, ein dorn
busch op zyn rag te hebben en om dat hy 't gestolen had nied
hooger ten hemel te mogen op klammen, maar gantsch
ingebanen te zijn." *

The Bridgewater woodcut, p. 155, shows us this
bush carried on the shoulder, in an unexpected
form, which has so permanently fixed itself in our
mythology, as now to be inseparable from our
associations and conceptions of a witch and witch-
craft, in the besom. Once introduced as this useful
domestic implement, it may have suggested all the
ideas of cleanliness and order for which our fairies
are so particularly noted, and which would, no
doubt, be carefully kept up and inculcated by our
good grand-dames upon their sluttish girls and
dairy-maids, as a useful auxiliary for domestic
discipline. In this sense we may take the words
of Puck:—

" Not a mouse

Shall disturb this hallowed house.

I am sent, with broom before,

To sweep the dust behind the door/'

I take it the house was hallowed by the pre-
sence either of the bush (sub forma besom), as
the representative of the deity Bog, or of Puck
himself, who could scarcely be conceived, like the
later witches, without this unalienable attribute.

The bush is, further, the prominent feature of
our Man in the Moon in the ancient ballad which
Bitson first edited (vol. i. p. 68), from No. 2253

* The mannikin in the moon, it is said to have a thorn-
bush on his back, and, because he stole, cannot come any
higher up into heaven, but has been banished there for ever.

230 POEM FROM HA&LEIAN MSS.

of the Harleian MS., and considered to be of the
thirteenth century. The whole is too long for in-
sertion, and can be referred to as above, or to
HalliwelFs Introduction to M . If. &., p. 53, and
I only, therefore, adduce the passages : —

" Men in the mone stond and strit,

On his bot forke is burthen he bereth,
Hit is muche wonder that he na doun slyt ;

For doute lest he valle he shaddreth and shereth ;
When the forst freseth much chele he byd

The thornes beth kene is hattren to-tereth ;
Nis no wytht in the world that wot wen he syt.

Ne, bote hit ben the hegge, what wedes he wereth.

" Whider trowe this mon, ha the wey take

He hath set is o fot is other to foren,
For non hithte that he hath ne sytht me hym ner shake,

He is the sloweste mon that euer wes y-boren,
Wher he were o the feld pycchynde stake,

For hope of ys thornes to dutten is doren
He mot myd^s twybyl other trous make

Other al is dayes werk ther were y-loren.

" This ilke mon upon heh when er he were

Wher he were y the moone mone boren aut y-fed,
He leneth on his forke as a grey frere,

This crooked caynard sore he is adred,
Hit is mony day go that he was here,

Ichot of is ernde he noth nout ysped,
He hath hewe somwher a burthen of brere,

Therefore sum hayward hath taken ys wed."

We may remark as curious, that in this earliest
vestige of Puchsian (sit venia verbo) mythology,
so many points should concur with the Alemannic
modern poem, at p. 206, and which are but little
heeded, or entirely omitted, in later accounts.

CONFORMING WITH HEBEl/S. 231

One of these is the cold which the poor wight

" When the forst fireeseth, much chele he byd,"
with Hebel's

" Jetzt chuchet er in dliand."

His fear of falling— the inquiry as to where he
was born and domiciled — the fruitlessness of his
present efforts for profit — are all circumstances
common alone to these two poems, and they are
rarely, if ever, met with elsewhere, or at best
isolated.

It is curious, however, that this attribute of
thorns is found in the oldest mythology of Eome.
It would, indeed, be an ominous exception if it
were absent from perhaps the earliest traditions
of which we have any certain or trustworthy ac-
counts ; and it is to Ovid that we owe this re-
markable tradition. In this respect, I willingly
join in the praise which the amatory bard receives
from the author of an Excurms on the Fasti,
in Lemaire's Paris edition, 8vo. 1822, p. 495 :
"Maxime Ovidio debeamus eas quas nobis de
veteris Italiaemythis reliquit notitias et haud facile
aliquis scriptor est, qui difficilis hujus nee tamen
tenuis et infructuosse questionis, quae in veterum
Latinorum ideis religiosis numinibus et mythis
enarrandis et ab interpolatione gr<eca discernendis
versatur, denuo excutiendae officium magis in-
jungat." Perhaps even unconsciously has Ovid
embalmed, in his delightful verses, our indigenous
myths of the bush, as attribute of Puch, though
an archaeological Sorites will be necessary to dis-

232 THE THORN MYTHICAL TO THE ROMANS.

cover them. In the Fasti, lib. vi. v. 129, we
have,

" Huic Janus spinam qua tristes pellere posset
A Foribus noxas, haec erat alba, dedit."*

and Ibid. v. 165 : —

" Virgaque Janalis de spina ponitur alba

Qua lumen thalamis parva fenestra dabat."

It is truly laughable to observe the difficulties
these lines have caused the commentators, and
the twistings and contortions they make to escape
a dilemma, which their ignorance of the con-
nexion of every creed and the archaeology of their
own, (for they are mostly Germans) has alone
caused. Burman runs wildly into conjecture,
and conjures up from his imagination, instead of
Janalis: Naialis; and Heinsius takes a double ven-
ture in Maialis, or Ramalis ; and this notwith-
standing the additional mention of Janus in the
verse above. In a disquisition, which was published
in the 21st number of the Journal of the British
Archaeological Association, and which the scope
of this work will require to be adduced (consi-
derably enlarged) in a subsequent chapter, I
proved, to the satisfaction of many learned friends,
that Janus was Thor; and, as the universal deity

* This curious circumstance of the potency of the thorn,
placed at the door and marriage Jbeds, is confirmed by Dios-
corides, lib. i. 119 : —

" k\wv<xq avTrjc BvpaiQ q Bvpiot wpotrreBivTaQ
airoicpvEtv rag tG>v (papfiaictov Kcucovpyiac"

"Spinse albre frondes foribus adpositas avertere maleficia."

ITS AGREEMENT WITH TH0R, ETC. 233

of the north of Germany, must have been our
Puch, or Bog, under another name; consequently
the thorn, or bush, was a legitimate appendage to
Janus. It is even a question whether the name
of Thorn, in German, Dorn, or, in the hard pro-
nunciation, Torn, identical with many variations
of Thor; as Torn, a tower, in low German; Thor,
a gate, Janus ; and Thiir, a portal, may not have
suggested the name for the tree, particularly as
two species are found of it in nature, called, from
their colour, nigra and alba, black and white
thorn, exactly answering to the duality of Zerne-
bog and Bielbog. There are other verbal asso-
nances in this word, which have been fruitful in
suggestions to our forefathers ; thus, torn and tat-
tered called up the idea of Ben Jonson's ragged
eolt, and the German Taterman, and that bare-
breeched imp of all our legendaries ; thence the
reason of Puch refusing new clothes, and leaving
those houses where such are offered ; for to accept
would be to destroy his name — he would be no
longer tattered and torn, and consequently lose
his very being, which is, after all, but verbal.
But we cannot at present pursue this subject
further, except to point out also the verbal con-
gruence of the Latins in torus, the marriage bed,
which the thorn protected.

This testimony, from the competent authority
of Ovid, is sufficient to assure us that the thorn
and thorn-bush had a mythic signification in the
earliest mythologies of Italy, before the obtruded
deities of Hesiod, of Homer, and of Greece, had
extirpated, amongst the Romans, nearly every

234 ovid's value as a mtthologist.

trace of their ancient creed. In this belief I am
happy to be able to adduce, from the " Excursus"
already cited, a further passage of its learned
author, at p. 497 : —

" Inde simul apparet cur ipsi veteres (Romani) in mythis
et causis a quibus feriee et ceremonies domestic© repetendse
essent, adeo in diversa abierunt quum Vetera ilia monumenta
vel deperdita essent vel ob inconditam linguam vix intel-
ligerentur. Grocis autem fabulis litera romanae tunc potis-
simum citra dubium obrutse sunt, quum Grsecis poetis et
scriptoribus vertendis Romani ingenium exercere coepissent
et tunc maxime quum pro Crono Saturnum, pro Rhea Opem,
pro Baccho Liberum, factum est ut mythi Grreci ad haec
nomina domestica referrentur."*

It is not, therefore, surprising that we find in

* To show the still stronger connexion of Bacchus with
Pucb, a consideration of the synonym Liber, here adduced,
for the classic deity, may be added to other conformities at
p. 102. The word Liber, in reference to the deity, has found
no better definition than the vague : quia mentem curis libe-
rat; but the question is, why the curious signification of a
book should also attach to the same word. But when we find
our English book is, in German, Buch, or, in the Saxon pro-
nunciation, Puck, and that the Buche (Beech) is the ac-
knowledged root of these Theotisc denominations, according
to Lepsius, because the first leaves (of themselves only re-
ferable to a tree, as, in German, Blatter) were made from the
soft and smoothed shingles of a beech tree, we find a more
plausible derivation for Liber in the assonance, if not in the
identity of Bacchus and Puch, and of Puch with Buche, and
Buch with Liber. The terms for book and beech coalesce in
the Swedish word Boc; on which see what will be adduced, in
the next chapter, on the legal term Boc-land. To spell, as the
first step towards reading a book, is identical with the spell of
a ladder, which were small beechen staves, transversely fixed
on a staff to step upon, and, when inscribed with the letters of
the age, became the spells, or rune-staffs of the magician.

THE ROMAN FASCES, BUNDLES OF STICKS. 235

the name of the northern Her-stucks, the bundle
of thorns, or sticks, and in this again a verbal
agreement with the most potent divinity of ancient
Italy, Stygius or Styx : — " Stygius Timor et Deus
ille Deorum," vide p. 37: — for we have other
indications of his veneration and presence in their
most ancient symbols and usages. The Fasces,
the ancient ornament and insignia of the Etrurian
kings, copied in Rome, and afterwards transferred
to the consuls, as outward badges of office, was
nothing but a bundle 6f sticks, and the axe pro-
truding from it, that the double-faced Janus*
might be symbolically figured upon it, was the

* As a confirmation of this idea of Fasces, may be taken
the following passage from Rammler's Mythologie, p. 48 :—
" The Romans worshipped, in the earliest times, the lance, as
the symbol of Mars, and the Scythians under the form of a
sword ;for they placed a sword on the top of a large bundle of
sticks, (auf eine grosse Lage von Reis biindeln), and made
the offering of a horse, which was peculiarly sacred to the
god of war, or sometimes of other beasts, and even of men,
for which prisoners of war were generally chosen."

The story of a peasant finding a sword, which he brought
to Atila, who accepted the omen, and the god that was to
lead him to the conquest of the west, is well known.

So Herodotus (Gaisford's edition, Melpomene, cap. 62),
tells us the Scythians worshipped an old scimitar of iron, on
a mound where the ravages of the elements were carefully
repaired every year, and which was dedicated to Mars. " To
this scimitar they offer yearly sacrifices of horses and cattle,
and present more sacrifices to these symbols than to all the
rest of the gods. Of the prisoners taken, one in every hun-
dred was sacrificed, by making libations of wine on the heads
of these victims, and then slaughtering them over a bowl. As
soon as this has been done, they carry up the bowl to the top
of the faggot pile, and pour the blood over the scimitar."

236 THE AXE SECUEIS MEANS PAST.

bipennis, which on medals is often put for the
Bifrons; and it is curious that the name of this
axe was securis, which scarcely any one can doubt
is the same as securus, and which, though many-
may think might have been suggested by the tying
together of these sticks fast, (hence " Lictor quasi
Ligator"), as the subjective, may, it cannot reason-
ably be doubted, as well have been suggested by
the objective view of becoming or being made
fast or secure from all bodily harm. These sticks
are still continued as badges of the highest
offices in the State. The gold and silver Sticks in
waiting on the person of the sovereign, the Lord
Chamberlain, the Earl Marshal, all carry in their
wands elegant and convenient emblems of their
offices, and signs of the earliest species of our faith.
The truncheon of the general is the same, some-
what shortened, for the convenience of command ;
but the thyrsus of the Bacchanalian is its greatest
elongation, as its name connects it with the Tyr
or Thor of the north. The word Fas itself is
fruitful in etymological results, (vide also p. 101) .

Pomponius Mela (ii. 1) confirms this account ; and Solinus,
(cap. 20) — " Populis istis deus Mars est, pro simulacris en-
ses colunt."
Juvenal Sat. x. 35, in, —

" Prretexta et trabeae, fasces, lectica, tribunal,"
includes the two mystic insignia of Roman office, the trabea
(beam or balk), in its truest sense, though subsequently but
typical, as a broad purple stripe, and to be explained here-
after ; and the fasces : as in also Sat. viii. v. 259, alluding to
Servius Tullius; —

" Ancilla natus, trabeam et diadema Quirini,

Et Fasces meruit Regum ultimus ille bonorum."

THE DEITY FASCINUS. 237

Its original meaning is permitted, allowed. Fasti
would thence be hallowed days, e. g., Dies fasti; and
the verbal change in both languages is only the
usual transition from active to passive. Fascina-
tio, fastigium, are derivatives, and more espe-
cially Fascia, any feminine bandage, as a fillet for
the head, or a girl's stays; thence an infant's
swaddling clothes ; but the most accordant word
is our Faschine, a bundle of sticks ; and we may
choose whether this was cause or consequence of
the peculiar worship of a domestic deity Fascinus,
of whom we have, s. v., the following description
in Smith's Mythological Dictionary : —

" Fascinus, an early Latin divinity, and identical with
Mutinus, or Tutinus. He was worshipped as the protector
from sorcery and witchcraft and evil demons, and represented
in the form of a phallus, the genuine name for which is
fascinum. This symbol being believed to be most efficacious
in averting all evil influences. He was especially invoked
to protect women in child-bed, and their offspring (Plin. Hist.
Nat., xxviii. 4, 7) ; and women wrapped up in the toga prra-
texta used to offer up sacrifices in the chapel of Fascinus,
{Paid. Biac, p. 103). His worship was under the care of
the Vestals, and generals who entered the city in triumph
had the symbol of Fascinus fastened under their chariots,
that he might protect them from envy (medicus invidiae) ;
for envy was believed to exercise an injurious influence on
those who were envied. (Plin. 1. c.) It was a custom with
the Romans, when they praised anybody, to add the word
prsefiscine, or prseficisine, which seems an invocation of Fas-
cinus, to prevent the praise turning out injurious to the per-
son on whom it was bestowed." — L (eonhard) S (chmidt.)

Continuing this idea, we may remark on a
curious provincial expression of Grimm's (D. M.,
p. 874), where, deducing the identity of Hachel-

238 grimm's faetscht and scotch fetch.

barendwithWuotan,or Woden, he says: — "Hachel-
barend fdtscht im Sturme und Regen diircli den
Thiiringer Wald, den Harz, am liebsten durch den
Hackeleinen Waldzwischen Halberstadt Gronung-
en und Derenberg." Here fatscht can be nothing
but fatidicere, to predict as Wuotan or the wild
huntsman coming ills, and, personified, is both
really and phonically identical with the Scottish
Fetch, one's double or eidolon, frequently the
precursor or foreteller of the death of the party;
also very probably the parent of the word to fash.*
It would be curious to trace the word fetisch in its
migrations into Africa, and thence with its
unhappy natives, torn from their homes, to our
West Indian colonies. Johnson, from Addison,
defines our English "fetch," "to bring to any
state by some powerful operation," which is
exactly the idea which fills the mind of the Negro
when using his fetish.

Before entirely closing these testimonies to
ancient superstitions on the Bush and Thorn, I
shall adduce another, which is not generally
known. In the Journal of the Archaeological
Institute, vol. v., p. 67, is the engraving of a
seal, with this explanation : —

" The device appears to be founded on the ancient popular
legend, that a husbandman who had stolen a bundle of thorns
from a hedge, was, in punishment of this theft, carried up to
the moon. Alexander Necham, a writer of the twelfth cen-
tury, in commenting on the dispersed (1 distorted) shadow in
the moon, thus alludes to the vulgar belief : i Nonne novisti

* So in H alii well's Brandy vol. iii., p. 238, we have a
fetchdigkt, or dead-man's candle.

A ROMAN MAN IN THE MOON,

239

quid valgus vocat rusticum in luna portantem spinas, uncle
quidam yulgariter loquens ait:

" l Rusticus in Luna quern sarcina deprimet una
Monstrat per spinas nulli prodesse rapinas.' "

The figure here inserted is copied from Beger's
Thesaurus Brandenburgensis, vol. iii. p. 257, and

240 . AND ITS EXPOSITION.

engraved by Montfaucon (Antiquiti Expliquee, vol.
i part ii., fig. clxviii. fig. 3). Strange as it may
appear, it seems to me an exact antique representa-
tion of the Man in the Moon, translated by the
modern idea of his bearing sticks ; and it will, I
think, appear so also to my readers when its
attributes have received a verbal exegesis. Begems
interpretation is as follows : — " Notandum autem
vanam esse distinctionem inter Satyros et Pana
quam Hofmanus in Lexico habet, quod scilicet sa-
tyri nee fistulam nee pedum nee pellem habuerint;
omnia enim hsec in altero Galeriae Giustinianae
aperte visuntur, qui tamen et ipse pedem gestat.
Gestat et hinnulum, excepit archseophilus, et nisi
fallor calathum fructibus refertum." The kid
borne upon the shoulders of this Roman image
finds its interpretation, curiously, and perhaps
alone, in our own language, in the double mean-
ing which we give to the word kid, either as the
young of a goat, or as a bundle of sticks ; and as
the soldier's kit it means the contents of his knap-
sack, as borne upon his shoulders (continens pro
contento). But the verbal exposition does not
end here. The basket of fruit here designating
the Amalthea, or horn of plenty, is represented
in our modern vocabulary by the milkmaid's kit —
that inexhaustible source of wealth and prosperity,
even now, to millions, and more especially suitable,
as such, for a pastoral people, whose entire riches
were counted by their cattle, and when pecus,
in its derivative pecunia, was their only idea of
money. In the more abstruse features of the

THE MILKIXG-KIT AS PAIL, PALES, 241

ancient mythologies, this milking-kit became the
modius or calathus of Jupiter.*

In our other name for this milking-kit, as
Pail, we have a very fruitful source of verbal or
ideagraphic conformities: as the Roman sylvan
god, Pales, whose rites, under the name of Palilia,
Ovid (Fasti, iv. 695 to 778) described at great
length, we find the milking-pail mentioned as an
attribute peculiarly agreeable to the goddess ; for
he makes her feminine, whereas Varro makes him
masculine, this difference but picturing the earliest
stage of all theogonies, when the active and pas-
sive generative powers were both centered in the
same being, and thence suggestive of a root
equivalent to the Greek iraXaibQ (ancient, the
ancient of days). Ovid, after describing various
ceremonies agreeable to his divinity, amongst
which, v. 700,

" Certe ego transilui positas ter in ordine flammas,"

the jumping over a bonfire, the origin of our own
similar practice on May-day (undecim Kal. Mai),

* The conjunction of the milking-pail borne on tfve head,
with the fairies, is still found in Norway, as we may see
from the following quotation from W. Chambers' Tracings in
the North, Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, June 8th, 1850 : —
"The whole race of under-ground people, the dwarfs
excepted, live by grazing cattle. When the shielings are
deserted by their human brethren at harvest time, they
move into them. Whole troops of these gray men may
often be seen at night time employed in their pastoral avo-
cations, driving before them herds of cattle, while the
females of the race carry milk pails upon their heads and
the children in their arms."

M

242 AND PALUS, WHENCE THE SYRINX.

on which the milk-maids' garlands, originally the
decorated milk-maids' pails, played, till lately, such
a conspicuous figure, continues, at v. 719 —

" Adde dapes rnidctramque suas ; dapibusque resectis
Sylvicolam tepido lacte precare Palen."

But, besides the milking-pail, we have two other
modes of spelling the same sound — the English
Pale, and the Latin Palus — the first as the Pedes
of a park (also Falus, in Latin) brings us round
again to the idea of Sticks; in German Pfahl
Stock ; and to this may be referred the mythical
Stock am Eisen at Wien, mentioned p. 20.

But the other meaning which the Roman gave
the word, under a slight variation of the vowels,
in Palus, a marsh, is not without a considerable
bearing upon their mythology. Pan, it is well
known, is considered as the inventor of the Pan-
dean Pipe, the Syrinx (thence the sweetly-singing
Syrens, as an offset of the idea) ; but as this in-
strument was only an assemblage of reeds, to x say
these were the offspring of a marsh, or Palus, was
but clothing a natural effect, under the allegorical
idea of their being found out by Pan. In
poetical personifications of natural objects, inven-
tion or discovery substituted for production is
a necessary and elegant prosopopeia. Even the
common notion of the name of Pales, from a
similar word, signifying straw, would only con-
firm this opinion. I shall not atjpresent revert to
my belief that the famous Pallas Athene had her
first name rather from some consequence of the
same idea, than from the very indefinite *-a\X«,

THE ASILIA OF THE LATINS 243

to shake, nor that Pallidus was suggested by the
lunar considerations by which Pales is identified
with the moon or her attributes. We might heap
up quotations from the writers of all countries,
calling the moon pale and watery ; or, for other
reasons, e. g. Midsummer Night's Dream, act ii.
sc. 2 :—

" Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air."

But a full consideration wilL be given to them,
and Ovid's Anna Perenna, in a future chapter.

Another conformity with the calathus and pail, as
universally found on the head, is its more unusual
denomination of Polos. In the British Museum
is a statue of Fortuna, with the Horn of Plenty
on her arm, and the Modius or Polos on her head.
This might suggest many capital allusions, which
I at present forbear.

That these representations were common and
popular, we may learn from Smith's Dictionary of
Antiquities, article Asilia, where, in the one wood-
cut, is a very similar figure. It is without the
modius or basket, but with a wooden pole or yoke,
such as is held by the man on both shoulders, or
more commonly on one, and used for carrying
burthens. Smith also mentions its frequent
occurrence in works of Grecian art, and gives two
other specimens of a lamp and a satirical gem.
The latter represents an emaciated beau, typified
by a grasshopper carrying an offering to a phallus,
which, however, does not appear here, though in

m2

244 CORRESPONDING WITH THE SWEDISH MYTHS.

the original.* This asellus is, in fact, the common

* The agreement of these classical representations with
the still prevalent Swedish popular belief enshrined in
the Edda (videy. 201), must be apparent on the slightest
consideration. A different size of the bucket may readily
be conceded to distant and differing nations, which would
suggest and require variety of representation in the mode of
carrying. The Romans gave two buckets to one carrier ; the
Swedes attribute two carriers to one bucket ; but the former
also adopted two bearers, when the sacred ancilia were borne
in procession (vide Rich, s. v. Ancile) ; though I question
whether the oblong form, which no author distinctly notes,
was orthodox. The near correspondence of verbal form, in
Ancla, or Antia, a bucket (Sueton. in Tib. cap. li. : " In ant-
Ham condemnato ;" and Mart. i. 9 : " Ourva laboratas antlia
tollit aquas") would admit suspicion of a round form, and
of an accordance with our bucket, or kit, in these ancient
and mythic Palladia of Rome : they were also borne by priests
expressly named Arvales, or pastoral. Andare is an old
word, meaning to drink ; Antice. as forelocks, would iden-
tify them with the Calathus, the forelocks of Saturn, and
our corn bushel, (vide p. 250, note).

In England, we have the Bucket-Bearer introduced even
into our Christian architecture, and its most sacred offices.
In the very curious work by my friend Mr. Planch e, called the
" Pursuivant of Arms" we have, at p. 118, a singular figure
of a boy bearing two slouches (of water possibly), slung
across a stick over his shoulder, which the author brings in
elucidation of the water budget, as it is called, so prominent
in our heraldry. But the axe which also accompanies the
figure proves its mythical character; this might in a Roman
ritual symbolize the Securis of the Lictors (vide p. 226), or
the sacred Ascia, which is so prominently exhibited on such
a number of Roman altars, and which, in the Scandinavian
traditions, is supposed to be represented by the mighty
hammer of Thor, as the all-crushing Miolnar ; but in our
traditions it turns this Bucket-Bearer into the Man in the

BUCKET-BEARERS ON GEMS, 245

pole or yoke by which the milkmen carry their
pails ; but even this, in its German name of tracht,
from tragen, (our drag and draw), carries us verbally
back again to the Greek rpayoq, the Goat, the
Bock or Bog, and in the On as wild ass, also to the

Moon, with the implement needed for his brush-wood or
thorn-thefts ; or, as Hebel has it (vide p. 206) : —
" Und nimt e Biel und tummlet si."
His Bill he took with quickest haste.

Mr. Planche's figure is copied from Skdton*s Antiquities of
Oxfordshire (imperial 4to. Oxon, 1823), Chadlington Hun-
dred, p. 5 ; but he has not taken the accessories, which are
curious, and confirmatory of an ancient and mythic origin ;
and it is therefore the more to be lamented that these are
given, even in the original, imperfectly ; for to the right of
the circular plinth, which is the form of this most ancient
piece of sculpture, half the figure of a centaur is shown,
with bow and arrow— a monster also frequently drawn in
the " Bulletin Monumental," from capitals and other orna-
ments in the oldest churches of France. These latter are also
water deities, though the proof cannot now be exhibited.
In Raspe's Description of Tassie's Gems, I meet with the
water-bucket, in conjunction with Pan, as Kid-Bearer, in
more than one instance. No. 8424 is copied from a gem in
the British Museum ; and what is called a Yictimarius has
the goat on his shoulders, but a water-bucket in his hand.
So also 8426 (plate xv.), the same subject, with this imple-
ment, and a Janus, or Thor's Temple, before which the
figure stands, and on both, votive tablets with a goat's full
face, as lucky omen ; but on this plate is a much more
elaborate execution of the same idea (8435), from the Oolonna
Cabinet, at Borne, where, in a sacrifice of eight persons,
principally females, we have a Victimarius, with a kid in
the mystic Yannus, borne on the head ; and the same person
drags after him a tragos, or goat, by the horns, answering to
the tablets in the other numbers. The water-bucket is
also present, borne separately by one of the women, as its

246 AND ON HOOK NORTON FOUNT.

Catholic Onuphrius. One or two obscure places
in the classics will, I think, receive a perfect
elucidation from this view of these Asilia, or per-
haps more properly Aselli. In the Fasti of Ovid,
lib. vi. v. 287, in describing the rites to Vesta: —

Amphora. To revert to our Fount, the neighbourhood is
not without verbal assonances, which would imply the know-
ledge of the milking-kit, and memorials, perhaps, of these
various kids. We have, in a neighbouring hundred, Kidling-
ton and Eiddington ; and in the nearest borders of Berk,
shire we have Kingston Bag-puze, and Broughton Poggs,
(see p. 211.) In "Kiddington" we find, also, two very
ancient founts, of which engravings are given in Wartori**
Antiquities of Kiddington (4to. Lond. 1815); and though
the details of the sculptures are not shown, one brought from
Islip, the birthplace of Edward the Confessor, now in a
gentleman's garden, must be very ancient. A strong tradi-
tion exists in the parish, evidenced by an inscription, that it
was the fount in which the Confessor was baptised, about
1010; possibly, also, his father, Ethelred, and the whole
line of his Christian ancestry. This would carry us up to
the very earliest ages of Christianity in Britain, when an-
cient, venerated forms, were not yet deemed objectionable
in the new religion; or the copy may have been closely
taken from a Roman original, without thought or attention
to its mythical development. I should have worked in the
substance of this long note into my text, only as Mr. Planche
had not thought it necessary to give the name of the author
from whom he had taken his figure, I wished to examine it
in the original ; but the deplorable practice of cataloguing
works in the British Museum solely by the names of their
authors, prevented me finding it till the text was printed.
Had, as in all the large libraries of the Continent, the titles
of the books there been arranged in a systematic order of
subjects, on turning to the division — Topography, Great
Britain, England, Oxfordshire— the book would have been
readily found, and considerable personal trouble and loss of
time would have been spared me.

THE ASELLUS OF VESTA. 247

" Ante focos olim longis considere scamnis

Mos erat ; et mensse credere adesse deos.
Nunc quoque, quum fiunt antiquae sacra Vacuxue

Ante Vacunales stantque sedentque focos.
Yenit in hos annos aliquid de more vetusto.

Fert missos Vestae pura patella cibos.
Ecce, coronatis panis dependet asdlis;

Et velant scabras florida serta molas."

The covering a table with viands, the supposing
the goddess to partake, the offering Vesta food
in the clean plate, all induce me to look upon
this passage as applicable to these northern Ber-
stucks, though perhaps more in accordance with
the meaning than the syntax; and the crowned
kids of Pan hang down from her, a view that ap-
pears corroborated by the line from Propertius,
lib. ii. carm. i. 20 : —

" Vesta coronatis pauper gaudebat asellU"

On the first passage the commentator, Neapolis,
thought panem here to mean bread, and panem
dependentem a cake hanging on all sides round
about the head, like a slouched hat.

The same figure, as in Smith's Dictionary,
or the above Asilia,* is found also in Rich's Com-

* It is a curious and confirmatory circumstance, that the
real Asellus is the favourite animal introduced into the Bac-
chanalian processional orgies, usually bearing the drunken
Silenus ; and as Silenus is but the masculine SIAHNH,
the Luna of the Latins, with the sibilant, we have therein
combined the man with the bush; and the moon, with her
wine-bibbing propensities : —

" The Man in the Moon drinks claret."

I therefore willingly adduce the authority of Natalia
Comes (lib. v. p. 267 a), to the honours of the veritable Ass :

248 MYSTICA VANNTJS IACCHI.

panion, where it is said to have been copied from a
fictile vase; and I think to this kid we may refer
(verbally certainly) the chest, or wra, borne in
the Eleusinian Mysteries by the canephorae, as
an integral part of the ceremony, and as fit-
ting a representation of these aselli as of our
domestic milking kit. It is in Virgil the mystica
Vannus Iacchi thus is pertinently attributed to the
Bock, or Goat God, as mrooc is the ivy, dedi-
cated x peculiarly to his worship. Rich, s. v.
Vannus, very justly observes, it is " a large and
shallow wicker basket, employed for winnowing
corn in still weather, but which was carried on
the shoulder in the ceremonies of Bacchus, con-
taining the sacrificial utensils, as shown in the
annexed figure from a bas-relief in terra-cotta
(Soph. Frag. 724; Virg. Georff. i. 166)." The
Greek term also signifies a cradle made out of a
winnowing-basket, in which the ancients used to
deposit their infants, as an omen of future wealth
and prosperity. (Schol. vet. ad. Callimachum Jov.
48) : " Jupiter and Mercury are said to have been
thus cradled." As a chest we may refer to the
same author's article : " Cista, the mystic cyst of
Bacchus: in one were found, in another small
case, a model of a kid and of a panther ; * a patera,

"Non minor tamen gratia ill! asino habenda est quern
"Naupliae incolae lapideum erexerunt quia putationem vi-
rium adinvenit, quam Baccho," <fcc.

* This name is another of the ligatures by which the
vulgar superstitions of all countries are connected : as an
invariable quadruped accompaniment of Bacchus, the Pan-
therus gives us, perhaps, the united names of Pan and

THE CORDED BALE OR PACK 249

a ligula, a. sharp-pointed instrument like the
stylus, and a piece of metal of triangular form,
the pyramid a-i/pa/ioc, mentioned by Clemens of
Alexandria, as one of the articles usually con-
tained in these cases." Another cista has three
figures on the lid : Bacchus in the centre, with a
robe covered with stars (Nyctelius Pater Ov. a.
am. i. 567), at which time the orgies were cele-
brated ; and a Faun in the Nebris (fawn's skin)
on each side of him."

In Montfaucon's AntiquitS Expliquee, vol. i. part
2, pi. cciv., is the curious symbol of a corded bale,
or banded parcel, found on the bas-relief of a Roman
tomb, over the figure of Spes ; and the same em-
blem is found, ibid, plate clxxxyiii. p. 276, over a
figure of Sylvanus, towards the shoulder; as also
in another part, in a relief of the horned Bac-
chus; this has puzzled* all antiquaries for a

Thor; whilst Pan is subsequently found as a title of honour
and dignity, perhaps of worship, for the Slavonian nations,
as our Puch is in Britain.

* Mr. James Tates, in his curious and learned treatise,
" Ttxtrinum Antiquum" (8vo. Lond. 1843), has, in plate iii.
figs. 1 <fc 2, given a representation of the two first, but unac-
companied by the figures to which these are attached ; and at
p. 107, he considers them merely as different specimens of
the manner in which the Romans packed their wool-bales ;
that is, either by ropes or leather thongs ; and their symbolical
meaning, which 1 think their relative position to the figures
sufficiently implies, the diligent author has either overlooked,
or not thought necessary to the elucidation of his subject.
This Modius, has, however, another phonic representative
in the lock of hair (reminding us of Elf-lock, Warlocks, <fec),
which alone surmounts the forehead of old Time, or Saturn,
as may be proved from its German name of Buschel. This

250 ATTRIBUTED TO SYLVANUS,

solution. If they, however, had considered the
nature of the back-bearing deities, Hackelbarend
of the north, and the Sylvan deities to which it is
attached, they would have found no difficulty in
looking upon it only as another form of the bush,
or burthen, borne by the man in the moon. The
Kid-Bearer, as the Good Shepherd carrying the
lamb of his fold on his shoulder, was eagerly em-
braced by the earliest Christians as their favourite
type, induced, no doubt, by this heathen pattern,
as an equal, and, in time, happily a successful
rival. In the Supplement to Jamieson's Scottish,
Dictionary, we find a somewhat profane allusion,
which, however, proves the general attribution of
things borne on the back to fortune and religion,
where a hump is called Hellie Lamb (Holy Lamb),
and this natural defect supposed a presage of
good luck. Is not, in fact, the disputed "My
Lord," vulgarly given to all hump- backed people,
but a remnant of popular veneration for all such
dorsal deformity, from its conformity to the figure
of their ancient gods, now turned into a term of
irony and contempt?

word Adelung, s. v., justly derives from Busch (Bush), which
would represent the leafy honours of our Puck, hut also the
Modius of Jupiter, as our Corn-Bushel. Following this
clue, the Peck measure may, perhaps, he thought hut a re-
miniscence of the Pack or Puck, on the head or shoulders ;
and that no link may he wanting for Saturn's Lock, the
ancient Germans had a deity, Sater, of whom the Saterland,
a district of primitive manners and aboriginal dialect, in the
centre of Westphalia, is a still existing evidence. If pre*
ferred, this deity may he the connecting link betwixt the
Italian Saturn and our Satyr, as a Berstuck.

LIKE THE KID OF PAN 251

As a remarkable adaptation of an earlier popular
favourite to the new opinions, and that no doubt
may remain on the origin of the " Bonus Pastor,"
€S Le Bon Pasteur/' I refer to the figure of Pan,
in the Tomb of the Nasones, described by Bel-
lori, pt. xxii., in strictest conformity with a figure
found under the Christian denomination, in a
catacomb chapel, in which so much of the pagan
image is still retained, as is denoted by the
Syrinx. The animal thrown across the shoulder
of Pan is a kid; whilst this object is changed by
Christians to the lamb. The figure is copied from
Bellori, by Maitland, in his Church in the Cata-
combs (8vo. Lond. 1846), p. 257; and in the
translation of Didron's Christian Iconography
(Bohn's Antiqu. Lib. vol. i. p. 339) less carefully.
Maitland's observations are so pertinent that I
adduce them, compressed :

"The Good Shepherd was a type much valued by the
early Church, and the character in which they most de-
lighted to represent our Lord. In the tomb of the Nasones,
a heathen family of eminence in Rome, may be seen, among
many mythological paintings, the figure of a shepherd,
with a sheep on his shoulders and a crook in his hand, sur-
rounded by the four Seasons. What was intended by this
heathen painting is not clear; but by a slight alteration the
same composition was converted into a Bonus Pastor by
Christian artists. The change, however, was slow ; the Pan's
pipe remained for some time in the hand of the Chief Shep-
herd, and the Roman dress was seldom abandoned."*

* The Lamb borne by the good Shepherd has left traces
in our vulgar belief at the present day: our shepherd's ac-
count it an ill omen when the first lamb of the season shows
any thing to him, when first seen, but its face— just the

252 AND THE LAMB OP LE BON PASTEUR.

What this graphic idea of Good Shepherd was,
is now verbally the name of a saint in the Romish
Calendar of some celebrity, via. Onuphrius, a
hermit of the fourth century, represented as " a
hairy man clothed with leaves, and crown and
sceptre, gold and silver at his feet." This is evi-
dent, from the syllable on, which, lengthened
in Onager, is the wild ass. Oon r in Calmefs
Dictionary, is an ass ; and is well known in our
Anglo-Saxon history in the angry exclamation,
" You oaf! you oon !" applied to our good King
Alfred by the angry dame with whom he had sought
temporary shelter, on greater cares intent than
minding the cakes on the hearth committed to
his tending. In his name this canonized Roman
hermit would exactly answer to the Latin Aselli ;
and though he has cast the burthen at his feet,
he has preserved his rough and hairy appearance.
Of similar import, though under a classic guise, is
the bronze statuette of Hercules and Cupid, found
in London, and now in the possession of William
Crofter, Esq., of Gravesend. However, the bag in
front, already mentioned at page 120, depending
from the neck, gives it totally a mythological sig-

position in which the Bonus Pastor carries his pastoral bur-
then. (Vide Notes and Queries, March 27, 1852, p. 293).
But I am informed by my friend, C. R. Smith, that the
Earl of Londesborough has lately made the acquisition of
an ancient bronze statue of a Satyr, with the kid carried
in a poke on its back, and just showing its face only over
the shoulder of the figure. It is, however, dubious which is
oldest, this shepherd superstition, or these figures — which
was cause, which consequence.

THE PEDLARS OP SWAFFHAM 253

nification, and it can only be referred to this class
of Aselli under a varying type. The Telesphorus
of the Romans is this Onuphrius under a different
name and a less chaste idea. The great favour
of St. Christopher in the Catholic church is solely
traceable to the holy burthen borne on his back.

There is a curious page in our popular tradi-
tions, repeated at different times and in distant
places, in very nearly identical words, and with
circumstances so corresponding for remote locali-
ties, that this agreement alone must have cast a
doubt over their truth, if our indigenous myths
had not hitherto been considered too ridiculous
for investigation, too absurd for study. The le-
gend of a Pedlar's Acre, the story of a Pedlar
and his Pack, is a well-known tradition at Lam-
beth in Surrey, and at Swaffham in Norfolk; in
both these places the relation is circumstantial
and exact ; but I think I can bring at least traces
of a similar fable at Barton-upon-Humber in
Lincolnshire, and at Bowness in Cumberland. If
a conformity in the same or similar details of a
story that embraces so wide a spread of country
can be established, it may, I think, be fairly ad-
mitted that a general principle, grounded on
some rational basis, and common to the whole
people, would lurk beneath it, and that its adapta-
tion to one or two localities by a frivolous tale is
but the refuge of ignorance, seeking to account
for what had become incomprehensible from the
lapse of ages and the difference of manners. The
Christian legend is old, and has been perpetuated
in the metropolitan church, by a representation

254 AND LAMBETH,

of the supposed pedlar in a glass painting, which
may form an excuse for modern acquiescence and
belief. But from the following extract from
Lyson's Environs of London, vol. i. p. 277, which
at the same time gives the story, it will be seen
that it has not been entirely unchallenged : —

" In one of the windows (of Lambeth church) over the
nave, is the figure of a Pedlar and his Dog, painted on glass,*
the tradition concerning which is, that it was intended for a
person of that occupation, who bequeathed a piece of land
to the parish, now called Pedlar's Acre. It has been suggested
{Hist, of Lambeth, p. 3), and with great probability, that this
figure was intended rather as a rebus upon the name of the
benefactor, than as a description of his trade. In Swaffham
church, in Norfolk, is the portrait of John Chapman, a great
benefactor to that parish. The device of a pedlar and his
pack occurs in several parts of the church, which circum-
stance has given rise to nearly the same tradition as at
Lambeth."

The latter legend is told more at large in

* The figure is engraven in Smith's Etchings, who says
that a condition of the gift of the field was, " that his por-
trait, and that of his dog, be perpetually preserved in
painted glass, in one of the windows of the church.' 1 I have
not been able to examine the recently restored church, to
see if the figure be still retained.

Whilst these pages are passing through the press, I find
in the Builder of the 6th March, 1852, the following passage,
which ascertains the matter. Speaking of the renovated
church at Lambeth, the writer says : — "On inquiring for
the ' Pedlar,' we learnt from Mr. Taylor, one of the church,
wardens, that the glass is in safe custody, and that it has
been kept out in order that they may have such a stained
glass pedlar and his dog as the best talent of the day can
furnish. There is, of course, no objection to this, but they
must put back the old pedlar too." v

ADDUCED PROM BLOOMFIELD, 255,

Bloomfield's Norfolk, vol. v. p. 506 ; but, from the
particularity of the matter, I cannot abridge it.
It is contained in a letter from the learned Roger
Twysden, and therefore well deserving every
attention : —

" The story of the Pedlar of Swaffham Market is, in sub-
stance, this: — That dreaming, one night, if he went to
London he should certainly meet with a man upon London
Bridge, who would tell him good news. He was so per-
plexed in his mind, that till he set out upon his journey he
could have no rest. To London, therefore, he hastes, and
walked upon the bridge for some hours, where, being espied
by a shopkeeper, and asked what he wanted, he answered :
' You may well ask me the question, for truly (quoth he) I
am come hither upon a very vain errand,' and so told the story
of his dream which occasioned the journey ; whereupon the
shopkeeper replied : ' Alas ! good friend, I might have
proved myself as very fool as thou art, for 'tis not long since
I dreamt that at a place called Swaffham Market, in Nor-
folk, dwells one John Chapman, a pedlar, who hath a tree
in his backside, under which is buried a pot of money ; now,
therefore, if I should have made a journey thither, to dig
for such hidden treasure, judge you whether I should not
have been counted a fool »' To whom the pedlar replied,
cunningly : ( Yes, verily. I will therefore return home and
follow my business, not heeding such dreams henceforward.'
But when he came home (being satisfied that his dream was
fulfilled), he took occasion to dig in that place, and accord-
ingly found a large pot full of money,* which he prudently

* In a work professing to reconcile our own with foreign
traditions, it is impossible to pass over the entire conformity
of this second story, thus far, with every particular, in Volka
M&hrchen of Musaeus, called Stumme Liebe : the dream — the
Weser bridge, the scene of its solution — the substituted
dream, by which that was brought about — are all exactly
the same in both stories ; though the improbability that the
Teuton ever heard of Lambeth or Swaffham, makes it almost
certain that he only borrowed from a native tale. But

256 AFTER TWYSDEN,

concealed, putting the pot amongst the rest of his brass.
After a while it happened, that one who came to his house,
and beholding the pot, observed an inscription upon it,
which, being in Latin, he interpreted it, that under that
there was another, twice as good.* Of this inscription the
pedlar was before ignorant, or, at least, minded it not ; but
when he heard the meaning of it, he said : * 'Tis very true,
in the shop where I bought this pot stood another under it,
which was twice as big.' But, considering that it might
lead to his profit to dig deeper in the Bame place where he
found that, he fell to work again, and discovered such a pot
as was intimated by the inscription, full of old coins ; not-
withstanding all which, he so concealed his wealth, that the
neighbours took no notice of it. But not long after, the in-
habitants of Swaffham, resolving to re-edify their church,
and having consulted the workmen about the charge, they
made a levy, wherein they taxed the pedlar, according to no
other rate than what they had formerly done. But he,
knowing his own ability, came to the church and desired the
workmen to show him their model, and to tell him what they
esteemed the charge of the north aisle ; which, when they
told him, he presently undertook to pay them for building
it ; and not only that, but a very tall and beautiful tower
steeple. This is the tradition of the inhabitants, and in
testimony thereof there was then (t) his picture, with his
wife and three children, in every window of the aisle, with
an inscription running through the bottom of all these win-
dows, viz. 'Orate pro bono Statu Johannis Chapman. ....
Uxoris ejus et Liberorum suorum qui quidem Johannis
hanc Alam cum fenestris tecto et . . . fieri fecit.' It was in

Mus8eus\ Volks M&hrchen deserve to be read also by every one
who would gain a knowledge of tales from Fatherland in their
purest dialect and most agreeable style.

* The general relation'gives this inscription as a doggrel
rhyme, thus : —

" Where this stood, is another twice as good ;"
Or,

" Under me doth lie, another much richer than I."

WITH BLOMFIELD's EXAMINATION. 257

Henry VII.'s time, but the year I now remember not (from
Sir Roger Twisden's Remembrances), my notes being left
with Mr. William Sedgwicke, who triched the pictures, he
being then with me. In that isle is his (Chapman's) seat, of
an antique form, and on each side the entrance the statue of
the pedlar, of about one foot length, with his pack on his
back, very artificially cut.

"This was sent me from Mr. Wm. Dugdale, of Blyth Hall,
in Warwickshire, dated 29th January, 1652, 1653, which I
have since learnt from others to be most true.

" Roger Twysden."

In effect, the same has been found in the His-
toires admirables de Nostre Temp, par Simon
Goulart, imprimees a. Geneve, en 1614, torn. iii.
p. 366 : " Et Johannis Fungeri Etimologicum
Latin. Grac. 1110 & 1111." Thus far Bloom-
field, who has merely copied the relation, verba-
tim, from T. Hearne's Appendix to Caius Vindicia,
appendix, p. lxxxiv.

The industrious Bloomfield, after having given
these particulars (foL ed. vol. iii. p. 507), expresses
his surprise that such considerable persons asTwys-
den and Dugdale should patronise such a monkish
legend and tradition, savouring so much of the
cloister. He also gives some account of the ap-
pearance of the carving now (he printed in 1769),
which justly disproves the common tale: —

"The seat of the pedlar observed by Dugdale, in his time,
to be in the north isle, was taken down, with others, some
years past, when the greatest part of the church, with the
east end of the said isle, was new-seated and paved in a
modern way; but in the north transept there is now a
patched piece of wood-work, collected out of the fragments
of antient stalls and seats, and here united. (Some antient
inscriptions, not material, are then copied.) In the middle of

258 ALSO AT SWAFFHAM.

this work, and between the inscriptions, is twice represented
the effigies of a man as busied in his shop, with a mark of
an I and C conjoined, near it, probably for John Chapman
and Catherine his wife; and the figure of a woman also
carved in two places, and looking over the half -door of a
shop. This work is supported on each side by the heads of
the founder's seat, on both which, near the. summit, is a
pedlar, carved with a pack upon his shoulders ; and below
him, near the bottom, a figure which is commonly said to be
a dog, but from his being muzzled, and a chain running
acrpss his back, is much more likely to prove a bear, and so
it seems to be in the window of the north isle. The upper-
most window but one of this isle is now the only one where
the effigies are remaining. Here they are represented, in
two places, in a suppliant posture, with close round purple
gowns, turned up and robed with fur, tinctured Or. He
has a rich pilgrim's purse, or pouch, hanging from a curious
belt, or girdle, and a little dagger ; and from her right side
hangs a string, or lace, at the end of which is something
very like to the shield and arms of the ancient family of the
Knevets, in Norfolk, but, I believe, nothing more than a
buckle. That the north isle of the church was founded by
John Chapman, who was churchwarden in 1462, is beyond
dispute ; but that the founder was a pedlar is very improbable,
for the richness of his habit shows that he was a person of dis-
tinction. The truth of the case seems to be no more than
this, the figures of a pedlar, and a man and woman busied
in their shop, were, according to the low taste of that age,
in a modest manner, to set forth the name of the Founder,
Chapman, trader or dealer. The word chapman, for a
trader, is of great antiquity, and pedlars are often called by
the name, even to this day, by some ancient people. Such
rebusses are frequently met with in old works" (and he
proceeds to the instance of an altar monument in the same
church, bearing boats and wimbles), " as the rebus of John
Botright, D.D., rector of the church, to whose memory it is
erected."

Leaving, for the present, this ingenious con-
jecture, we will give the original Latin version of

FUNCHERO's SIMILAR 8TORY. 259

the story, from Funchero's Lex. Philologicum,
Lugduni, 1658, 4to. p. 779 (not 1110-1111, as
Bloomfield cites) :—

"Rem, que contigit patrum memoria veram ita dignam
relatu et saepenumero mihi assertam ab hominibus fide
dignis, apponam. Juvenis quidam in Hollandia, Bordraci
videlicet, rem et patrimonium omne prodigerat conflatoque
asre alieno non solvendo. Apparuit illi quidem per somnium
monens ut se conferret Campos: ibi in ponte indicium
aliquem facturum quid sibi, ut explicaret se posset illis dif-
ficultatibus, instituendum foret. Abiit eo cumque totum fere
diem tristis et meditabundus deambulationi supra predictum
pontem insumisset,misertu8 ejus publicus mendicans qui forte
stipem rogans illic sidebat, quid tu inquit ideo tristes ? Aperui
illi somniator tristem et afflictam fortunam suam et qua de
causa eo se contulisset : Quippe somni impulsu hue se pro-
fectumet expectare Deumyelut a machina qui nodum hunc
plus quam Gordium eyolvat. At mendicus : Adione tu de-
mem et excors ut fretua somno, qua nihil inanius f hue ar-
ripes iter ? Si htijusee modi nugis esset habenda fides passim
et ego me conferre Dordracum ad eruendum thesaurum sub
cynosbato defossum horti cujusdam (fuerat autem hie hortus
patris 8omniatoris istius) mihi ibidem patef actum in somno.
Sublicuit alter et rem omnem sibi declaratam existimans, re-
diit magno cum gaudio Dordracum et sub arbore prsedicta
magnam pecuniae vim invenit quae ipsum liberavit {ut ita
dicam) nexu inque lautiore fortuna, dissoluto omni ere
alieno, collocavit."

Bloomfield's reference to Goulard, torn. iii. p.
366, is correct. The title is, Sonffe Merveilleuse ;
but as the scene and circumstances are quite
identical to the last, I shall not here recapitulate
the account, particularly as it professes to be '
copied from the former.

We shall find in the following relation, at an
opposite side of our island, a tradition, in which,

260 A CORRESPONDING STORY

if a pack-saddle be put in lieu of the pedlar and
his pack, many essential circumstances will be
found common to both; and though the story
of the dream is wanting, that is so evidently
apocryphal, that it is perfectly unessential. It is
taken from J. Clarke's Survey of Lakes of Cum-
berland, &c. (fol. Lond. 1787) p. 140:—

" There is a piece of painted glass on the windows on the
north side of the church of Bo wness, Westmoreland, called Car-
riers' Arms ; which is a rope, a wantey hook, and five pack-
ing pricks, or skewers, being the implements which carriers
use to fasten their packing-sheets together. The inhabitants
have a tradition in this place, which, if true, will amply ac-
count for the Carriers' Arms, as they are called, in this north
window. Indeed, traditions have usually some foundation in
truth ; and this has, besides, such an air of probability, that
I am tempted almost to believe it. When this church
wanted to be rebuilt, together with the chapels of St. Mary
Holm, Ambleside, and Troutbeck, and Appelthwaite, which
were all destroyed, or rendered unfit for divine worship, the
parish was extremely poor ; the parishioners, at a general
meeting, agreed that one church should serve the whole. The
next question was, where it should stand 1 The inhabitants
of Under-Mill and Beck were for having it at Bo wness ; the
rest thought, that as Troutbeck bridge was the centre of the
parish, it should be built there. Several meetings in con-
sequence were held, and many disputes and quarrels arose.
At last a carrier proposed, that whoever would make the
largest donation towards the building, should choose the
situation of the church. An offer so reasonable would
hardly be refused, and many gifts were immediately named.
The carrier (who had gained a fortune by his business) heard
them all, and at last declared he would cover the church with
lead. This offer, which all the rest were unable or unwilling
to outdo, at once decided the affair. The carrier chose the
situation, and his arms (or more properly his implements)
were painted on the north window of the church. Tradition

AT B0WNESS, CUMBERLAND, 261

adds, that this man obtained the name of Bellman, from the
bells worn by the fore-horse, which he first introduced here ;
the name of Bellman yet remaining in this place, and
the singularity of this church being covered with lead, when
all the rest hereabouts are covered with the beautiful slate,
give additional probability to this story."

It would seem, from an essay in Chambers' Edin-
burgh Journal, April 6th, 1833, that these small
dealers and chapmen in Scotland, who would for-
merly go under the general name of pedlars,
approach, verbally, much nearer to the Puchs, of
which I have supposed them the representatives.
I find the Scotch call them Peghlers ; and it
would seem, like the English hawker, the modern
representative upon a reduced scale of the ancient
pedlar, he must be licensed.

In Hone's Every -day Book (vol. i. p. 1379), we
have the following very curious relation, copied
from Charlton's History of Whitby : —

"In 1140, the Lord of Uglebdrriby, then William de
Bruce ; the Lord of Snayton, called Ralph de Percy, and a
gentleman freeholder called Allotson, met to hunt a wild
boar,atEskdale, in Yorkshire, then belonging to Ledman, Ab-
bot of Whitby, on 16th October, and pursued the boar, which
had taken refuge and died in a hermitage ; and bit the
hermit so violently, that he subsequently died of his wounds ;
but before his decease he procured their pardon, upon the
following penance : ' You and yours shall hold your land of
the Abbot of Whitby thus — That upon Ascension-Day Even,
you or some of you shall come to the wood of Strayhead3, at
sun-rising, and there the officer of the abbot shall sound his
horn, that you may know where to find him, and deliver
unto you, William de Bruce, ten stakes, eleven street stowers,
and eleven gadders, to be cut with a knife of a penny price ;
and you, Ralph de Percy, shall take twenty-one of each sort ;
and you, Allotson, shall take nine of each sort, to be cut as

262 PERHAPS AT WHITBY,

aforesaid, and to be taken on your bacfo,to the town of Whitby,
and to be there before nine of the clock of the same day, and
at the hour of nine if it be full sea, to cease their service as
long as till it be low water ; and at nine o'clock the same day
each of you shall set your stakes at the brim of the water,
each stake a yard from the other, and so gadder them with
your gadders, and so stake them on each side with your
straight s towers, that they stand three tides without removing
from the force of the water ; each of you shall meet at that
hour in every year, except it be full sea at that hour,
which, when it shall happen to come to pass, the service
shall cease : you shall do this to remember that you did
slay me, and that you may be better call to God for mercy.
The officer of Eskdale shall blow, ' Out on you ! Out on you !
Out on you ! ' for this heinous crime of yours. If you or
your successors refuse this service, so long as it shall not be
full sea at the hour aforesaid, you or yours shall forfeit all
your land to the abbot or his successors."*

It is difficult to determine whether this circum-
stantial relation is history or myth : the particu-
larities of time and place, even to the very day of
the occurrence; the names of the actors, the
judicial form, and the ipsissima verba in which
the sentence professes to be drawn up, would lead
us to infer the former, did not this very precision
superinduce a doubt that it may have been sub-
sequently framed to disarm suspicion, by the in-
troduction of minute facts, which, though they
cannot now be proved, are at least as little capable
of being contradicted. That, however, such an
exact relation of dates, acts, and persons, should
have been chronicled and preserved to the present
day, is, to say the least, extremely startling, and
would in matters of greater moment justly excite

* " N. B. This service is still (1826) annually performed."

AND AT BAB.T0N-UP0N-HUMBER. 263

suspicion and disbelief, which the curious nature
of the penance would fend materially to strengthen.
The nature of a tenure of land to be held by stick-
bearing, which were to be tested as to their strength
by bearing the brunt of three waves, is so rife with
ancient and heathen practice, that even if the
story were true, the penance would seem suggested
by the oldest and venerated opinions of its efficacy
and holiness ; and the name of a hermitage, the
probable site of the murder called Pegnalech, but
tends to confirm this mythic view of the story.

A few years earlier to these instances of, as I
view them, an ancient superstition, I should un-
doubtedly have reckoned the tradition, of which I
have the most vivid recollection, told me by the
incumbent of the united parishes of St. Mary's and
St. Peter's, of Barton-upon-Humber, repeatedly
during my seven years' abode under his roof and
tuition — that part of the emoluments of the bene-
fice arose from the gift of a pedlar, and that his
representation was found, with his dog, in glass,
on the window of the church. Wishing, however,
to verify this recollection of a very distant period,
I addressed a letter to my schoolfellow, the very
zealous antiquary and F.S.A., Mr. W. S. Hesleden,
solicitor, of that place ; who, however, gave no
support to this reminiscence. But his letter is so
generally interesting, that I make no apology for
the following extracts ; in which I hope, however,
I do not forestall the history of these two churches
which Mr. H. half promises to write. It will, no
doubt, prove as interesting as his disquisitions on
the earth-works in the adjoining parish of Bar-

264 ST. CHAD A PEDLAR.

row. There are, he says, remaining of stained
glass, in St. Mary's, a fragment of Christ on the
Cross ; and at St. Peter's, " there are two figures :
the one is that of a pilgrim, with his staff in his
right hand, and a book in his left, having his
wallet hanging before him, and having also an
escallop-shell depicted on his cap, showing that he
had made a pilgrimage to Compostella, or else-
where ; and the other is that of a military figure,
with shield, and spear, and sword, but having no
spurs/' He also mentions another figure of a
pilgrim, depicted by Fowler, now stolen : " I have
always considered it as a figure of St. James, and
upon my examination of the two compartments,
I find them composed of fragments of some former
broken windows." Mr. H . further remarks : " Had
the pedlar been exhibited in the church windows
at Barton, I should still have referred it to St. Chad,
who was always to travel on foot, until his superior,
the bishop Theodore, compelled him to travel on
horseback." It seems " St. Mary's church was
originally a chapel, founded by St. Chad and his
elder brother, Cedd, previous to the formation of
the parish by King Wulfhere, who was converted
by St. Chad, and so delighted with him, that he
not only founded the church and parish of St.
Peter, in Barton, but he gave St. Chad the land
of fifty families at Berwe, that is, at Barrow, to
found a monastery there, and which afterwards
formed the modern parish of Barrow."

In this legend of St. Chad, his continually
" travelling on foot," by which he would become
a paddler, which, etymologically, we need not be

SCOTCH HOGMANY. 265

told, is identical with pedlar y and, like the German
padde, the frog, but a synonym, as we have before
seen, of Puch; I fancy I still perceive as strong a
tinge of infused heathendom as St. Chad would
permit, or his converts could introduce. In all
these modern instances of pedlar and carrier, we
have the great pagan ideas of the Burthen Bearer,
or Ber-stiicks, which in the- Whitby tale are ex-
pressed au pied de Lettre. The idea of a Puch
is so intimately connected with all things carried,
that the sack thence takes the name -of the Poke,
or in still more exact conformity, in Scotland,
Pocks; so Jamieson quotes, from the Rev. J.
Nichols poems : —

" The cotter weanies glad and gay,
Wi Pocks out owre their shouther,
Sing at the doors for Hogmany."*

— From Caledonian Mercury, Jan. 2, 1792.

Nor need we wonder at these lingering embers
of a dying superstition, still smouldering beneath
the ashes of their accustomed hearths. Scott
(Demonology, p. 92) has well remarked of the first
proselytes from their ancient faith : " Such hasty
converts professing themselves Christians, but
neither weaned from their own belief nor in-
structed in their new one, entered the sanctuary
without laying aside the superstitions with which

* On Hogmany we may remark, that Hog does not ex-
clusively refer to the young of swine. Shepherds call sheep
of one year hogs, and, as originally applied to any young
animals of the same kind, it may also mean the kid, and
Hog-many, therefore, stand for Kid-money. Vide the re-
quest of Robin Goodfellow, at p. 221.

N

266 CHRISTIAN CHURCHES RISE FROM HEATHEN FANES.

their young minds had been imbued ; and, accus-
tomed to a plurality of deities, some of them, who
bestowed unusual thought on the matter, might
be of opinion, that in adopting the God of the
Christians they had not renounced the service of
every inferior power." A consequence, however,
of this change was, the transference of heathen
Fanes to the Christian Trinity. For this it would
be superfluous to cite examples ; those of our St.
Paul's occupying the site of the Temple of Diana;
of Westminster Abbey, perhaps, yet covering the
debris of a Temple of Apollo, are too trite to
adduce. Professor Engling, in the Luxemburg
Archaeological Publications for 1847, vol. iii., p.
188, gives us data for similar changes in that
small duchy, enumerating thirteen localities in
which they have occurred ; and a necessary con-
sequence on this re-appropriation of the building,
was also the cession of the lands and endowments
by which it and the attendant priests had been
supported. This the professor also notices, and
cites as a legal authority, or order for this
transfer, Codex. Theod.,c. 20, de Paganis (16 — 20),
by which all the property of a heathen temple
was confiscated and turned over to the Christians.
Coupling, therefore, this mythic view of our
pedlars, carriers, &c. as heathen idols, with the
acquisitions made by them, given to mother
Church, and veiled under the name of a bequest,
we can find a reason for these dotations of so many
of our oldest churches, which we have not hitherto
supposed. These spolia opima of an overthrown
religion naturally fell to the conquerors, and it is

COIFI A TITLE, NOT A NAME. 267

to the lapse of time only, and the entire change
in our opinions, that more traditions have not
been retained of their triumph. The concur-
rence, however, of so many, when properly con-
strued, in the curious and improbable tale,
would, as I have before observed, justify the
suspicion of a feigned origin; and for fictions
we are at liberty, when circumstances require,
more reasonable solutions, to search for proba-
bilities attendant upon them, in accordance
with the times and manners of a distant age.
Lambeth, so near the ancient Londinum, was no
doubt the seat of another Coin,* who, like the
Yorkshire one, by an easy and quiet conversion,
merited and obtained his ancient glebe for the
decent upholding of his new faith ; and when a
pedlar was said to have bestowed the dotation, the
pack-bearer was an easy substitute for the original
Puck, or Berstuck. An imposed legend, so con-
sonant to the ideas and feelings of the vulgar, was
easily assented to and retained by subsequent
generations, till it got fixed monumentally as an
undoubted truth.f The presence of the dog in

* All our historians following Bede, who wrote from tra-
ditions of an event which happened about a century and a
half previous to his times, take this as the proper name of
an individual. I have reason to believe that it was but his
designation as a high priest, and the name of his office ; but
the necessary proofs would be too long to enter on here, and
would divert myself and the reader too much from the pre-
sent theme.

t The modern and ancient names of Lambeth are not des-
titute of support to my foregoing theory of the heathen origin
of its Pedlar. We have seen in the good Shepherd (p. 251),

n2

268 DERIVATION OP LAMBETH.

both myths, of the Man in the Moon and of the
Pedlar, add to this conviction, and have some-
times caused the stick-stealer to be turned into a
shepherd. Thus over the north door of the beau-
tiful cathedral at Magdeburg, a shepherd is
carved, with dog and flock, which popular super-
stition asserts to be continually looking at a star
on the north tower, which marks exactly the
height to which it was built by money which a
vision revealed to him. This tradition is again
exactly found on the British seal noticed at p.
238. The man accompanied by his dog, and

that the lamb gradually superseded the kid on the shoulders
of our Pucks, which may give us the first syllable. The
second, beth, is a not unusual ending for the names of places
in England : Dig-beth in Birmingham, and Land-beder in
Cardiganshire, are what immediately strike me ; but it is
more usual in the Anglo-Saxon and cognate Teutonic dia-
lects, without the final aspirate : as German, Bett; English
and Anglo-Saxon, Bed, a place to rest or remain in ; thence
our Bed and A-bode. The German Bride is our Bothy, or shed,
and all vocal varieties of the same consonants have similar
meanings. His abode, or house, offered to a visitor, is the
regular measure of a Spaniard's hospitality, as a Welsh
Bidding Wedding is its greatest stretch in Britain, which
tells us why Bid, which in Johnson means to invite, may
4 also mean to command. Royal invitations are always given as
commands — Boat is the seaman's house, in many countries,
exclusively, hence Lam-beth would, therefore, signify the
abode or temple of the Lamb, or the Kids, or Sticks borne
(personified as Berstucks), for I have before observed that
the transition in name, from the young animal to another of
similar form and habits, would be as easy as in form. The
nomenclature of the early ages, for all objects of nature,
was very indistinct and confounded. In Reynard the Fox,
the personal name of the Hare is Lambe. »

CONFIRMATION OP A MAGDEBURG TALE. 269

bearing a bundle of sticks, is standing in the
half-moon, as at p. 213, only the crescent is up-
right; but two stars are there, to which his eyes
are directed. The legend on the seal, " Te Wal-
tere docebo cur spinas Phcebo gero," is very
curious, as possibly the personal motto of Walter
de Grendene, clerk, and is affixed to a deed in the
ninth year of the reign of Edward the Third (1335),
whereby he conveys to his mother one messuage
and a barn, with four acres of ground, in the
parish of Kingston-upon-Thames. This Mr. Hud-
son Turner, who exhibited it, thinks is " an enig-
matical mode of expressing that ' honesty is the
best policy/ " I lament, that, as I have no access
to the State Paper Office, where the deed is de-
posited, to copy it, the loan of the block was
rather uncourteously denied by its present pro-
prietor, though accompanied with the offer of
acknowledgment. In lieu thereof we may ob-
serve, that as the Roman Kid-Bearers {vide p.
239), were a species of tutelary deity, or Lar, the
dog was a necessary accompaniment, as we learn
from Ovid, Fasti, v. 135. Speaking of the Lares,
he says: —

" Stant quoque pro nobis et praesunt moenibus Urbis ;

Et sunt prrasentes, auxiliumque ferunt.
At canis ante pedes saxo fabricatus eodem

Stabat : quae standi cum Lare causa fuit ?
Servat uterque domum: domino quoque fidus uterque :

Compita grata Deo : compita grata card.
Exagitant et Lar et turba Diana fures :

Pervigilantque Lares, pervigilantque canes."*

* Perhaps better reasons than Ovid here gives may be

^ m m^ the ^^iS^ttbeph^ -
v . Ak „rm.m, one al« ouly * i

- SftfltSS &f ^-i

, H M l'»K° B!i) • . - tlie proof of thes

~ *L »-. I'^rv.r, much of ****** my tl

^* , IM 1 their ^ tl ° n f lw»SBS

. ^-;-;;;f -;^;u"« aisouisition «™

— ^ J \hVhZtU of other idoh. xvith ^hid
i;:^ l »Knll do h. the following c

perpend

Mm

CHAPTER VI.

" Seldom has any similar collection raised so much atten-
tion, or put into motion so many learned pens, or caused so
many frequently contradictory opinions, nay, often been
laid unhesitatingly by writers who have never seen them
personally or examined them closely, as the ground-work of
historical data, which have materially changed their views
on the state of civilisation in North-Eastern Germany, in very
important points." — Levezovfs Inquiry on the Rhetra Deities.
Trarmtc. Berl. Acad, for 1834, p. 143.

As much of the credibility and congruity of
what has been hitherto adduced on the general
agreement in the mythology of all nations, will
depend on the authenticity of the bronze statuette
on the frontispiece of this volume, and repeated
in the text, it will be necessary to enter rather
largely in this chapter into its discovery, amongst
a large number of other bronze idols, and into the
controversy that is still raging amongst German
archaeologists as to the genuineness and value of
the entire collection of the figures. It will, there-
fore, be of the utmost importance to trace the dis-
covery from its source, and to mention in detail
the various essays that have appeared on the sub-
ject, in a more complete literature than any Ger-
man work has yet exhibited.

272 peilwttz idols found.

Between the years 1687 and 1697, the Rev.
Friederich Samuel Sponholz, incumbent of the
parish of Prilwitz, a small village on the borders
of the Tollens Lake, or more correctly on the
southern shore of the Lips, a piece of water con-
nected with it, in the present Grand Duchy of
Mecklenburgh Strelitz, and at no great distance
from the Baltic Sea, wished to plant a fruit-tree
in the vicarage garden. For this purpose he had
a trench dug, against the declivity of a high hill
which rose immediately above it at the back of his
premises. In the progress of the excavation he
chanced to meet with a capacious metal caldron, or
vessel (kessel), in an upright position, on which
was an inscription in Runic characters ; and it was
covered by another vessel of the same metal, also
inscribed with similar Runes, as far as could be
afterwards collected from descriptions ; for it will
soon be seen that both these vessels were de-
stroyed before any more especial notice had been
taken of them. Alongside these caldrons, about
two hundred weight of iron implements (Eisen-
ger'athe) had also been hidden, apparently at the
same time; but this too was destroyed along
with the caldrons, and nothing further appears
remarkable concerning it. I mention it here
merely to give every circumstance I find noted in
connexion with the discovery.

Within the two vessels were found above one
hundred and eighty various idols, instruments, and
utensils of metal ; for, from various circumstances
hereafter to be mentioned, the precise number was
never ascertained ; but Superintendent Masch, in

DESCRIBED BY MASCH AND POTOCKI. 273

an express work on the subject described sixty-
six objects, and Count Potocki subsequently 110
to 118 additional ones, and some had been melted
down before their existence had been made known
to either. These figures represented, principally,
Slavonic idols, with their instruments of sacrifice
and oblation ; and in Dr. Masch'-s opinion some
of them also were the ensigns and standards
borne before their armies in time of war, but de-
posited during peace in the temples of their
deities. With very few exceptions, each idol had
its name inserted on some part of the image,
with the place of its location, in Runic characters,
many of which were merely inscribed with a metal
point on the surface; but a good proportion also
with Runes in relief, and which must have been
worked into the mould in which the figure was
cast. They were generally small in size, the
largest image not exceeding seven and a half
inches in height, and weighing about seven
pounds ; but the greater part stood only a very
few inches high. Some of the sacrificial or obla-
tory dishes had a circumference of about ten
inches, but, being formed merely of interlacing
bars of an oval form, the largest of them weighed
only two pounds eleven ounces. The composition
of the metal in which they were made was various.
Dr. Masch, in the work above alluded to, and
which I shall soon notice more particularly, says,
it was " not silver, nor copper, nor brass, but a
mixture of all ;" and the majority of the figures
(and this fact must be especially borne in mind)
contain silver, ascertainedb y the touchstone, at

274 MENTIONED IN GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

one, one and a half, two, and as far as five ounces.
An occasional figure has its body of this compo-
site metal, with its feet of lead; the general cha-
racter, however, is a white metal, unequally mixed
in different objects, and often in the same figure;
most of them may be, however, stated as bronze,
of a similar composition to what the general run
of lance-heads, celts, knives, &c. consist, which
are found in opening the early tumuli of all
European countries. We learn from Klaproth
(Eherne Streit-Keile zumahl in Deutschland, von
Dr. Heinrich Schreiber, Freiburg, 1844, p. 43),
who analysed five specimens from distant lo-
calities, that the average result was — copper
8995, lead 10*5. Dr. Leyser (Bericht der
Deutschen Gesellschaft zu Leipsig, 1844, p. 43)
adduces another analysis, viz. — copper 89, zinc
11, which gives the mass almost the appearance
of gold ; and Dr. Masch calls the Prilwitz composi-
tion sometimes red, sometimes yellow metal. From
circumstances, and particularly from the first re-
port of the discovery circulated in England,* there
is no doubt that some of the first investigators
were half persuaded that the material of the ob-
jects was really gold. These particulars will suf-

* I find the following, nearly the only, notice of the dis-
covery in England, in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxviii.
1768, p. 141: — "A brass chest has lately been discovered
under a high hill, in the duchy of Mecklenburg Strelitz, in
which was inclosed thirty golden idols, with urns and in-
struments of sacrifice ; on the back of one of the idols the
words ' Radegast, Raetra,' were very legible. They weighed
about half a pound each." This notice will receive correc-
tion, in almost every particular, in the subsequent pages.

FARTHER HISTORY. 275

fice to give the reader a pretty accurate estimate
of the discovery, and we may now take up again
our historical resumS of tne circumstances succeed-
ing the examination of these remarkable objects.

The Reverend Friederich Samuel Sponholz, their
first discoverer, does not seem to have taken either
care or trouble to improve or benefit himself by
this treasure trove; and in the absence of any
distinct information on his motives of neglect, we
may balance betwixt the belief of his really not
appreciating its value, or the fear of being com-
pelled to surrender it to the superior title of the
lord of the soil, should he too loudly blazon his
good fortune abroad; for, as I have just hinted,
the find was most probably thought, at first, of
infinitely greater intrinsic value than it afterwards
turned out.

Whatever were his motives, the fact is un-
doubted, that up to his death, in 1697, the dis-
covery continued, if I may so express myself, in
abeyance, and all subsequent inquiries do not
appear to have substantiated a single step he took
concerning it. The figures remained neglected,
perhaps forgotten, during his lifetime; and during
her year of grace,* his widow, in realising his
effects, sold them, most probably, for little more
than their value as old copper, to a goldsmith
named Palcke, of New Brandenburg, the nearest
market town, who, as is mostly the practice in

* The widows of clergymen and schoolmasters, <fcc, are
generally allowed a year's residence after their husbands'
death, before they are compelled to give possession of the
parsonage or school-houses to the new incumbent.

276 THEIB COMPOSITION.

such provincial places, united the business of a
general founder in the finer metals with his other
trades, and, as naturally might be expected, the
iron was used up, and the two caldrons were
melted down into bell metal. It is probable that
the entire collection would have passed into Mr.
Palcke's crucible, if the attempt made upon some
of the idols (the god Prove is particularly named)
had proved successful ; for, in the last page of his
preface to the work dedicated to their description,
Dr. Masch says : " Though the mass be, in part,
silver, yet it is so much alloyed with all kinds of
metals, particularly with brass, that it is of as
little use to a goldsmith as it would be to the
Mint;" and to this circumstance it most probably
is owing, that we now are in possession of any of
of the objects. It is certain that a trial was made
upon one of the images, most probably the above-
named Prove ; but, when molten, its silver refused
to separate by the ordinary process of amalgama-
tion or analysis, and consequently the whole was
considered valueless. I beg particularly to im-
press this fact on the attention of my readers,
because as subsequently the accusation of forgery
has been set up, which could only, from circum-
stances, attach to the first discoverer, it must
be evident from the foregoing facts that he ex-
pended much time, labour, and talent, and was at
a great expense of the precious metals, besides the
risk of being scouted as an impostor, without any
apparent motive, or any steps taken to turn all
this toil and expense to a result either of fame or
profit, either to himself or family.

SOLD TO DR. HEMPEL. 277

The total want of any intrinsic value being thus
established, these idols remained without further
disturbance till after Mr. Palcke's death, when
they descended to his son-in-law, also called
Sponholz like their first discoverer, and, as a
goldsmith, probably Palcke's successor in the
business ; but it was a curious coincidence that he
was the son of the paternal great-uncle of this
same F. S. Sponholz, or, as the relationship is
expressed in a very roundabout way in German,
he was the Grossvater^s Bruder's Sohn (the grand-
fathers brother's son) of him who first dug out
the caldrons.

Another fact and link in the possession is, that
these objects passed successively, by descent, to
the widow of (I may call him) this second Mr.
Sponholz, and afterwards became the joint pro-
perty of his three sons, as heirs in common of
their father, the eldest of whom had the father's
business. Their names were respectively Jacob
Ernest, Jonathan Benjamin, and Gideon Nathaniel,
though the eldest seems to have carried on exclu-
sively the goldsmith business of his father, and
to have retained the disposition of his effects,
as he sold that part of the collection described
by superintendent Masch to a Dr. Hempel, in
1766 or 1767. Of the second son, no particular
mention, in reference to these antiquities, is made ;
but of the third we shall hear more in the sequel.

Having now circulated, including female own-
ership, through six different proprietors, time had
progressed to the year one thousand seven hun-
dred and sixty-eight, when nearly eighty years

278 FRESH ONES SHOWN TO

(Dr. Masch in one place allows sixty, in another
seventy, * years) had elapsed, during which
such curious and important evidences, as I trust
to prove them, of Slavonic rites and doctrines,
had lain dormant and unobserved, no notice or
comment concerning them having hitherto been
given in any way to the public. This fact, however,
need not much astonish us, when we consider the
state of archaeological science during that whole
period throughout Germany, and the obscure cor-
ner of one of its most obscure provinces in which
the discovery was made ; but, above all, the char-
acter of the Sponholzes, and particularly of the
last possessor of that name of the larger number,
as witnessed in the traits subsequently given of
him, from personal observation, by Count Jean
Potocki, a great forwarder of Slavonic history.
The Count, during a stay of some days at New
Brandenburg, for the express purpose of examin-
ing and delineating these prominent objects of his
peculiar study, viz., Slavonic history, antiquities,
and mythology — a study on which he seems to
have bestowed a considerable portion of his life
and much money in travelling and personally in-
specting every object tending to illustrate : "mon
grand ouvrage intitule Cronique, Memoires et Re-
cherchespour servir a I' Histoire de torn les Peuples
Slaves. Un volume in 4to. a deja (1793) paru a
Warsovie Pautre est actuellement (1794) sur la

* Von Rumohr, in his treatise : " Ueber das Verhaltniss
der seit lange gewShnlichen Vorstellung von einer pracht-
vollen Vineta: in Beitragen zur Kunst und Historie, (p. 17,
note) 60, 70 und mehrere Jahre."

COUNT POTOCKI, AND DESCRIBED. 279

presse k Berlin." The first volume is in the Bri-
tish Museum, the other I have not yet seen. The
Count, however, published, as a thin quarto, ano-
ther, work almost expressly dedicated to the
description of the Prillwitz idols, of such impor-
tance did he consider them to Slavonic researches,
entitled, " Voyage dans quelques Parties de la
Basse Saxepour la Recherche des AntiquitSs Slaves
ou Vendes fait en 1794jpar le CompteJean PotocJci"
4to., Hamburg, 102 pages, with 118 figures on 31
plates.

In this work, which I adduce at present merely
for the purpose of showing the manners of Gideon
Nathaniel Sponholz the youngest, and, in 1794,
sole surviving brother of the three last mentioned,
as one reason for the complete disregard of these
figures, or their greater number since Dr. Mason's
publication, the Count tells us that the brothers
Sponholz had only partially disclosed their trea-
sures to the clerical superintendent, and that they
had kept back from him the most curious and
interesting pieces of the discovery. The Count's
work is written partly as a journal, and in jotting
down his remarks for the 16th August, 1794, he
s, p. 14 : —

" Tout ce que j'ai dessine aujourdhui a ete trouv^ a Pril-
witz en mime temps que les idoles deja decrites par Mr.
Masch, mais celles qui sont restes a Mr. Sponholz sont
massives et tout plus interessantes que les autres : mais Spon-
holz pour des raisons qui tiennent a son charact&re morale
ne produsait a cette £poque que la moindre partie de son
cabinet et depuis alors Mr. Masch a neglige* les recherches
des antiques Slaves, quoique les succes qui ont accompagnees
les commencemens de cette passion eussent du lui inspirer
plus de confiance."

280 REASON OP PREVIOUS CONCEALMENT.

We may therefore ascribe the delay and apathy,
as to the greater part, to the opposite motives of
indifference or jealousy; for Count Potocki, though
he twice uses the words " pour des raisons qui
tiennent h son charactere," nowhere states them
with precision, but he may seem to insinuate the
latter, when, at p. 82, he says : —

"Depui lors (Mr. Sponholz) s'est determine a ne plus
garder son cabinet avec une solicitude aussi mysterieuse,
cependant on m'assure que je suis le premier a qui il Fait
montre* avec franchise et sans reticence aucune, et meme il
prenoit un plaisir extreme a me voir dessiner."

And this view of the matter is partly corroborated
by what Dr. Masch says in his preface, which is
unpaged : —

"Still, I always held the opinion that more antiquities-
were concealed by Mr. Sponholz. Dr. Hempel, a great
admirer of such works of ancient art, as well as of natural
curiosities, tried his utmost to discover them, but in vain.
However, I was at last fortunate enough, in a journey thither
last summer (1790), to obtain first some pieces, and then my
whole collection, upon certain conditions.* It has been
before remarked that one reason for secrecy at the first dis-
covery might have been the fear lest the ground landlord
might have put in his claim for the enormous value of this
treasure trove, if he had been acquainted with it, which Dr.
Masch partly insinuates when, at p. 3 of his preliminary
treatise, he says : — " Whether Herr Von Gamm, the patron
of the living and proprietor of the soil, got any intelligence
of the discovery, is uncertain; but still it did not remain
totally unknown, for a rumour concerning it got abroad that
was credited and denied, but never investigated/'

*Dr. Masch's original words are: — "Unterdessen blieb
allezeit der Gedanke ubrig dass bei dem Herrn Sponholz
noch mehrere Alterthumer verborgen sein nrfchten; der

NARRATIVE CONTINUED. 281

Having thus in some measure accounted for a
neglect of nearly eighty years towards the Prilwitz
idols, we resume the narrative at the period when
the first public authentic notice concerning them
appears.

After the abortive attempt I have already stated
to make the idols available by the crucible, in
1768, (the two caldrons, with their curious
Runes, submitted themselves to the founder's
melting-pot, as part of the material for a cast of
bells for the new Brandenburg church), the third
Mr. Sponholz turned his attention to the value of
these bronze relics, as objects of antiquity and
art; and, as it seems, after much solicitation, pro-
duced to a physician of the place named Hempel
at first forty-five pieces, and subsequently another,
making the whole of his first instalment, forty-six
in number. At the instigation of this medical
gentleman, some account of them was published
by the Rev. G. B. Genzmer, prebend or arch-
deacon of the neighbouring town of Stargard, in
the Altona Mercury of 1768, whence, most pro-
bably, the notice in Gent. Mag. of the same year,
mentioned p. 274, note, was taken.* A similar

Herr Dr. Hempel, dieser grosser Freund von dergleichen
Seltenheiten der Kunst sowohl als der Natur, wandte sein
ausserstes an sie zu entdecken. Es war aber alles vergebens.
Mir gliickte es endlich im abgewichenem Sommer bei einer
dahin angestellten Reise zuerst einige Stiicke und bald her-
nach auch die iibrigen auf gewisse Bedingungen zu erhal-
ten."

* This mistake of a mixed for the most precious of
metals, has occurred also amongst the ancients, and may,
therefore, be the more excusable. We have in the descrip-

282 SENSATION CREATED IN GERMANY.

announcement was made also in the "Rostock
gemeinnutzige Aufsatze, a journal then widely
circulated through the southern shores of the Bal-
tic. These announcements created a consider-
able sensation in the north of Germany, and much
was written pro and con about them ; but as the
following passage from Dr. Masch's work explains
this more fully, and, at the same time, contains
the various literature of this stage of the discus-
sion, I shall introduce it in a translation :—

"People read and wondered, and acknowledged the value
of these relics, and their great interest for the religious his-
tory of a nation now become extinct in Mecklenburg, and of
which we now possess nothing but some stone pillars on their
mounds, and the names of a few villages. Unexpectedly,
there appeared a notice of them by Pastor Sense of Warlin,
in this province, which denied all utility to these antiquities.
His strictures are, however, of such a nature, that I should
not have mentioned them if Mr. D. H. F. Taddel's vindica-
tion of them from Rostock had not made it imperative,
wherein those strictures are confuted most argumentatively.
And when the Rev. pastor thought proper to issue a rejoinder,
canon Genzmer reviewed the principal points of the con-
troversy, and placed the genuine antiquity of these figures
in their true light." (Pref. p. 5.)

The following extract from Count Potocki's
work (p. 81) will complete the list of what had
been further written concerning them to the com-
mencement of the present century, in addition to
Dr. Masch and Wogen's quarto, noticed above,
and the work of Count Potocki himself: —

tion of a Strigula, by a Latin enigmatist (lxxxvi.), this fea-
ture also in the line : —

" Luminibus falsis auri mentita colorem."
Vide also p. 274.

masch's

"Je pouvais y ajouter deux critiques de M. Masch Tune
feite par le Professeur Thunman (die Ultesten nordischen
Voticer durch A. F. Busching, Berlin, 1772, 4to.) ; l'autre
par M. Bucholz (Rethra und dessert Gdtzenbilder : Butzow
1773, 4to.), mais ce dernier ouvrage n'attaque point l'authen-
ticite* des antiques ; il veut settlement prouver que Prilwitz
n'est point Tancienne Rhetra et ses argumens sont assez
forts pour l'avoir laisse la question indecise. Quand au
premier c'est une suite d'assertions denuees de citations;
defaut ordinaire de cet auteur."

In 1770, the year following on the acquisition of
part of these figures by Dr. Hempel, the Rev.
Andreas Gottlieb Masch, superintendent of the
grand dukedom of Mecklenburg Strelitz (answer-
ing almost to an English Bishop), was induced by
the wish of his friend and his own taste, to com-
pile a description of them under the title, " Die
Gottesdienstlichen Alterthumer der Obotriten am
dem Tempel zu Rhetra" 4to., Berlin, 1770, which,
being published by the court painter, Mr. Wogen,
who seems to have supplied the funds, frequently
is cited as his work. Some kind of understanding
seems to have been subsequently enteried into
betwixt the medical and clerical doctors, by which
the possession of the figures was transferred from
the former to the latter, but only as a kind of
locumtenens, for the acquisition was accompanied
by a stipulation, that when the superintendent
Masch had finished his description, they should be
deposited with some public body in the duchy*
This, we learn from the preface, had been accom-
plished by placing them in the then recently-
formed library attached to the Domkirche, or
Cathedral, of Ratzeburg, a beautifully situated

284 SIVA FORMERLY AT RATZBBURG.

town in an island of the romantic lake of the
same name, and the ancient capital of the Wendic
tribe of the Polabi, by whom the goddess Siva
was more especially worshipped ; and the reverend
gentleman felicitates himself, with more warmth
than orthodoxy, "that the true and veritable
image of this divinity (with others) was at length
deposited in this most ancient and celebrated
seat of her worship." He does not seem to have
been aware of her close connexion in attributes
with her Indian namesake, whence she most proba-
bly originally proceeded. It is, however, necessary
to caution the reader, in opposition to Murray's
Hand-book, that they are no longer preserved
there, by which he will, unlike the writer, be saved
an unnecessary journey, though the beauty of the
drive, (%. e. before the railroad passed to Liibeck),
and the romantic situation of the town, will in
part compensate for the disappointment. They
must have been long removed, for Rumohr, in
the work already noted, and published in 1816,
says, at 14, note : —

"Die von Masch beschriebenen Alterthumer wturden
einige Zeit in der Bibliothek der Domkirche zu Ratzeburg
aufbewahrt in ganz neuerer Zeit aber nach Strelitz gebracht,"

most probably on the territorial changes conse-
quent upon the treaty of Vienna, in 1815.

The work of Masch contains, on sixty-five
plates, figures of every article then produced, of
the size of their originals, beautifully engraved on
copper for that period and country by the court
painter Wogen from oil copies by himself, which

285

Rumohr, who had seen the originals, praises as
truer delineations than were then accustomed to
be seen of historical subjects of this nature in
Germany. The plan of the work is to give,
seriatim, a description of each object, with the
Runes on them converted in their corresponding
Roman characters, . and then to add a short ex-
planation of each object.

The dedication to the then youthful queen of
George III., a native princess of the grand duchy,
was natural, as the book seems to have been ex-
pected to create attention in London, and not
unsuccessfully, to judge from the number of Eng-
lish names which swells the catalogue of sub-
scribers : many of the then Fellows of the Society
of Antiquarians, and other notabilities of the day,
adorn this list. The work was by far the most
learned and complete that had up to that time
appeared, not only on the antiquities and figures
before him, but generally on the early history and
mythology of the Wends of Mecklenburg. For
the character of its author, which has been much
reflected on for credulity and want of critical dis-
cernment, I refer particularly to Von Rumohr^s
Treatise, p. 11 : "Was an Denkmaler vorhanden
ist, hat Masch mit ruhmlichem Fleisse und grosser
Griindlichkeit beschrieben und theils in treueren
Abbildungen mitgetheilt als vor ihm bei geschicht-
lichen Denkmalern dieser Zeit in Deutschland zu
erscheinen pflegten."

It would be tedious to the reader and myself
here to follow the author through the 162 quarto
pages of his book, which, however, contain many

286 ITS CONCLUSIONS.

curious proofs bearing upon the genuineness of
these figures — one, that they all are covered with
the true aerugo nobilis, is particularly insisted
upon as a certain and unfailing proof of the
highest antiquity, which no art or ingenuity,
nothing but time, can produce; and he comes
then to his final conclusion of the most perfect
conviction of their truthfulness and antiquity,
expressed in the following words, § 60, p. 48 : —

" On comparing these circumstances one with another, we
can readily believe : 1. That we have not the slightest
reason to consider the collection as spurious, or to hold them
in a degree of slight estimation, unless we wish to throw our-
selves open to the imputation of having no knowledge of an-
tiquity. 2. That if these objects were different to what they
are, they must have been forged and spurious, and therefore
those who demand that they ought to have been different to.
what they are, do not know what they ask. 3. That, there-
fore, these figures are the true sacred objects of the so far-
famed temple of Bhethra, which, having lain a long time in
the soil, were dug up about seventy years back, and concealed
by their possessors, till now they are brought to light."

This somewhat overwhelming confidence of Dr.
Masch, and the full coinciding of Count Potocki,
and of others on the spot, confirms in a great
measure the opinions of the brothers Grimm, that
all who have had opportunities ofa personal in-
spection have come away perfectly convinced of
their genuineness : all their opponents have prin-
cipally attacked the reasonings of their supporters
from a distance. The subsequent exceptions will
be mentioned below. In fact, the first doubt on
the subject may be said to have been started after
the interval of seventy-six years, by Herr Levezow,

LEVEZOW's INQUIRY 287

in a treatise, " Ueber die Aechteit der sogenannten
Obotritischen Runendenkmaler zu Neu-Strelitz"
in the Transactions of the Royal Prussian Aca-
demy of Sciences, at Berlin, in 1834, (vide their
Transactions for that year, 4to, Berlin, 1836,
p. 143 ff.) For all that had been previously
written by Sense, Taddel, Genzmer, Thunmann,
Buchholz, Liebusch, whilst they admitted unre-
servedly the authenticity of the objects, demurred,
where objection was made, only to different points
of Dr. Masch's reasoning concerning them, par-
ticularly as to the true situation of the Temple of
Rhetra, which is, however, of very minor im-
portance in the inquiry. Levezow's investigation
having been apparently conducted with care, and
from personal inspection, the condemnatory judg-
ment that he passed on their authenticity has
been subsequently generally received without in-
quiry, or influenced the investigations of later
writers.

It would be here also too uninteresting to the
reader to follow this writer's dissertation, of sixty
closely printed quarto pages, too minutely; it
may be sufficient to state the principal objections
raised. Having determined to form no judgment
upon them previous to a personal and searching
investigation (p. 157), he passed, in the autumn of
1825, nearly four weeks in examining them, with
every aid which the grand ducal permission, and
the able co-operation of the Hofrath Reincke, the
grand ducal librarian and custos of these an-
tiquities, could afford. He even went so far as to
propose a commission, to interrogate persons who

288 UNFAVOURABLE.

had been in connexion with any of the three later
brothers Sponholz, upon oath; and collected from
the answers of one of them, named Newman, then
a goldsmith of Old Strelitz, who deposed that
Gideon Nathaniel Sponholz, though himself igno-
rant of Runes, of antiquities, of metal-founding, was
in connexion with a clever potter of the name of
Pohl, who frequently brought him small figures
formed of unburnt clay, which the deponent then
had to cast in metal, and afterwards to mark upon
them with a punch Runes like those in the work
already mentioned, and which Masch had described
the first collection ; for it is fully proved that this
younger brother had never been in possession, or
had any control over the collection sold by the
elder to Dr. Hempel. Upon this single evidence,
and notwithstanding the testimony of three other
parties, who had been in the service of the three
Sponholzes as apprentices, and afterwards as jour-
neymen many years, who had never witnessed
any such practices ; notwithstanding many of the
one hundred and eighteen figures exhibited by
Gideon to Count Potocki (p. 165) bear names of
idols of undoubted Wendic origin, as Othin, Ru-
gewit, Ruzivia, Hela, &c, of which, in Masch's
book and figures, there are no examples to copy,
and which awkward fact Levezow can only meet
by the totally gratuitous supposition of suggestive
aid from two antiquaries in the same town ; not-
withstanding these difficulties, Levezow at once
throws overboard the whole collection shown by
Gideon Sponholz to Count Potocki, as spurious
(p. 165) ; and as he himself confesses that these

HIS OBJECTIONS DISCUSSED 289

objections cannot affect the sixty pieces described
by Masch, in which is the Satyr under notice, we
will, for the present, no further enter into the
question concerning this part of the assemblage.

The objections raised, however, to the first col-
lection, now come to be considered (p. 166).
With a great degree of candour, we have, in the
first instance, the following admission in their
favour: viz., That the entire soil of Mecklen-
burg is so pregnant with metallic relics of an-
tiquity, that a large discovery like that at Pril-
witz is not improbable. 2nd. His principal ob-
jection to the reported two caldrons found with
runes, such as, however, are admitted to be found
in other places, is, that though reported to have
been given by Palcke, their second possessor, to
aid in founding a set of bells for the church at New
Brandenburg, no notice of them or the donor, as
such, is taken in the church books of that city ;
for which, however, various satisfactory reasons
will immediately rise to the mind of the observer.
In his seventh paragraph (p. 171) he principally
objects to the remark, that about two hundred
weight of old iron had been found with the bronze
articles, which could afterwards be used up. He
thinks that iron must have, during the time it may
have lain in the earth, been so completely eaten
up by rust, as to have been altogether valueless;
but this every antiquarian knows is not the case,
except in particular circumstances. The fact that
the first clerical discoverer kept his good fortune
secret, he thinks might not have been improbable,
from its nature as treasure trove, and the claim*

o

290 AND CONTROVERTED

of the ground proprietor; but, from a circum-
stance stated in some MS. original documents of
Dr. Hempel and Canon Genzmer, that the entire
collection had been made a present of by Herr
Gamm, the landlord, to the incumbent, Pastor
Sponholz, at the time they were exhumed, he
thinks (p. 173) that considerable suspicion
attaches to the entirely reverse statement made
by Dr. Masch. Here he throughout speaks of a
tradition only of the discovery existing through
three generations, as if Masch (p. 4, note) had
not mentioned as a fact, that the wife of Pastor
Badresch, widow of Heroldt, a daughter of the
original discoverer, recollected to have known in
her youth that a large lot of worked metal (ai-
lerlei metal- werk) had been found in the par-
sonage garden. This fact Levezow, though he
gives the words (p. 146), passes entirely over, and
once or twice repeats his assertion, that the his-
tory of the discovery depends solely upon the tra-
ditionary testimony of three generations of parties
of the same family now dead. The entire inves-
tigation is not here gone into, as Levezow sig-
nifies at the conclusion (p. 206) that he meant to
continue his objections, by opposition to the Runic
characters on the figures ; but, unfortunately, I
believe death cut short his intentions, and I was
informed that his papers on the subject were for-
warded to Professor and Archivarius Lisch, the
very learned antiquary, and keeper of the Grand
Ducal Museum at Schwerin, for inspection and
arrangement; I therefore much lamerited to re-
ceive from this gentleman, at an interview during

FROM THE MRVQO NOBILIS. 291

the Germanisten Versammlung, in 1847 at Lii-
beck, the notice that he did not intend to pub-
lish the continuation. In addition, however, to
many objections to the technical ability and taste
in the casting of the figures, to the apparent
heterogeneous composition of their parts, their ar-
tistical value and style, which we may at present
pass over, the author of this paper particularly
condemns Masch's views on the patina, the aerugo
nobilis, in whose undeniable presence the clerical
describer views, as we have seen, the surest proof
of the authenticity of the articles. Agreeing
generally upon this patina test, Mr. Levezow
denies that it exists on the figures so indis-
putably as is assumed; yet he admits that
its finest -quality can only be supplied by time,
upon objects whose original surface was smooth
and polished (p. 184) ; whilst, at p.,185, he himself
gives a sufficient reason why these figures should
not have the finest kind of patina (and a slighter
or inferior degree is unhesitatingly conceded) , when
lie says: "On these idols and utensils is no trace of
the above-described, shining, fast, and noble rust
of antiquity to be discovered, because they are
wanting in one of the principal requisites, namely,
an original polished surface;* so that his only
objection is rather against the want of care or art

* The original words are : " Vonjenemkurz zuvorbeschrieb-
enen glanzenden, festen, edlen Roste des Alterthums ist
nun auf den Idolen und Gerathschaften des Prilwitzer
Fundes nichts zu entdecken weil ihnen darin die Hauptbe-
dingnng fehlt, nemlich die ursprunglich geglattete Ober-
flache."

292 HIS PREVIOUS OPINIONS

in casting them, than against the patina, which he
admits they were not in condition to receive.

Thus far the objections of Mr. Levezow, 23rd
and 24th January, 1834, after a nine years' in-
terval, from the date of his examination in 1825.
That his earliest and freshest impressions were
very different, I learn from the extract of a letter
to the son of the Superintendent Masch, head
incumbent of Schlagsdorf, dated 25th May, 1826,
which extract is contained in a pamphlet by the
grandson of this superintendent, the Rev. Gk M.
C. Masch, incumbent of Demmern, entitled,
" Die grossherzbglicfie Alterthumer und Munz
Sammlung in Neu Strelitz, 1842," which was kindly
given me by its author, when I had the pleasure
of making his acquaintance at the above meeting
at Lubeck. Of this extract the literal translation
is as follows. Levezow finds them genuine,

" after weighing all the external and internal reasons for
and against them; though here and there one or the other
piece may have become mixed with these Prilwitz idols, that
does not belong to them, and may even appear suspicious."

And also that in his literary relics, which were
transferred, to be used by the Society for Mecklen-
burg History and Antiquity, fourteen negative and
seven positive reasons end with this observation :

u All these unconstrained remarks could scarcely be drawn
from the productions of a modern cheat, towards the end of
the seventeenth century. They can find occasion only in
works of originality, which are the natural products of time
and place, and internal historical truth, or the organic results
of a civilisation springing from them ; and since all their
marks answer so fully to these conditions, it can be only an

DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE. 293

extravagant seeking after doubts, or a too keen criticism,
that would negative them or seek to reason them away ; and
they will not cease to he the principal supports of our deci-
sion for the authenticity of these monuments, until, in an his-
torical way, they are indisputably proved to he forgeries."*

In asking any friend or follower of Mr. Levezow
to reconcile such a discrepancy of opinion, it would
not be candid not to remark, that it was subsequent
to the date of the letter to Dr. Masch, when the
results of the investigations of the committee,
fixed, as already mentioned, by the grand ducal
authority, and the testimony of the goldsmith
Newman upon oath, that he had assisted Gideon
Sponholz in casting his collection of statues, and
punching the runes upon them, were known to
Herr Levezow. Still, however, this new circum-
stance ought to have given him pause, as it did
on the division of the idols drawn by Count
Potocki. It could not have any relation to those
which had never come under Gideon Sponholz's
control, and which had, in fact, been sold before
the most of the persons examined had entered
the service of any of the Sponholzes; a sale
which had been made by the elder brother, to Dr.
Hempel, contrary to the wishes of the younger,

* As this pamphlet is, most probably, in very few hands, I
will give the concluding words of the original : — " Und da
alle ihre Merkmale diesen Bedingungen so vollkommen
entsprechen, dass nur uhertriebe Zweifelsucht oder eine
spitzfindige Eritik sie ableugnen oder entgegengesetzt zu
deuten vermag, bo werden sie nicht aufhSren fur uns
Hauptentscheidungsgrunde fur die Aechtheit dieser Monu-
mente zu seyn so lange his auf historischem Wege ihre
TTnachtheit unbezweifelt erwiesen wird."

294 V. HAGENOW'S IN8CRIBED STONES.

who used often to upbraid his senior for it (Le-
vezow, p. 162). This first lot was not all af-
fected by this evidence, supposing it true and
unimpeachable, and his entire veering round in
opinion to the directly opposite point, requires
some reason to be shown that can affect the first
collection, in which the satyr under consideration
is found. Yet the contrary is the fact ; even after
nine years' consideration, he says of the first por-
tion of it, that, in his inquiries into the personal
relations and occupations of the first four pos-
sessors of these figures, nothing is to be found
which could justly raise a suspicion to view their
situations as equally doubtful or fraudulent as for
the second parcel; that Gideon Sponholz could
have exercised no influence upon them, never
having had them under his control.

In the same grand ducal collection are fourteen
small stones inscribed with very rude figures, and
some few difficult or imperfect runes. These have
been individually described, and pictorially exhi-
bited in their foil size, by P. v. Hagenow : " Be-
schreibung der auf der Gfrossh. Bibliofhek zu Neu
Strelitz befundlichen Runensteine" Loitz. 1826;
on which, Levezow in an earlier notice (C. M.
C. Masch's Leitfaden, p. 32) says of them : —

" In the lines and indentations of these stones no trace
of a modern chisel is perceptible; their entire inner surface
shows plainly that they were incised a very long time back,
and have been rounded by lapse of years and the action of
fluids, so that they appear like the entire other superficies of
the stone. Every judge of antiquity, or unprejudiced spec-
tator, cannot refuse his assent to their antiquity at the first
view. To dispute their genuineness would be to contradict all

DR. LEYSEB, LATEST OBJECTOR. 295

the convictions which a frequent investigation can possibly
give."

Levezow*s convictions may have subsequently
changed on these, as well as on the bronze arti-
cles ; but it must certainly lessen the value of his
-testimony either way, that he was so easily led to
give it, in the strongest terms, either confirma-
tory or negatively, upon the spur of the moment.
It is a corroborative fact, which he alsd states,
that in Norske Mindesmarker similar stones in-
scribed with runes are stated to have been found
in tumuli in Norway; and in Pommersche Prov.
Blatt.for 1830, p. 29, is also the account, "that
in an urn was found inclosed a stone, with an un-
decyphered inscription." At present we shall
proceed to examine the objections of another
writer, who has, perhaps, discussed these idols
latest that I have heard amongst his countrymen.
Under the name of " Die deutsche Gesellschaft"
a society for the investigation of German lan-
guage and antiquities, has some time back revived
an older union in Leipsig with a similar aim.
The report of its proceedings for 1844 was kindly
given me, when I had the pleasure of assisting at
some of its social and agreeable meetings in 1845,
by Dr. Ernst Gotthelf Gersdorf, principal libra-
rian of the Augusteum, in that city, and, I be-
lieve, president of the society. In it I found, at
p. 39, a posthumous publication by Dr. Herm.
Leyser (a deceased member) : " Ueber die Prill-
witzer Gotzenbilder" We are told in a preliminary
notice by the editor of the report, Dr. Espe: —
" The following paper on the well-known Prilwitz Idols

296 HIS MEMOIA, EDITED

was read by Dr. Leyser, in a public meeting of the Society,
on its anniversary in 1839, and was then intended for pub-
lication, which, however, was afterwards postponed, as the
writer proposed to enlarge it; an intention hindered by
his death. We must premise, on presenting to the public
this Essay in its original form, the remark, that its writer
by no means intended to claim for it a decisive judgment on
the genuineness of these figures, which has often been con-
tested, and only lately received partial recognition ; for he
felt, with his accustomed great diffidence, that many very
indispensable requisites for such purpose were wanting to
him, and amongst them a knowledge of the Slavonic lan-
guage. His intention was to give our Society an account of
their discovery, and by a description of their form, and by an
exposition of the grounds which have been advanced either
for or against their authenticity, the opportunity of forming
a preliminary judgment on a matter which he hoped might
very soon be taken up and investigated, most certainly more
deeply than had hitherto been the case. Should they be
proved spurious, then history would have established her
right ; on the contrary, could their genuineness be proved,
a great and valuable addition would then accrue to a know-
ledge of Slavonic mythology, with which the German had
also many points in common."

After this indeterminate view, as stated for Dr.
Leyser, it was not exactly in accordance that Dr.
Espe should give the positive decision which his
conclusion contains : —

"That it was impossible for the author to submit, in con*
elusion, the stones described by V. Hagenow to an exact in-
vestigation, is the more to be lamented, since thereby the
reasons which he brings to bear against the genuineness
of the Prillwitz Idols would have been considerably
strengthened."

It will not be necessary to repeat what is here
said concerning the discovery, which receives no
fresh light, or any facts different from what have

BY DR. ESPE, 297

been already related; nor is it necessary to notice
any remarks which are merely repetitions of ob-
servations of others. Of the figure, however,
which has called up these remarks, more particu-
larly, Dr. Leyser says, p. 46; u Besides these,
there is the figure of a Satyr (Waldschrets),
fig. 32 ; Slavonic, Berstuc, as its characters also
indicate; which has the true Slavonic stamp (mit
echt SlavischemCharakter), very remarkably" My
prescribed limits deny me, also, an abstract of
the Slavonic religion, concerning which Dr. Ley-
ser (pp. 46 to 53) gives some important facts,
and an arranged survey of numerous authorities.
This mythology is very important for a knowledge
of our own earliest history; and a Dictionary upon
the plan of Smith or Bich n s Mythological Lexicons
for Greece and Rome, is a great desideratum in
the cycle which these commenced, for an historical
survey of the earliest creeds and opinions of all
nations.

We can only at present remark, cursorily, on some
of the original objections which Dr. Leyser has
produced, and merely observe, that, though read
to the German Society in 1839, consequently four
years later than Levezow's essay was first brought
out, and three after its publication in the Transac-
tions of the Berlin Academy, the objections of the
latter are in no place mentioned, from which we
may presume them unknown ; this circumstance,
from the intimate and near connexion betwixt the
Prussian capital and the great book mart of the
Continent, is somewhat remarkable ; but the ob-
jections taken are principally levelled against the

o2

298 DISPUTES THE NAME PODAGA,

names and forms of the runes, which Levezow
did not touch; and this paper might, therefore,
almost be considered as his continuation, did we
not feel assured that Dr. Leyser had not seen
either the idols themselves or Levezow's essay.

At p. 54, the name of Vohda, which Masch be-
lieved might be another form of Woden, Dr.
Leyser does not entirely dispute, but remarks,
that then it must have been when the Slavonic
religion had degenerated, and received Germanic
deities. But German and Slavonic creeds will
probably be found, ere long, to have been di-
vided by a thinner screen than is now generally
admitted.

The name of the goddess Podaga, it is asserted,
has been clumsily forged, and that the real name
should have been Pogada. This is endeavoured
to be proved from Abraham Frenzelius' treatise de
Diis Soraborum (Hoffman, Script. Rer. Lusatica-
rum, torn. ii. p. 177), who says, the first denomi-
nation is not Polish, and is in that language
without meaning; and from Dlugloss,* a canon
of Cracow, (fl480), in his Hist. Polonue, who di-
rectly calls her Pogoda (vide Potocki, Chroniques
Memoires, &c. p. 15).

" Habebatur et apud illos pro Deo Temperies quern sua
lingua appellabant Pogoda quasi bona aurce largitor. Item
Deus vitce quem vocabant Zywie"

In reference, however, to both these authorities,
it should be remarked, in the first place, that
they are in direct opposition to one another; for
the female divinity of Frenzel is a male one in

ANSWERED BY METATHESIS. 299

Dlugloss. But, secondly, the metathesis of the
p and d is so easy and allowable, that it rather
confirms than weakens the authenticity of these
figures. The change of p into b or / is univer-
sally admitted by all grammarians, and into g we
may cite an example from Grimm's Deutsche
Mythologie, p. 14, who correctly deduces the
common German interjectional expression, potz-
tausend, from Gottstausend; and, no doubt, are
gage and payer intrinsically the same words.
More on such changes is found in Batlely's An-
tiq. Rutupienses (p. 21) : " Pro Triputieno le-
gendum esse Riputieno;" and he very truly adds:
" Ejus modi (durae atque immanis syllabarum
trajectionis) exemplis non carere," as every lan-
guage can witness; nor is it probable that with the
great knowledge of the ancient deities and mytho-
logy of the land, which is universally admitted,
and which must be predicted of every party sup-
posed to have actually formed or suggested the
figures and inscription, they would have not had
recourse to such common works as Frenzel's or
Dlugloss. The very want of agreement in such an
easy matter shows that the Slaves must have used
Podaga, or Pogada, in every-day life, indiscrimi-
nately; and, consequently, that it was perfectly
immaterial which variation of the name the old
Wendic priest impressed upon this figure of his
deity.*

* Perhaps a still stronger change of d into g. or vice versd,
Dr. Leyser might have found, if a Pomeranian or Holstein
native, by the identity of meaning betwixt the words Pogge
and Padde, both signifying, as stated in the preceding chap-

300 CURIOUS OBJECTION TO SIWA.

At p. 56, the objections against the goddess Siwa,
Sieva, or Sieba, on which I have added Dlugloss's
short notice in the extract above, (where the ver-
nacular form is Zywie), are rather curious. The
figure is judged spurious, because it agrees per-
fectly with the careful chronicler, Botho von
Braunschweig, whose Chronicum Picturatum, with
figures of all the Teutonic deities, is one of the
most curious works issuing from the press shortly
after the discovery of printing. Botho gives also,
in Piatt Deutsch, a full description of the entire
Teutonic Olympus. Leibnitz transferred it to
his Script. Rerum Guelficar., with very bad copies
of the original wood blocks of the deities, and the
entire omission of the curious ones of the shields
and pedigrees of the princes and their wives, as
well as of the imaginary views of the principal
cities, when their foundations were laying. Dr.
Leyser, as the ground of an inuendo objection,
here says, that Frenzelius, in his description of
Rhadegast, or Svantovit, has cited from Adam v.
Bremen a passage which cannot there be found, cor-
roborating Botho's description of Rhadegast; and
that the forger, finding, as he thought (but with-

ter, the frog or toad. Pogesanien, a province of heathen
Prussia, and Paderborn, the famous city in Westphalia, show
the extended range of this metathesis, and its frequency.
In the MarkscheForschungen, p. \50,Bagen 9 otBogen, is men-
tioned as identical with Baden. In the East, the use of Da-
goba for Pagoda, may originate from a cognate change ; and
perhaps the best derivation of the Saxon Dogge, is to be
sought in the uncertainty of the ancient nomenclature for
all objects of natural history, as a variety from Pogge, or its
nearest inflection.

SOME SMALL ARTICLES MAY BE MODERN. 301

out taking the trouble to search for Adam v.
Bremen's words), Botho corroborated in this in-
stance, the more readily was induced to copy the
same author's description of Sieba. I have care-
fully examined Frenzelius's work, from p. 70 to
77, which is dedicated to the description of " Suan-
tevitus nunc Radegastus," but cannot discover the
citation, or any mention from Adam, save p. 77;
" Radegastus cui Adamus Bremensis, p. 48, ipse-
que Helmold 1. c. principatum inter Deos Slavo-
rum maxime Redariorum concedunt." I have
before observed that Leyser's work was published
posthumously, so that we may charitably suppose
that, if a revision had been allowed him, he might
have corrected this mistake, and perhaps have en-
tirely altered his opinions.

Further objections next occur to smaller ar-
ticles ; as a bunch of grapes, the small model of a
sword, &c, which it is not denied appear modern,
and will not be defended; for, lying about, as we
see the collection did, for perhaps fifty years, in
the workshop of a goldsmith or metal-caster, such
pieces may have got mixed amongst the original
articles, without at all arraigning the genuineness
of the rest, which, by their internal form, and
many agreeing circumstances, offer many indis-
putable proofs of authenticity.

No difficulty is made, at p. 60, at the bronze
material of these objects; and at p. 61 it is ad-
mitted that, if they contain silver in the stated
large proportions, that would afford some proof of
their being genuine. He might have surely added
an indisputable one, for no one can for a moment
suppose that a poor pastor should have given him-

302 DB. LEYSER DISPUTES THE RUNES ;

self the trouble, and expended the necessary sums,
for a purpose, as the whole proceedings evince,
neither of profit nor honour to himself.

At p. 61 we arrive at the doctor's objections
to the Runic inscriptions, which are the more de-
sirable, as Levezow had been hindered by death
before he could finish this part of his inquiry.
As he here cannot avoid referring to Wilhelm
Grimm's valuable testimony to the authenticity
of these runes, and as his objections are restricted
to a couple of queries, which become unsupported
inuendoes, it will be desirable to copy the re-
markable passage of Grimm alluded to, from
Wiener Jahrbiicher, for 1828, vol. xliii. p. 31.
Speaking of Slavonic runes, after a general no-
tice of the discovery, &c. of these Rhetra idols,
embracing the facts already stated, and after
mentioning the principal objections that could be
made against them, though his remark on the
Satyr before us, "that it was modelled after an
antique Satyr, to which it certainly agreed in sig-
nification, as Berstuc, or WaUschratSy* may, in my
view of the subject, be taken rather as confirmatory
than the contrary — after this, I say, W. Grimm
goes on to give the following incontrovertible
proof of the truthfulness of the runes used on
these Prillwitz figures; a fact that must be deci-
sive; for if the characters are such as could have
been shown to a forger from no existing or known
alphabet, their presence on these runes can only
be accounted for by the fact, that they were in-
scribed when these lost and afterwards disco-
vered letters were currently in use: —

" On the other hand, my entire doubts (against the au-

ANSWERED FROM GRIMM, 303

thenticity of the figures) are of that nature, that a real
genuineness may well co-exist beside them ; and there must
be, in the forms and general character of these monuments,
something convincing, Dot obtainable from the view of the
engravings of them hitherto published ; for, as far as I know,
every one who has personally examined them, has been satis-
fied that they are no forgeries.

" But the letters that we find used here, should they show
no signs of fraud, if such were committed! Here deceit
is more difficult ; at all events, they deserve inquiry. These
are runes, but neither northern nor Anglo-Saxon, though
allied to both. But are they not merely borrowed, or de-
signedly altered ? That will depend upon a closer examina-
tion ; and I will, therefore, mention their most remarkable
and important peculiarities. The B, in all alphabets of that
pretty uniform type, whose connexion is now under consi-
deration, has in the figures a different form, in at least five
varieties, similar to one another, but still equally differing
from the usual B. This is the only variation in the sixteen old
runes ; the other differences are met with in the new runes,
which is certainly a weighty circumstance* for the genuine-
ness of these Prillwitz runes ; for chance it cannot be, and it
would be difficult, in designed fraud, to presuppose a know-
ledge of this difference. The E is not like the Anglo-Saxon ;
it is the mere Latin one, only placed backwards (&), but
has mostly the form ( f), which is also used for A (and this
is remarkable, and must have its reason in the language),
although this A has, at the same time, a form the most like
a Gothic (black letter) fl."

Some other letters are also adduced as peculiar,
but the above may be sufficient to prove the per-
fect conviction the learned Wilhelm Grimm had
on the validity of these runes, on a subject which
he had so intimately studied; and in an elabo-
rate Essay, to which he signed his name, Dr.
Leyser, p. 62, tries to deny the peculiarities which
Grimm had found in the new runes, F, G, P, and

304 AND THE GLAGOLTTHIC ALPHABET.

V or W, all but for the B, which passes muster;
but his reason is not at all convincing to others,
and I question if it really carried conviction to
himself. Dr. Leyser, however, lays more weight
on the later and more energetic declaration of
the better known of the brothers Grimm, Jacob
Ludwig, in a criticism on the Glagolitha Clozianus
of Baron Kopitar, librarian of the Imperial and
Royal Library at Vienna, contained in the Gotting.
gekhrte Anzeigen, 29th February, 1836, p. 323, ff.
(Dr. Leyser's text has, erroneously, 1837, which
the editor, Dr. Espe, might easily have corrected) ;
and Grimm's words are given, which, translated,
run as follows : —

" But I must come forward with a striking proof for the
antiquity of the glagolithic letters E and B. The latter
has the form of an angle or clamp (haken) which above
ends in a three -pronged fork, and differs entirely from
the common Latin-Gothic Runic, consequently also from
the Cyrillan B. But exactly the same remarkable variation
in these two letters, the E turning to the left, and the
tridental B is found on the Prilwitz idols, hitherto so
evil spoken of, as well as in the stones published by V.
Hagenow.* (See Wiener Jahrbiicher vol. xliii.; and Von

* I have hardly done justice to the subject, in not men-
tioning these stones with greater circumstantiality pre-
viously. They are fourteen in number, found in the neigh-
bouring plains round Prilwitz, and now in the Grand Ducal
Collection, with the bronze idols. They were first pub-
lished in the full size, and described by V. Hagenow (8vo.
1826, Loitz and Greifswald). Some of them were found
perfectly independent of any of the Sponholz family ; and
fig. 4 is an exact, but rude, copy of the bronze Puch on my
title-page. It is evident these metal and stone monuments
must stand or fall together.

CONFIRMED BY WORSAAE IN BRITAIN. 305

Hagenow's figures 8 and 11). These Wendic runes are
generally the same as the northern, but differ in single
letters, and in their greatest divergence they agree with the
Glagolitha ! What could confirm more the antiquity of the
Glagolithic character, as well as the impugned authenticity
of these North Slavonic idols 1 It surpasses all belief to give
a New Brandenburgh goldsmith credit for such a knowledge
of the Northern Prussian and Slavonic mythology, of the
northern runes and of the Glagolithic alphabet, or that he
could imitate them all, not clumsily, but with every needful
addition or subtraction. Supposing now the admission of
the authenticity of these figures, which is strengthened by
other reasons, it appears to follow from them, that even the
heathen Slaves used characters of which no remnants are to
be now found but in the Glagolithic alphabet.*"

This strong testimony of such an acknowledged
authority for ancient letters, art, and language,
Dr. Leyser endeavours to reason away by noting

* It is singular and pleasing, that whilst these pages are
passing through the press, a remarkable use of the inverted
51, as the character of B, should have turned up in many in-
stances in the Runic inscriptions of our own country. The
truth of the runes on the Prilwitz idols is scarcely capable
of greater or more convincing proof, than the meeting their
unknown and unobserved peculiarities at the utmost limits
to which the Runic alphabets extend ; from the Illyric fron-
tier in the east to the Isle of Man in the west, whilst Rethra
may be stated as the centre. The fact I allude to is found
in the learned Dane Worsaae's " Danes and Norwegians in
England" which for the present I copy from the Gentle-
man's Magazine for March, 1852. Worsaae is speaking of
the Runic inscriptions so frequent in that island, and cer-
tainly older than its conquest, in 1077, by Godred, and con-
tinues : —

"I have myself examined and compared them in two
places (at Edinburgh, in the Museum of Scottish Antiqua-
ries ; and at Canons Ashby, the seat of Sir Henry Dryden),

306 ADMISSIONS OF GREAT A&T AND KNOWLEDGE.

the variations as unimportant, which Grimm
thought so convincing, but which the great length
at which I have stated the controversy hinders me
from adducing ; and also because, driven at last
partially to admit their reality, he .continues,
p. 64, after having taken for granted that he has
proved the falsity of some of Mason's figures from
their very modern appearance (of Radegast,Sieva,
of the Fodaga or Pogada, whether masculine or
feminine, from internal reasons,) he continues: —

" Are now these as well as the remaining figures, which
are distinguished neither by antiquity of form, nor the
cerugo nobilis which Masch made so much of, to enjoy a pre-
ference before those proved spurious, or those suspected as
such, to be considered genuine from the accidental coinci-
dence of two letters, which may even be controverted, and
notwithstanding all the reasons which I have adduced
against their genuineness ?"

And in his" conclusion he admits the great de-
gree of knowledge, both of Slavonic antiquities,
mythology, and characters, that must have been
possessed by the forger, which is almost reducing
his argument against himself, ad absurdum: —

" All these circumstances together determine me to con-
sider the Prilwitz idols as not the fabrication of an indi-
vidual, or of a simple goldsmith, but as the production of a
party well versed in Slavonic antiquities, as well as very
cautious, and who only used the skill of the goldsmith for
the execution of his forgeries."

and I have since had an opportunity of examining all of
them, in conjunction with the learned Norwegian Professor,
R. A. Munch, to whom I am indebted for several very im-
portant hints relative to their correct interpretation; and
amongst these, that the rune d, which in most inscriptions
signifies 0, must be read as B."

WHO COULD HAVE BEEN THE FORGER? 307

The reader has now the two opinions in con-
trast, of Wilhelm Grimm, confirmed emphatically
by his learned brother Jacob Ludwig, as opposed
to that of Dr. Leyser, whose work, as I have said,
was posthumous and long delayed — a circumstance
which may induce us to believe that had he lived
to superintend the publication, his condemnatory
judgment would have been materially softened,
perhaps totally reversed, particularly if he had
previously enjoyed the opportunity of a personal
examination, which, according to Grimm's testi-
mony, invariably resulted in the conviction of the
examiner as to the perfect genuineness and truth-
fulness of the monuments. Before leaving, how-
ever, this objection, as the latest, we cannot help
remarking upon the unfairness of his insinuations
above stated. He ought to have pointed out the
party he alludes to, to have fixed the probability
of forgery upon some time or place, upon some
spot or person, on whom the inculpation ought to
rest. To which of the possessors, as a scholar,
and well-versed in Slavonic antiquities, could he
point? Surely to none other than the Rev, T. S.
Sponholz, their discoverer and first possessor;
for if, as his daughter declared, a large store of
metal articles (allerlei metalwerk) was found at
the close of the seventeenth century, the forgeries
can only be laid to his charge, or some working
goldsmith, as accomplice, but surely not without
a motive, and with what ? The mixture of the
precious metals is various, but considerable, in all
the figures, and from the trial by the touchstone
resulted 2, 3, 4, and even 10, in 16 parts (5, 6, 8,

308 AS NO MOTIVES ARE SHOWN.

and 20 lothiges silber) of silver, so that the
intrinsic metallic value of some of the pieces is
considerable. The largest, the Schuaixtix, if the
whole statue were of a uniform mixture, would
alone have a bullion value of 70 rix thaler, or ten
guineas, and another not specified 26 rix thaler,
or about three guineas. Now, how could a simple
pastor in an obscure Mecklenburg village have
mustered funds, even if he had so determined, to
commit a forgery thus costly ? And if he had, we
have a right to suppose that it must have been
with some prospect of profit or fame for this expen-
diture. We have seen, however, that he took no
steps to make the figures available for either.
They remained unnoticed till after his death, and
they were sold by his widow to Mr. Palcke for,
most probably, a very trifling amount, as the using
up part as mere bell-metal sufficiently proves, as
well as the intractability of all the rest for the
purposes of melting. It is, I think, impossible
to suppose a forgery without a motive; and all the
evidence given negatives those which act most
commonly upon mankind — fame or profit. We
must, from the testimony adduced, carry the
original forgery, if we suppose it, sixty or seventy
years back from the date of the period when the
figures first attracted attention, when all who
might have benefited by the cheat were long
called to their fathers, and only one witness sur-
vived who could testify to having known of the
discovery at the time it took place, but who had
no interest then of any kind in the collection, and
may be considered, therefore, perfectly unpreju-

douce's account of the discovery. 309

diced and impartial. This is a fact which Dr.
Leyser has overlooked, but which appears the
most important of any in the chain of evidence
as to their being found by a party on whom no
suspicion of forgery could rest.

It is singular, and a proof of the little inter-
course on mutually interesting subjects of an-
tiquity betwixt the Continent and Great Britain,
that, except the slight notice concerning them, at
p. 274, from the Gentleman 9 s Magazine, we should
have only another mention made of them in Eng-
land, that I know of, but by no less a person than
the industrious and learned Douce, who seems to
have been well acquainted with the facts, and
thought the figures genuine. In the Archaeologia,
vol. xxi., for 1827, p. 36, is a dissertation on a
runic jasper ring, belonging to George Cumber-
land, Esq., by Francis Douce, of which the follow-
ing is an extract : —

" In this general sketch of the nature and extent of the
runic letters, it would be an omission of some consequence
not to notice the use of them that was made in a language
wholly different from the Gothic or Scandinavian. During
the middle ages, and perhaps in an earlier period, the coun-
tries that stretch along the southern coasts of the Baltic
were inhabited by the Veneti, the Obotriti, and other people,
who, using the Slavonian language, appear to have adopted
the runic character. Curious as well as remarkable evidence
of this circumstance occurred about a century since, (1827),
when a large collection of idols and other articles were
found at a small distance from the ground, at a village near
Prilwitz, and a similar one at New Brandenburg. Some of
these fell into the hands of Andreas Gottlieb Masch, a
preacher in ordinary and superintendent at New Strelitz,
who published an account of them in 1771, with several

310 INSCRIPTIONS ELSEWHERE ON

engravings, and afterwards caused them to be deposited in
the cathedral at Ratzeburg. Many of these idols were like-
wise described by Count Potocki, in his Voyage dans le Basse
Saxe pour la Recherche des Antiquites Slaves, <fcc., Ham-
burg, 1795,* 4to. From these interesting works it appears
that the above idols had been originally placed in the temple
of Radegast, at Rhetra, which was entirely destroyed in the
time of Oharlemagne.t That the Scandinavian worship had
in part been adopted by this people, the name of Woden, or
Odin, occurring on some flat pieces of metal supposed to
have been votive tablets, but, what is more probable, to have
been used for magical purposes, proves ; but all of them
have inscriptions in Runic characters. It is remarkable that
Herman, a monk of St. Gall, who wrote a chronicle about
the year 1060, should have mentioned that the German idols,
in the time of Charlemagne, were inscribed with Greek
characters, which it is easy to see he has confounded with
Runes."

The latter remark might also be applied to the
use of Greek characters, which Caesar attributes
(lib. i., cap. 21) to the Helvetic and (lib. vi., cap.
13) to the Germanic Druids. The name Vohda
is found, not only, as Douce remarks, on a flat
piece, " which more correct opinions have stamped
like other similar ones, as offertory dishes/' but
on one of the largest and most remarkable figures,
(vide Masch, § 86, fig. 4) ; and as to the inscrip-
tions generally on articles of use or worship, we

* It may be observed that v. Hagenow states that this
work of Count Potocki has become extremely scarce. A
copy is in the British Museum library.

t But the temple, according to Masch, was restored; and
it was at its subsequent and final demolition, under Henry
the Lion (tll92), according to the theory of this writer,
that the idols were hidden, and remained, therefore, about
five hundred years under the safeguard of mother earth.

IMPLEMENTS AND SWORDS. 311

find metal caldrons inscribed in Spain (Velasquez
and Erro on the alphabets of "las Lettras des-
conocidas"), and for instruments, vide Perings-
Hold's Life of Theoderic, where the full name of
that monarch is found in Runic characters on a
knife ; and in the daily papers, 20th to 23d July,
1846, was a paragraph stating that in cutting a
railroad from Canterbury a sword had been found
with a Runic inscription on the blade, which it
was intended to exhibit to the Archaeological
Association. The quantity of objects finds its
parallel also in Britain. In the valuable work by
Mr. D.Wilson, Prehistoric Annals, p. 243, mention
is made of the discovery of a bronze caldron con-
taining thirteen litui or trumpets, the largest hav-
ing their seams rivetted, thirty-one bronze celts,
twenty-nine spear heads, and three gouges, which,
upon a calculation, could hardly weigh less than
an hundred pounds — sufficiently heavy, in my
opinion, to overthrow the opinion of the learned
writer, that this was the last stock-in-trade or
wallet of a travelling pedlar.

Before we quit this part of the subject, it may
be as well to complete the literature on these
idols beyond what has been already mentioned,
which, together, will fully justify my translation
of a remark made by Levezow, in my motto to
this chapter, of the immense interest and discus-
sion these relics have occasioned : —

1. Johann Thunman. Professor zu Halle Untersuchung
liber die alte Geschichte emiger nSrdlichen Ydlker. Berlin,
1772, 8vo.

2. Samuel Buchholz. Rhetra und dessen GStzenbilder.
Schreiben eines Markers an einen Mecklenburger fiber die in

312 LITERATURE OF THE DISPUTE.

Prilwitz gefundenen Wendischen Alterthiimer. Butzow
und Wismar, 1773, 4to.

3. The monthly publication of and for Mecklenburg
(3fonaths8chrift von und fur Mecklenburg), 4to., contains
the following papers : —

a. Gonjecturen iiber eine Stelle des Helmold das Pan-
theon zu Rhetra betrefFend von e. (Hane zu Woostan)

s. 735, 53, Jahrgang ii. 8. Stiick, 1789 und 827, 43. Fort-
setzung, s. 9. 1789. Beschluss s. 1031-1043. 11 Stuck, 1789.

b. Beitrag zur Geschichte der Wenden Stadt Rhetra von
Masch (answer to the foregoing). Ibid, s. 1103-1111, 12
Stuck, 1789.

c. Hane Errinnerung gegen Herrn Superintendenten
Masch, <fcc. Ibid, s. 481, 89, q. Jahrgang 4 Stiick, 1791.
(Hane contends that Rhetra was situated on the Miiritz
lake.)

d. Ein Beitrag zur alteren Geschichte Mecklenburgs
besonders uber the Lage von Rhetra. Ibid. Jahrgang
iii. s. 99, ff., und s. 225 ff. (The writer takes Teterow to be
the ancient Rhetra ; but all admit the authenticity of the
idols and other objects described by Masch.)

4. Professor Ruehs in Greifswald iiber Mecklenburg
Strelitz besonders iiber the Herzcgl. Sammlung Slavischer
Alterthiimer zu Prilwitz, in the sixth part of "Neuer Teutacher
Merhir" 1805, s. 146. This was the first author who raised
any doubts as to the authenticity of the objects.

5. Johann Dobrowbky, in the second part of the Slavonkz,
Prague, 1815, 8vo., p. 174-175, because some of the pieces
not above suspicion, would not give an opinion.

6. F. J. Mone, Geschichte des Heidenthums im Nordl.
Europa. Leips. and Darmstadt, 1822, 8vo., i. Theil s. 172.,
considers them proved genuine beyond doubt or question.

7. Fiorillo, in : Eleinen Schriften artistischen Inhalts.
GSttingen, 8vo., 1806, ii. Band iii., Abschnitt iiber die Sla-
vischen Alterthiimer, is of the same opinion.

8. Yon Rumohr : Sammlung fur Eunst and Historie, I.
Band, 1816, considers them as proved perfectly genuine, and
founds upon them his investigation into the religious and
artistic civilization of the eastern Slaves.

9. In geman, in Danish : Grundtrak, til en Nord Slavisk og

CONTINUED. 313

Vendisk Gudelare: Kiob., 1824, (translated by Giesebrecht
into German : neue Jahrbiicher fur Pommersche Geschichte,
vol. iv., p. 119, ff.), speaks strongly in favour of their authen-
ticity.

10. Abndt, M. F., may be cited as a supporter, from the
engravings which he published under the title " Grossher-
zogl, Strel. Georgium, but without text, 1 sheet 4to., Minden,
1820. He obtained one of the inscribed stones, which he
subsequently deposited in the Paris Museum.

11. Liebusch Scythica, oder die Berg Religion und der
spatere Fetischmus. Gamenz, 1833.

12. Kanngiessbb, Bekehrungs Geschichte der Pommernt,
Greifswald, 1824,

13. Peeuskee, Blicke in die Vaterlandische Vorzeit, 2
vols. gr. 8vo., Leips., 1841, -vol. i., p. 203, admits the authen-
ticity.

14. Sappaeiks, Slavische Alterthumer iibersetzt von
Austerfield.

15. Lisch, Archivarius and keeper of the grand ducal
cabinet at Schwerin.

16. Giesebeecht, Wendische Geschichte von 780-1181,
3 vols., Berlin, 1843.

17. Baethold, Geschichte von Rligen and Pommern, 2
vols. 8vo., Hamb. 1839.

Of the Nos. 14, 15, 16, it may be observed,
that they decidedly advocate the opinions of for-
gery stated by Levezow; but of Barthold, that
he trims so, vol. ii., p. 538, compared with p. 540,
that in his indefinite phrases and expressions it is
difficult to make out to which side he inclines.

18. Meinhold, whose critical knowledge of the antiquities
of the country so completely deceived all the literati of Ger-
many, in his clever forgery of the " Amber Witch," wrote a
treatise in defence of the integrity of the idols, but I have
not been able to obtain a perusal of it.

19. Schmidt, Zeitschrift fur Geschichts-wissenschaft,
Band ii., s. 168, with a Vindication of the Genuineness of the

P

314 AND OF VON LEDEBUR.

Prilwitz Idols, by Finn Magnusen (Runamo og Runerme), p.
236-245.

The two following works contain the articles
of most of the others, with numerous copies of
Masch's engravings, in alphabetical order : —

Vollmbe's Vollstandiges Wtfrterbuch der Mythologie,
8vo., Stuttgart, 1836.

Wagneb (S. C), Handbuch der vorzuglichsten in Deutsch-
land entdeckten Alterthumer aus Heidnischer Zeit : besch-
rieben und versinnlicbt durch 1390 lithographirte Abbild-
ungen, 8vo., Weimar, 1842.

It will be seen how much the affirmative judg-
ments weigh in number over those condemnatory;
and I should only refer it to the modesty of the
present director of the Royal Museum of Berlin,
Von Ledebur, that in a resumi given by him on
the literature of these Rhetra idols, he should not
state, as he did to me personally, that he con-
sidered their forgery as by no means proved. I
look upon this decision from such a man, in the
present state of public opinion concerning them
in Germany, as tantamount to an admission in
their favour.

Thus far on the figures and their inscribed
characters generally, and finally on the figure
which I have selected from them more especially,
which I here repeat, and shall now describe more
particularly from Masch's work, § 214, though
the description does not in all respects seem to
tally with the engraving (see p. 316) : —

" The figure is two and a half inches high, and weighs
four and a half loth (about two and a quarter English
ounces.) The head is violently stretched forward, and has

THE WENDIC SATYR, 815

a pointed snout, resembling a dog. (?) The body is that of
a naked man, in a bent position. The knees are also bent,
and the entire figure is in the posture of carrying a burthen^
as on the nape of the neck may be seen (the remnants of) a
little pack (Packlein), which the satyr bore. One foot more
bent, and therefore shorter than the other, is like a horse's
hoof ; the other is like the foot of a man. Both arms are
broken off. Notwithstanding the smallness of the figure, it
is wrought with great skill and beauty, and is inscribed with
many Runic characters, some of which are difficult to
decipher. On the small pack is Zu ; below the right arm,
on the breast, I ; across the back to the bend of the knee,
BEE8TUCK ; on the left side of the back, Ceiwb ; beneath,
the left arm to the bend of the knee, Veidelbot ; beneath
the flat foot, S ; and beneath the left one, U.

As this figure appears to me to contain inter-
nal evidence of truthfulness, and offers proofs of
which all the expositors of these figures had no
conception, and which, therefore, would be con-
firmatory not only of what I have hitherto written,
but of the authenticity of the rest of the collec-
tion, as far, at least, as to the first part described
by Superintendent Masch, a more detailed con-
sideration may be allowed me. We have already
mentioned (p. 297) that Leyser admitted the
agreement of this satyr in attributes and form
with that of a Wendic Berstuck or Waldschrat ;
and Wilhelm Grimm, in the Wiener Jahr-Bucher,
before cited, says, p. 32, this figure, though
agreeing in character with the classic satyrs, is
not a slavish copy. I have before hinted the con-
jecture that, from the many concurring points in
the classic and northern mythologies, a very
probable derivation of the Roman name of satyr,
which neither themselves nor their latest elucida •

316

AS VEIDLEBOT AND KRIVE.

tors have satisfactorily solved, might readily be
derived from the Asa-Tyr of the Edda, as a satyr ;
so that an agreement in general form must be a
necessary feature, and any divergence would have
been suspicious. The Veidelbot is but # variation
of the comparatively modern terms JVaidlerin and

Waidelbot [vide p. 113), and VaUin Supplit (p.
122) of which no doubt Tacitus' Velleda was a
Roman corruption. The name Crtve would require
a longer deduction. That such was the title of
the high priests of the Wendic nation, the evidence
is abundant, and convincing. The following may
at present suffice. Hartknock (Altes und Neues

MEANING OF LATTER TERM, 317

Preussen) cites a verse from the rhyming chronicle
of Jaroschin, one of the oldest historians of the
Teutonic order : —

" Der oberste Ewarte,
Nach heidnischer arte,
Krive was genannt sin name."

Imitated in English doggerel like the original : —

" Of Ewarte the chieftain,
In manner of th' heathen,
Krive was called by name."

I cannot at present stop to inquire whether this
pontiff may not have been found in Britain;
whether the name which Bede attributes to the
high priest of Edwin, king of Northumberland,
whose conversion the historian relates so graphi-
cally, but, after a period of a century and a half
from the date of the event on which he writes,
" Coifi" may not have been an error of his own, or
of his early transcribers. This name has always
been a great puzzle to our historians and Anglo-
Saxon scholars. J. M. Kemble tried to solve it
in a paper " On the Names, Surnames, and Nick-
names of the Anglo-Saxons" read before the annual
meeting of the Archaeological Society, at Win-
chester, in September, 1846; but I think all who
have read it will admit that it is unsatisfactory
and unconvincing, particularly in this name of
Coifi. Yet, upon the supposition that Bede either
heard or read, or was copied incorrectly, in a
single letter — in an o for an r — we could bring
this priest into exact conformity with the Wendic
holy dignitary. We have too many indications of

318 AND OF BERSTUCCAS.

the presence of Veneti in Britain, (the origin and
meaning of the name, if space would permit them
to be here gone into, would sufficiently account
for our acceptance of them), not to allow of the
probability of the title in Britain, and the coinci-
dence would be mutually confirmatory (vide post,
p. 326).

The next name is Berstuccas, in perfect accord-
ance, according to our previous explanation, with
his bearing a burthen or pack upon his shoulders
according to Masch, though barely perceptible
in Wogen's drawing. It will be scarcely, I trust,
necessary to repeat the verbal conformities already
shown in the name Berstuccas with bearer of sticks ;
and with the Latin Styx; with kid; and as faggot
the synonym of sticks, producing, again, a graphic
identity with the Roman Aselli, as bearers of kids,
which the Christian artists changed into a lamb
for the Bonus Pastor of the catacombs and their
altars, and later hierologists converted into a
sainted Unuphrius, from Onager, the wild ass, and
fero y to carry. The name is lost in our traditions,
but the reality remains in our pack-bearers and
pedlars at Lambeth, Swaflfham, &c. Throughout,
the connection seems so strong and unbroken,
that as we can follow it up from the present time
to the profoundest depths of classic and northern
myths, we need not doubt either the truth of
these legends, or the genuineness of the figures
which bear them. These Aselli are taken literally
into the Edda, and the names of the buckets and
the pole or yoke, and the well, specially adduced
with a circumstantiality that northern poems so

THE INSCBIPTION ON ITS HOOF. 319

much delight in (vide p. 201) .* How inseparably
the yoke or pole (German, tracht, rpayoo) was con-
nected with the term asellus, may be further ob-
served in the black streak which nature invaria-
bly gives the animal, from the neck down both
shoulders, as an indelible and inborn yoke: and it
is further proved, since the haddock, from similar
marks on either shoulder, which superstition calls
the marks of the thumb and finger of St. Peter,
is also called, on the authority of Mr. Yarrel,
Asella, or the Ass fish : Assis, by which the Ro-
mans designated a beam, or balk, Caprificus, as
the modern Danes by As, remains for future
consideration.

It appears to me, also, a circumstance strongly
agreeing with the practice of various ages and
countries, that the hoofs or feet of this figure
are inscribed. Connected with the superstitions
of the horse shoes, inscriptions beneath the horse's

* As regards this Bucket and its presence borne by the
Roman Victimarius in their sacrifices (vide p. 245), the
utensil borne by the mythic priests in the recently imported
Nineveh sculptures is usually called a basket, though, as far
as regards its appearance, it may with equal truth be called
a bucket : however, as the " mystica vannus Jaechi" would
even accord with a basket, it is evidently immaterial by
either of which names both are designated; but it is
curious, that in a figure found under a mound of earth near
Alneberry, now Nether Hall, in Cumberland, the exactly
same utensil is found held in the left hand, whilst a very
prominent Key in its right one, incontrovertibly stamps it
as a Janus ; and as this deity will in a future chapter be
identified with Thor, we have in this series of images an
unbroken chain of symbolism and identity of divinities,
from the Tigris to the Tweed, from the Zenda- Vesta of Zo-
roaster to the Sagas and the Eddas.

320 SIMILAR MAGICAL ONES AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

hoofs have always something mythical. A very
prominent instance of the mystic power ascribed
to the inscription beneath a horse's foot is found
in Codinus' description of the curiosities of Con-
stantinople, under the title De Originibus Con-
stantinopolitanis, edidit P. Lambecius, Par., fol.,
1655, in the Latin translation of the edition : —

" In medio ejusdem are» (Tauri Palatii) statuam eques-
trem magna column© sustinent quam alii JesuNavae alii
Bellerophontis esse dicunt. AUata fuit ex magna Antiochia.
Caeterum basis lapidea illius statuae habet historias rerum
novissumarum quae urbi accident cum a Russis expugnabitur.
Item parvum illud Signum aereum virile quod ad pedes
antedictae equestris statuse vinctum et genuflexum visitor
eadem cnntinet. Preterea quoque pes levies equi, quod in eo
inscriptum est, prassignificat."

This latter part is somewhat obscure; but in
his note, p. 65, Lambecius supposes, from the
reading of MSS. in the Vatican, it may have
originally signified: —

" Etiam equi pes laevus anterior, cui sigillum aareum virile
vinctum et genuflexum inclusum, praesignificat quae in eo
inscripta sunt : nempe respicit Codinus ad illud quod refert
Nicetas Ohoniates in anteriori sinistra ungula illius equi
latuisse imagunculam consecratam viri clavo transfixi et
plumbo undique cincti quae ad conservationem urbis et pro-
hibendas barbarorum incursiories ibi inclusa erat."

And he continues: —

<: Tide ipsum Nicetam circa finem Annalium ubi agit de
Henrico Balduini fratre. Sed libitum quoque est ex paulo
ante citato Fragmento Vaticano hactenus, ni fallor, inedito,
aliquot ejusdem Authoris verba ascribere quibus earn rem
declarant."

From p. 174 of the same work we learn from this
passage of Nicetas, that the Latin Crusaders, who

HOOPS CUSTOMAEY FOB, FOUNDERS* NAMES. 321

so unjustifiably attacked and stormed Constan-
tinople, immediately overthrew these statues;
their virtue was gone : —

" Latinos postquam Oonstantinopolin expugnaverunt im-
primis celebres istas Statuas evertisse."

Customs in a trade are frequently continued,
even when their intention has changed, or their
purpose become obsolete; thus, in an equestrian
statue of Charles II., in the quadrangle of Wind-
sor Castle, we have an inscription on the hoof or
horse-shoe of the animal; but as it contains merely
the name of the founder, Josias Ibach, of Stade,
in the duchy of Bremen (" Fudit Josias Ibach,
Stada, Bremensis"), we may thence judge that
the practice had dwindled to a mere certificate of
origin, though ancient usage and prescription had
dictated the most appropriate spot. Are we to
ascribe to this category of superstition the popular
northern names for the herb tussilago (English
coltsfoot), to which the ancients attributed such
great medicinal powers (vide Plin. Nat. xxvi. 6,
who thinks it was produced without blossom,
stalk, or seed), which are mostly taken from the
horse's hoof; Latin: Ungula Equi, Pes Asini;
German: Hufflatig, Ross Huf, Esel's Huf. Herba
St. Quirini, der Sohn vor dem Vater (the son before
the father); also, French : Ungula Caballina, Pata
equina, and also Calliomarchus, which word the
note in Le Maire's edition, to the above passage,
justly observes, is of the same significance: —

" Unde et intelliges veteribus Gallis Calliomarchum idem
valuisse atque equinam ungulam. March certe veteribus

322 THE SIGNIFICANCE OP THE LETTERS,

Gallis hodieque Britonibus Armoricis equam sonat quod et
Pausanias testatur in Phocicis." (Lib. x. p. 645.)*

It is true that we have for our Satyr only a
single letter under each foot — under the right
one S, and under the left one U. It is, however,
a question whether, as all the figures are much
injured by the fire which is supposed to have de-
stroyed the temple in which they were placed,
these inscriptions may not have been more com-
plete than now; or, if I may hazard a conjecture,
both may have to be read combinedly, as Su, or

* I may be allowed, as corroborative of my assertion of
the similarity of all languages, " in the common relations of
life, the natural affinities of tools of agriculture and instru-
ments of commerce; animals, localities, and even proper
names" (vide p. 7), as proofs of a long oral identity, to adduce
some other examples of the use of the word March for Horse,
and its feminine Moere, or Mare, beyond those in the text for
France, Britany, and ancient Greece. In the Niebelung's
Lied, its use for Horse is frequent ; v. 149 & 854 : —

" Si liefen da si funden gesatelt manech March
In Hofe Sigemundes, der buhurt, wart so starch.

" Die siege Liudegeres vvaren al-so starch
Daz Sivride under soetele striichte daz March. 11

And of the feminine, more, v. 3082 : —

" Gere der degen
Er vvart vvil wol enpfangen ; do erbeitzen si ze-tal
Von Rossen unt von mSren fur den Guntheres sal."

And in almost a totally different language, the Piatt
Deutsch, the name is continued, at least in the feminine,
to the present day ; as, amongst others, in the fine old Epic,
" Be olde Beynihe Voss" book ii. cap. 6, where Reynard
sends the credulous Isegrim to read the price at which a
mare would sell her foal, written beneath her hoof : : —

AS SUPAN. 323

Ztj,* the first syllable of the name of the well-
known high title of Zu-pan; the last syllable
being supplied by the figure itself, as a rebus for
Pan; which would give another strong connect-
ing link with the classical Satyr, in this well-
known synonym, both verbal and graphic; for
strange as it may appear to those who know
nothing of Slavonic rites or language, this so
common Greek word is found in the dialects of
that wide-spread people, in a signification as
Lord, which would well correspond with that
which it obtained amongst the Hellenic tribes, as
a divinity. This deity was to the earliest colonists
of Greece to nav, the Universal, the Lord of all;
and to the present day Pan is the very general

" Ick sprack : wille gy ethen sath,
Die Meere secht, unde entbiith yuw dat
Bat gelt stett under erem vote geschreuen."

I need not point out this inscription beneath the hoof as
Corroboration, or weak echo, of the olden opinions on
writings in this position. But the term March has been
transferred from the German language, with the high office
as Marshall, to our Court and Ceremonies. Marstall, in that
language, is equivalent to our Mews ; and the Roman dig-
nity, Magister Equitum, second only to the dictatorship, and
existing but so long as that occasional honour was conferred,
seems to have been but a Latin periphrasis of the Greek
word. Whatever etymologists may tell us, our English
March; French, Marcher; German, Marschieren— come from
the times when cavalry alone composed our armies, and
horses, therefore, only could be truly said to march.

* The union of the two letters on each foot into a syllable,
is corroborated by the appearance of the same zu on the
shoulder, where Masch supposes the pack that the figure
carried has been torn away.

324 OR WENDIC NOBLES.

designation of the lords or nobles of Poland, &c.
The following is a Polish sentence, rather deri-
sive certainly of the degradation into which no-
bility has sunk, by admission of all the sons of
nobles into the class of Pans which, earlier, was
necessarily more select: "Japan i ty pan a Ho
z nas bedzie smniepart" — " I am noble, and thou
art noble, but who is to be the swineherd?" Su-
pan, perhaps the exact Greek to nav, is the most
ancient denomination, and was already known to
Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Adm. imp. ix.
c. 29) :—

" Principes vero h® gentes non habent prater Zupanos
senes, quemadmodum etiam reliqui Zlavborum populi."

And William of Tyre (xx. 4) says that the office
of Zupans was general amongst the Slavonians,
and signified, more particularly, seniores, our
Anglo-Saxon ealdormen, modern aldermen. The
Ungarian form is Ispan, whence the Germans call
these territorial divisions Gespanschaften (Comi-
tatus, in the Latin of the middle ages) . Doubt-
less, too, the title of supremacy in Croatia, of
Ban, with which the English public has of late
years been so familiar, coupled with the name of
the famous Jellachich, is exactly the same word ;
it evinces the wide spread of the denomination, and
its latest existence. Should any doubt arise as to
its early prevalence in Poland, from the silence of
the earliest Polish historians, Gallus, Kadlubeck,
Boguph, &c, (having been superseded by the word
Starost) yet we find it even there, in documents
of the fourteenth century; and what is of more

bede's eabl, puck. 325

importance to the present inquiry, most undoubt-
edly in use in the countries betwixt the Elbe and
Oder; and it does appear to me, therefore, as we
find on this figure the names of other dignitaries,
the two letters under its hoofs are to be supplied,
as I have stated, with the wanting syllable from
the rebus or name of the figure, to which the
mythic value of their situations adds the corrobo-
ration, that it was applied to the highest civil
dignity, and required some difficulty to be dis-
covered. It might, at the early period of its
formation, have been used as a secret method of
designating the Universal Lord, and a barrier to
the too common use or profanation of his name.
Perhaps as Su-pan was the title or denomination
of the Polish nobility, our early Puchs may have
served the same office for the Anglo-Saxons. In
Bede's Ecclesiastical History, cap. iv. (Giles's
translation, in Bohn's Antiq. Series, p. 240), an
abbot of the monastery of St. John of Beverley,
states the following miracle of his bishop and
patron saint: —

" Not very far from our monastery (at South Burton) was
the house of one Puck, an Earl, whose wife had languished
nearly forty days under a very acute disease, insomuch, that
for three weeks she could not be carried out of the room
where she lay."

If we do not choose to admit here Puch as the
name of the dignity, but rather of the person, it
may be added to the list of names derived from our
deity, as the earliest we know of (vide p. 152, ff.)
In the same early author (Hist. I. c. 13), we find
the name of bishop Pechthelin; and Ibid. cap. 10,

326 TRACES OP ITS SANCTITY.

the name of the monastery, now Finchale, near
Durham, then called Pegnalech. But the whole
of the district round this celebrated Fane of St.
John is still redolent of ancient heathenesse:*
Pocklington is a place of high antiquity in the
neighbourhood; and Sancton, Weighton, or Wit-
ton, with various combinations of Ella, or Hella
(Heilig, Holy), as North, South, and West Ella,
Elleker, two Elloughtons, another Wigton, near
Hull, all point at ancient sanctity under dif-
ferent rites and various creeds, and are, more-
over, grouped along the Hull, a river, where the
same quality of holy is disguised in only a slight
inflection of the spelling; and which might have
been the reason why the favourite residence of
the Pagan Northumbrian kings was fixed near
its source ; this the tumuli and the opened grave
of one of them named Alfred, at Little Driffield,
with Pockthorpe but a few miles distant, suf-
ficiently prove. It was, no doubt, the locality,
favoured by the presence of a long line of ancestry,
of Edwin, the first Christian king; and I cannot,
therefore, but think it confirmatory of the opinion,
that the name of his High Priest, in Bede's His-
tory Coifi (vide p. 267, 317), should have to be
read Crive;* for the scene of the Conversion, laid

* If a sanction were wanted for this easy change, the
high authority of Sir Francis Palgrave (History of Nor-
mandy, p. 40) would afford it for a similar difficulty in
the Celtic word, Bodenkos, a name given, as we are told by
Polybius, to the Po ; which word Pliny interprets from the
vernacular, as Fundo carens (Pliny, Hist, Nat. lib. iii. cap.
20): "Ligurum quidem lingua omnem ipsum (Padium)

327

at Londesborough or God-manham (olose to which
lies Pocklington, and, not far distant, Bugthorpe,
or Bogthorpe), would, according to the definition of
Manheim, in the Edda and in the Teutonic dialects,
signify the abode of God on earth, or the middle
world, in opposition to Muspelheim the world above
and Nifelheimthe world below. The former capital

Bodencum vocari quod significet fundo carentem." I may
introduce Sir Francis' words in the preceding sentence as
perfectly applicable to my proposed variation in the text :
" No small pleasure accompanying historical investigation
results from the stimulus afforded by the attempt to expound
the dark riddles of past ages : the more difficult the problem,
the greater the interest attending its solution. Imperfect
are the data upon which the etymologist investigates the
early history of the great Teutonic and Celtic families, some-
what more extensive than the two words which include the
whole pitch of the Pietist controversy, but not very much
more ; he has to deal with scanty and unsatisfactory materials,
usually a name of a town, mountain, or river, misheard by
the stranger, misread by the author, or corrupted by the
transcriber." Sir Francis exclaims: "Is not this Celtic,
for there was a town, Bodencomagus, and we are asked
whether Bodinkos can be explained from the Celtic tongues 1
Read Bodenlos, amend the penman's error, and you will have
a pure German term." This question is taken from Arnold's
History of Rome (i. 525), as we learn from the note at p. 717,
with the remark : " Arnold seems rather to have put the
question as if he expected it would be answered in the nega-
tive." Here, therefore, by this happy substitution of an I
for a k, we get the identical modern term, in German, for
Pliny's fundo carens — Bodenlos, in English, bottomless ; and
it might have confirmed the learned knight in his conjec-
ture, to have recollected that one of the derivations of the
name for the Lake of Constance, in German the Boden Sea,
is because in many places it is, or was supposed to be, bot-
tomless.

328 AN EARL PUCK IN BRITAIN.

of the Grand Duchy of Baden was at Man-heim,
and it is considered one of the most ancient cities
of that part of Germany. If we, however, prefer
taking this name of Puch, in Bede, as a title, we
have, besides the above-cited Supan as a Slavonic
authority, the Etrurian Lar, as an early Italian
example, that it might be used in both modes.
As an appellative we have, Lar-Herminius, Lar-
Tolumnius, and Lar-Porsenna; and in its plural,
as Lares, we have the well-known household gods
of the Romans.

But if this conjecture, which I have started un-
aided by the hints of any writer, or authority, be
admitted, what an immense force of probability
is thereby added to the truths already adduced
for this statue individually, as well as to the en-
tire collection. I might repeat the words of
Jacob Grimm, in asking: Can we believe that
any of the possessors of the idols, according to
the facts stated above, could have possessed the
extensive knowledge of Slavonic antiquities, of
Runes, with their provincial variations and most
exact niceties, that they would have ventured to
introduce a Vohda, or Woden, into the Slavonic
Olympus, or named deities not found in the
existing authorities; and all this with a great de-
gree of technical ability in the art of casting ; as
well as admitted taste in the figures and acces-
sories — would a poor country clergyman have
gone to the expense of the precious metals mixed
in their composition, or paid the wages of secrecy
and ability which these clever forgeries neces-
sitate? To me, and I think to most of my

GENERAL 8IMTLATUTY WITH MEXICAN IDOLS. 329

readers, the supposition that they are forgeries
seems monstrous, and can only have originated
in the hypercriticism and fondness for objections,
in which some minds find their greatest solace.

Before I conclude, it may be allowed me to
remark, on one of Levezow's objections; that the
heads are as little proportionate to the bodies on
which they are placed, as the single limbs to their
bodies; this is undoubtedly the case; nor is it
denied by Masch; § 132, he says of Ipabog, about
one of the largest idols, if you divide the figure
into three parts, one part will be occupied by the
head; but if disproportion be allowed to be a
reason for forgery, the stone idols figured in
Stephen's Central America, and the drawings of
Catherwood, would prove all the curious figures
they have copied from Copan and Palenque spu-
rious. Many of these vestiges of a lost Trans-
atlantic creed reminded me strongly, at the first
blush, of some of the general forms which the
Rethra Collection exhibited, allowing for differ-
ence of material and size; the comparison adds
another link to that chain which is daily en-
larging, which binds together both hemispheres
in a mutual bond of corresponding religious rites,
of domestic manners, and of many conforming
customs.*

* Stephen's opinion on his Mexican arfcistical develop-
ments is contained in the following paragraph: —

" The Palenque artists were, equally with the Egyptians,
awkward in representing the various attitudes of the body,
which they also represented in profile. But the parts are
executed with correctness, and sometimes gracefully; the
costume is rich and various, and the ornamented head-

330 18 NOT THE FIGURE OF A GENUINE

I lament that my interrupted relations with
the Continent have not allowed me to ascertain
whether the Slavonic professor and poet, Kollar,
had made an examination of these idols, to which
it was publicly stated he had been invited by His
Serene Highness the present Grand Duke of
Mecklenburg Strelitz, in the summer of 1851.
But in the newspapers of last year I meet, unfor-
tunately, an obituary of him, from the periodical
called das Ausland, so that it is possible death
may have overtaken him before he had made the
examination and given his judgment; though, as
I find a poem by him called " The Gods of Rethra,"
it is probable, not only that he had seen them,
but been impressed with a feeling of authenticity
in their favour. Should this surmise prove correct,
the affirmation of their authenticity by the first
Slavonic archaeologist of the age would be most
satisfactory and convincing. Such, an opinion
would outweigh all the inuendos and scruples
of the ignorant or the obstinate, of the careless
observer or incredulous examiner. Levezow's evi-
dence must be cast aside, and Leyser*s inuendos
forgotten.

To descend, however, from generals to par-
ticulars and the individual statuette before us, if
the idea I have endeavoured to establish, of the
origin and nature of our Puch divinities and
Robin Goodfellows, has been deemed reasonable,
and my proofs convincing, this figure will add

dresses typical, perhaps, like the Aztec, of the name and
condition of the party, conforms, in its magnificence, to the
oriental taste."

PUCK AS DESCRIBED BY 331

corroboration to what I have said, and every fea-
ture will gain strength by considering the pre-
dominant character of the merry mischievous crea-
ture of Shakespeare's fancy. Could a forger have
laid hold of this discriminating trait in his con-
ception of an ancient deity of the country without
clue or authority to guide him? Every limb of
the figure is redolent of fun; and the lineaments
of the face express, equally well with the best
classic Pans and Satyrs, the promptings of a mind
that could give birth to the following words: —

" Puck. Thou speakest aright ;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal ;
And sometimes bark I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab ;
And when she drinks against her lips I bob,
And on her withered dew-lap pour the ale :
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometimes for three-foot stool mistaketh me,
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And tailor cries, and falls into a cough ;
Then the whole quire hold their lips and loffe ;
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze and swear ;
A merrier hour was never wasted there."

So fully am I persuaded that in this figure we
have a genuine and most ancient Puck before us,
not only from all the foregoing proofs, historical and
literary, and also conforming, by its comparison,
to other mythological figures, that I cannot forbear
putting the earnest interrogatory which gave birth
to the above speech, to this Wendic figure: —

332 SHAKESPEABE? — YES.

" Fairy. Either I mistake your shape and making
quite,
Or dee you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Called Robin OoodfeUow: are you not he.
That fright the maidens of the villager?;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern,
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
Tou do their work, and they shall have good luck :
Abb tou not he !"

To aid the reader's confidence in agreeing with
me in an affirmative reply, the subsequent chapters
of the second volume will, I believe, offer much
additional proof, drawn from farther considerations
of the Man in the Moon, and of conformities in
other particulars betwixt the classic myths and
the Tales of the Edda, as well as with our own
vernacular superstitions.

r4

3 2044 019 662 J

THE BORROWER WILL BE CHARGED
AN OVERDUE FEE IF THIS BOOK IB
NOT RETURNED TO THE LIBRARY ON
OR BEFORE THE LAST DATE STAMPED
BELOW. NON-RECEIPT OF OVERDUE
NOTICES DOES NOT EXEMPT THE
BORROWER FROM OVERDUE FEES.

)R - 3 199a