Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

650
TEEES AND ANIMALS.
the Lombard nation was baptized, but still clung to superstitious
practices : Quin etiam non longe
a Beneventi moenibus devotis-
sime sacrilegam colebant arborem, in qua suspenso corio cuncti qui
aderant terga vertentes arbori celerius equitabant, calcaribus
cruentantes equos, ut unus alterum posset praeire, atque in eodem
cursu retroversis manibus in corium jaculabantur. Sicque parti-
culam modicam ex eo comedendam superstitiose accipiebant.
quia stulta illic persolvebant vota, ab actione ilia nomen loco illi,
sicut hactenus dicitur, votum imposuerunt.
In vain Barbatus
it : illi ferina coecati dementia nil aliud nisi
preaches against
sessorum meditantes usus, optimum esse fatebantur cultum legis
majormn suorum, quos nominatim bellicosissimos asserebant.
When Romuald was gone to Naples, repente beatissimus Barbatus
securim accipiens et ad votum pergens, suis manibus nefandam
arborem, in qua per tot temporis spatia Langobardi exitiale sacri-
legium perficiebant, defossa humo a radicibus incidit, ac desuper
terrae congeriem fecit, ut nee indicium ex ea quis postea valuerit
reperire. * This part about felling the tree has an air of swagger
and improbability ; but the description of the heathen ceremony
may be true to the life. I have pointed out, p. 174,
Et
that the
Ossetes and Circassians hung up the hides of animals on poles
in honour of divine beings, that the Goths of Jornandes truncis
suspendebant exuvias to Mars (p. 77 note), that as a general thing
animals were hung on sacrificial trees (pp. 75-9) ; most likely
this tree also was sacred to some god through sacrifices, i.e. votive
offerings of individuals, 3 hence the whole place was named ad
votum. What was the meaning of hurling javelins through the
suspended shin, is by no means clear ;
in the North it was the
custom to shoot through a hanging raw oxhide (Fornm. sog. 3; 18.
4, 61), as a proof of strength and skill. Doing
it backwards
1 Another Vita Barbati (ibid. p. 112) relates as follows : Nam quid despicabilius
credendum est, quam ex mortuis animalibus non carnem sed corium accipere
ad usum comestionis, ut pravo errori subjecti Langobardi fecerunt ? qui suarum
festa solennitatum equis praecurrentibus unus altero praecedente, sicut mos erat
gentilium, arbori ludificae procul non satis Benevento vota sua solvebant. Suspensa
itaque putredo corii in hanc arborem divam, equorum sessores versis post tergum
brachiis ignominiam corii certabant lanceolis vibrare. Cumque lanceolis esse
vibrata pellis mortua cerneretur, veluti pro remedio animae ex hac illusione corii
partis mediae factam recisionem gustabant. Ecce quali ridicule vanae mentis
homines errori subjacebant pestifero !
2
Supra p. 360 note votum is not ; only vow, but the oblatio rei votivae :
1
votare puerum in Pertz 2, 93 is equiv. to offerre.