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LOG-FELLING. GOSSAMEE. 783
of Winter at all. In Geo. Torquatus s (unpublished) Annal.
Magdeb. et Halberst. part 3 lib. 1 cap. 9 we are told that afc
Halberstadt (as at Hildesheim above) they used once a year to
set up a log in the marketplace, and throw at it till its head came
off. The log has not a name of its own, like Jupiter at Hildes
heim ; it is not unlikely that the same practice prevailed
at other
places
in the direction of these two cities. At Halberstadt it
lasted till inarkgraf Johaii Albrecht s time ; the oldest account
of it is by the so-called monk of Pirna, Joh. Lindner (Tilianus,
d. ab. 1530) in his Onomasticon :
f
ln the stead of the idol s
temple pulled in pieces at Halberstadt, there was a dome-church
(cathedral) edified in honour of God and St. Stephen ; in memory
thereof the dome-lords (dean and chapter) young and old shall
on Letare Monday every year set up a ivooden skittle in the idol s
stead, and throw thereat, every one ; moreover the dome-provosfc
shall in public procession and lordly state let lead a bear (barz, 1.
baren) beside him, else shall his [customary dues be denied him;
likewise a boy beareth after him a sheathed sword under his arm.
Leading a bear about and delivering a bear s loaf was a custom
prevalent in the Mid. Ages, e.g. at Mainz (Weisth. 1, 533) and
Strassburg (Schilter s Gloss. 102).
This Low Saxon rejection, and that Polish dismissal, of the
ancient gods has therefore no necessary connexion with a bring
ing in of summer, however apt the comparison of the new religion
to summer s genial warmth. In the Polish custom at all events
I find no such connexion hinted at. At the same time, the
notion of bringing summer in was not unknown to the Poles.
A Cracow legend speaks of Lei and Po-lel (after-lei), two divine
beings of heathen times, chasing each other round the field, and
bringing Summer-, they are the cause of flying summer, i.e.
Until we know the whole tradition more exactly,
gossamer. l
we cannot assign it its right place. Lei and Polel are usually
likened to Castor and Pollux i. (Linde 2, 1250 b
), to whom they
bear at least this resemblance, that their names, even in old folk
songs, make a simple interjection, 2 as the Romans used the twin
1 Hall. allg. Iz. 1807. no. 256, p. 807.
2 Pol. lelum, polelum ; Serv. lele, leljo,lelja (Vuksub v.) ; Walach. lerum (conf.
lirumlarum, verba effutitia). It seems to me hazardous to suppose them sons of
Lada as C. and P. were of Leda. Couf. supra p. 306.