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874 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.
special handmaid, herself a divine being, whom she appointed
for the defence (til gaetslu) of such foster-sons against all dan
gers ; this personified Tutela was named Him (p. 884), as if the
couch, K\Lvr], OHG, JiUna (recubitus, Gl. Ker. 273) on which one
leans (root hleina hlain, Gr. XtVo>, Lat. clino) . We find harmr
Hlinarf Saem. 9 a
, and there went a proverb { sa er forSaz hlei-
nir/ he that is struggling leans for help. Hlin (Goth. Kleins?)
shelters and shields, the Goth, hlains is a hill [Germ, berg, a hill,
is from bergen, to hide], the OHG. hlinaperga, linaperga =
fulcrum, reclinatorium.
Those who are born with a caul about their head are popularly
believed to be luclty children. Such a membrane is called gluckshaube,
wehmutter-haublein, and is carefully treasured up, or sewed
into a band and put round the babe. 1
Fischart in Garg. 229 b calls
it kinderpelglin (balg, bag), while the Icelanders give it the name
of fylgja f.., and imagine that in it resides the child s guardian-
spirit or a part of its soul : midwives are careful not to injure it,
but bury it under the threshold over which the mother has to
pass. Whoever carelessly throws it away or burns it, deprives
the child of its guardian, Edd. Saem. Hafniens. 2, 653. This
guardian-spirit is variously named fylgjct (who follows man),
sometimes forynja (who goes before him, F. Magn. lex. 379),
oftener hamingja (felicitas) from hamr induviae, nay, this hamr
of itself seems to stand for the same thing :
hamr Atla/ genius
1 Kinderm. no. 29, conf. 3, 39. Ettner s Hebamme p. 534. Journal v. u. f. D.
1788. 1, 574. Ital. nascer vcstito^ = &\ventura,io Fr. ; ne coiffe; Pol. w czepku
urodzil, Haupt s Zeitschr. 1, 137. The Servians name the caul koshulitsa, little
shirt, and a child born with it vidovit : he will go to the Vilas and know more than
other men. In Holland they say met den helm geboren zin : (conf. p. 389) such
children have the power of seeing spectres a ham ; (ovum) in which a foal came
into the world is hung up on a high tree, Westendorp p. 518. Of the glucks-helm
we are told :
obstetrices et delirae aniculae infantibus bona ex colore
ab eo tegmine
rubicundo, vel rnala ex nigricante praesagire solent. magno vendunt hujusmodi
pileos infantiles credulis advocatis, qui se hinc adjuvari putant. This in Anton.
Diadum. cap. 4 is borrowed from an older passage in Aelius : Lampridius solent
pueri pileo insignari naturali, quod obstetrices rapiunt et advocatis credulis ven
dunt, siquidem causidici hoc juvari dicuntur. [AS. heafela, hafela. MHG. huete-
Zm, batwat, kindbcilgel, westerhufe, w esterhuot ; conf. the westerwdt preserved in
churches, and the names Gliickshelm, Barnhelm. Membranulae ad rnodum retis
dispositae, in quibus quandoque nascuntur pueri et vocantur in vulgari (Bohemico)
ivodienlc. de his membranis famant vetulae : si recipiantur IX vel ad minus V et
habeantur cumfilo aureo etsericeo in ecclesia per novem dies illo tempore quo horae
canonicae dicuntur per nonam, et ferantur per aliquem ad judicem vel ad judicium,
ille obtinet causam suam. Jungmann sub v. odenj. Lith. namai kudikio, child s
house. ON. HlbSr born with helmet and sword. Extr. from SUPPL., vol. iii.
Not a word about it as a charm against drowning."!