TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

278 GODDESSES.
und man ze tische brahte and had to table brought
allez daz man ezzen solde,
all that they should eat,
swaz der wirt geben wolde whatso the master would give,
do sprach er zem gesinde
then spake he to his men
und zuo sin selbes kinde : and to his own child :
ezzet Mnte fast durch min bete, eat fast (hard) to night, I pray,
daz inch die Stempe niht entrete. that the Stenipe tread you not.
daz kintlin do von forhten az, The child then ate from fear,
er sprach: veterlin, waz ist daz, he said : father, what is this
daz du die Stempen nennest ? that thou the Stempe callest ?
sag mir, ob dus erkennest. tell me, if thou it knowest/
der vater sprach : daz sag ich dir, The father said : this tell I thee,
du solt ez wol gelouben mir,
thou mayest well believe me,
ez ist so griuwelich getan,
daz ich dirz niht gesagen kan :
wan swer des vergizzet,
daz er nicht fast izzet,
there is a thing so gruesome done,
that I cannot tell it thee :
for whoso forgets this,
so that he eats not fast,
df den Jcumt ez und trit in? on him it comes, and treads him.
Here also children and servants are warned by the master of the
house to eat up clean all that is brought on the table, and are !
threatened with a trampling from Stempe. This cognomen of
Berchte must have come from stamping (step, tap, thump, &c.), and
perhaps it ought to be spelt Stempfe (German stampfen, to stamp) ;
but in Bavaria there is a proper name Stempo (MB. 2, 280, anno
11.30), not Stempho, and both stampen and stampfen
seem to be
correct for trampling and squeezing, Ital. stampare : she is the
night hag, similar to alp and schrat [old scratch ?]. Add to this,
that in the Nordgau of Franconia, dame Holda is called the Trempe
(Doderlein, Antiq. nordg. 41), i.e., the trampling racketing one;
Stalder defines trampeln as walking with short, measured steps
(tripping), and the Drut (night-goblin) approaches with soft foot
fall ; at the same time, trampel, trampelthier, is a heavy clumsy
woman. Now, as S is occasionally added before an initial T, it is
surely not going too far, to connect Stempe with the more ancient
Tamfana, Tanfana, p. 257 (see SuppL).
Martin of Amberg l calls her Percht mit der eisnen nascn (with
1 His Gewissensspiegel (mid. of 14th cent.)
is in two MSS. at Vienna
(HofiFm. pp. 335-6) conf. Schm. ; 4, 188. 216, and the Jalirb. der Berliner
gesellsch. iur deutscne spr. 2, 63 65.