TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

282 GODDESSES.
cannot point out a dame Perhta before the 15th or 14th century,
or at earliest the 13th ; but the first supposition need not break
down, even if we did manage to hunt up her personal name in
older authorities : even in the 9th century the expression perahtun
naht might have developed into Perahtun naht . Still the char
acteristics we have specified of a mythical Berta, and above all, her
identity with Holda, seem to me to decide the matter the other
way. If, independently of the Christian calendar, there was a
Holda, then neither can Perahta be purely a product of it ; on the
contrary, both of these adjective names lead up to a heathen deity,
who made her peregrination at that very season of yule, and whom
therefore the Christians readily connected with the sacredness of
Christmas and New-year.
I will here group together the features which unmistakably
make Holda and Bertha appear in this light. They drive about in
waggons, like mother Earth, and promote agriculture and navigation
among men ; a plough, from which there fall chips of gold,
is their
sacred implement. This too is like the gods, that they appear
suddenly, and Berhta especially hands her gifts in at the window.
Both have spinning and weaving at heart, they insist on diligence
and the keeping of festivals holy, on the transgressor grim penalties
are executed. The souls of infant children are found in their host,
as they likewise rule over elves and dwarfs, but night-hags and
enchantresses also follow in their train : all this savours of
heathenism.
It is very remarkable, that the Italians too have a mis-shapen
fairy Befana, a terror to children, who has sprung out of epiphania
the women and children set a doll made of
(befania) : on that day
old rags in the window ; she is black and ugly, and brings presents.
Some say, she is Herod s daughter ; Eanke s hist, zeitschr. 1, 717.
1
La Befania (Pulci s Morg. 5, 42). Berni : says il di di Befania
vo porla per Befana alia fenestra, perche qualcun
l
ballestra .
le dia d una
It would be astonishing, if twice over, in two different
nations, a name in the calendar had caused the invention of a
supernatural being; it is more likely that, both in Italy, and among
us, older traditions of the people have sought to blend themselves
with the Christian name of the day.
1 Franc. Berni, rime 105. Crusca sub v. befana.