TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

44 WORSHIP.
disease was rife ;
sometimes for long life :
(
biota til
langlifi, Landn.
3, 4 ; or for favour (thockasaeld) with the people : Grimr, er
blotinn var daucSr (sacrificed when dead) fiir thokkasaeld, ok kallaftr
kamban , Landn. 1, 14. 3, 16. This epithet kamban must refer to
the sacrifice of the dead man s body ; I connect it with the OHG.
pichimpida funus, Mid. Dut. kwiban comere, Diut. 2, 207 a
note to Andr. 4.
. conf.
Human Sacrifices are from their nature and origin expiative ;
some great disaster, some heinous crime can only be purged and
blotted out by human blood. With all nations of antiquity they
were an old-established custom l
; the following evidences place it
beyond a doubt for Germany (see Suppl.). Tac. Germ. 9 : Deorum
maxime Mercurium colunt, cui certis diebus humanis quoque hostiis
litare fas habent. Germ. 39 : stato tempore in silvam coeunt,
caesoque publice (in the people s name)
homine celebrant barbari
ritus horrenda primordia. Tac. Ann. 1, 61 : lucis propinquis bar-
barae arae, apud quas tribunes ac primonim ordinum centuriones
mactaverant. Tac. Ann. 13, 57 : sed bellum Hermunduris pros-
perum, Cattis exitiosius fuit, quia victores diversam aciem Marti ac
Mercuric sacravere, quo voto equi, viri, cuncta victa occidioni
dantur. Isidori chron. Goth., aera 446 :
quorum
(regum Gothi-
corurn) unus Eadagaisus . . . Italiam belli feritate aggreditur,
promittens sanguinem Christianorum diis suis litare, si vinceret.
Jornandes cap. 5 : quern Martem Gothi semper asperrima placavere
cultura, nam victimae ejus mortes fuere captorum, opinantes bellorum
praesulem aptius humani sanguinis effusione placandum. 2
Orosius 7, 37 of Eadagaisus, whom he calls a Scythian, but
mos est barbaris
makes him lead Goths to Italy : qui (ut
hujusmodi generis) sanguinem diis suis propinare devoverat?
1 Lasaulx die siihnopfer der Grieclien u. Romer, Wiirzburg 1841. pp.
813.
2 Conf. COBS, de B. Gall. 6, 17 on the worship of Mars among the Gauls ;
and Procop. de B. Goth. 3, 14 on the Slavens and Antes : 6ebv p.ev -yap eva TOV
TTJS dfTTpaTrrjs 8r]p,iovp-yov arrdvrutv Kvpiov p.6vov avrov vopi^ovcriv eivai, KOI dvnvcriv
avTM /3da? re Kal tepeia avraj/ra. . . . czXX eVfiSai/ avrols ev Ttocr\v fjtir) 6
Odvaros e ir], j/o cro) a.Xovo t
fj fj es TroXeynoj/ Kadi(TTap.fvois, eVayye XXoi/rai $ia<pvyaxn, Qwiav ra> $ea> avri rr/s ai/ritca
"^v^fjs
/ueV, fjv
Troirjcrfiv, 8ta(pvy6vTs fie
flvovaiv
oTrcp v7Tf(r^ovTO, KOI o lovrai TTJV aa)TT]pia.v ravTTjs dr) rfjs dvaias avrols
f(i)vfj(Tdai.
3 Of him Augustine says, in sermo 105, cap. 10 : Rhadagaysus rex Gothorum
. . . Romae . . . Jovi sacrificabat quotidie, nimtiabaturque
ubique, quod a sacrifices non desisteret.