TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

50 WORSHIP.
The Hack ox and Hack cow, which are not to be killed for the house
hold (Superst. 887), were they sacred sacrificial beasts ? Yal.
Suplit, a free peasant on the Samland coast (Samogitia or Semigalia),
sacrificed a black bull with strange ceremonies.1 I will add
a few examples from the Norse. During a famine in Sweden under
king Domaldi : }?a eflSo (instituted) Sviar blot stor at Uppsolum, it
fyrsta haust (autumn) blotuSu )?eir yxnum ; and the oxen proving
insufficient, they gradually went up to higher and higher kinds ;
Yngl. saga, c. 18. J?a gekk hann til hofs (temple) Freyss, ok
leiddi ]?agat uxan gamlan (an old ox), ok mselti sva : Freyr, nu
gef ek ]?er uxa J?enna ; en uxanum bra sva viS, at hann qva> vi5,
ok fell niSr dauSr (dealt the ox such a blow, that he gave a groan
and fell down dead) ; Islend. sog. 2, 348. conf. Vigaglumssaga, cap.
9. At a formal duel the victor slew a bull with the same weapons
that had vanquished his foe: ]?a var leiddr fram grdffAngr mildll ok
gamall, var J?at kallat blotnaut, ]?at skyldi sa hoggva er sigr hefol
(then was led forth a bull mickle and old, it was called blot-neat,
that should he hew who victory had), Egilss. p. 506. conf. Kormaks-
saga p. 214-8. Sacrifice of Cows, Ssem. 141. Fornm. sog. 2, 138.
The Greek e/caro^r) (as the name shows, 100 oxen) consisted at
first of a large number of neat, but very soon of other beasts also.
The Indians too had sacrifices of a hundred ; Holzmann 3, 193. 2
Boars, Pigs (see Suppl.). In the Salic Law, tit. 2, a higher
composition is set on the majalis sacrivus or votivus than on any
other. This seems a relic of the ancient sacrifices of the heathen
Franks ; else why the term sacrivw ? True, there is no vast differ
ence between 700 and 600 den. (17 and 15 sol.); but of animals
so set apart for holy use there must have been a great number in
heathen times, so that the price per head did not need to be high.
Probably they were selected immediately after birth, and marked,
and then reared with the rest till the time of sacrificing. In
Frankish and Alamannic documents there often occurs the word
friscing, usually for porcellus, but sometimes for agnus, occasionally
in the more limited sense of porcinus and agninus; the word may by
1 Berlin, monatschr. 1802. 8, 225. conf. Lucas David 1, 118-122.
2 In many districts of Germany and France, the butchers at a set time of
the year lead through the streets a fatted ox decked with flowers and ribbons,
accompanied by drum and fife, and collect drink-money. In Holland they call
the ox bclder, and hang gilded apples on his horns, while a butcher walks in
front with the axe (beil). All this seems a relic of some old sacrificial rite.