TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

SACRIFICE. 55
garlanded and adorned for sacrifice. A passage in the Edda
requires gold-horned cows, Seem. 14 l a
; and in the village of Fienstadt
in Mansfeld a coal-black ox with a white star and white feet, and
a he-goat with gilded horns were imposed as dues. 1 There are indi
cations that the animals, before being slaughtered, were led round
within the circle of the assembly that is how I explain the
leading round the benches, and per circuitum currere, pp. 51, 52
perhaps, as among the Greeks and Komans, to give them the
appearance of going voluntarily to death2 (see Suppl.). Probably
care had to be taken also that the victim should not have been used
in the service of man, e.g., that the ox had never drawn plough or
waggon. For such colts and bullocks are required in our ancient
law-records at a formal transfer of land, or the ploughing to death
of removers of landmarks.
On the actual procedure in a sacrifice, we have scarcely any
information except from Norse authorities. While the animal
laid down its life on the sacrificial stone, all the streaming blood
(OK hlauf) was caught either in a hollow dug for the purpose, or
in vessels. With this gore they smeared the sacred vessels and
utensils, and sprinkled the participants. 3
Apparently divination
was performed by means of the blood, perhaps a part
mixed with ale or mead, and drunk. In the North the blood-
of it was
bowls (hl&utbollar, \Aotbollar) do not seem to have been large;
some nations had big cauldrons made for the purpose (see Suppl.).
The Swedes were taunted by Olafr Tryggvason with sitting at home
and licking their sacrificial pots, at sitja heima ok sleikja Uot-
lolla sina, Fornm. sog. 2, 309. A cauldron of the Cimbri is noticed
in Strabo 7, 2 : e#o? Be n TMV Ki/jL(3p(0v Snyyovvrai, TOIOVTOV, on
rat? <yvvaiiv CLVTWV o-varparevovcra^ 7rapr)Ko\ov0ovv
lepeiat, TToX/.oTp^e?, Xef^ei/ioi e?, Kapiracrlvas
3, 382 ;
1 Neue mitth. des thiir. sachs. vereins V. 2, 131, conf. II. 10, 292. Od.
<roi 8 av eyob pe o>
/3ovi/ rjviv, evpv/ierwTroj/,
a.p.r)Tr)v t fjv OVTTO) VTTO vybv fjyayev avrjp
xpuo-oi/ Kepaaiv Trepixevas.
2 Oc eingu skyldi tortyna hvarki fe ne monnum, nema sialft i gengi burt.
Eyrb. saga, p. 10. And none should they kill (tortima?) neither beast nor
man, unless of itself it ran a-tilt.
3
Saga Hakonar goSa, cap. 16. Eyrb. saga p. 10. rauS horgin, reddened
rf)v TOI eyo) pe o>,
the (stone) altar, Fornald. sog. 1, 413. stalla lata rioSa bloSi, 1, 454. 527.
Sasm. 114 b rio&u&u bloSinu Udttre, Fornald. sog. 1, 512. the Grk alpa TK>
. conf. Exod. 24, 8.