TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY VOL. I

PERAHTA, BERCHTE. 279
iron nose), and says that people leave meat and drink
standing for
her; which means a downright sacrifice.
In the mountains of Salzburg there is kept up to this day, in
honour of the terrible Perchtel, a so called Perchta-running, Perclitaleaping
at the time of the rauchnachte [incense -nights ?]
x
In the
Pinzgau, from 100 to 300 young fellows (styled the Berchten) will
roam about in broad daylight in the oddest disguises, carrying cows
bells, and cracking whips.
2
In the Gastein valley the procession,
headed by from 50 or 100 to 300 stout fellows, goes hopping and
skipping from village to village, from house to house, all through
the valley (Muchar, Gastein pp. 145-7). In the north of Switzer
land, where in addition to Berchtli the softened form Bechtli or
Bechteli is in use, Bechteli s
day is the 2nd (or, if New-year s day
falls on a Saturday, the 3rd) of January, and is honoured by the
young people in general with social merrymakings ; they
practice berchleln, bechteln. In the 16th century
it was still the
custom at Zurich, for men to intercept and press one another to
call the
take wine ;
this was called conducting to Berchtold (Staid. 1, 150-
6).
There was thus a masculine Bercht or BerclMt, related to
Wuotan, as Berhta was to Freke ;
and from this again there arose
in Swabia a new feminine, Breclitolterin, Prechtolterin (Schmid,
Schwab, wtb. 93). In Alsace the beckten was performed by pren
tices and journeymen running from one house or room to another,
and keeping up a racket (see passages in Oberlin, sub. v. Bechten).
Cunrat of Dankrozheim says in his Namenbuch, composed 1435
3
:
darnauch so komet die milde Behte,
die noch hat ein gar gross geslehte (great kindred).
He describes her as the mild, gracious to men, not as the terrible.
Berchtolt however is in Swabian legend the white mannikin, who
brings spools to be filled with spinning (Hone s anz. 8, 179),
exactly like Berchta, p. 274 (see Suppl).
And as a kind benevolent being she appears in many other
descriptions, which undoubtedly reach far back into the Mid. Ages.
The white lady, by her very name, has altogether the same meaning,
1
This Perchtenspringen is like the hexentusch in the Bb hmerwald, which,
Jos. Rank p. 76-7 says, is
performed at Whitsuntide, when young men and
boys provide themselves with loud cracking whips, and chase all the witches
out of houses, stables and barns.
2
Journey through Upper Germany, p. 243. Schm. 1, 195.
3 Ad. Walt. Strobel s beitr., Strasb. 1827, p. 123.