Northern mythology

;
26 i EPITOME OF GERMAN MYTHOLOGY.
heatlienism ^ At funerals also heathen religious songs
were sung^.
With prayer_, sacrifice^ which formed the chief part of
heathen worship^ was inseparably connected.
In general
there was prayer only at the sacrifices. The principal
sacrifice was a human one_, the ofi*ering of which by all
the
Germanic races is fully proved^. Human beings appear
chiefly to have served for sacrifices of atonement^ and were
either off'ered to the malign deities^ or_, as propitiatory, to
the dead in the nether world*. The custom of burning
the servants and horses with the corpse,
must, therefore,
be understood as a propitiatory sacrifice to the shade of
the departed^.
The testimonies just cited on the subject of human
^ Capit. VI. c. 196 : Illas vero balationes et saltationes, cantica turpia
et luxuriosa, et ilia lusa diabolica non facial, nee in plateis nee in domibus
neque in ullo loco, quia lia^c de pagauorura consuetudine remanserunt.
Vita S. Eligii, II. 16 : Nullas saltationes, ant choraulas, aut cantica diabolica
exerceat. For the prohibitions of the ancient popular songs, the reader
is referred to the collections of extracts on the subject, as Wackernagel,
Das Wessobrunner Gebet, pp. 25-29 ; Hofmann, Geschichte des Deutschen
Kirchenliedes, pp. 8-1 1 ; Massmann, Abschworungsformeln.
2 Midler, p. 74.
•^
For human sacrifices among the Goths, see Jornandes, c. 5 ; Isidori
Chron. Goth, fera 446; among the Heruh, Procop. de Bello Goth. ii. 14
among the already converted Franks, ib. II. 25 ; the Saxons, Sidon. Apoll.
8. 6, Capit. de Part. Sax. 9; the Frisians, Lex Fris. Addit. Sap. Tit. 12;
Thuringians, Bonifac. Ep. 25. Comp. D. M. p. 39.
*
The great sacrifice at Lethra, described by Dietmar of Merseburg, I. 9,
at which ninety-nine men, and a like number of horses, dogs and cocks
were offered, was evidently a sacrifice of propitiation.
^ Midler, p. 76. Tacitus (Germ. 27) testifies only to the burning of the
horse. In the North servants and hawks were burnt with the corpse. In
the grave of King Childeric a human skull was found, which was supposed
to have been that of his marshal. The wives of the Heruli hanged themselves
at the graves of their husbands. Procop. B. G. II. 14. Among the
Gauls also it was customary to burn the slaves and clients with the corpse
of a man of high rank. Caesar, B. G. IV. 19.