Northern mythology

APPENDIX. 273
head brought to her, but as she was covering it with tears
and kisses, it raised itself in the air and blew the damsel
back, so that from that time she hovers in the air. Only
in the silent hours of night until cockcrowing has she
rest, and sits then on oaks and hazels. Her sole consolation
is, that, under the name of Pharaildis, a third part of
the world is in subjection to her ^
That heathen religious usages gradually gave rise to
Christian superstitions will appear from the following.
was a custom in the paganism both of Rome and Germany
to carry the image or symbol of a divinity round the
fields, in order to render them fertile. At a later period the
image of a saint or his symbol was borne about with the
same object ^.
Thus in the Alb thai, according to popular
belief, the carrying about of St. Magnus' staff drove away
the field mice. In the Freiburg territory the same staff
was employed to extirpate the caterpillars^.
Of all the divinities, of whom mention has been already
made, Wodan alone appears to have survived in the north
It
^
Lenit honor luctum, minuit reverenlia poeiiam,
Pars hominum moestce tertia servit heroe.
Quercubus et corylis a nocHs parte secunda
Usque nigri ad galii carmina prima sedeL
Nunc ea nomen habet Pharaildis, Herodias ante
Saltria, nee subiens nee subeunda pari.
Reinardus, i. 1159-1164. Miiller, p. 112 ; Grimm, D. M. p. 262.
2 Eccard, Franc. Orient, i. 437.
3 Miiller, p. 113. Act. Sanct. ii. p. 774. " In agrura Friburg, quod
est in Brisgoia circumjectum, aliquot annis adeo copiosa ssviterque grassata
erant insecta, ut vix jam herbse quid excresceret, sed omnia veluti
nimiis solibus torrida ruberent. Motus diuturno hoc malo urbis ejus magistratus
enixe petiit, ut adversus diros vermes afferretur sacra camhatta.
Quae ubi allata est a quodam S. Magni coenobita, eaqae campi prataque
ilia lustrata, eodem adhuc anno, qui seculi hujus fuit xi (1711), tellus
laeto herbaiiim vigore convestiri ; vermes pars migrare alio, pars emori.
Ut tanti beneficii perennaret memoria, decreverere Friburgenses posthac
natalem S. Magni habere sacrum et festum." Comp. Schreiber's Taschenbuch
fiir Geschichte und .Uterthum in Sliddeutschland, 1839, p. 329.
N 5