Northern mythology

282 EPITOME OF GERMAN MYTHOLOGY.
gliostly and magical was attached ; to others, as the cuckoO;
was ascribed the gift of prophecy ; while others, as snakes,
had influence on the happiness of men, or are accounted
sacred and inviolable. Trees, also, even to a much later
period, were regarded as animated beings, on which account
they were addressed by the title of Frau ; or it was believed
that personal beings dwelt in them, to whom a certain
reverence was due^
Of processions and festivals, which have pretensions to
a heathen origin, we can give only a brief notice.
As, according to Tacitus, the goddess Nerthus was
drawn in a carriage in a festive procession, through the
several districts, so in Christian times, particularly during
the spring, we meet with customs, a leading feature of
which consists of a tour or procession.
Such festive processions
are either through a town, or a village, or through
several localities, or round the fields of a community, or
about the mark or boundary. On these occasions a symbol
was frequently carried about, either an animal having
reference to some divinity, or else some utensil. A procession
may here be cited which, in the year 1133, took
place after a complete heathenish fashion, notwithstanding
the strenuous opposition of the clergy.
In the forest near
Inda^, a ship was constructed, and furnished beneath with
wheels; this was drawn by weavers (compelled to the
task), harnessed before it, through Aix-la-Chapelle, Maestricht,
Tongres, Looz and other localities, was everywhere
received with great joy, and attended by a multitude
p. xliv) : Itaque liodie inveuiuntur homines qui cum uovilunium
primo viderint, flexis genibus adorant, vel deposito capucio vel pileo inclinato
capite lionorant alloquendo et suscipieudo. Immo etiam plures
jejunant ipso die novilunii. See also D. M. p. 668, and Abergl. No. 112 :
•* If a woman at going to bed salutes the stars of heaven, neither vulture
nor hawk will take a chicken from her."
1
See vol ii. p. 168, and vol. iii. p. 182. Miiller, p. 130.
2 Inden in the territorv of JLilich, afterwards Cornehmiinster.