Northern mythology

146 .
NORTH GERMAN CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS.
throughout the whole north of Germany of having a man
on Christmas eve to enter the apartment, disguised with a
long beard, and enveloped either in fur or in pea-straw,
who asks the children whether they can pray, and, if they
stand the trial, rewards them with apples, nuts and gingerbread
(pepper-cakes) ; and, on the other hand, punishes
In the Middle Mark the
those that have learned nothing.
name most generally given to this personage is De hele
Christ (the Holy Christ), or Knecht Ruprecht. In other
parts he is called Hans Huprecht, which is sometimes corrupted
into Rumpknecht ; in Meklenburg he is known as
M Clas (Rough Nicholas) ; in the Altmark and as far as
East Friesland, as Bur and Bullerclas. He sometimes
carries a long staff and a bag of ashes, and has little bells
on his clothes. With the bag he beats those children who
have not learned to pray, and is for that reason called also
Aschenclas. Sometimes he rides about on a white horse,
and not unfrequcntly has with him a sort of Jack Pudding,
as an attendant. Accompanied by fairies, as they call
them, or men dressed as old women, with blackened faces,
he appears in some places, and is occasionally attended by
one enveloped in pea-straw, who is called the bear, and
led by a long chain. In many places the ' Holy Christ,'
usually a young girl clad in white—who causes the
youngsters to pray, and the rider on the white horse, appear
as distinct persons. In some townis in Westphaha
the white horse makes its appearance at Christmas or
New Year's day. In Osnabriick it is called the Spanish
horse.
.
On the isle of Usedom Ruprecht goes about at Christmas,
making the children pray; but under this denomination
three persons are comprised, one of whom bears a
rod and a bag of ashes, another bears the Klapperbock,'
'
which is a pole on which a goatskin is hung, surmounted
by a goat's head of wood, to the under-jaw of which a line