Northern mythology

NORTH GER3IAN CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 149
At Christmas green kale should be fetched from the
garden of the neighbour three doors ofF^ and some of it
given to every beast in the stalls. It protects them against
witchcraft. Camern.
If at the Christmas festival a woman boils green kale,
takes the ladle with which it was stirred^ and goes with
it^ concealed under her apron, to the church-door, just as
the priest is saying the Pater noster, she will discover who
are the witches of the place, and that by their extraordinary,
but otherwise invisible, head-gear. But she must
stay for a moment only, else she runs the risk of being
threatened and persecuted by the evil one. Camern,
All domestic utensils must at this time be kept in safe
custody : not one of them should be lent out, though they
are occasionally asked for by those who would injure the
owner ' . Camern.
If any one, with moderate fodder, will have sound and
fat horses, let him take a bundle of hay, go with it on
Christmas night at midnight thrice round the church, and
give it to the horses. Camern.
THE NEW YEAR.
In many places, particularly in the Harz, and westward
as far as the Wescr, it is
the custom on New Yearns eve to
fire guns, which they call shooting the new year ^.
In some parts of East Friesland they bake at the new
year Niijarskaukjes, a sort of thin cakes pressed into a
mould of iron, in which the figures of a horse and other
animals are represented.
In the Saterland it is the custom for the young men to
bring into the house of the girls they wish to court, and
also for neighbours to each other^s houses, a ^ Wepelrot '
(called also a ^ Tunsker ') with these words :
1 By witchcraft ? 2 jhis custom is universal also in Denmark.