aglow with blooming apple trees; dark, sombre pine forests and swamps,
the greenish waters of which are confined within slight dams; here and
there the live rock crops out from the ground and interrupts the road,
or huge trees are lying across, recently cut down and but just deprived
of their branches. In the open pasture grounds huge buffaloes are lying
about snorting and panting with fatigue, for they have worked all day in
the plough; the neighing of horses is heard from one end of the country
to the other, and gradually dies out as the sun sinks below the horizon;
lean heifers, with long, spiral horns, push here and there their heads
through the fence of the orchards to have a last bite at the tender
foliage of the reeds, and small oxen of an {066}inferior breed return to
their quarters at the same time with the sheep, quite content to browse
on the grass by the wayside, while herds of swine are wallowing in the
mire of the low grounds.
[Illustration: 086]
The landscape resembles parts of Bretagne and of Normandy; but these
provinces have no such huts. To see a human habitation, you have to rise
high above the fences and hedges and then look down upon the ground.
At a place where two roads meet, the cracking of a whip is heard;
hogs, sheep, and small oxen are driven aside to make way for a kind of
procession, consisting of grave and solemn men and women, who almost all
wear a look of consternation.
It is a wedding.
Two young people have just had their union blessed by the priests under
the sacred oak. The bride is dressed in black, and wears a wreath of
dark leaves on her head; she walks in the midst {067}of her friends,
bent double, as if weighed down by overwhelming thoughts. A matron, who
walks on her left, holds before her eyes a white cloth; it is a shroud,
the shroud in which she will be buried one of these days. On her right,
a Druid intones a chant, in which he enumerates, in solemn rhythm, all
the troubles and all the anxieties which await her in wedded life.
[Illustration: 087]
“From this day, young wife, thou alone wilt have to bear all the burden
of your united household.
“You will have to attend the baking oven, to provide fuel, and to go
in search of food; you will have to prepare the resinous torch and the
lamp.
“You will wash the linen at the fountain, and you will make up all the
clothing;
“You will attend to the cow, and even to the horse if your husband
requires it;
“Always full of respect, you will wait upon him, standing behind him, at
his meals;
“If he chooses to take more wives, you will receive your new companions
with sweetness; {068} If needs be, you will even offer to nurse the
children of these favorites, and all from obedience to your karl
(master);
“If he is angry against you and strikes you, you will pray to Esus, the
only God, but you will never blame your husband, who cannot do wrong.
“If he expresses a wish to take you with him to war, you will accompany
him to carry his baggage, to keep his arms in good condition, and to
nurse him if he should be sick or wounded.
“Happiness consists in the fulfillment of duty. Be happy, my child!”
[Illustration: 088]
When I heard this dolorous wedding song, which in some parts of France
is to this day addressed to brides by local minstrels, when I saw this
winding-sheet, {069}the mournful costumes and the whole funereal wedding
procession, I felt overcome with sadness. Just then, cries and joyous
acclamations were heard at some little distance.
Another procession came from the opposite direction to the cross-roads;
there all the faces were smiling and full of joyousness.
This was a funeral.
[Illustration: 089]
Such were the ways of our fathers; they rejoiced in facing death, which
relieves man from all his sufferings; they had nothing but tears for man
when he entered upon his trials.
In the meantime the twilight had passed into darkness. Small lights,
looking like will-o’-the-wisps, were flitting to and fro in field and
forest, going in all directions. Devout worshippers, carrying torches
or lanterns in their hands, were going to consecrated places, to hold
public worship or to recite private prayers. {070}Some, and these were
the majority, go in the direction of the oak forests, where the Druids
are found; others, concealing the light of their lanterns as well as
they can, go hither and thither, towards the copses of beeches and pine
trees, or towards the river, or towards the hill, which was but just
now shining brightly in the sunlight, but is now concealed in utter
darkness.
[Illustration: 090]
What are they going to do? They are going to worship the Rhine, the
wells, the water-courses, the trees, the Druidical {071}altars, and the
sword-guards. For no creed yet but has had its schisms.
Orthodox or not, German or Gallic, the Franks have always shown a
preference for nocturnal worship; they divide the year into moons,
and count the moons not by days but by nights. And yet they have been
suspected of worshipping the sun! And I had nearly fallen into the same
error! How well it was that I came to see for myself!
As I am just now more interested in watching manners than in studying
mythology, I pursue my investigations, especially as I know very well
that we must know the lives which people lead in order to be able fully
to appreciate the objects of their worship.
While all these small lights are flashing, like shooting stars, here
and there through the landscape, certain specially bright lights seem
to become stationary and permanent. These are the lighted-up windows of
human habitations. I called the latter just now stables, or caves, and
excepting a few of them, I must still call them such.
They are dug out of the ground, damp and dark; their ceiling is on a
level with the surface of the earth, and their roof consists of layers
of turf, or of dry thatch covered with moss. The only door resembles the
lid of a snuff-box, and is set in the roof on a level with the ground.
The dwelling {072}has no light but such as enters through these
trapdoors; consequently they are utterly dark during the whole rainy
season and during winter, that is to say, for three fourths of the year!
Darkness reigns supreme here; that darkness which is the enemy of all
healthfulness, of enjoyment, of every comfort. No windows! No glass! O
divine Apollo,--
“Thou of the silver bow, god of Claros, hear!”
[Illustration: 092]
I never had any objection to the doctrine which made of you, the
brilliant personification of the sun, a first class divinity; but I
think like honors ought to have been bestowed upon the unknown man who
first invented windows and window-panes, the {073}first glazier in fine.
He ought at least to have been made a demigod, and if he had to remain a
simple mortal, they ought surely to have remembered his name! Alas! that
high honors are as unfairly distributed in heaven as upon earth!
As there is no window, I peep through the trapdoor to see how these
subterranean dwellings look inside. The aspect is far from being as
wretched as I had expected. I find that the walls are hung with mattings
and the floor is beaten hard; by the side of the smoking lamp which
is suspended from the main beam of the ceiling, there are hanging, on
hooks, a hindquarter of venison, baskets filled with provisions, and
implements for fishing and hunting. Besides, I notice long strings of
medicinal herbs, such as we see in the shops of herb-doctors, and among
these plants the mistletoe occupies, as a matter of course, the place of
honor.
In another underground hut there appear actually some traces of luxury.
Here the walls are incrusted with pebbles from the Rhine, of many colors
and skillfully arranged; here and there weapons are arranged in various
shapes; javelins with sharp hooks; framees, such as the ancient Franks
were using; hatchets of stone or iron; “morning stars,” with sharp
points, were pleasantly mingled with huge bucklers; large leather
quivers and long arrows feathered at one end and with jagged teeth
{074}at the other. At first sight it looks as if for the purpose of
softening somewhat the threatening aspect of these panoplies, the Celtic
lady of the house had added some of her jewels to these weapons. But it
is not so; these gold chains, these necklaces set with onyx and rubies,
are worn by the grim warriors on the day of battle, quite as much in the
nature of ornaments as for the purpose of protection. One of our
sober, I may say, most sober historians, ascribes to this custom of
our forefathers, the Franks, the gorget, worn still by officers in some
European armies. Here also I see straw mats, but here they are trod
under foot; they are used as carpets, not as hangings.
The deep and spacious dwelling contains, besides the large room which
alone I can see through my dormer-window, a number of other rooms on
all sides, or rather of other caves, which are all connected with each
other. I am evidently before the palace of one of the chief men of the
country.
In the first hut, into which I had looked, I had found the people at
table, drinking a beverage made from grain and herbs--cerevisia--in
horns of wild bulls, and talking about business--for our ancestors
talked about business at dinner, just as we do. The conversation turned
about exchanges of rams, a great fishing expedition to be undertaken
jointly, an invasion to be made into the territory on the other{075}
{077}bank of the river, and most eagerly, about the approaching
elections. For Montesquieu tells us that municipal and even
constitutional government existed alike among the early Germans.
In the other dwelling, the one adorned with panoplies, they were talking
neither of elections, nor of fishing, but they were likewise at table.
Here they drank not only cerevisia in the _horns of the brave_, but also
hydromel and hippocras in leathern tankards or human skulls, as white
as ivory, adorned with silver and naturally shaped like cups. God be
thanked that this custom has not been bequeathed to us by the Franks!
On that evening they were celebrating the welcome given to a young
warrior who had already made himself known by great exploits and who
belonged to a neighboring, friendly tribe.
When the meal was ended, and what a meal it was!--I shall be careful
not to give the bill of fare, since the mere recital would cause an
indigestion,--they thought of prolonging the entertainment given to
their illustrious guest. But what could they do? The young Frankish
ladies were not familiar yet with the piano, and the noble game of
billiards had not yet been invented. They proposed riddles to be
guessed, but this did not seem to afford much amusement to the young
man. Then came a game with bones; but he nearly fell {078}asleep. As the
duty of hospitality required that they should make every possible
effort to entertain their guest, a great man among the Cheruski or the
Marcomanni, they proposed the _handkerchief_; this, seemed to arouse his
attention.
The handkerchief game was at that time very popular; it was a kind of
company duel. Two kind-hearted adversaries, having no other motive but
to amuse themselves and to entertain the company, would seize with their
left hand one end of a handkerchief, and with their right hand a table
knife or a hunting knife, it did not matter which, provided the weapon
was sharp and very pointed. For our good ancestors did not know foils
with cork buttons or other arms of courtesy. Imbued with the strange
idea that to fight, man against man, or a thousand against a thousand,
was the greatest happiness upon earth, they delighted in occasionally
cutting each other’s throat, even if they were the best friends in the
world.
The spectators formed a ring around the combatants. After they had taken
a solemn oath, by the rims of their bucklers, by the shoulders of
their horses, and by the points of their swords, that they cherished no
feeling of animosity against each other, a signal was given and the game
commenced. For some time I saw how the handkerchief was stretched out,
twisted and then suddenly {079}turned around and around rapidly. Light
red lines had already begun to mark the skin of the two adversaries; the
blood was trickling down their arms, but these wounds were such trifles
that the spectators took no notice of them and uttered not a single
exclamation.
All of a sudden I heard three hurrahs in rapid succession; the welcomed
guest, whom all had been striving to honor to the utmost of their
capacity, had fallen down with his adversary’s knife still sticking in
his breast. He was dead.
They had not been able to think of any better way to make him spend a
pleasant evening. The good old times had a hospitality of their own!
This pleasant handkerchief game has survived, only slightly modified,
in several countries of northern Europe. The handkerchief is generally
wrapped around a rapier, so as to shorten the length of the blade. In
the taverns of Holland the game is considered conducive to health; a
knife wound gives a man a chance to escape apoplexy; it serves as a
timely bleeding.
I had run away in horror. For an hour I wandered about, casting a
furtive glance down a trapdoor here and there, and almost everywhere
I saw men and women, horses and cattle, enjoying their rest, lying
pell-mell on the same litter.
In one of these hovels I thought I recognized {080}the young girl whom
I had seen on the hill; her attitude of repose gave a peculiar charm to
her supple and delicate limbs, and by the feeble flickering light of the
lamp, she suggested the idea of a sleeping nymph.
[Illustration: 100]
She was a young Ionian girl, a countrywoman of Aspasia; captured in war,
she had been sold as a slave in twenty markets, developing in spite of
such treatment, one grace and one beauty after another. On the banks of
the Ilyssus, they would have erected an altar in her honor, on the banks
of the Rhine they made her keep a herd of swine. {081}She was not the
only one of her sex, however, whom I saw during that fantastic night.
The sound of a shrill fife, mingling with the sweeter notes of a harp,
attracted my attention. I went toward the spot from which the music
came.
In a little room decked with flowers, a young woman was engaged in her
toilet.
I ought to have fled once more,--this time from bashfulness or a sense
of propriety,--but a conscientious historian is bound to overcome every
difficulty, in order to ascertain the exact truth. It was a great piece
of good luck, surely, to be able to report as an eye-witness, what might
be seen in the boudoir of a Celtic lady.
My friend was sitting, half undressed, on a stool, with her hair
loosened, and holding in her hand a metal mirror. An old woman, a
servant or her mother, I cannot tell which--and yet it seemed to me as
if I had seen both these women, as well as the beautiful swine-herd,
somewhere before; when that was, however, I could not possibly tell--the
old woman held the whole rich abundance of the young lady’s hair in
both her hands and rubbed it with a horrid mixture of tallow, ashes, and
plaster. Thanks to this wretched pomatum, the beautiful hair gradually
changed from pale blonde to intense red, and thus enabled the owner
to comply with a fashion, which I do not presume to criticise, but
{082}simply record here. Then she washed and combed it carefully,
plaited it cunningly, and at last rubbed the shoulders and the neck of
the beauty with melted butter, while she washed the face and the hands
with foaming beer.
[Illustration: 102]
After the demands of cleanliness had thus been satisfied, she placed
before her mistress a slight collation, which was promptly served and
promptly dispatched. While she was thus attending to her toilet and
disposing of a bird’s meal, there was a cyclopean feast going on in an
adjoining room; loud and violent voices were heard, everybody seemed
{083}to talk at once, and in such high tones that even the shrill fife
could no longer be distinguished--for it was from this hall that the
sound of music proceeded, which had attracted me to the dwelling.
The old woman evidently thought the feast was drawing to an end, for she
hastened to finish her mistress’s toilet: She opened a wooden box and
drew from it a pair of pretty red boots, which she put on the feet of
the young beauty; then she threw over her white dress a purple scarf,
which she fastened on the left shoulder with a long thorn from a
sloe-tree. After that she tied a narrow scarlet ribbon around her head,
handed her a collar and bracelets made of small berries, which in form
and color were strikingly like corals, and finally, as the finishing
touch, she daubed her cheeks with red by means of a cosmetic which I
suspect consisted largely of brickdust. When the young Frankish beauty
found that there was enough red--scarlet, crimson, purple, and pink--on
her person from head to foot, she uttered a cry of triumph, especially
when her husband, who entered her room, followed by his guests, seemed
to be quite dazzled by the resplendent charms of his lovely wife, whom
he had just _bought_.
To buy a woman was a familiar expression in Germany at that time, as
it is now,--_Ein weib kaufen_. It must be borne in mind, however, that
{084}in those days the bride brought no dower; on the contrary, the
husband paid her family a certain sum as compensation. We have inherited
many of our usages from our Celtic forefathers; but as to this custom,
we have not thought proper to keep it up.
I at once recognized the husband, although he was now all smiles in his
face, and let us hope, all smiles in his heart also. He was the chief
personage in the wedding procession, whom I had seen two hours before,
looking so grave and solemn, so sad and mournful.
According to Druidical regulations, the bride has first of all waited
upon him at table, humbly standing behind him like the other house
slaves; then, towards the middle of the repast, she had gone to her
room in order to exchange her girlish costume for the dress of a married
woman--a woman who has the right to follow the fashions and to dress
herself up in red from the heels of her feet to the end of her hair.
Now she receives her master _at home_; here she is mistress, and
mistress she will remain. This was the rule among the Franks; for in
spite of the lachrymose anthems of the bards and in spite of the sombre
ceremonies of the wedding, the women became almost invariably the
masters at home, a usage which, contrary to that of dowerless girls,
may possibly have crossed the Rhine. {085}Thinking it over, I found that
during my nocturnal excursion into the land of my forefathers, I had
been present--as a witness only, be it understood--at three successive
entertainments; a feast of welcome, a business dinner, and a wedding
dinner. Although they had not been calculated to satisfy my appetite,
they had, at all events, made me extremely hungry. I was thinking,
therefore, of retracing my steps and looking for a lodging, when I
saw the Druid-bard, who had not disdained taking a seat at the nuptial
feast, coming slowly and solemnly to the centre of the room, all the
while drawing a few accords from, a kind of harp, which consisted of a
closely bent bow with three strings instead of one.
[Illustration: 105]
He was getting ready to charm the company with the recital of one of
those long and mysterious poems which recount the history of the Celts.
I delay my departure.
It has been said, and not without a show of reason, that the history of
our Gallic or Germanic ancestors ought to be for us a subject of deep
interest; but bold minds have in vain tried to raise {086}up once more
the old oak tree, to trim it and to let air and light enter within its
canopy of leaves. The birds that once sang in its branches have left no
trace behind them of their songs, and nothing has reached us from those
sacred precincts but a few faint echoes.
I certainly have reason to praise my good fortune! What all these great
scholars, these learned men, have not been able to accomplish by dint
of energy and perseverance and aided by all their knowledge of Latin,
Greek, and Sanskrit, I (I, the man whom you know) am enabled to do!
Thanks to the bard’s long recital, I am able to fill up this blank,--the
first, the only man in the history of mankind, who can throw light upon
the impenetrable darkness of those ages!
The bard began. I listened, all attention and eagerness, trying to catch
every sound and to impress every word upon my excellent memory.
In a pompous introduction he told us all about the first arrival of the
Celts in Europe, the coming of the Druids as apostles of the true
faith; he told us how a great colony of Salic Franks, Gauls, under the
collective name of Pelasgi, all children of Teut, or Teutons, had
first planted a sacred oak at Dodona. On this point I was already well
informed. He then alluded to the building up of Athens, due as much to
the Teutons as to the {087}Greeks of Cecrops; he boasted, that when the
Greeks were led astray by their corrupt imagination and wished to
raise altars to Saturn, Jupiter, and all those false gods whom they had
borrowed from the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, the Teutons rose in the
name of outraged human reason, and proclaimed the only one God, breaking
down all the false altars. Hence, he said, that formidable struggle,
still so well known as the battle of the gods of Olympus against the
_Teutons_ or _Titans_....
I held my breath. What? Those terrible giants, those colossal men, whom
Jupiter himself feared and who piled Ossa upon Pelion, or Pelion upon
Ossa--they were Celts? They were the ancestors of the brave French?
O Titans, O my brothers, with what delight I listened to the sacred
words of the bard, so that I might repeat them to you and rejoice with
you in our glorious descent!
By special grace I understood the Germano-Celtic words of the bard
without difficulty. But the poem was flowing on interminably; I began
to mistrust my memory. Centuries succeeded centuries, events followed
events, and they were as close to each other and as numerous as grains
in a bag of wheat. The continuous exertion of all my faculties began to
tell upon me. The most illustrious {088}heroes of Gaul and of Germany
appeared to me soon only like the faint forms seen by means of a magic
lantern; Sigovesus and Bellovesus, the descendants of the great king
Ambigat; Brennus, Btlgius, and Lutharius, sons or sons-in-law of that
other great king Cambaules, began to turn around and arouad in my head,
holding each other by the hand and performing an old British dance to
the music of an old Breton instrument. Ariovistus played on the biniou.
Then the sounds of the biniou, the shrill tones of the fife and the
Druid harp were broken in upon by a terrible noise of countless church
bells; the air shook all of a sudden, the earth trembled, everything
around me fell to the ground with a great crash, the Druid, the house of
the wedding, the trap-door, the hamlet, the trees, the hill, the Rhine
and its banks, the heaven and the stars, all disappeared at the same
moment, and I awoke in my arm-chair, surrounded by my poor books, which
had just fallen from my knees.
The dinner bell was still ringing.
[Illustration: 111]
IV.
{091}_The Roman Gods invade Germany.--Drusus and the Druidess.--Ogmius,
the Hercules of Gaul.--Great Philological Discovery concerning Teut at
es.--Transformations of every kind.--Irmexsul.--The Rhine deified.--The
Gods cross the River.--Druids of the Third Epoch._
You may rest assured, I did not merely dream of that bold transformation
of Teutons into Titans; one of the most learned and most reliable
authors in my library, assures me of the fact. These great scholars are
sometimes very clever men.