388 THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND. [book i.
we understand the record of them by a Beda or a
Fenelon ?
Such authority as this was likely to be followed
with zeal ; once open, the career of unbridled fancy
was sure to find no limit; the more sure, since
then, as now, the fears and miseries of the mass
were sources of profit to the few. Then, as now,
there were rogues found who dared to step between
man and God, to clothe themselves in the coat
without seam, to make themselves the mediators
between eternal mercy and the perishing sinner.
Accordingly in later times we find variation upon
variation in the outline already so vigorously
sketched; William OfMalmesburyfurnishesan ample
field for collectors of this kind of literature. I shall
content myself here with citing from the so often
quoted Salomon and Saturn two passages, which to
me are redolent of heathendom, disguised after the
fashion w7hich has been described.
Mæg simle so Godes cwide
gumena gehwylcum,
ealra fconda gehwone
fleonde gobringan,
⅞urh mannes muð,
mdnfulra heap
Sweartne geswencan ;
næfre hɪe ëæs syllιce
bleoum bregdaβ
æfter Mncofan,
feðerhoman onfoδ.
HwiTum flétan gripað,
hwɪ'lum hie gewendað
Ever may the God’s word*
for every man,
every fiend ∙
put to flight,
through mouth of man,
the troop of evil ones,
the black troop, oppress ;
let them never so strangely
change their colours
in their body,
or assume plumage.
Sometimes they seize the sailor,
sometimes they turn
1 That is, the Paternoster.
CH- xπ∙J
HEATHENDOM. NICOR.
389
on wyrmes lie
scearpes and sticoles,
stingað nyten
feldgongendc,
feoh gestrildað ;
hwɪ'lum hɪe on wætere
wicg gehn⅛gaS,
hornum geheawa<5
oððæt him heortan blod,
famig flodes bæð,
foldan gesc⅛e<5.
Hwilum hie gefeterað
f⅛ges monnes banda,
gehefega<5 Sonne he
æt hilde sceall
wi<5 IaSwerud
Iifes tiligan :
awritaS hie on his wæpne
wælnota heap.
into the body of a snake
sharp and piercing,
they sting the neat
going about the fields,
the cattle they destroy ;
sometimes in the water
they bow the horse,
with horns they hew him
until his heart’s blood,
a foaming bath of flood,
falls to the earth.
Sometimes they fetter
the hands of the doomed,
they make them heavy when he
is called upon in war,
against a hostile troop
to provide for his life :
they write upon his weapon
a fatal heap of marks1.
Again we are told, in the same composition :
“ And when the devil is very weary he seeketh the
cattle of some sinful man, or an unclean tree ; or
if he meeteth the mouth and body of a man that
hath not been blessed with the sign of the cross,
then goeth he into the bowels of the man who hath
so forgotten, and through his skin and through his
flesh departeth into the earth, and from tnence
Andeth his way into the desert of hell2.”
NICOR.—To the class of elemental gods must
originally have been reckoned the Nicor, or water-
spirit, whose name has not only been retained in the
Water Auy,s of our own country, and in the Neck
ɪ Sal. Sat. pp. 143, 144. 2 Ibid. p. 149.