428 THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND. [book i.
DIVINATION AND WITCHCRAFT.—The
attachment of the Germanic races to divination
attracted the notice of Tacitus1: he says: “They
are as great observers of auspices and lots as any.
The way they use their lots is simple ; they cut
into slips a branch taken from an oak or beech,
and having distinguished them by certain marks,
scatter them at random and as chance wills over a
white cloth. Then if the enquiry is a public one,
the state-priest,—if a private one, the father of the
house himself,—having prayed to the gods, and
looking up to heaven, thrice raises each piece, and
interprets them when raised according to the marks
before inscribed upon them. If they turn out un-
favourable, there is no further consultation that
day about the same matter : if they are favourable,
the authority of omens is still required. Even here
they are acquainted with a mode of interrogating
the voices and flight of birds ; but it is peculiar to
this race to try the presages and admonitions of
horses. These, white in colour and subject to no
mortal work, are fed at the public cost in the sacred
groves and woods: then being harnessed to the
sacred chariot, they are accompanied by the priest,
the king or the prince of the state, who observe
their neighings and snortings. Nor has any au-
gury more authority than this, not only among the
common people, but even the nobles and priests :
for they think themselves the ministers, but the
horses the confidants, of the gods. There is an-
other customary form of auspices, by which they
’ Germ. x.
CH∙ χll∙]
HEATHENDOM. DIVINATION.
42β
inquire concerning the event of serious wars. They
match a captive of the nation with which they are
at war, however they can come by him, with a se-
lect champion of their own, each armed with his
native weapons. The victory of this one or that
is taken as a presage.”
The use of lots as connected with heathendom,
that is, as a means of looking into futurity, con-
tinued in vogue among the Saxons till a late period,
in spite of the efforts of the clergy : this is evident
from the many allusions in the Poenitentials, and
the prohibitions of the secular law. The augury by
horses does not appear to have been used in Eng-
land, from any allusion at least which still survives;
but it was still current in Germany in the seventh
century, and with less change of adjuncts than we
usually find in the adoption of heathen forms by
Christian saints. It was left to the decision of horses
to determine where the mortal remains of St. Gall
should rest ; the saint would not move, till certain
unbroken horses were brought and charged with his
coffin: then, after prayers, we are told, tsElevato
igitur a pontifice nec non et a sacerdote feretro, et
equis Superposito, ait episcopus : t Tollite frena de
Capitibus eorum, et pergant, ubi Dominus voluerit.”
ʌ' exillum ergo erueis cum Iuminaribus adsumeba-
tur, et psallentes, equis praecedentibus, via incipie-
batur1.” It may be imagined that the horses in-
fallibly found the proper place for the saint’s burial-
place; but what is of importance to us is the use
of horses on the occasion. In this country how-
1 ʌ it. Anon. Sci. Galli. Pertz, Monum. ii. 17.