Chapter 13

Another goddess stands wrapt in thicker darkness, whom Tacitus calls Tanfana, and a stone inscription Tamfana (TAMFANAE SACRUM, p. 80). We are sure of her name, and the termination -ana is the same as in Hludana and other fem. proper names, Bertana, Rapana, Madana. The sense of the word, and with it any sure insight into the significance of her being, are locked up from us.

We must also allude briefly to the Belgian or Frisian dea Nehalennia, about whose name several inscriptions of like import (17) remove all doubt; but the word has also given rise to forced and unsatisfying interpretations. In other inscriptions found on the lower part of the Rhine there occurs compounds, whose termination (-nehis, -nehabus, dat. plurals fem.) seems to contain the same word that forms the first half of Nehalennia; their plural number appears to indicate nymphs rather than a goddess, yet there also hangs about them the notion of a mother (see ch. XVI, the Walachuriun).

The account in Tacitus of the goddess Isis carries us much farther, because it can be linked with living traditions of a cultus that still lingered in the Mid. Ages. Immediately after mentioning the worship of Mercurius, Hercules, and Mars, he adds (cap. 9): Pars Suevorum et Isidi sacrificat. Unde causa et origo peregrino sacro, parum comperi, nisi quod signum ipsum, in modum liburnae figuratum, docet advectam religionem. The importation from abroad can hardly consist in the name Isis, seeing that Mercury, Mars, Hercules, names that must have sounded equally un-German, raised no difficulty; what looked foreign was the symbol, the figure of a ship, reminding the writer of the Roman navigium Isidis.

When spring had set in, and the sea, untraversed during winter, was once more navigable, the Greeks and Romans used to hold a solemn procession, and present a ship to Isis. This was done on the fifth of March (III non. Mart.), and the day is marked in the Kalendarium rusticum as Isidis navigium. (18) The principal evidence is found in Apuleius and Lactantius, (19) two writers who are later than Tacitus, but the custom must have reached back to a much older date. On Alexandrian coins Isis appears walking by the side of Pharus, unfurling a sail.

Say that from Egypt the worship if Isis had penetrated to Greece, to Rome, how are we to imagine, that in the first century, or before, it had got itself conveyed to one particular race inhabiting the heart of Germany? It must have been a similar cultus, not the same, and perhaps long established amongst other Germans as well.

I will here draw attention to a strange custom of a much later time, which appears to me to be connected with this. About the year 1133, in a forest near India (in Ripuaria), a ship was built, set upon wheels, and drawn about the country by men who were yoked to it, first to Aachen (Aix), then to Maestricht, where mast and sail were added, and up the river to Tongres, Looz and so on, everywhere with crowds of people assembling and escorting it. Whereever it halted, there were joyful shouts, songs of triumph and dancing round the ship kept up till far into the night. The approach of the ship was notified to the towns, which opened their gates and went out to meet it.

We have a detailed, yet not complete report of it in Rodulfi chronicon abbatiae S. Trudonis, lib. xi., which on the account of its importance I will here insert, from Pertz 12, 309 seq.:

Est genus mercenariorum, quorum officium est ex lino et lana texere telas, hoc procax et superbum super alios mercenarios vulgo reputatur, ad quorum procacitatem et superbiam humiliandam et propriam injuriam de eis ulciscendam pauper quidam rusticus ex villa nomine Inda (20) hanc diabolicam excogitavit technam. Accepta a judicibus fiducia et a levibus hominibus auxilio, qui gaudent jocis et novitatibus, in proxima silva navem composuit, et eam rotis suppositis affigens vehibilem super terram effecit, obtinuit quoque a potestatibus, ut injectis funibus textorum humeris ex Inda Aquisgranum traheretur. (21) Aquis suscepta cum utriusque sexus grandi hominum processione: nihilominus a textoribus Trajectum [Maestricht] est provecta, ibi emendata, malo veloque insignita Tungris [Tongres] est inducta, de Tungris Los [Looz]. Audiens abbas (sancti Trudonis) (22) Rodulfus navim illam infausto omine compactam malaque solutam alite cum hujusmodi gentilitatis studio nostro oppido adventare, praesago spiritu hominibus praedicabat, ut ejus susceptione abstinerent, quia maligni spiritus sub hac ludificatione in ea traherentur, in proximoque seditio per eam moveretur, unde caedes, incendia rapinaeque fierent, et humanus sanguis multus funderetur. Quem ista declamantem omnibus diebus, quibus malignorum spirituum illud simulacrum loci morabatur, oppidani nostri audire noluerunt, sed eo studio et gaudio excipientes, quo perituri Trojani fatalem equum in medio fori sui dedicaverunt, statimque proscriptionis sententiam accipiunt villae textores, qui ad profanas hujus simulacri excubias venirent tardiores. Pape! Quis vidit unquam tantam (ut ita liceat latinisare) in rationalibus animalibus brutitatem? quis tantam in renatis in Christo gentilitatem? Cogebant sententia proscriptionis textores, nocte et die navim stipare omni armaturae genere, solicitasque ei excubias nocte et die continuare. Mirumque fuit, quod non cogebant eos ante navim Neptuno hostias immolare, de cujus naves esse solent regione, sed Neptunus eas Marti reservabat, quod postea multipliciter factum est.

Textores interim occulto sed praecordiali gemitu Deum justum judicem super eos vindicem invocabant, qui ad hanc ignominiam eos detrudebant, cum juxta rectam vitam antiquorum Christianorum et apostolicorum virorum manuum suarum laboribus viverent, nocte et die operantes, unde alerentur et vestirentur, liberisque suis idipsum providerent. Quaerebant et conquerebantur ad invicem lacrymabiliter, unde illis magis quam aliis mercenariis haec ignominia et vis contumeliosa, cum inter Christianos alia plura essent officia suo multum aspernabiliora, cum tamen nullum dicerent aspernabile, de quo Christianus posset se sine peccato conducere, illudque solum esset vitabile et ignobile quod immunditiam peccati contraheret animae, meliorque sit rusticus textor et pauper, quam exactor orphanorum et spoliator viduarum urbanus et nobilis judex. Cumque haec et eorum similia secum, ut dixi, lacrymabiliter conquererentur, concrepabant ante illud, nescio cujus potius dicam, Bacchi an Veneris, Neptuni sive Martis, sed ut verius dicam ante omnium malignorum spirituum execrabile domicilium genera diversorum musicorum, turpia contica et religioni Christianae indigna concinentium. Sancitum quoque erat a judicibus, ut praeter textores, quicumque ad tactum navi appropinquarent, pignus de collo eorum ereptum textoribus relinquerent, nisi se ad libitum redimerent. Sed quid faciam? loquarne an sileam? utinam spiritus mendacii stillaret de labiis meis: sub fugitiva adhuc luce diei imminente luna matronarum catervae abjecto femineo pudore audientes strepitum hujus vanitatis, passis capillis de stratis suis exiliebant, aliae seminudae, aliae simplice tantum calmide circumdatae, chorosque ducentibus circa navim impudenter irrumpendo se admiscebant. Videres ibi aliquando mille hominum animas sexus utriusque prodigiosum et infaustum celeusma usque ad noctis medium celebrare. Quando vero execrabilis illa chorea rumpebatur, emisso ingenti clamore vocum inconditarum sexus uterque hac illacque bacchando ferebatur; quae tunc videres agere, nostrum est tacere et deflere, quibus modo contingit graviter luere. Istis tam nefandis factis plus quam duodecim diebus supradicto ritu celebratis, conferebant simul appidani quid agerent amodo de deducenda a se novi.

Qui sanioris erant consilii, et qui eam susceptam fuisse dolebant, timentes Deum pro his quae facta viderant et audierant, et sibi pro his futura conjiciebant, hortabantur ut comburatur (combureretur) aut isto vel illo modo de medio tolleretur; sed stulta quorundam coecitas huic salubri consilio contumeliose renitebatur. Nam maligni spiritus, qui in illa ferebantur, disseminaverant in populo, quod locus ille et inhabitantes probroso nomine amplius notarentur, apud quos remansisse inveniretur. Deducendam igitur eam ad villam, quae juxta nos est, Leugues decreverunt. Interea Lovaniensis dominus audiens de daemonioso navis illius ridiculo, instructusque a religiosis viris terrae suae de illo vitando et terrae suae arcendo monstro, gratiam suam et amicitiam mandat oppidanis nostris, commonefaciens eos humiliter, ut pacem illam quae inter illos et se erat reformata et sacramentis confirmata non infringerent, et inde praecipue illud diaboli ludibrium viciniae suae inferrent; quod si ludum esse dicerent, quaererent alium cum quo inde luderent. Quod si ultra hoc mandatum committerent, pacem praedictam in eum infringerent et ipse vindictam in eos ferro et igne exsequeretur. Id ipsum mandaverat Durachiensibus dominis, qui et homines ejus fuerant manuatim, et interpositis sacramentis et obsidibus datis sibi confoederati. Hoc cum jam tertio fecisset, spretus est tam ab oppidanis nostris quam Durachiensibus dominis. Nam propter peccata inhabitantium volebat Dominus mittere super locum nostrum ignem et arma Lovaniensium. Ad hanc igitur plebeiam fatuitatem adjunxit se dominus Gislebertus (advocatus abbatiae S. Trudonis) contra generis sui nobilitatem, trahendamque decrevit navem illam terream usque Leugues ultra Durachiensem villam, quod et fecit malo nostro omine cum omni oppidanorum nostrorum multitudine et ingenti debacchantium vociferatione. Leuguenses, oppidanis nostris prudentiores et Lovaniensis domini mandatis obsequentes, portas suas clauserunt clauserunt et infausti ominis monstrum intrare non permiserunt.



ENDNOTES:

17. Montfaucon ant. expl. 2, 433. Vredii hist. Flandr. 1, xliv. Mém. de Pacad. celt. 1, 199-245. Mone, heidenth. 2, 346. Back

18. Gesner, script. rei rust., ed. Lips. 1773. 1, 886; so also in the Clend. vallense, and in the Cal. lambec. (Graevii thes. 8, 98). Back

19. Apuleii met. lib. 11 (Ruhnken p. 764-5): Diem, qui dies ex ista nocte nascetur, aeterna mihi nuncupavit religio; quo sedatis hibernis tempestatibus et lentis maris procellosis fluctibus, navigabili jam pelago rudem dedicantes carinam primitias commeatus libant mei sacerdotes. Id sacrum sollicita nec profana mente debebis operiri; nam meo monitu sacerdos in ipso procinctu pompae roseam manu dextra sistro (Egyptian timbrel) cohaerentem gestabit coronam. Incontanter ergo dimotis tuirbulis alacer continuare pompam meam, volentia fretus; et de proximo dementer velut manum sacerdotis deosculabundus rosis decerptis, pessimae mihique destestabilis dudum belluae istius corio te protinus exue. Lactantius, instit. 1, 27: Certus dies habetur in fastis, quo Isidis navigium celebratur, quae res docet illam non tranasse, sed navigasse. Back

20. Inden in the Jülich country, afterwards Cornelimünster, not far from Aix; conf. Pertz 1, 394. 488. 514. 592. 2, 299. 489. Back

21. This of ships being built in a wood and carried on men's shoulders reminds one of Saxo Gram. p. 93, and of the 'Argo humeris travecta Alpes' (Pliny N.H. 3, 18; their being set on wheels, of Nestor's story about Oleg; conf. the ship of Fro above. [An inadvertence on the author's part: the ship is not 'carried,' but 'drawn by ropes thrown over the weavers shoulders.'] Back

22. St. Tron between Liège and Louvain. Back