Chapter 21

The Poles call the bird zezula, the Bohemians 'ezhule (both fem.). The O. Pol. chronicle of Prokosz, (61) p. 113 of the Lat. ed., has a remarkable account of the worship of a Slavic god Zyvie: 'divintati Zywie fanum exstructum erat in monte ab ejusdem nomine Zywiec dicto, ubi primis diebus mensis Maji innumerus populus pie conveniens precabatur ab ea, quae vitae (62) auctor habebatur, longam et prosperam valetudinem. Praecipue tamen ei litabatur ab iis qui primum cantum cuculi audivissent, ominantes superstitiose tot annos se victuros quoties vocem repetiisset. Opinabantur enim supremum hunc universi moderatorem transfigurari in cuculum ut ipsis annuntiaret vitae tempora: unde crimini ducebatur, capitalique poena a magistratibus afficiebatur, qui cuculum occidisset.' Here the oracular bird is a god in metamorphosis, just as that Saxon rhyme called him 'kukuk vam häven.'

To the Servian haiduks it betokens evil when the kukavitsa comes too soon, and cries out of the black (leafless) forest; and good luck when it sings from the green wood, Vuk sub v.

In the Eddic Grotta-song the quern-maids are only allowed to rest and sleep while the cuckoo is silent (enn gaukrinn þagði).

The cuckoo can prophesy both good and ill; in dealing with him (as with other birds of enchantment, owls, magpies) you have to weigh your words and questions, so as not to get ensnared (Arndt's Sweden 3, 18). To kill him without cause is dangerous, his followers might avenge it. He has power to teaze men, to delude them, what Swedish superstition calls dåra, and Danish gante. A MHG. poem (Fragm. 38b) has: 'peterlîn und louch hât begucket mit der gouch.' Often his appearing is of evil omen. Paulus Diac. 6, 55 syas of Hildeprand king of the Lombards: 'cui dum contum, sicut moris est, traderent, in ejus conti summitate cuculus avis volitando veniens insedit. Tunc aliquibus prudentibus hoc portento visum est significari, ejus principatum inutilem fore' (see Suppl.).

As that all-nourishing life-divinity of the Slavs took the shape of the cuckoo, so does the Grecian Zeus transform himself into the bird, when he first approaches Hera. A seated figure of the goddess shows a cuckoo on her staff, and a bas-relief representing the wedding procession of Zeus and Hera has a cuckoo perched on Zeus's sceptre (as on that of the Lombard king); (63) so that this bird has got mixed up with the most sacred of all weddings, and we understand why he promises marriage and the fruit of wedlock. Then, the mountian on which Zeus and Hera came together, previously called Qronax (from qronoj, seat of the Thunderer? supra. p. 183) or Qornax, received after that the name of oroj kokkugion (Pausanias ii. 36, 2). Well, and we have gowk's-hills in Germany: a Gauchsberg near Kreuznach (Widder's Pfalz 4, 36), others near Durlach and Weinsberg (Mone's Anz. 6, 350), a Guggisberg in Switzerland (Joh. Müller, 1, 347. 2, 82. Tschachtlan p. 2), Göckerliberg (KM. no. 95); the name might be accounted for very naturally by the song of the bird being heard from the hill, but that other traditions also are mixed up with it. In Freidank 82, 8 (and almost the same in Bonerius 65, 55):

wîsiu wort unt tumbiu werc

diu habent die von Gouchesberc.
Here the men of Gauchsberg are shown up as talking wisely and acting foolishly; Gauchsberg is equivalent to Narrenberg (fool's mount). (64) As far back as the 10^th century gouh has the side-meaning of fool (N. ps. 48, 11. 93, 8. urheizkouh, war-fool, N. Bth. 175); the same everywhere in the 13^th (Walth. 22, 31. Trist. 8631. 18215), though commonly with a qualifying adj. or gen. pl. : ich tumber gouch, MS. 1, 65ª. tumber denn ein gouch, Troj. 8126. tumber gouch, Barl. 319, 25. gouch unwîse 228, 32. sinneloser gouch, 319, 38. der treit gouches houbet (wears a gowk's head), MsH. 3, 468g. rehter witze ein gouch, MS. 2, 124b. der mære ein göichelîn (dim.), and gouchgouolt (augm.), Ben. 209. The ON. gaukr [[cuckoo]] is likewise arrogans morio. Hans Sachs occasionally uses Gauchberg (65) in the same sense, ii. 4, 110d (Kempten ii. 4, 220ª), extr. from Göz 1, 52. Yet originally in Gauchsberg the bird himself may very well have been meant in a mystic sense which has fallen dark to us now (see Suppl.). (66)

In other ways too the cuckoo stands in ill repute, he passes for an adulterer, who lays his eggs in other people's nests; hence the Romans used cuculus in the sense of moechus (Plauti Asinaria, twice in last scene), and our gouch, göuchelîn formerly meant bastard (Nib. 810, 1. Aw. 1, 46), as the Swiss gugsch still means an unbidden rival suitor. He even comes out as a fiendish being, or the fiend himself, in phrases everywhere known from of old: 'cuckoo knows, cuckoo take him, cuckoo sent him here' and the like, in all of which the devil's name might be substituted without change of meaning. This seems to me to point to old heathen traditions, to which the diabolic tinge was added only by degrees; and among these I reckon the Low Saxon formula 'the cuckoo and his clerk (or sexton)'! by which clerk is meant the hoopoo (Brem. wtb. 2, 858), a bird that is likewise thought to have received his form by metamorphosis. I cannot trace the story of the cuckoo and hoopoo any further; does the one sing to the other? [his note 'ooboo' is like an echo of 'cuckoo']. Döbel i. 1, 68 calls the hoopoo the cuckoo's lackey, because he comes with him in spring and goes with him in autumn (see Suppl.). the peewit has the same things said of him.

The froth on willows, caused by the cicada spumaria, we call kukuks-speichel, Swiss guggerspeu, Engl. cuckoo-spit, -spittle, Dan. giögespyt, but in some places witch's spittle, Norweg. troldkiäringspye: (67) another proof of the bird's connexion with preternatural things, and reminding us of the bird-spittle (fugls hrâki) which in Sn. 34 goes to make up the band Gleipnir. Several names of plants assure us of his mythical nature. Sorrel: OHG. gouchesampfera, Swiss guggersauer, AS. geácessûre, Dan. giögemad, giögesyre, it being supposed that he loved to eat it; our kukuksbrot, gauchlauch, Fr. pain de coucou, panis cuculi. Cuckoo-flower: kukuksblume, gauchblume, flos cuculi. Pimpernel: gauchheil, etc., guckgauchdorn, Fischart's Geschichtskl. 269ª.

The Slavs all make this bird feminine, and see nothing bad, nothing fiendish in it: zezhulice sits on the oak, and bewails the passing away of spring, Königinh. MS. 174. The Servian kukuvitsa was once a maiden, who wept her brother's death till she was changed into the bird; 'sinia (gray) kukavitsa,' Vuk 3, 66; three women turned into kukavitsas, Vuk 1, no. 321. In songs of Lit. Russia still a moping melancholy bird; and in Russian folktales we have again a young girl changed into a cuckoo by an enchantress (Götze's Serb. lieder, p. 212).

Of small birds, the swallow has been mentioned, p. 672. 'Frau nachtigall' is often named by our minnesingers; but the myth, that her children are born dead and she sings them alive, seems not of German origin. The lark and galander (crested lark) must have been actors in the animal legend oftener than we are now aware of; there are still beautiful stories of the zaunkönig (hedgeking, wren), AS. wrenna. But I have yet to speak of two little birds, which appear to have been peculiarly sacred in olden times: redbreast and titmouse.

Robin redbreast is on no account to have his nest disturbed, or the house will be struck with lightning: it is the redstart's nest that draws down the flash. The latter the Swiss call husrötheli (house-redling); if you tease him or take him out, your cows will give red milk (Tobler 281). Were these birds sacred to Donar the red-bearded? And has that to do with the colour of their throat and tail? They say the redbreast drops leaves and flowers on the face of a murdered man [or babe'] whom he finds in the wood; did he do this in the service of the god, who therefore would not suffer him to be molested?

The tiny titmouse, (68) whom he called gossip, was able to outwit even Reynard himself. The weisthümer tell us in what estimation this little forest bird was held, by setting the severest penalties on his capture: 'item, si quis sibilando vel alio modo volucrem illum ceperit, qui vulgo meise nuncupatur, banni reus erit,' Jura archiep. trever., in Lacombl. arch. 326. 'si quis auceps hanc silvam intraverit, pro nullo genere volucrum componet, nisi capiat meisam que dicitur banmeisa, et pro illa componat 60 sol. tanquam pro cervo,' ibid. 367. 'wer da fehet ein bermeisen, der sal geben ein koppechte hennen und zwelf hunkeln, und sechzig schilling pfenning und einen helbeling,' Dreieicher wildbann (Weisth. 1, 499). 'wer eine kolmeise fienge mit limen ader mit slagegarn, der sal unserme herrn geben eine falbe henne mit sieben hünkeln,' Rheingauer w. 1, 535. 'wer ein sterzmeise fahet, der ist umb leib u. guet, und in unsers herrn ungnad,' Creuznacher w. 2, 153.---The reason of these laws is hidden from us; plainly the bird was held sacred and inviolable. And it is perfectly in tune with this, that at the present moment the Lettons, who call the bird sihle, (69) regard it as prophetic and auspicious, and even call a soothsayer sihlneeks. (70) Also the Spanish name for the titmouse, cid (lord), or cid paxaro (lord sparrow), is worth considering. Titmouse, wren and woodpecker (bee-wolf) are confounded in popular belief; what is meant is the tiniest prettiest bird (see Suppl.).

Reptiles----Snakes, by the beauty of their shape and the terror of their bite, seem above all animals to command awe and reverence. A great many stories tell of an exchange of form between men and snakes: an almost infallible sign of their having been worshipped. Beings that had passed out of human into animal shapes, and were able to return into the former at need, these heathenism was inclined to regard as sacred; it worshipped kind beneficent snakes, whilst in christian opinion the notion of snakes being malignant and diabolic predominates.

The same Vita Barbati, which we had to thank for information on the tree-cultus of the Lombards (p. 649), tells us likewise of a worship of snakes: 'His ver diebus, quamvis sacra baptismatis unda Langobardi abluerentur, tamen priscum gentilitatis ritum tenentes, sive bestiali mente degebant, bestiae simulachro, quae vulgo vipera nominatur, flectebant colla, quae debite suo debebant flectere Creatori.........Praeterea Romuald ejusque sodales, prisco coecati errore, palam se solum Deum colere fatebantur, et in ebditis viperae simulachrum ad suam perniciem adorabant.' During the king's absence, Barbatus beseeches his consort Theodorada to procure for him that image of the snake. 'Illaque respondit: Si hoc perpetravero, pater, veraciter scio me morituram.' He perseveres and at last persuades her; as soon as the image is in his hands, he melts it down, and delivers the metal to goldsmiths to make out of it a plate and a chalice. (71) Out of these golden vessels the christian sacrament is administered to the king on his return, and then Barbatus confesses that the holy utensils were made by melting down the idol. 'Repente unus ex circumstantibus ait: Si mea uxor talia perpetrasset, nullo interposito momento abscinderem caput ejus.' A passage in the other Vita also is pertinent here: 'Quinetiam viperam auri metallo formatam summi pro magnitudine dei supplici devotione venerari videbantur. Unde usque hodie, sicut pro voto arboris Votum, ita et locus ille Census, devotiones (72) ubi viperae reddebantur dignoscitur appellari.' About 'votum' I expressed my mind, p. 650n.; 'census' signifies the Goth. gild, gilstr, OHG. këlt, këlstar (p. 38-9 and RA. 358). The two words votum and census are no slight testimony to the genuineness and oldness of the biography.----Here then we have a striking instance of an idol made of gold, and moreover of the christian teacher's endeavour to preserve the sacred material, only converting it into a christian form. What higher being the snake represented to the Lombards, we can scarcely say for certain; not the all-encircling world-snake, the Miðgarðs-ormr, iörmungandr of Norse mythology, for there is not a hint that even in the North, let alone elsewhere, he was visibly represented and worshipped. Ofnir and Svâfnir are ON. names of snakes, and side-names of Oðinn (conf. p. 144); is it Wuotan that we are to understand by the 'summus deus' of the Lombards ? (73) But the special characteristics of their snake-worship are entirely lost to us. If the term vipera was deliberately chosen, as I have no doubt it was, it can only mean one of the smaller kinds of snake (coluber berus), OHG. natara, AS. nœdre, ON. naðra [[adder, snake]] (also masc. naðr, like Goth. nadrs), though the simulacrum, of whose gold a plate and chalice could be made, bespeaks a considerable size.




ENDNOTES:

61. Kronika polska przez Prodosza, Warsz. 1825, and in Latin 'Chronicon Slavosarmaticum Procosii,' Varsav. 1827; professedly of the 10^th cent. It is not so old as that, yet Dobrowsky (Wien. jahrb. 32, 77-80) goes too far in pronoucning it a pure fabrication; it is at any rate founded on old traditions. [Back]

62. zywy, alive; zywic, to sustain life, nourish. [Back]

63. Welcker on Schwenk 269. 270; usually an eagle sits there. The figures of eagle and cuckoo are not always easy to distinguish; but to this day the Bavarians by way of jest call the Prussian eagle 'gukezer,' Schm. 2, 27. [Back]

64. Hence we find, as substitutes for it, Affenberc (Docen's Misc. 2, 187); Affenberc and Narrental, MsH. 3, 200b; Affental, ibid. 213ª. Winsbeke 45, 7. Renner 16469; Apenberg and Narrenberg in the Plattd. 'Narragonia' 77b. 137b; Eselsberc, Diut. 2, 77. Animals whose stupidity was proverbial of old, are the ox, ass, ape, goat, goose, gowk and jay: við ôsvinna apa, Sæm. 25b. âtrunnr apa 55ª. Notk. ps. 57, 11 has ruoh (stultus), i.e. hruoh, AS. hrôc (graculus, Gramm. 3, 361). [Back]

65. Much oftener Schalksberg (rogues's hill) in the phrase 'in den schalksperg hawen (hew)' i. 5, 524ª. iii. 3, 28d, 54b. iv. 3, 20d. 31c. 40ª; the reason of which I do not know. 'Schalksberg wine grows in Franconia.' 'Henricus dictus de Scalkesbergh,' Spilker 2, 148 (an. 1268). [Back]

66. Those who crave other explanations, will find plenty in Mone's Anz. 6, 350 seq. 'Gouchsberg is Caucasus, as Elberich is the spirit of Elburj, diabolus the Persic div,' and so forth. [Back]

67. Summer-freckles in Bavar. gugker-schegken, cuckoo-spots, Schm. 2, 27; conf. Höfer 1, 337. [Back]

68. Meise, OHG. meisâ, AS. mâse, Nethl. mêze, Fr. mesange, O. Fr. mesenge. [Back]

69. Lith. zyle, zyléle; Pol. sikora, Boh. sykora, Russ. zinika, sinítsa, Slov. senitsa, Serv. sienitsa. The Lettic name may be derivable from sinnaht, the Lith. from zynoti (scire), so that the full form would be sinnele, zynle, the sage knowing bird? The jay also is in Lettic sihls. To the Swed. Lapps taitne signifies not only wood-pecker, but superstitious divination; tayetet is to understand. In view of that, our specht (woodpecker) seems to belong to a lost root spihan, spah, spâhun, whence also spëhôn (explorare), and spâhi (sapiens, prudens). [Back]

70. Mag. der lett. lit. gesellsch., Mitau 1838. 6, 151. [Back]

71. As the gold of the swan-rings was made into pots, and what remained over was the goldsmith's profit. [Back]

72. Printed text: locus ille census devotionis, ubi viperae reddebantur. [Back]

73. 'Summi pro magn. Dei' may possibly mean 'instead of (worshipping) the majesty of the Most High.'---Trans. [Back]