Northern Antiquities/Chapter 12

by Paul Henri Mallet

Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/381 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/382 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/383 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/384 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/385 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/386 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/387 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/388 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/389 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/390 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/391 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/392 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/393 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/394 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/395 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/396 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/397 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/398 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/399 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/400 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/401 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/402 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/403 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/404 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/405 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/406 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/407 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/408 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/409 laws by degrees relaxed, and their manners still more than their laws.

A numerous offspring was commonly produced from these marriages; but neither the rich, nor the poor scrupled to expose such of their children as they did not chuse to bring up^[1]. Both the Greeks and Romans were guilty of this barbarous practice, long before they can be said to have been corrupted by prosperity, luxury and the arts: So true is it that ignorance is no security from vice, and that men always know enough to invent crimes. It is no less remarkable, that a kind of infant baptism was practised in the North, long before the first dawning of Christianity had reached those parts. Snorro Sturleson, in his Chronicle, speaking of a Norwegian nobleman, who lived in the reign of Harald Harfagre, relates, that he poured water on the head of a new-born child, and called him Hacon, from the name of his father^[2]. Harald himself had been baptized in the fame manner, and it is noted of king Olave Tryggueson, that his mother Astride had him thus baptized and named as soon as he was born. The Livonians observed the same ceremony; which also prevailed among the Germans, as appears from a letter which the famous pope Gregory the Third sent to their apostle Boniface, directing him expressly how to act in this respect^[3]. It is probable that all these people might intend by such a rite to preserve their children from the sorceries and evil charms which wicked spirits might employ against them at the instant of their birth. Several nations of Asia and America have attributed such a power to ablutions of this kind; nor were the Romans without such a custom, though they did not wholly confine it to new-born infants.^[4]

I shall not here repeat what I have said above concerning the hardy way of bringing up children in the North. But I cannot omit mentioning the great advantages gained from it in respect to their health and bodily force. The Greek and Latin authors speak with surprize of the size and strength of the northern men. Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/414 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/415 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/416 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/417 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/418 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/419 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/420 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/421 Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/422 Germany^[5]. The person who had been interred there, seems to have been a lover of good chear; for he had carried with him several utensils of cookery, together with flagons and drinking vessels of all sizes. In the British Isles, in Germany, in Scandinavia, and in many countries in the northern and eastern parts of Asia, are found monuments of the ancient inhabitants, in the form of little round hills and often surrounded with stones, on open plains or near some road. It is the received opinion that these are the burying places of giants, and indeed bones larger than the human size are often found in them; but we must remember that as the ancients durst not approach the palace of Odin on foot, and for that reason had their horses buried with them, it is very probable that the bones of these animals are often mistaken for those of men.

1. Vid. Verel. Not. ad Hervor. cap. vi. p. 87.
2. Vid. Snor. Sturles. c. lxx.
3. Vid. Epist. 122. apud Nic. Serar. in Epist. Sti Bonifacii martyris.
4. Vid. Keysler. Antiq. Select. p. 313. who has a very learned Note on this subject, where he has collected together a number of curious passages from authors ancient and modern, Classic and Barbarous writers, relating to this practice. T.
5. Nimischæ in pago uno milliari a Gubena distante universus adparatus culinarius erutus, cacabi, ollæ, catini, phialæ, patinæ, urceoli, lagenulæ, &c. Vide Keysler. Antiq. Select. Septen. p. 173. T.