Notes and Queries, Number 41, August 10, 1850 by Various
page 11 of 63 (17%)
page 11 of 63 (17%)
|
done so, and practised it when necessary.
P.S. Since writing the above, I recollect that the Latin verse, "_Ad viscum Druidæ_: Druidæ clamare solebant," is frequently quoted from Ovid, sometimes, and that recently, specifying the Fasti. I need not tell you that it is not to be found there, and I wish to inquire if any of the numerous readers of your valuable publication can say where I can meet with it; if classical, it is another remarkable evidence of the endurance of popular customs to the present day. In the following quotation from Keyssler's Treatise _de Visco_, the Anklopferleinstag would be also a noisy demonstration dating from druidical times, at a period of the year not far removed from the beginning of November. "In superiori Germaniæ parte, Marchionatu Onolsbacensi comprehensa, cujus inolæ plurimas Gentilismi reliquias retinent, regio ipsa multis Druidum vestigiis abundat, tempore adventus Christi, sive media Hyeme (am Anklopferleinstag), vulgus per vias et pagos currit malleisque pulsat fores et fenestras indesinenter clamans _Gutheyl! Gutheyl!_ Quod quidem non salutem per Christi adventum partam indicat, quasi diceres: Gut Heyl; bona salus; multo minus fictitam Sanctam Günthildem, quam rustici illius tractus miris fabulis ac nugis celebrant, sed nomen ipsum visci est." {164} The present popular and only German name of the mistletoe, the parent of our English denomination, is _Mistel_, which is evidently only _Meist-heyl_ (most heal, or healing), the superlative of the above |
|