tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that by an appellation at
first occasioned by terror and conquest, they afterwards chose to be
distinguished, and assuming a name lately invented were universally
called _Germans_.

They have a tradition that Hercules also had been in their country, and
him above all other heroes they extol in their songs when they advance
to battle. Amongst them too are found that kind of verses by the recital
of which (by them called _Barding_) they inspire bravery; nay, by such
chanting itself they divine the success of the approaching fight. For,
according to the different din of the battle they urge furiously, or
shrink timorously. Nor does what they utter, so much seem to be singing
as the voice and exertion of valour. They chiefly study a tone fierce
and harsh, with a broken and unequal murmur, and therefore apply their
shields to their mouths, whence the voice may by rebounding swell with
greater fulness and force. Besides there are some of opinion, that
Ulysses, whilst he wandered about in his long and fabulous voyages, was
carried into this ocean and entered Germany, and that by him Asciburgium
was founded and named, a city at this day standing and inhabited upon
the bank of the Rhine: nay, that in the same place was formerly found an
altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the name of his father Laertes added
to his own, and that upon the confines of Germany and Rhoetia are still
extant certain monuments and tombs inscribed with Greek characters.
Traditions these which I mean not either to confirm with arguments of
my own or to refute. Let every one believe or deny the same according to
his own bent.

For myself, I concur in opinion with such as suppose the people of
Germany never to have mingled by inter-marriages with other nations, but
to have remained a people pure, and independent, and resembling none but