48 



ETHNOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 



ON 



THE NATIONS OF SLAVONIAN RACE.— Part II. 



Of the Superstitious Customs and Mythology of the Slavonic 



Nations. 



The mythology and superstitious customs of ancient nations, constitute 

 an important and interesting feature in their history : they may be said to 

 form a part of the ethnography of particular races of men, not less striking 

 and often much more permanent than other traits in their social and moral 

 character, being less liable to be influenced by local and contingent cir- 

 cumstances, or changes of external condition. We have less information 

 respecting the mythology of the Slavi, than regarding that of most other 

 European nations. This has arisen from the fact that they were destitute of 

 any mythic literature, or even traditional poetry, while the Celtse had their 

 bards, and the Germans their scalds, sacred poets, who, like the rhapsodi of 

 the Greeks, preserved in metre and rhythm the history of men and gods, 

 handed down by a long succession from early times. All that we know of the 

 Slavonian Mythology is to be gathered from foreigners, who were imperfectly, 

 or not at all acquainted with the language of the people, who therefore could 

 not penetrate their meaning and habits of thought, and could only describe 

 the external traits of their superstition, or give such accounts of it as they 

 derived from information, of which we cannot trace the sources or estimate 

 the correctness. One passage of Procopius contains nearly all that has 

 been discovered in the works of the Byzantine writers, with reference to 

 the religion of the Slavi. We have, however, from later times, much more 

 copious accounts in the writings of the older German historians, some of 

 whom have described the Slavonian tribes in their conflicts with the people 

 and priuces of Germany. Their curiosity seems to have been excited by 

 the obstinacy with which the Wends of the North adliered to their old 

 barbarous superstition, and opposed their dark prejudices to the spreading 

 light of Christianity. Their firm adherence to the customs of their fore- 

 fathers, by preserving down to a late period tlie practices of antiquity, has 

 been favourable to our information respecting them. The worship of 

 heathen gods among the Obotrites, or Wends of Mecklenburg, reaches 

 down within the historical age of Germany, to a period at which we might 

 look for authentic and correct accounts. There are three German his- 

 torians of tiic middle ages, who are regarded as principal sources of in- 

 formation on the mythology and worship of the Slavi. The first of these 

 was Dithmar, a count of \Valdeck and bishop of Merseburg. This writer 

 lived at the beginning of the eleventh century, at a period when the 

 idolatrous worship of the Obotrites at Rhetra, which was its principal 



