Ethnographical Memoir on the Nations of Slavonian Race. 5 1 



to have been tbe Phoebus of the Slavi. In one of his hands he held a bow j 

 in tbe other, a hoinful of wine, or more probably of beer. 



After all, we should have had but a vague idea of the style of Wendish 

 idolatry, had it not been for a curious discovery made in the Mecklenburg 

 country, of a series of images and other relics, which appear to have been 

 the paraphanalia of a temple of Radegast. An account of this discovery 

 is contained in work by H&fprediger Mascb, from which the following is 

 an extract. 



Tlie whole collection of those antiquities, as well as some pieces which 

 have been irre])arably lost, was found near the town of Prilwitz, in Meck- 

 lenburg, not in the ruins of the old citadel, which is in the middle of the 

 village, but on the north side of the mountain, not far from the shore of the 

 lake of Tolleutz. They were contained in large metal jars, covered with 

 Runic inscriptions, in which they appear to have been carefully buried. 

 The discovery was made by the pastor of the village Frederic Sponholtz j 

 and therefore previous to the year 1697, when he died. The garden be- 

 longing to the clergyman joined the north side of a high mountain, near 

 the bank of the lake. When the parson was planting a tree in his garden, 

 he cut away a part of the bank, discovered these relics, and took them 

 into his possession. He concealed his discovery. After his death, his 

 widow sold a part of his collection, together with two sacrificial vessels, in 

 which they were contained, and some iron instruments, to Palke, a gold- 

 smith in New Brandenburgh. The two sacrificial vessels were used by a 

 brass-founder, for casting church bells. Most of the antiquities were pre- 

 served. Masch has given a particular account of Sponholtz, a goldsmith in 

 New Brandenburg, and of his relationship to the parson, Sponholtz of Pril- 

 witz, in consequence of which they came into the possession of the latter. 

 A physician, named Hempel, got some knowledge of the existence of these 

 treasures, which liad been long kept secret, and published an imperfect 

 account of them. The first complete description of them, however, was 

 given to the world by Masch, the author of the work of which I have 

 before spoken. Masch's work attracted a great deal of attention in 

 Germany ; and it is referred to as one of high authority, by writers on the 

 antiquities of the Slavonic nations, particularly by Dobrowski and Ka- 

 ramsin. The most interesting of these remains are brazen statues of the 

 Slavonian gods, cast evidently by native artists. The skill of these artists 

 was not sufficient for founding a whole statue at a time, and in one place : 

 the different parts appear to have been cast separately, and afterwards put 

 together.* By means of the Runic inscriptions on these statues, most of 

 the principal deities of the Slavonians have been recognised. I shall 

 enumerate the most remarkable of them, with reference to the copies of 

 Masch's representations, and extract some of his remarks. 



• Karamsin has observed that traces are found in the Iliad of this method of 

 manufacturing gods. 



