58 Ethnographical Memoir on the Nations of Slavonian Race. 



blEBA. 



The preceding images are sup- 

 posed to liave belonged to male 

 divinities. Sieba, however, is 

 plainly a goddess ; she is men- 

 tioned by Heimoldus under the 

 name of Siva, Dea Polaborum ; 

 t!ie name is supposed by most 

 uriters to mean life, which is 

 the signification of Siva, or rather 

 Jiva in the Slavonian languages 

 as well as in Sanskrit. This god- 

 dess was worshipped by many 

 of the Slavonian tribes. Her 

 principal temple was among the 

 Po]abian,or the Wends between 

 Mecklenburg and Holstein, and 

 probably on the hill where the 

 Domhirche at Ratzeburg now 

 stands. This figure is much 

 more elegant than the preceding, 

 and it seems as if the Wends were more attentive to the beauty of their god- 

 desses than their male divinities. The iicad is surmounted by an ape, from 

 which circumstance, and from her name, there is imagined a connection 

 between the Wendish divinity and the fables of the Bramins. 



We are now come to the evil genius of the Slavonic nations. " Well 

 known as this god is to the history of the Wends," says Masch, " yet no 

 description of his figure was found before the discovery of these remains. 

 His name is written differently, Czernebouck, Czerubog, Czerneboch, 



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