128 LETTEKS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



pear in the air, and the other extraordinary effects 

 of the Mirage* 



The Brocken is the name of the loftiest of the 

 Hartz mountains, a picturesque range which lies 

 in the kingdom of Hanover. It is elevated 3,300 

 feet above the sea, and commands the view of a 

 plain seventy leagues in extent, occupying nearly 

 the two-hundredth part of the whole of Europe, 

 and animated with a population of above five 

 millions of inhabitants. From the earliest periods 

 of authentic history, the Brocken has been the 

 seat of the marvellous. On its summits are still 

 seen huge blocks of granite called the Sorcerer's 

 Chair and the Altar. A spring of pure water is 

 known by the name of the Magic Fountain, and 

 the Anemone of the Brocken is distinguished by 

 the title of the Sorcerer's Flower. These names 

 are supposed to have originated in the rites of the 

 great idol Cortho, Avhom the Saxons worshipped 

 in secret on the summit of the Brocken, when 

 Christianity was extending her benignant sway 

 over the subjacent plains. 



As the locality of these idolatrous rites, the 

 Brocken must have been much frequented, and 

 we can scarcely doubt that the spectre which now 

 so often haunts it at sunrise must have been ob- 

 served from the earliest times ; but it is nowhere 

 mentioned that this phenomenon was in any way 



* In the Sanscrit, says Baron Humboldt, the phenome- 

 non of the Mirage is called Mriga Trichna, " thirst or 

 desire of the antelope," no doubt because this animal 

 Mriga, compelled by thirst, Trichna, approaches those 

 barren plains where, from the effect of unequal refraction, 

 he thinks he perceives the undulating surface of the waters. 

 Personal Narrative, vol. iii., p. 554. 



