330 



NA TURE 



[August 6, 1896 



character, not only for the coming year, but in all future years. 

 This book, with its many editions and translations, has now 

 become very scarce, and a facsimile copy of the original has 

 been reproduced by Prof Hcllmann, who, with the affection of 

 the ardent bibliographer, has traced it with infinite difficulty 

 through many libraries and into many unespected places. To 

 this little book, which consists ot only eight or nine pages, the 

 editor has added an introduction of some seventy, bearing the 

 same relation to the original work that FalstatTs sack did to his 

 bread. And just as Falstaff found his bread an unwelcome 

 addition, so these last few pages are a hard nut to those who 

 have not made a critical study of the Clerman of the fifteenth 

 century. But Prof Hellniann's introduction gives great assist- 

 ance, and by the help of it we have made out some of the rules 

 and predictions, which appear quite as trustworthy as the pro- 

 gnostications that our modern weather prophets circulate, and in 

 which no doubt they find their account. 



The proper title of the book appears to be " In disem biech- 

 bin wirt gefunden der B.iuren Pracktick unnd regel daraufi" sy 

 d IS ganz iar ain autfmercken haben unnd halten." Under this 

 title is a woodcut of a figure contemplating a crucifix, the whole 

 surrounded by a scroll-work not badly executed. The text can 

 be conveniently divided into three parts. The first shows how 

 the weather, the harvest, the crops, and so forth, can be pre- 

 dicted from observations of the weather at Christmastide. If 

 I he weather is fair and clear on Christmas night, then there will 

 be plenty of wine and fruit. If the weather be contrary, so will 

 the matter fall out contrary. Then the wind is of importance. 

 We understand the author, whoever he may be, to say that if 

 the wind gets up at sunrise the year will be dear; but if the 

 wind gets up at sunset, the king and the great lords will die. 

 Like our modern prophets, the author is not afraid to indicate 

 the course of political events. A fruitful year is foreshadowed 

 by a west wind at midnight, but a southerly wind at midday 

 betokens that there will be daily thunder. The author's word 

 is " Krackhair,'' but whether we are justified in tracing it to 

 " Krachen " must be decided by the student of old fierman. 

 One ciin only regret that, with so simple a rule for his guide, 

 one should be hindered from getting the full benefit, by his 

 ignorance of the language in which it is written. 



Then the author goes on to tell us what will happen when 

 Christmas day falls on a Mond,ay, Tuesday, and so on to 

 Saturday ; a very simple cycle, a little disturbed by the intro- 

 duction of leap years, but nevertheless of great value to simple 

 folk. With Christmas day on Sunday, among other things we 

 are told that the summer will be hot and dry and fine, the 

 autumn damp and wintry. There will be plenty of corn and 

 wine and much honey, and if the text be correctly construed it 

 says that " old people will die willingly "; but this seems such a 

 contradiction to known facts, that the derman must speak for 

 itself to those who can understand it. "Die alten leiit sterben 

 geren." 



This is the kind of information that we get for each of the 

 days of the week, and it is curious to notice the important part 

 that honey plays in the predictions. He kills his king and his 

 princes and his young men and his old women, but through all 

 disa.sters he evidently remembers his honey, and in his partiality 

 ranks it of equivalent importance to corn and wine. 



In the next section we are told what will happen by the 

 condition of the weather during twelve days, presumably between 

 Christmas and Epiphany. The rules are very short, and are 

 given without ambiguity or hedging. If the sun shines through- 

 out Christmas day it indicates a peaceful year ; if on the next 

 day, however, money vanishes and corn becomes dear. But the 

 third day presages something so awful that one must hope his 

 translation is at fault. " So kriegen die bischof un die prelaten 

 gem /uii wirt irrung und den pfaffen. " The spectacle of 

 bishops, priests and deacons quarrelling is .so opposed to our 

 knowledge of their character, that some mistake has evidently 

 glided in here, or the words do not convey the meaning which 

 they apparently do to one only acquainted with modern ( lerman. 



The book concludes with remarks of similar value on each 

 month more or less depending upon Church festivals, and thus 

 connecting Church observance with meteorological phenomena. 

 This strikes one as an ingenious method of ensuring observance 

 of the Church's calendar. If the sun shines on St. \"incent's 

 day, we are told there will be much wine : if on .St. Paul's 

 day, a fruitful year. This last prediction recalls another of 

 probably still older date. "Clara dies Pauli bona lempora 

 denot<at anni." 



When the book passed over into a French translation a lighter 

 NO. 1397. VOL, 54] 



note seems to have been struck, judging from the jin ding 

 rhymes by which it is recommended to the reader. 



Progn 



elle 



ication noi 

 Des anciens laboureurs m appelle 

 Je fus dc Uieu transmisc aux vieulx 

 Qui m ont approuveeen lous lieux 

 Kt coinme je diray niotz a motz 

 I,fs anciens ne font pas sotz 

 .\cliepte moy quand m auras veu 

 Car tu ne ser.-us point deceu 

 Je te donray une doctrine 

 Qui te vauldra d'or une mine 

 Kt hardiment sur moy te fonde 

 Car pe dure autant que le monde 

 Kt SI te vcuiz bien advertir 

 Que je ne te veulx point nientir. 



The contents appear, however, to be but a translation of the 

 older German work, and the subject is regarded as too sacred 

 and important to allow any license to the playfulness of French 

 wit, to enliven the sobriety and heaviness of the German original. 



In our own country, under the title of the " Husbandman's 

 Practice," the book seems to have enjoyed a wide popularity. 

 No divine authority was, however, invoked, but the predictions 

 were fathered upon the astronomers, forsooth, and this too 

 about the time tliat Newton published the " Principia," and 

 Flamsteed was at work at Greenwich. The preface runs : ' ' The 

 wise and cunning masters in astronomy have found, that man 

 may see and mark the weather of the holy Christmas night, how 

 the whole year after shall be on his working and doing, and they 

 shall speak on this wi.se." 



" When on the Christmas night and evening it is very 

 fair and clear weather and is without wind and without rain, 

 then it is token that this year will be plenty of wine and fruit." 

 And without much alteration or addition the rigmarole is 

 translated from the German. From a remark of Prof. Hellmann, 

 it is to be gathered that the legend of St. Swithin as a guide to 

 the July weather did not appear in the early German editions. 

 It first made its appearance in the English version some time 

 before 1668. 



We find it somewhat difficult to take the work of Prof. 

 Hellmann seriously, the predictions are so crude and ludicrous : 

 but it is impo.ssible to read his preface without .acknowledging 

 the care and thoroughness with which he has done his work, 

 and the labour he has bestowed upon the subject. The book 

 itself may not be worth a second thought, but Prof Hellmann 

 has made it serve the purpose of developing two lines of 

 investigation of great interest and importance, into which, how- 

 ever, we cannot adequately enter. In the first place, how are we 

 to account for the widespread hold upon the public mind that 

 such a book had, and for so long maintained as a popular 

 treatise ? Whence comes the deep-seated love of the marvellous 

 and superstitious, which manifested itself in many ways, and in 

 particular is connected with the twelve days about the time of 

 the winter solstice, when the days are at their shortest. Prof. 

 Hellmann endeavours with some success to trace evidences in 

 the remote past of the tendency to predict the weather from 

 observations made on these twelve days, each day corresponding 

 to a month in the forthcoming year. That these days have 

 become connected with a Christian festival is to a certain extent 

 an accident of later date. 



This observation of the weather about the time of Christmas 

 is brought out more clearly in the second inquiry, when the 

 question of the origin of the book itself is raised, or rather on 

 the authority on which these wise saws rest. Discarding such 

 modern authorship as Heiny von Uri or Thomas von Filtzbach 

 can claim, the editor shows that the book, or at lea.st the contents of 

 it, circulated in a traditional or MS. form long before it took its 

 printed shape. With'difiiculty he has traced and compared ten 

 MSS., dating back from 1478, all possessing common features 

 indicating a common origin, and pointing out with some degree 

 of plausibility to the pages of the Venerable Bede as the oldest 

 known source. But this wish to penetrate the future, and the 

 formation of rules for general guidance are older than this remote 

 date, and traces of ancient customs and old predictions are to 

 be found in all parts of the globe, wherever written records 

 have been preserved. But there is the curious fact to be re- 

 marked, that the older MSS. show a tendency to refer the 

 grounds for prognostication to the Calends of January rather 

 than to the Christmas fe.stival, and in the case of a fifteenth cen- 

 tury MS. both are mentioned. Christmas is quite a late innova- 

 tion, and the growth in importance of the great Christian festival 

 can be traced by its gradual displacement of the older Calendar 

 in these meteorological superstitions. 



