260 



nation in our native tongue ; he says : — " Conventus vero habendi, crux 

 lignea signum erat, post annum certe niillesimum, quum jam in fidem 

 Christianam jurassent antea fortasse cestra vel malleus Jovis (Thor's 

 hammer) pro ejus temporis religione and in the periodical from which 

 I borrow this quotation (''Bait. Stud," vol. x., part ii., p. 23), it is 

 added — Die Islander brauchen als Budstildceem. Stiick Holz, das, wie 

 ein Axt geformt ist, nach alter Sitte." (The Icelanders use as their 

 dingstich a piece of wood in the form of an axe (hammer) according to 

 ancient custom, 



That I have translated Budstikke in this passage into Bidding stick, 

 will not appear forced to those who have heard of the bidding weddings 

 of Wales or the E"orth ; or who in Hamburg have witnessed the calls of 

 a guild of operatives, joiners, masons, &c., to attend the funeral of a 

 deceased fellow-labourer by a Ver-litter with a short black staff entwined 

 with a white fillet and surmounted by a lemon, as the emblem of his 

 melancholy office. 



There are variations in this name, as Budhafte, Budlafa ; — but the 

 latter alters the idea merely by the introduction of dispatch — by the 

 Yorkshire lou'p to run, and the German laufen ; as also in the north, when 

 a traveller wished to avoid the delays usual at the post stations, a lauf 

 zettel was forwarded before him from place to place, to have relays in 

 readiness. Budhafte may be a modification of the symbol sent round ; 

 which, from the analogy of other magisterial or potential commands, 

 may frequently have been a ring or staff. These were often the sym- 

 bols of the most important acts — " Et illuc venit Dux Thassilo et 

 reddit ei (Carolo magno) ipsam patriam cum haculo in cujus similitudo 

 hominis (Pertz, i., 43, I. c.) ; and, '' Conradus rex — curtem per investi- 

 turam haculi imperialis tradit ipsumque baculum in testimonio reliquit" 

 (Lang. Eeg. 1, 76, anno 1076). 



But in a collection on Lithuanian history, compiled by a body of 

 learned Jesuits, we have a very full and complete explication of this 

 emblem in connexion with the high dignity of the royal pontiffs of 

 heathen Prussia, the Krive Krivesto (Pontifex Pontificorum), and the 

 subordinate degrees of this regulated priesthood, on which latter I refer 

 to my " Shakspeare's Puck and his Eolkslore" (pp. 267, 317, 326) : — 



''Postea (Krive) floruit in ducatu tantum Samogitiae usque ad ex- 

 tremum tempus conversionis, scilicet ad annum 1414 Mens. Jul. 28, 

 qua mortuus est in Villa Onkain ultimus Krive Krivesto nomine Gu- 

 towtus numero Ixxiv. flamen. Cum eo vernm extincta est dignitas, 

 magni olim ponderis, in rebus sacris juditiarisque per totam terram 

 Lethovicam, Semigalliam, Livoniam, Lithuanian!, Samogithiam, Cur- 

 roniam, Sanigalliam, Livoniam, Lethigaliam necnon Kreviciensium 

 Eussorum : qua in declinio xi. sseculi incipit sensim deperire : denique 

 tenebrse eviternee paganismi fugientes se de terra in terram dissipatse 

 sunt ante faciem Christianse fidei et crucis sauctae." 



"We have here also the forms of the Bajulus Symbolum Jurisdic- 

 tionis of this Krive and his subordinates, which the writer says, *' vulgo 

 sermone BathmcMs nuncupatus." 



