No More Learning

This
people are remarkable for a peculiar custom, that of twisting their hair
and binding it up in a knot. It is thus the Suevians are distinguished
from the other Germans, thus the free Suevians from their slaves. In
other nations, whether from alliance of blood with the Suevians, or, as
is usual from imitation, this practice is also found, yet rarely, and
never exceeds the years of youth. The Suevians, even when their hair is
white through age, continue to raise it backwards in a manner stern and
staring; and often tie it upon the top of their head only. That of their
Princes, is more accurately disposed, and so far they study to appear
agreeable and comely; but without any culpable intention. For by
it, they mean not to make love or to incite it: they thus dress when
proceeding to war, and deck their heads so as to add to their height and
terror in the eyes of the enemy.

Of all the Suevians, the Semnones recount themselves to be the most
ancient and most noble. The belief of their antiquity is confirmed
by religious mysteries. At a stated time of the year, all the several
people descended from the same stock, assemble by their deputies in
a wood; consecrated by the idolatries of their forefathers, and by
superstitious awe in times of old. There by publicly sacrificing a man,
they begin the horrible solemnity of their barbarous worship. To this
grove another sort of reverence is also paid. No one enters it otherwise
than bound with ligatures, thence professing his subordination and
meanness, and power of the Deity there. If he fall down, he is not
permitted to rise or be raised, but grovels along upon the ground. And
of all their superstition, this is the drift and tendency; that from
this place the nation drew their original, that here God, the supreme
Governor of the world, resides, and that all things else whatsoever
are subject to him and bound to obey him. The potent condition of the
Semnones has increased their influence and authority, as they inhabit an
hundred towns; and from the largeness of their community it comes, that
they hold themselves for the head of the Suevians.
What on the contrary ennobles the Langobards is the smallness of their
number, for that they, who are surrounded with very many and very
powerful nations, derive their security from no obsequiousness or
plying; but from the dint of battle and adventurous deeds. There follow
in order the Reudignians, and Aviones, and Angles, and Varinians, and
Eudoses, and Suardones and Nuithones; all defended by rivers or forests.
Nor in one of these nations does aught remarkable occur, only that they
universally join in the worship of _Herthum_; that is to say, the Mother
Earth. Her they believe to interpose in the affairs of men, and to visit
countries. In an island of the ocean stands the wood _Castum_: in it
is a chariot dedicated to the Goddess covered over with a curtain, and
permitted to be touched by none but the Priest. Whenever the Goddess
enters this her holy vehicle, he perceives her; and with profound
veneration attends the motion of the chariot, which is always drawn by
yoked cows. Then it is that days of rejoicing always ensue, and in all
places whatsoever which she descends to honour with a visit and her
company, feasts and recreation abound. They go not to war; they touch
no arms; fast laid up is every hostile weapon; peace and repose are
then only known, then only beloved, till to the temple the same priest
reconducts the Goddess when well tired with the conversation of mortal
beings. Anon the chariot is washed and purified in a secret lake, as
also the curtain; nay, the Deity herself too, if you choose to believe
it. In this office it is slaves who minister, and they are forthwith
doomed to be swallowed up in the same lake. Hence all men are possessed
with mysterious terror; as well as with a holy ignorance what that must
be, which none see but such as are immediately to perish. Moreover this
quarter of the Suevians stretches to the middle of Germany.

The community next adjoining, is that of the Hermondurians; (that I may
now follow the course of the Danube, as a little before I did that of
the Rhine) a people this, faithful to the Romans. So that to them alone
of all the Germans, commerce is permitted; not barely upon the bank of
the Rhine, but more extensively, and even in that glorious colony in the
province of Rhoetia. They travel everywhere at their own discretion and
without a guard; and when to other nations, we show no more than our
arms and encampments, to this people we throw open our houses and
dwellings, as to men who have no longing to possess them. In the
territories of the Hermondurians rises the Elbe, a river very famous and
formerly well known to us; at present we only hear it named.