Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine | Page 8

language, his fram--an
instrument tipped with a short and narrow piece of iron, sharply pointed,
and so commodious that, as occasion requires, he can manage it in
close engagement or in distant combat. With this and a shield the
cavalry are completely armed. The infantry have an addition of missive

weapons. Each man carries a considerable number, and being naked, or,
at least, not encumbered by his light mantle, he throws his weapon to a
distance almost incredible. A German pays no attention to the ornament
of his person; his shield is the object of his care, and this he decorates
with the liveliest colours. Breastplates are uncommon. In a whole army
you will not see more than one or two helmets. Their horses have
neither swiftness nor elegance, nor are they trained to the various
evolutions of the Roman cavalry. To advance in a direct line, or wheel
suddenly to the right, is the whole of their skill, and this they perform
in so compact a body that not one is thrown out of his rank. According
to the best estimate, the infantry comprise the national strength, and, for
that reason, always fight intermixed with the cavalry. The flower of
their youth, able by their vigour and activity to keep pace with the
movements of the horse, are selected for this purpose, and placed in the
front of the lines. The number of these is fixed and certain: each canton
sends a hundred, from that circumstance called Hundreders by the army.
The name was at first numerical only: it is now a title of honour. Their
order of battle presents the form of a wedge. To give ground in the heat
of action, provided you return to the charge, is military skill, not fear or
cowardice. In the most fierce and obstinate engagement, even when the
fortune of the day is doubtful, they make it a point to carry off their
slain. To abandon their shield is a flagitious crime. The person guilty of
it is interdicted from religious rites and excluded from the assembly of
the state. Many who survived their honour on the day of battle have
closed a life of ignominy by a halter.”
Teutonic Customs
The kings of this rude but warlike folk were elected by the suffrages of
the nobility, and their leaders in battle, as was inevitable with such a
people, were chosen by reason of their personal prowess. The legal
functions were exercised by the priesthood, and punishments were thus
held to be sanctioned by the gods. Among this barbaric people the
female sex was held as absolutely sacred, the functions of wife and
mother being accounted among the highest possible to humanity, and
we observe in ancient accounts of the race that typically Teutonic
conception of the woman as seer or prophetess which so strongly

colours early Germanic literature. Women, indeed, in later times, when
Christianity had nominally conquered Paganism, remained as the sole
conservators of the ancient Teutonic magico-religious lore, and in the
curtained recesses of dark-timbered halls whiled away the white hours
of winter by the painful spelling out of runic characters and the practice
of arts which they were destined to convey from the priests of Odin and
Thor to the witches of medieval days.
Costume of the Early Teuton
The personal appearance of these barbarians was as rude and simple as
were their manners. Says Tacitus:
“The clothing in use is a loose mantle, made fast with a clasp, or, when
that cannot be had, with a thorn. Naked in other respects, they loiter
away whole days by the fireside. The rich wear a garment, not, indeed,
displayed and flowing, like the Parthians or the people of Sarmatia, but
drawn so tight that the form of the limbs is palpably expressed. The
skins of wild animals are also much in use. Near the frontier, on the
borders of the Rhine, the inhabitants wear them, but with an air of
neglect that shows them altogether indifferent about the choice, The
people who live more remote, near the northern seas, and have not
acquired by commerce a taste for new-fashioned apparel, are more
curious in the selection. They choose particular beasts and, having
stripped off the furs, clothe themselves with the spoil, decorated with
parti-coloured spots, or fragments taken from the skins of fish that
swim the ocean as yet unexplored by the Romans. In point of dress
there is no distinction between the sexes, except that the garment of the
women is frequently made of linen, adorned with purple stains, but
without sleeves, leaving the arms and part of the bosom uncovered.”
The Germanic Tribes
It is also from Tacitus that we glean what were the names and
descriptions of those tribes who occupied the territory adjacent to the
Rhine.