Chapter IV: Water-Worship in Northern Europe and in Mexico

Water-Worship Prominent in Many Ways, and Associated with Holy
Seasons--Infant Baptism among the Scandinavians and Teutons--Pagan
“Christening of Children”--Sacred Water as a Safeguard against
Disease, etc.--Virtue of Water Used for Mechanical Purposes--Water
Sprites--Similarity between Roman Catholicism and Paganism of
Mexico--Aztec Baptism--Prayer for “Baptismal Regeneration” of Child
by Mexican Midwife.

The existence of a widespread system of water worship in Northern Europe is attested by the direct history of paganism, by the history of Christianity at its first introduction, by the decrees of councils, capitularies, and similar documents. These sources show that the Allamanns, Franks, and others worshipped rivers and fountains, and used water in various ways for sacred purposes. They prayed upon the banks of sacred rivers and at sacred fountains. Springs which gushed from the earth were considered especially sacred, as being produced directly by divine agency. Lighted candles were used in the worship of fountains and wells. This custom continues until the present day in the semi-religious habits of the people, who gaze into wells by the light of a candle on Christmas and Easter nights. Sacred brooks and rivers were believed to have been produced from the pouring of water by the gods out of bowls and urns.

Water drawn at holy seasons, such as midnight and sunrise, has always been known as “holy water.” Running spring-water gathered on holy Christmas night, while the clock strikes twelve is yet known as _heilway_, and is believed to be good for certain diseases. At the present time the common people of Northern Europe believe that between eleven and twelve on Christmas night, and on Easter night, _spring water changes into wine_. A similar faith is found as far back as the latter part of the fourth century, which is noted by Chrysostom in an Epiphany sermon preached at Antioch.

The following quotation will show that pagan water-worship was indigenous in Northern Europe as well as in the Orient:

“It is no less remarkable that a kind of infant baptism was practised
in the North, long before the dawning of Christianity had reached
those parts. Snorri Sturlason, in his chronicle, speaking of a
Norwegian nobleman who lived in the reign of Harald Harfagra, relates
that he poured water on the head of a new-born child, and called him
Hakon, from the name of his father. Harald himself had been baptized
in the same manner, and it is noted of King Olaf Tryggvason, that his
mother, Astrida, had him thus baptized and named as soon as he was
born. The Livonians observed the same ceremony, which also prevailed
among the Germans, as appears from a letter which the famous Pope
Gregory the third sent to their Apostle Boniface directing him
expressly how to act in this respect. It is probable that all these
people might intend, by such a rite, to preserve their children from
the sorceries and evil charms which witched spirits might employ
against them at the instant of their birth. Several nations of Asia
and America have attributed such a power to ablutions of this kind;
nor were the Romans without such a custom, though they did not wholly
confine it to new-born infants.”[91]

S. BARING GOULD testifies concerning pagan baptism in Scandinavia as follows:

“Among the Scandinavians, infant baptism was in vogue long before the
introduction of Christianity, and the rite accompanied the naming of
the child. Before the accomplishment of this rite, the exposition
of the babe was lawful, but after the ceremony it became murder. A
baptism in blood seems to have been practised by the Germans and
Norsemen in remote antiquity; to this the traditions of the horny
Sigfrid, or Sigurd, and Wolfdietrich point. Dipping in water, and
aspersion with water, or with blood of a victim, was also customary
among the Druids, as was also the baptism of fire, perhaps borrowed
by them from the Phœnicians. This was that passing through the fire
to Molech alluded to repeatedly in the Jewish Scriptures.”[92]

There is an excellent picture of baptism among the pagan Teutons, by Konrad Maurer, in which the author shows, in detail, the relation between infant baptism among the Greeks, Romans, Teutonic pagans, and Teutonic Christians. _The Nation_ for September 22, 1881, speaks of Mr. Maurer’s work as follows[93]:

“A large portion of Maurer’s monograph is devoted to showing how
the ceremonies connected with heathen baptism were adopted by the
Christian Church, and in tracing to a heathen source the rights and
privileges secured to children by baptism in the Church. The author
suggests that the laying at the breast was a recognition of the child
on the mother’s part, and that the granting of the right of baptism
was a recognition of the child on the part of the father, and that
this was the chief significance of the latter ceremony; although it
would seem from Havamal, in the Elder Edda, that spiritual blessings
were also secured to the infant by the sprinkling of holy water.
Baptism made the child an _heir_ both among the heathen and among
the old Teutonic Christians, and the fact that among both it had so
many things in common, that it took place soon after the birth of
the child, and was connected with the naming of it; that there were
god-fathers and god-mothers, and that presents were given, makes
the question an exceedingly interesting one. But the author goes
farther, and proves from ancient laws of the Germans, Visigoths, and
Anglo-Saxons, that the rite of baptism is to be performed within
the ninth day after the birth of the child; and here he calls
attention to the ancient Roman custom of giving the name to a female
infant on the eighth, and to a male infant on the ninth day after
birth, and quotes Roman law to show that this naming day was of
legal importance to the child. A similar custom is also found among
ancient Greeks, where the seventh day after the birth of the child
was celebrated with _cleansing_, gifts, sacrifices, banqueting, and
other ceremonies. Maurer suggests that this seventh day of cleansing
among the heathen Greeks was of the same legal value to the child
as the day of sprinkling with water among the Teutons, and that it
determined whether the child should live or be exposed. Roman law
establishes the fact that the eighth day after birth for girls,
and the ninth for boys was a _Dies lustricus_--that is, a day on
which a religious rite (_lustratio_) for infants took place, and on
which names were given to them, whence it was called _solonnitas
nominalium_. The day was observed by bringing the infants to the
temple, by banquets, etc.[94] We find, therefore, among the old
Greeks, and what is of vastly more importance, in the old Roman laws,
a day set apart for infants on which they get their names, and this
naming connected with the observation of certain ceremonies. What
the precise nature of these rites was, we are not told; but inasmuch
as the Roman documents designate thereby the term _lustratio_,
there can scarcely be room for doubt that it must have been a
symbolic cleansing by means of water. And since the _Dies lustricus_
confessedly secured legal rights to the infant, the question lies
near at hand whether the old Teutonic heathen borrowed the baptismal
right from the ancient Romans, or whether baptism was an original
institution among the Aryans before they became divided into Teutons,
Romans, etc. There can be no doubt, on the one hand, that the _Dies
lustricus_ of the Romans obtained among the Christians in fixing the
day for baptism, especially since it corresponded so nearly with the
Mosaic day for circumcision; and on the other hand, that just as many
of the old Teutonic feasts were turned into festivals, so the form
of the Teutonic baptism was largely adopted by the Christians in
Northern Europe.”

Baptism was undoubtedly an ancient Aryan rite, which existed before the division of the race, of which Mr. Maurer speaks. For supplementary proof of the lustration and naming of infants among the Greeks and the Romans, consult Smith’s _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, pp. 800, 801. Also, for lustration, by holy water, of children and adults, see _The Life of Greeks and Romans_, by E. Guhl and W. Koner, p. 282, London (no date, but since 1862). See also Tertullian, _Concerning Idolatry_ (chap. xvi.), for reference to pagan “Naming Festivals.”

JACOB GRIMM (_Teutonic Mythology_, 4 vols., London, 1883), a most painstaking and scholarly authority, shows that the Christianity of the present century is yet deeply imbued with the residuum of the ancient pagan water-worship. He says:

“Superstitious Christians then believed two things: a hallowing of
the water at midnight of the day of baptism, and a turning of it into
wine at the time of the bethphania. Such water the Germans called
_heilawâc_, and ascribed to it a wonderful power of healing diseases
and wounds, and of never spoiling.

“Possibly even in Syria an old pagan drawing of water became veiled
under new Christian meanings. In Germany other circumstances point
undisguisedly to a heathen consecration of water: it was not to be
drawn at midnight, but in the morning _before sunrise down stream_
and _silently_, usually on _Easter Sunday_, to which the above
explanations do not so well apply: this water does not spoil, it
restores youth, heals eruptions, and makes the young cattle strong.
Magic water, serving for unchristian divination, is to be _collected
before sunrise on a Sunday_ in one glass from _three flowing
springs_; and _a taper is lighted_ before a glass, as before a divine
being. Here I bring in once again the Hessian custom mentioned at
page 58: On Easter Monday youths and maidens walk to the Hollow
Rock in the mountains, draw _water from the cool spring in jugs to
carry home_, and throw flowers in as an offering. Apparently this
water-worship was Celtic likewise. The water of the rock spring
Karnant makes a broken sword whole again. Curious customs show us
in what manner young girls in the Pyrenees country _tell their own
fortunes in the spring water_ on May-day morning.”[95]

Water Securing Immunity from Disease.

Sacred water as a means of lustration and of immunity from disease is yet a prominent characteristic of Northern European water-worship. GRIMM thus describes it:

“In a spring near Nogent men and women bathed on St. John’s eve:
Holberg’s comedy of _Kilde-reisen_ is founded on the Copenhagen
people’s practice of pilgriming to a neighboring spring on _St.
Hans aften_ to heal and invigorate themselves in its waters. On
Midsummer-eve the people of Ostergötland journeyed according to
ancient custom to Lagman’s bergekälla near Skeninge, and drank of
the well. In many parts of Germany some clear fountain is visited at
Whitsuntide, and the water drunk in jugs of a peculiar shape. Still
more important is Petrarch’s description of the annual bathing of
the women of Cologne in the Rhine; it deserves to be quoted in full,
because it plainly proves that the cult prevailed not merely at
here and there a spring, but in Germany’s greatest river. From the
Italian’s unacquaintance with the rite, one might infer that it was
foreign to the country whence all Church ceremonies proceeded, and
therefore altogether unchristian and heathenish. But Petrarch may
not have had a minute knowledge of all the customs of his country;
after his time, at all events, we find even there a lustration on
St. John’s Day (described as ancient custom then dying out). And
long before Petrarch, in Augustine’s time, the rite was practised
in Libya, and is denounced by that Father as a relic of paganism.
Generally sanctioned by the Church it certainly was not, yet it might
be allowed here and there, as a not unapt reminder of the Baptizer
in the Jordan, and now interpreted of him, though once it had been
heathen. It might easily come into extensive favor, and that not as
a Christian feast alone: to our heathen forefathers St. John’s Day
would mean the festive middle of the year, when the sun turns, and
there might be many customs connected with it. I confess, if Petrarch
had witnessed the bathing in the river at some small town, I would
the sooner take it for a native rite of the ancient Germani; at
Cologne, the holy city so renowned for its relics, I rather suspect
it to be a custom first introduced by Christian tradition.”[96]

Water used for mechanical purposes was also looked upon as possessing peculiar virtues. Down to the present time the Servians catch the water which rebounds from the paddles of mill wheels. Women go early on St. George’s day, April 23d, to catch such water for bathing purposes. Some carry it home on the evening before the twenty-third and sprinkle broken bits of green herbs and boughs upon it. They believe that all evil and harm “will then glance off their bodies like water off the mill wheel,” as the result of such bathing. A trace of the same superstition remains in Servia in the popular warning, “Not to flirt the water off your hands after washing in the morning,” else you flirt away your luck for the day.

Many religious and superstitious practices are prevalent in Northern Europe in times of drouth, in order to propitiate the divinities, either good or evil, and secure a rainfall. Certain goddesses which were prominent in the Northern European mythologies, especially Nerthus and Holda, were closely connected with water-worship. The former represented the earth and is spoken of as “the bath-loving Nerthus.” Holda lived in wells. She was identical with the Roman Isis. “When it snows, she is making her bed, and the feathers fly. She stirs up snow as Donar does rain.” In Prussia when it snows the people say: “The angels are shaking their beds, and the flakes of down drop to the earth.” It was believed that Holda haunted the lakes and fountains and might be seen bathing at the hour of noon. Mortals could reach her dwelling by passing through a well. She was supposed to pass through the land at Christmas time, bringing fertility by her presence.[97]

On the fifth of August the lace-makers of Brussels pray to Mary that their work “may keep as white as snow.” It was believed that Holda appeared as an ugly old woman, long-nosed, big-toothed, with bristling and thick-matted hair. The common people still say of a man whose hair is tangled and in disorder: “He has had a jaunt with Holda.”

The pagan fear of water sprites still exists in Sweden. On crossing any water after dark it is thought advisable to _spit three times_, as a safeguard against their evil influences.[98] It is also thought to be dangerous to draw water from a well without saluting the divinity which governs it. This custom remains among modern Greeks. A thief is supposed to be safe in his evil course if he sacrifices to the water sprites, by throwing a little of that which he has stolen into a stream. In Esthonia, the newly married wife drops a present into the well of the house where she is to reside. In 1641, Hans Ohm, of Sommerpahl in Esthonia, built a mill upon a sacred stream. Bad harvests followed for several years until the peasants fell upon the mill, burnt it down and destroyed the piles in the water. Ohm went to law and obtained a verdict against the peasants. But to rid himself of new and grievous persecutions, he induced pastor Gutslaff to write a treatise especially combating this superstition. The Esthonians replied, when asked how good or bad weather could depend upon springs and brooks: “It is our ancient faith: the men of old have so taught us. Mills have been burnt down on this brook before now.” They called it “Holy Brook,” and believed that when they wanted rain it could be produced by throwing something into the stream.[99]

Many similar stories abound in the modern literature of Esthonia. Although less refined, the water-worship mythology of Northern Europe was as widespread and persistent in its influence as that of Southern Europe or of Asia. Its influence upon Christianity was not less strongly marked, and the modifications which it produced in Christian baptism continue in a great degree to the present day. The universal sway of pagan baptism and its essential unity are shown by turning from Northern Europe to the extreme point of another continent and considering

Water-Worship in Mexico.

PRESCOTT speaks of the amazement with which the early Spaniards beheld the points of similarity between the customs of the pagan Mexicans and the Roman Catholic Church; he says:

“With the same feelings they witnessed another ceremony, that of the
Aztec baptism; in which, after a solemn invocation, the head and lips
of the infant were touched with water, and a name given to it; while
the goddess Cioacoatl, who presided over childbirth, was implored
that the sin which was given to us before the beginning of the world
might not visit the child, but that, cleansed by these waters, it
might live and be born anew.”[100]

A full account of this pagan baptism in Mexico is given by SAHAGUN-DE-BERNARDINO, as follows:

“When everything necessary for the baptism had been made ready, all
the relations of the child were assembled, and the midwife, who was
the person that performed the rite of baptism, was summoned. At early
dawn they met together in the court-yard of the house. When the sun
had risen the midwife, taking the child in her arms, called for a
little earthen vessel of water, while those about her placed the
ornaments which had been prepared for the baptism in the midst of the
court. To perform the rite of baptism, she placed herself with her
face towards the west, and immediately began to go through certain
ceremonies.... After this she sprinkled water on the head of the
infant, saying: ‘O my child! take and receive the water of the Lord
of the world, which is our life, and is given for the increasing and
renewing of our body. It is to wash and to purify. I pray that these
heavenly drops may enter into your body and dwell there; that they
may destroy and remove from you all the evil and sin which was given
to you before the beginning of the world; since all of us are under
its power, being all the children of Chalchivitlycue’ (the goddess of
water). She then washed the body of the child with water and spoke
in this manner: ‘Whencesoever thou comest, thou that art hurtful to
this child, leave him and depart from him, for he now liveth anew
and is born anew; now he is purified and cleansed afresh, and our
Mother Chalchivitlycue again bringeth him into the world.’ Having
thus prayed, the midwife took the child in both hands, and lifting
him towards heaven, said: ‘O Lord, thou seest here thy creature, whom
thou hast sent into this world, this place of sorrow, suffering, and
penitence. Grant him, O Lord, thy gifts and thine inspiration, for
thou art the great God, and with thee is the great goddess.’ Torches
of pine were kept burning during the performance of these ceremonies.
When these things were ended, they gave the child the name of some
one of his ancestors, in hope that he might shed a new lustre over
it. The name was given by the same midwife or priestess who baptized
him.”[101]

A full discussion of baptismal ceremonies among the pagans of Mexico may be found in H. H. Bancroft’s works,[102] which discussion fully supports the foregoing from Prescott and Sahagun.

FOOTNOTES:

[91] _Northern Antiquities of the Ancient Scandinavians_, translated from the French of P. H. Mallet by Bishop Percy, edition revised by J. A. Blackwell, London, 1847, p. 206.

[92] _The Origin and Development of Religious Belief_, by S. Baring Gould, M.A., London, 1869, p. 393.

[93] For details see _Ueber die Wasserweihe des Germanischen Heidenthumes_, von Konrad Maurer, as found in the Transactions of the Bavarian Academy of Science for 1880.

[94] See on this point Marquardt, _Das Privat-leben der Romer_, i., pp. 81, 82.

[95] Vol. ii., pp. 586, 587.

[96] Vol. ii., pp. 588, 590.

[97] Several attributes of the heathen goddess Holda passed over to the worship of Mary in the Roman Catholic Church.

[98] Compare this with what is said by Pliny, and with the use of spittle by the Roman Catholics in baptism. Chapter V. of this book.

[99] See _A Short Account of the Holy Brook_, etc., by John Gutslaff, Pastor at Urbs in Liefland, Dorpt, 1644, pp. 25, 258.

[100] _Conquest of Mexico_, vol. iii., p. 369 f., Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott.

[101] _Hist. de Nueva Espana_, lib. vi., cap. xxxvii.

[102] _The Native Races, Myths, and Languages_, vol. iii., p. 369 _seq._, San Francisco, 1882.