[416] C.L.  Rochholz, Deutscher Glaube und Brauch (Berlin, 1867), ii. 144 sqq.

[417] Philo vom Walde, Schlesien in Sage und Brauch (Berlin, N.D.), p. 124; Paul Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch, und Volksglaube in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-1906), i. 136 sq.

[418] J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie,*[4] i. 517 sq.

[419] From information supplied by Mr. Sigurd K. Heiberg, engineer, of Bergen, Norway, who in his boyhood regularly collected fuel for the fires.  I have to thank Miss Anderson, of Barskimming, Mauchline, Ayrshire, for kindly procuring the information for me from Mr. Heiberg.

The Blocksberg, where German as well as Norwegian witches gather for their great Sabbaths on the Eve of May Day (Walpurgis Night) and Midsummer Eve, is commonly identified with the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz mountains.  But in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and probably elsewhere, villages have their own local Blocksberg, which is generally a hill or open place in the neighbourhood; a number of places in Pomerania go by the name of the Blocksberg.  See J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie*[4] ii. 878 sq.; Ulrich Jahn, Hexenwesen und Zauberei in Pommern (Breslau, 1886), pp. 4 sq.; id., Volkssagen aus Pommern und Ruegen (Stettin, 1886), p. 329.

[420] L. Lloyd, Peasant Life in Sweden (London, 1870), pp. 259, 265.

[421] L. Lloyd, op. cit. pp. 261 sq. These springs are called “sacrificial fonts” (Offer kaellor) and are “so named because in heathen times the limbs of the slaughtered victim, whether man or beast, were here washed prior to immolation” (L.  Lloyd, op. cit. p. 261).

[422] E. Hoffmann-Krayer, Feste und Braeuche des Schweizervolkes (Zurich, 1913), p. 164.

[423] Ignaz V. Zingerle, Sitten, Braeuche und Meinungen des Tiroler Volkes*[2] (Innsbruck, 1871), ii. p. 159, Sec. 1354.

[424] I.V.  Zingerle, op. cit. p. 159, Sec.Sec. 1353, 1355, 1356; W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus, p. 513.

[425] W. Mannhardt, l.c.

[426] F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), i. p. 210, Sec. 231.

[427] Theodor Vernaleken, Mythen und Braeuche des Volkes in Oesterreich (Vienna, 1859), pp. 307 sq.

[428] J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie*[4] i. 519; Theodor Vernaleken, Mythen und Braeuche des Volkes in Oesterreich (Vienna, 1859), p. 308; Joseph Virgil Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebraeuche aus Bohmen und Maehren (Prague and Leipsic, 1864), p. 80, Sec. 636; Reinsberg-Dueringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Bohmen (Prague, N.D.), pp. 306-311; Br.  Jelfnek, “Materialien zur Vorgeschichte und Volkskunde Boehmens,” Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien> xxi. (1891) p. 13; Alois John, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westboehmen (Prague, 1905) pp. 84-86.