The Jews seem to have had a similar custom, which perhaps they borrowed from the neighbouring nations; at least the connexion formed by the prophet Hosea (chap. iii. 2.) bears a strong resemblance to Handfasting and Capin.

JARLTZBERG.

* * * * *

ADAM OF BREMEN’S JULIN.

In reply to V. from Belgravia (Vol. ii., p. 230.), I am partially at a loss to know the exact bearing of his Query.  Adam of Bremen’s account of Julin is no legend, nor does he mention it at all as a doomed city.  On the contrary, his description is that of a flourishing emporium of commerce, for which purpose he selects very strong superlatives, as in the following account (De Situ Damae, lib. ii. cap. ii.): 

“Ultra Leuticos qui alio nomine Welzi dicuntur Oddera Flumen occurrit; amnis dilectissimus Slavonicae regionis.  In cujus ostro, qui Scythicas alludet paludes, nobilissima civitas Julinum celeberrimam Barbaris et Graecis qui in circuitu praestet stationem.  De cujus praeconio quia magna et vix credibilia recitantur, volupe arbitror pauca inserere digna relata.  Est sane maxime omnium quas Europa claudit civitatum, quam incolunt Slavi cum aliis gentibus Graecis et Barbaris.  Nam et advenae Saxones parem cohabitandi legem acceperunt, si tamen Christianitatis titulum ibi morantes non publicaverint.  Omnes enim adhuc paganicis ritibus aberrant, ceterum moribus et hospitalitate nulla gens honestior aut benignior poterit inveniri.  Urbs illa mercibus omnium septentrionalium nationum locuples nihil non habet jucundi et rari.”

As Adam is supposed to have been a native and a priest at Magdeburg, whence he was translated by Archbishop Adalbert to a benefice in the cathedral of Bremen, he must, from his comparative proximity to the spot, be supposed a competent witness; and there is not reason to suppose why he should not have been also a creditable one.  He died about 1072, and the legends, if any, concerning this famous place, here described as the most extensive in Europe, must have been subsequently framed.

For about one hundred years later (1184) we have from Helmold, the parish priest of Boesan, a small village on the eastern confines of Holstein, a repetition of Adam’s words, for a place which he calls {283} “Veneta,” but always in the past tense as, “quondam fuit nobilissima civitas,” etc.; so that it is plain from that and his expression “excidium civitatis;” as well as, “Hanc civitatem opulentissimam quidam Danorum rex, maxima classe stipatus, fundetus evertisse refertur.”  The great question is, Where was this great city? and, are the Julin of Adam and the Veneta of Helmold identical?  Both questions have given rise to endless discussions amongst German archaeologists.  The published maps, as late at least as the end of the last century, had a note at a place in the Baltic, opposite to the small town of Demmin, in Pomerania:—­“Hic