[1102]. See above, pp. [56] sq.
[1103]. A. Strausz, Die Bulgaren, pp. 337, 385 sq. There seems to be a special connexion between St. George and serpents. In Bohemia and Moravia it is thought that up to the twenty-third of April serpents are innocuous, and only get their poison on the saint’s day. See J. V. Grohmann, Aberglauben und Gebräuche aus Böhmen und Mähren, §§ 326, 580, pp. 51, 81; W. Müller, Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren, p. 323. Various other charms are effected by means of serpents on this day. Thus if you tear out the tongue of a live snake on St. George’s Day, put it in a ball of wax, and lay the ball under your tongue, you will be able to talk down anybody. See J. V. Grohmann, op. cit., §§ 576, 1169, pp. 81, 166.
[1104]. J. V. Grohmann, op. cit. § 1463, p. 210.
[1105]. F. S. Krauss, Sitte und Brauch der Südslaven, p. 175.
[1106]. F. S. Krauss, op. cit. pp. 175 sq.
[1107]. Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen, pp. 194 sq.; J. V. Grohmann, op. cit., § 554, p. 77.
[1108]. S. J. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day, pp. 83 sq., 118 sq.
[1109]. S. Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 278 sqq. The authority for this identification is the nominal translator, but real author, of the work called The Agriculture of the Nabataeans. See D. A. Chwolson, Über Tammuz und die Menschenverehrung bei den alten Babyloniern (St. Petersburg, 1860), pp. 56 sq. Although The Agriculture of the Nabataeans appears to be a forgery (see above, p. [100], note 2), the identification of the oriental St. George with Tammuz may nevertheless be correct.
[1110]. J. Maeletius (Menecius), “De sacrificiis et idolatria veterum Borussorum Livonum aliarumque vicinarum gentium,” Mitteilungen der Litterarischen Gesellschaft Masovia, Heft 8 (Lötzen, 1902), pp. 185, 187, 200 sq.; id. in Scriptores rerum Livonicarum, ii. (Riga and Leipsic, 1848), pp. 389, 390; J. Lasicius, “De diis Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum,” ed. W. Mannhardt, in Magazin herausgegeben von der Lettisch-literärischen Gesellschaft, xiv. (1868) pp. 95 sq. The first form of the prayer to Pergrubius is from the Latin, the second from the German, version of Maeletius’s (Jan Malecki’s) work. The description of Pergrubius as “he who makes leaves and grass to grow” (“der lest wachssen laub unnd gras”) is also from the German. According to M. Praetorius, Pergrubius was a god of husbandry (Deliciae Prussicae, Berlin, 1871, p. 25).