Strange Survivals: Some Chapters in the History of ManBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Strange Survivals: Some Chapters in the History of Man
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Manners and customs -- Origin; Superstition
Christ is made the sure foundation
And the precious corner-stone,
Who, the twofold walls uniting,
Binds them closely into one.”
II.
On Gables.
The tourist on the Rhine, as a matter of duty, visits in Cologne three
points of interest, in addition to providing himself with a little box
of the world-famous _Eau_, at the real original Maria Farina’s factory.
After he has “done” the Cathedral, and the bones of the Eleven Thousand
Virgins, he feels it incumbent on him to pay a visit to the horses’
heads in the market-place, looking out of an attic window.
[Illustration: _Fig. 2._--THE HORSES’ HEADS, COLOGNE.]
Myths attach equally to the Minster, the Ursuline relics, and to the
horses’ heads. The devil is said to have prophesied that the cathedral
would never be completed, yet lo! it is finished to the last stone of
the spires! The bones of the eleven thousand virgins have been proved
to have come from an old neglected cemetery, broken into when the
mediæval walls of Cologne were erected. It will be shown that the heads
of the two grey mares near the Church of the Apostles have a very
curious and instructive history attaching to them, and that, though the
story that accounts for their presence on top of a house is fabulous,
their presence is of extreme interest to the antiquary.
The legend told of these particular heads is shortly this:[4] Richmod
of Adocht was a wealthy citizen’s wife at Cologne. She died in 1357,
and was buried with her jewelry about her. At night the sexton opened
her grave, and, because he could not remove the rings, cut her finger.
The blood began to flow, and she awoke from her cataleptic fit. The
sexton fled panic-stricken. She then walked home, and knocked at her
door, and called up the apprentice, who, without admitting her, ran
upstairs to his master, to tell him that his wife stood without.
“Pshaw!” said the widower, “as well make me believe that my pair of
greys are looking out of the attic window.” Hardly were the words
spoken, than, tramp--tramp--and his horses ascended the staircase,
passed his door, and entered the garret. Next day every passer-by
saw their heads peering from the window. The greatest difficulty was
experienced in getting the brutes downstairs again. As a remembrance of
this marvel, the horses were stuffed, and placed where they are now to
be seen.
Such is the story as we take it from an account published in 1816. I
had an opportunity a little while ago of examining the heads. They are
of painted wood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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