Walpurgis Night

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

in Germany, the night before the first of May. On this night, so the German peasants were wont to say, the witches rode abroad on broomsticks and on he-goats to hold high carnival with the devil at some appointed rendezvous. The Brocken, a high hill in the Harz Mountains, was the traditional place of meeting where they concocted enough deviltry to last for another year. Walpurgis was the name of an Englishwoman, a niece of Saint Boniface, the apostle of the Germans. She and her brother went to Germany as missionaries. About 750 Walpurgis became the learned abbess of a convent in Heidenheim in Franconia. After her death she was canonized. Chapels were built in her honor and she was believed to work miracles. From the accidental circumstance that her name was printed in German almanacs opposite the first of May, the night in question acquired the name Walpurgis Night. It was a custom among the peasants to light straw fires on this evening to avert visits from the witches. See Hallowe'En Walrus (literally whale horse), a large animal of the seal family remarkable for enormous canine teeth projecting like tusks downward from the upper jaw. For an account of its flippers and habits of breeding, see article on the SEAL. The male walrus attains a length of from ten to twelve feet, with a chest girth very nearly equal to its length. The neck is thickened to an enormous extent. Three-fourths of its total weight, which is 2,000 to 3,000 pounds, is in front of the waist line. It is the clumsiest of animals when on land. Notwithstanding the formidable appearance given by its tusks, the bull walrus is less courageous than the male fur seal of one-third its size. It uses its tusks for digging clams and other shellfish which, with seaweeds, form the entire contents of its stomach. It is not swift enough in its movements to catch fish. There are two species. The Atlantic walrus is now found on the coast of Labrador, Greenland, and in the Arctic waters north of Europe. The other species is found in the North Pacific Ocean. It was once a mainstay of the Eskimo, but now herds are few. The walrus is valuable for its ivory tusks and for the oil which is extracted from its blubber, but its fur is worthless. In fact the thick, wrinkled skin is almost hairless. See Seal ; Manatee ; Porpoise