A Serbian carol represents him in constant activity at sea. Once all the saints were enjoying wine together; when the cup out of which they all drank in turn reached St. Nicolas he was too sleepy to hold it, and let it drop. St. Elias shook him by the arm, and aroused him. "Oh! I beg the company's pardon", said St. Nicolas, " but I have been very busy, and was absent from your festival. The sea was rough, and I had to give my help to three hundred ships that were in danger; that is the reason of my being tired, and letting the cup fall out of my hands."[1]
In Russia you will always find an "ikon" of St. Nicolas in every merchantman.[2] In Germany it was customary for sailors who had escaped shipwreck to dedicate a piece of old sail to St. Nicolas.[3]
In studying those Christian saints, who play a great part in the Christian mythology, the school of Grimm tried to find what heathen gods they replaced. In this way, St. Nicolas turns out to be a substitute of Neptune,[4] or of Odin,[5] or of Fro.[6]
Mr. Zingerle[7] has lately proposed a new hypothesis. After drawing our attention to a number of analogies, known already to other investigators,[8] between St. Nicolas and Nikuz, Hnikor, Nix, he differentiated Nikuz from Odin, and concluded that Nikuz is at the root of all representations that are connected with the name of St. Nicolas.[9] "Even the names," says Mr. Zingerle, "are
- ↑ Karadjich, Srpske Narodne piiesme, ii, p. 100.
- ↑ Tereshchenko, Byt russkago naroda, vol. vi, p. 46.
- ↑ Hampson, l. c.
- ↑ B. Schmidt, Volksleben der Neugriechien, S. 37.
- ↑ Simrock, Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie, Bonn, 1887, S. 446 and 549. E. H. Meyer, Germanische My then, Berlin, 1891, S. 257.
- ↑ T. W. Wolf, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie. Gottingen, 1882, S. 124.
- ↑ Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, ii Band, 9 Heft.
- ↑ Hampson, l. c., vol. i, p. 68 ff.
- ↑ Compare Simrock, l. c.: "Ob Odins Namen Hnikor und Nikuz
