Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/592

 512 LONGFELLOW'S " GOLDEN LEGEND." that passes over the bridge he builds, whereupon some animal is driven across the bridge as soon as it is finished. A passage is quoted from Edmund Spencer's Sketches of Oermany and the Germans in 188^, 1835, and 1836, where a cock on an old crucifix at Frankfort is described, and the explanation given that the monument was erected in memory of the erection of a bridge by the devil, who was outwitted in the manner indi- cated by a cock being driven over the bridge in place of a human being. Some instances are cited where Longfellow mentions superstitions which are peculiar to Germany, as that " death never takes one alone, but- two," etc. In the description of the festivities at Easter, Golden Legend, III. 2, where it is said : The churches are all decked with flowers, The salutations among men Are but the angels' words divine : " Christ is arisen," and the bells Catch the glad murmur as it swells And chant together in their towers. it appears that the poet referred Eussian customs to German medieval times. The custom continues in Russia even at this day, that when friends meet in the street on Easter-day, after divine service, they kiss one another with the greeting : " Christ is risen."