Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/409

 The Origin of the German Carnival Comedy 405 The name Carnival now prevailing in the regions which were for a longer time under Roman domination, viz., Italy, France, and the Rhenish provinces of Germany, has likewise been interpreted as indicative of the Christian origin of the festival. It has been generally derived from the Latin carnem levare (Ital. carne levare), the putting away or removal of flesh as food, or, what is still more Carnevalesque, from the Italian carna vale, i.e., flesh, farewell ! However, the correct derivation of the word Carnival is from the Latin carrus navalis (Ital. carnevale or carnovale, French, Spanish and Portuguese carneval or carnavel), the ship-cart, which formed the centre of the festal proces- sions in many parts of Europe and Western Asia. 13 III. THE SHIP-PROCESSION The central fact of this festival, as of all agricultural fes- tivals, was the presence, in the village, of the deity in the form of a ship. This observance originated in the natural or magical stage of belief and was based upon the notion of what Frazer calls "sympathetic magic." 1 * The ship was led in solemn procession about the fields and around the boundaries of the village in order to spread the influence of its benign presence over the whole community. 15 This custom was not limited to certain maritime districts, nor was it a result of the fact that the goddess of fertility in the course of history also took over the charge of sea-faring, as Chambers believes. 16 A ship was dedicated annually to Isis, the Egyptian goddess of 13 Hermann Miiller, Das nordische Griechentum und die urgeschichtl. Bedeu- tung des nordwestl. Europas (1844), pp. 334, 338; L. Lersch, "Isis und ihr SchifF," Jahrbucher des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande ix. (1846) 116; W. Wackernagel, Kl. Schriften ii. 109; K. Simrock; Handbuch d. deutschen Mythologie 5 (1878), p. 370; Karl Meyer, "Fastnachtspiel u. Fast- nachtsscherz im 15. u. 16. Jahrhundert," Zcitschrift f. allg. Geschichte, Kultur, Literatur u. Kunstgeschichte iii. (1886) 162; Sepp, op. cit., p. 54; Hermann Usener, Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen. 3. Die Sintfluthsagen (1899), p. 120; C. Rademacher, "Carnival," (Hastings') Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics iii. (1910) 225. The old derivation of Carnival is found in Diez, Etym. Worterb. d. roman. Sprachen* (1887), p. 362. 14 The view of primitive religion taken in this essay is largely that of Frazer. Having little independent knowledge of the subject, the writer welcomes the high authority of this anthropologist. 16 Cf. Chambers, op. cit., i. 118. Ibid.,i. 121.