ious strife between Brunhild and Gudrun breaks out in
the business of veil washing. (In the old Norse version.)

In its beginnings Teutonic family life was undoubtedly hard; it was,
however, destined to emerge from its early barbarity and one-sidedness
into a strong, sound, and healthy moral relation between the sexes. Only
thus could have been produced a race now dominant throughout the world,
and always capable, by this development, of the best and highest
progress in political advancement.

When first the light of history is shed by the two great historians,
Caesar and Tacitus, upon the Teutonic family eastward of the Rhine and
northward of the Danube, woman has already conquered and appropriated to
herself many traits of Freya and Frigg, the divine mothers of the
Teutons. Something holy and providential is perceived and acknowledged
in woman's nature: she has already become priestess and prophetess and a
political power in the state.

Of the sacrificing and prophesying priestesses of the Cimbri, the first
Teutons who knocked powerfully at the gates of Italy, we shall speak
later. When, in B. C. 58, Caesar offered battle daily to Ariovistus, the
Suevian king who had broken into Gaul and installed himself there, the
latter, though a fierce and heroic warrior, did not accept it. Caesar
learned from Teutonic prisoners that the prophetesses, in consequence of
lots and divinations, forbade the king, if he hoped for victory, to
engage in battle with the Romans before the new moon. The battle was,
however, forced by Caesar and it ended with the total rout of the
Teutons. Caesar's envoy, Procillus, who had been held in chains by
Ariovistus according to the barbarian fashion, escaped from his captors
and related to Caesar his terrible experiences in the camp of the king.
It had been a vital question whether Procillus should be burned at the
stake or kept for a future occasion, and this was thrice determined in
his favor by the lots cast in his presence by the wise women. Here, as
elsewhere, women interpreted the decree of fate. Tacitus mentions
Albruna (called Aliruna by Grimm) as an ancient prophetess venerated by
the Germans during the expeditions of Drusus and Tiberius in the
interior of Germania.

The greatest veneration, however, ever enjoyed by a prophetess, fell to
the lot of Veleda during the heroic war of liberation waged against the
Romans by the Batavi, a branch of the Chatti, under their great leader
Civilis.