Before we consider woman's position in Christianity, we must take a glance at her status among another important branch of the Aryan race, the Germans.

As is familiar to every student of history, the Germans are indebted to an alien, the Roman Tacitus, for the best account of the character and manners of their ancestors. In his famous book "Germania" he describes them as a pure and unmixed race and gives many valuable particulars about their family life. He says: "Matrimony is the most respected of their institutions. They are almost the only barbarians who are content with one wife. Very few among them are exceptions to this rule and then they do so not for sensuality but for political considerations. The young men marry late, and their vigor is unimpaired. Nor are the maidens hurried into marriage. Well-matched and in full health they wed, and their offspring reproduce the strength of their parents. The wife does not bring a dowry to the man, but the husband to his bride. These presents are not trinkets to please female vanity or to serve for adornment, but on the contrary, they consist of cattle, a bridled horse, and a shield with sword and spear. While the wife is welcomed with such gifts, she too presents her husband with a piece of armor. All these things are held sacred as a mysterious symbol of matrimony. Lest the wife should think that she is shut out from heroic

aspirations and from the perils of war, she is reminded by the ceremony which inaugurates marriage that now she is her husband's partner in his toil as well as in all danger, and destined to share with him in peace and in war alike. This is the meaning of the yoked oxen, the bridled horse and the weapons. And she must live and die with the feeling that the weapons she has received, have to be handed down untarnished and undepreciated to her sons, from whom they are to pass to her daughters-in-law, and again to the grandchildren.

"So the wife lives under the protection of clean manners, uncorrupted by the allurements of voluptuous comedies or licentious festivals. Clandestine communication by letters is absolutely unknown. Adultery among this numerous people is exceedingly rare. Its punishment is left to the husband and quickly executed. In the presence of her relatives the guilty woman is kicked out of the house, naked and with her hair cut. And thus she is whipped through the whole village. Loss of chastity finds no excuse. Neither beauty nor youth nor wealth wins the culprit a husband, because no one indulges in vice or pardons seduction. Blessed the country where only virgins enter matrimony and where their vow to the husband is binding and final for all time. As they are born only once so are they married but once and they devote themselves to their husband as well as to the duties of matrimony. To limit the number of children or to kill one of them is regarded as a sacrilege. Thus good habits accomplish more here than good laws in other countries."

Tacitus as well as other Roman writers state likewise that the women frequently accompanied the men in times of war and encouraged them in battle by their cheers and actions. "They always stay near them, so that the warriors may hear the voices of their wives and the wailing of their children. Women's approval and praise is to the men of the highest value. To their mothers and wives they come with their wounds for relief, and the women do not hesitate to count the gashes and dress the wounds. The women also encourage the men while they are fighting, and provide them with food and water. We have been told that wavering battle lines were made to stand fast by women, who with bare breasts mingled with the warriors and admonished them by their cries to new resistance.

Many of the names given to members of the fair sex, indicate the men's great respect for women, and show that they were considered as able consorts even in battle. The names Daghilt, Sneburga, Swanhilt and Sunnihilt remind us of the purity of the daylight, the white of the snow and the swan, and the gold of the sunshine. And the qualities of

strength, agility and skill in everything connected with war and victory we find in names like Hildegund, "the protectoress of the home"; Hadewig, "the mistress of battle"; Gertrud, "the thrower of the spear"; Gudrun, "the expert in war" Thusinhilde or Thusnelda, "the giant fighter"; Sieglind, "the shield of victory"; Brunhild, "she who is strong like a bear, and in many other names.

The many noble female personages who figure in German mythology also testify to the high conception the Germans had of womanhood. There was Frigg, the spouse of Odin, and the ideal personification of a German housewife. There was Freya, the goddess of spring, beauty and love; Gerda, the bright consort of Fro, the sun god; Sigune, the faithful; not to forget the Valkyries, those beautiful maidens who hovered over the field of battle, wakened the dead heroes with a kiss and carried them on their swift cloud horses to Valhalla, where they were welcomed and feasted by the gods and enjoyed all kinds of martial games.

The Germans saw in women also something that was sacred and prophetic. It was this belief that lent importance to Veleda, Alruna, and other prophetesses, who were looked up to as oracles, and played a conspicuous part during the time of the Roman invasion.

The same noble spirit that distinguished the German women, was likewise found among the females of Britain and Scandinavia. Tacitus in his "Annals" XIV gives an account of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, a tribe that occupied the eastern coasts of Britain. To defend the independence of her country against the Romans, this queen succeeded in uniting some of the British tribes and drove the invaders from several fortified places. When Suetonius, on hearing of the revolt, hastened up with a strong army, he found himself opposed by large numbers of the aborigines, men as well as women. Among the fighters were many priestesses or Druids, who, clothed in black, with streaming hair and brandished torches, fought like furies. When they saw themselves far outnumbered and realized that all was lost, these women preferred death to slavery and perished among the flames, which destroyed their stronghold.

When the Roman legions met the main body of the Britons, they beheld Boadicea admonishing her warriors, to conquer or die in battle. In the fearful contest 70,000 Romans and 80,000 Britons were slain. But when the combat resulted in the complete defeat of the latter, Boadicea poisoned herself to avoid falling into the hands of the victor.

The Edda and many other sagas of the Scandinavians contain likewise accounts about heroic women such as they were in those days of the past: strong in body as in mind, and equal to any emergency. Brave alike in heart and in character, independent, open and frank, they were loyal to their husbands and their duty when fitly matched. Fearlessly they joined in the daring expeditions of their sea-kings, who packed their "dragon-ships" to full capacity with warriors and made raids on all the coasts of Europe, even countries that border the Mediterranean Sea.

on the From several interesting relics of old Icelandic literature we also know that as early as in 986 A. D. Norse women went with Eric the Red to Greenland. Here they helped in establishing a settlement, Brattahlid. And when in 1007 Thorfin Karlsefne sailed from this place to Vinland, some newly discovered country in the far Southwest, he too was accompanied by several women, among them his wife Gudrid. Some time after her arrival she gave birth to a son, Snorre, the first child of white parentage born on American soil.

Another of these fearless women, Froejdisa, took active part in a hot skirmish with the aborigines of Vinland. When the Norsemen were about to yield to the overwhelming numbers of these "Skraelings," it was she who encouraged the men to stubborn resistance. Several years later, in 1012, this same resolute woman, in company with two men, fitted out an expedition of her own to Vinland. After an absence of one year she returned to Brattahlid with a large cargo of valuable lumber, furs, and other goods, but also suspected of having killed her partners as well as their men with her own hands.