of the chastity and piety of Ursula and her companions. Holofernes, bridegroom elect of Ursula, notwithstanding his father’s opposition, insisted on taking command of the fleet. Under him were three hundred sailors who manned the vessels.
Such is the history of the expansion and final development of this curious fable. It exhibits a series of misconceptions and impostures, we should hope, unparalleled. To this day the church of S. Ursula at Cologne is visited by thousands who rely on the intercession of a saint who never existed, and believe in the miraculous virtues of relics which are those of pagans.
But something worse remains to be told.
Ursula is no other than the Swabian goddess Ursel or Horsel transformed into a saint of the Christian calendar.
“A part of the Suevi sacrifice to Isis,” says Tacitus, in his Germania. This Isis has been identified by Grimm with a goddess Ziza, who was worshipped by the inhabitants of the parts about Augsburg. Küchlen, an Augsburg poet of the fourteenth century, sings—
“They built a great temple therein,
To the honour of Zise the heathen goddess,
