WHITE LADY, a being who, according to popular legend, appears in many of the castles of German princes and nobles, by night as well as by Clay, when any important event, whether joyful or sad, but particularly when the death of any member of the family is imminent. She is regarded as the ancestress of e f tit shows herself always In snow-white garments, carries a bunch of keys at herside, and h k‘ s ce watches over the children at night when their nurses sleep. The earliest cinstan this apparition spoken of was in the 16th c., and is famous under the name of Bertha of Rosenberg (in Bohemia). The white lady of other princely castles was indentified with Bertha, and the identity was accounted for by the intermarriages of other princely houses with members of the house of Rosenberg, in whose train the white lady passed into their castles. In the castle of Berlin she is said to have been seen in 1628, and again in 1840 and 1850. `J. ne most celebrated in Britain is the white lady of Avenel, the creation of sir Walter Scott. It was long a common belief in the Highlands that many of the chiefs had some kind spirit to watch over the fortunes of their house. Popular tradition has many well-known legends about white ladies, who generally dwell in forts and mountains as enchanted maidens waiting for deliverence. They delight to appear in warm sunshine to poor shepherds or herd-boys. They are either combing their long
hair, or washing themselves, drying-wheat, beating flax, or spinning; they also point out treasures and beg for deliverance, offering as reward flowers, corn, or chaff, which gifts turn in the instant into silver and gold. They wear snow-white, or half white, half black garments, yellow or green shoes, and a bunch of keys at their side. All these and many other traits that appear in individual legends may be traced back to a goddess of German mythology who influences birth and death, and presides over the ordering of the household. Still more distinctly the appellation white lady and the name Bertha point back to the great goddess of nature, who appears under various names, and who, as Berlita (i.e. the brilliant, shining, white), held her circuit on Twelfth-night and revealed her power. When the legend goes on to say that the Bohemian Bertha of the 15th c. promised the workmen of Neuhaus a sweet soup on the completion of building the castle, and that this soup, along with carp, is still given in remembrance of it to the poor on Maundy Thursday, we recognize again the festival dishes consecrated to Berhta, such as fish, oatmeal, gruel, or dumplings, etc., which it is still customary to eat about the time of Twelfth-night and Christmas in most districts of Germany.