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Although the familiar method of seeking information from the cries and the flight of birds in known to the Germans, they have also a special method of their own - to try to obtain omens and warnings from horses. These horses are kept at the public expense in the sacred woods and groves that I have mentioned; they are pure white and undefiled by any toil in the service of man. The priest and the king, or the chief of the state, yoke them to a sacred chariot and walk beside them, taking note of their neighs and snorts.
Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania, trans. by H. Mattingly and revised by S.A. Handford, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1970, p. 109.
PLACE: Germany
TIME: 1st century A.D.
They also have the well-known kind of chant that they call baritus. By the rendering of this they not only kindle their courage, but, merely by listening to the sound, they can forecast the issue of an approaching engagement. For they either terrify their foes or themselves become frightened, according to the character of the noise they make upon the battlefield; and they regard it not merely as so many voices chanting together but as a unison of valour. What they particularly aim at is a harsh, intermittent roar; and they hold their shields in front of their mouths, so that the sound is amplified into a deeper crescendo by the reverberation.
Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania, trans. by H. Mattingly and revised by S.A. Handford, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1970, p. 103.
PLACE: Germany
TIME: 1st century A.D.
CIRCUMSTANCE: The chanting of the Germans before they go into battle.
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