PRAGUE AND ITS FOUNDER

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21216, 10 December 1938, Page 11

PRAGUE AND ITS FOUNDER

FIGURE IN QUAINT OLD LEGEND Prague, caital of unhappy Czechoslovakia, was, according to an old Bohemian legend, founded by a woman— Liussa, the youngest of the three daughters of the Bohemian Prince Krokus, of Krok, the first ruler of the country. Kazi, the ‘ eldest daughter, was learned in medicine and a veritable Medea as regards poisons. Teta( or Lethka), the second, practised religious rites and taught the people to worship dryads, oreades, and hamadryads, while Liussa, the youngest, possessed great wisdom. Liussa was chaste and devoutly religious. She was affable and amiable and second to none as judge over her people. Though a woman and a soothsayer into the bargain, she had manly qualities which won her the esteem of the people who chose her as their ruler. She reigned for some time over them, during which time she founded Prague and foretold its future greatness. As time went on her power waned. It chanced one day when Liussa was settling a dispute between two nobles, the noble against whom she decided insulted her by saying that his country was the only one that endured the shame of being ruled by a woman. Male Ruler Wanted Liussa took the rebuke to heart. She declared that the people were too ferocious to be ruled by a woman, and advised them to get a man ruler. “Whomsoever you may choose,” she said, “I shall make my husband.” The people were moved at her decision, and asked her to choose any husband she liked. On the following day she assembled the people, and, pointing to the distant hills, said:— “Behind those hills is a river called Belina, and at its bank a farm called Stadic. Near the farm is a field, and j in that field your future King is ploughing with two oxen marked with various spots. His name is Premsyl, and his descendants will reign over you for ever. Take my horse, and follow

him; he will lead you to the spot.” The people selected a few citizens 1 from amongst themselves, and, guided ■ by Liussa’s horse, they reached the I place and found a peasant ploughing. When they asked him his name, he I replied:— “Premsyl.” They saluted him as Prince, con- j ducted him to the castle on the Vyschard, where he married Luissa and ruled beside her. Premsyl proved to be a great law-giver, and his successors ruled for five centuries. Fact and Fable No doubt there is fable mingled with fact in the story, but the name of Premsyl appears in old records as the first Prince of Bohemia. The Czechs, who settled in Bohemia in the fifth century A.D., are said to have derived their name from Cechus, or Cech, a noble of Crotia, who fled from his own land, and with his followers settled in Bohemia. They were a branch of the great Slavonic people, and were divided into tribes, each ruled over by a chief. The most important tribe was the Cechs, and the ruler was known as the knez or prince.

An old German chronicle states that in the year 623 A.D., Samo, a member of the Slavonic tribe from North Germany, was made King by the Bohemians or Cechs, and made his residence at the castle of the Vysehrad, a hill near Prague—the present -capital of Czecho-Slovakia—and now incorporated with that town.