en acmeved in ittle more than forty years, is not only a wonderful e-house, but fosters a national taste for the preservation of hisantiquities. The director of the museum happened to be able to Ir. Marryat an example which could hardly have been anticipated. in the Ethnographical department three soldiers in blue, who, ue in hand, were examining the collection, he remarked that years ago no soldier would have thought of quitting his beervisit a collection of art, and off he went to explain the contents cabinet to his humble visitors. implements of the remote period known as the Age of Bronze, are brought together in the Scandinavian collection, appear to co a period previous to the birth of Christ; and they are attributed madic Oriental tribe, a small-limbed race, who settled in Denmark, no connexion with their predecessors. And-à propos to this-ious to remark that in the island of Fano (nearly opposite the aport of Hjerting, whence in summer a steamer bears beeves for the all-devouring London market) the young girls are to have quite an Oriental type of countenance, with long eyes x complexions; the women who tend the cows or work in the ar a black mask, and the place adheres to old customs and old nd is supposed to have remained stationary for a thousand yearsat are very suggestive of the people and customs of an Eastern n this island, by the way, the womankind wear an indefinite from seven upwards, of substantial woollen petticoats of various -a bride once wore thirteen! In the remote " Age of Bronze" the ladies appear to have pose requisites of the work-table, scissors excepted. The museum many needles in bone and in bronze, but some have the eye the centre. A pin or brooch, for fastening the dress or plaid, ed as precisely similar to the pins and brooches of the Scottish 3. the antiquities of later periods preserved in this most interesting Irinking-horns of glass and of bone are found; and the collecrly contained two golden horns, which were accidentally disthe one in 1639, and the other in 1737-in the same locality, valued respectively at 500l. and 4501.* The mosses, or and the tumuli of the country (the island of Samso alone is a l-green of the early Scandinavian era) seem to hold golden. n their dark oblivion: thus, three gold armlets of beautiful ip, now in the museum-for in Denmark no pernicious law of ›ve consigns such treasures to the melting-pot-were found in grave at Buderupholm. has likewise disclosed many a hoard of coins. The Vikings. on the eastern shores of England in the ninth and tenth cen aluable objects were, unfortunately, stolen from the museum, and ent a funeral elegy was written, of so touching a character, as Mr tiously remarks, that it brought tears to the eyes of all antiquaries. P st decent coinage Denmark ever possessed was that of Erik the anian. Large quantities of foreign coins have been discovered in s places-Cufic, Byzantine, Roman, German, and Anglo-Saxon, er with rings and bars of silver and gold, and beads and ornaments, mbossed, and apparently of Byzantine origin. Beads of glass, ed and mosaic, probably likewise of Eastern manufacture, are also Mr. Marryat does not attempt to explain the occurrence of such objects in Denmark; but it is to be remembered that Northern Swedes, Norwegians, and even Angles, flocked by land through - to Constantinople in the tenth century, and took service in the al guard; and pure Old-Northern names occur in Byzantine gs. Northmen were ambassadors to the Greek emperors, and in early times were much brought in contact with the East, which in till more remote had been the Northmen's home. ir love of change and wandering seems afterwards to have lived in e folk-lore of the country and the ancient customs still observed are cidentally noticed in Mr. Marryat's lively pages, but he mentions a arious particulars. On one of the highest points of Zealand there ackened stone, on which the peasants light a bonfire on the eve of hn-a relic (of course) of a very early pagan custom. The sunsetways rings as the sun goes down, recalling the ancient Curfew of andy and England still rung in some cathedral towns. At Lise-a place whose quiet and repose is seldom broken save by the little fête at harvest-home, the church-bells "ring up the sun" (as the ssion goes) and "ring it down" again; and, in the midst, nine disstrokes are given, one for the Paternoster, seven for the seven te petitions of the Lord's Prayer, and a loud booming ninth proAmen. Nowhere are the good old Christmas customs more ntly observed than in Jutland. Even the little birds of the air are rgotten, for a small wheatsheaf is laid in the garden over-night on dog in particular, are fed with the best of everything by these nt, simple-minded, tradition-loving people. From the 24th of ber to the New Year, no one works, and all the young people but the new year-at least in Bornholm-is not danced in: it is , for every one who can obtain fire-arms discharges them at his ours' windows by way of wishing a happy new year. On the of the Three Kings, a candle of three wicks is burnt in every e of the superstitions, too, are noticeable. Second sight is as n in Jutland as in the Scottish Highlands, and is much believed the foretelling of fire. The huge Black Dog that haunts the church of Skamm, quite recals the famous "spectre-hound of Man." of course, and the much less amiable trolls, seem to stand beside erywhere. The trolls, however, are not invariably mischievous and fortunately they can transform themselves only into maimed =: thus his Satanic Majesty himself affects the form of a rat, but an grow any tail. Superstition thrives in Falster-witness the of casting a pail of water behind, when a corpse leaves the door, no ghost may appear in the house. e are relics of strange customs connected with church-going: Christian V. placed "the yawning-stocks" at every church-door lage stocks, though remaining in some places, are, as in this quite out of fashion), and in them the preacher's victims, when -d of a second offence, had to stand with open mouth. Upon this, ple tried to protect themselves by going when the sermon was er, for the early Lutheran clergy loved the sound of their own but the authorities were a match for them, and placed the late in the stocks all the same. Then folks went early, and took n sleep, but thereupon the churchwardens were charged to go nd stir them up continually. At length an hour-glass was fixed ide of every pulpit. People go to christenings, at all events, enough, for on a Sunday morning a stuhl-wagen may be seen to carrying a party of old-fashioned Jutlanders to the ceremony, Isician with distended cheeks, playing vigorously on a flageolet, e driver. ges appear to have been considered a luxury in Denmark down as late as the last half of the seventeenth century. It would t even in England the use of coaches cannot be carried more ntury further back, that is to say, not beyond the time of Fitzrl of Arundel. Buckingham, King James's favourite, introlan-chairs and the use of six horses for his coach-a novelty n excited some wonder, and was taken as a mark of his extraide. Such of the citizens of Copenhagen as could not afford ɔrses, were likewise carried about in sedan-chairs; and there alian who contracted to supply the town with them. ticle has extended to so great a length, that we can only notice y, in conclusion, some of the natural features of Jutland and h isles. That the waters are retiring on the Liimfiord, there anders-holm and Eng-holm attest the fact; and the Mayor of g (Eel Castle) told Mr. Marryat that the bed of a little lake in he used to fish eighteen years before was then cultivated land, gh no process of draining had been resorted to. On the other here are vast bogs, or mosses, the result of some ancient inundathe sea, which have been reclaimed by draining, and in which the uncovers urns of black Jutland pottery with the zig-zag ornament, ntaining bones. The draining of the Sjorring Lake is looked foro by antiquarians as that of a Jutland Tiber. Level lands so open sea are of course particularly liable to be overwhelmed by the sands e salt waves. What is now a plain of driving sand, was in living y one of the most fertile meadows in Jutland; and in many wild now inhabited only by the swarthy gipsy and the lapwing, ruins ges and remains of furnaces are found, and weapons are uncovered turf-cutters-memorials of a civilisation that the spot once knew, ch has long passed away. naturalist finds much to interest him in Jutland. Wolves do not ere now, any more than in England, but they seem to have linin Jutland to a later period than they did even in Scotland, for, s the middle of the last century, it was a common thing to hear destroying cattle and doing other damage. The last wolf is said e been killed only fifty years ago. Christian V. signalised his against wild-boars no less than against yawning Sermon-hearers, said to have killed sixteen of the former animals in one day's chase 1, but they are now quite extinct. In the manor of Asdal, great once stood, and lately the horns and bones of the wild buffalo and , races long since extinct in Jutland, have been dug up. The arrive about old May-day (May 13). It must be curious to bene of their gatherings before they take flight on the approach of A friend of the author saw an assembly of four hundred perched eaves of farm-buildings in Zealand: the whole flock appeared to tered for inspection and review; and the aged and weakly being ed and pecked to death, the rest took their flight for Egypt. The re found to be quite right in their anticipation of summer, for ion suddenly breaks forth in a few days after their arrival. The falcon tribe abound. Everywhere in Denmark the swallow is a -ed bird; its nests are respected and preserved wheresoever built; reason given is, that the swallow was the most blessed of the irds that came to our Saviour's cross. The Bohemian wax-wing acilla garrula), called in Denmark "silk-tail," a bird of sober with a beautiful little yellow tail, is stated to visit Denmark nce in seven years. It never lays its eggs farther south than e, 1. n the birds of spring have collected, and rich verdure waves above pet of moss; when "the fresh green earth is strewed with the first that lead the vernal dance," and the lily of the valley, the Soloeal, the hepatica, and other wild flowers, gem the woods, the must be charming, and as attractive to the lover of nature as its oric sites must prove to the gatherer of history and legend. W. S. G. BY MRS. ACTON TINDAL. TRUANT gay was little Mary warm, and rosy, White-robed now in grave-clothes long. Do they fear that she should waken? Do they fear the wind should chill her? In a trance from Hades brought; Brow and limb and shroud have caught Majesty and pomp angelic, Wondrous is the death-change wrought! Came she, between lilies lighted, Fragrant lamps of whitest flame, Through the distance none may measure, Deeps and heights we may not pass, Where none weep nor cry Alas! Till we yield the atoms borrowed For the weary frames we wear, For the house in which we've sorrowed, From the teeming earth and air; Free for ever, everywhere! |