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st. It is true, idealism and a higher view l “Let every good Christian fling from him all re

are wanting to him, nor is he distinguished mains of pagan customs. The very garments ye i elegant style; however, he is inimitable in wear are those of the heathen whom by God's grace elineation of the peculiarities of certain ele- ye bave cast out of the land. Ye cast lots, and

of the people, and abounds in ludicrous ideas very many of you eat horses, which is a thing done allies. That he often repeats himself is not to by no Eastern Christian ; refrain from this habit.” Fondered at, considering the limited sphere The heathens referred to are, of course, the Danes, i furnishes him with heroes and heroines. who are prematurely said to have been expelled, for there is bottom enough in his books to afford they had only just come and virtually never went agreeable hours even to grave men. I know away. Why all orthodox Christians are said to abebrated German savant, who, during a very stain from this food, and how it came to be spoken ul and obstinate rheumatic disease, was agree- of as a Danish abomination, are interesting questions - amused and diverted by Paul de Kock's for all intending horse-eaters to consider. is.

It was on account of the very prominent part asul de Kock may boast of having been eagerly signed to the horse by the Danes in their public

and admired by one of the Popes. Gregory worship, and further because of strange · magical . read all his novels, and esteemed him so highly powers inherent in him, not derived from the old rehe used to propound to every Parisian who ligion, or in any way recognized by it. The scruintroduced to him the question, “ Como sta il ples excited by these associations received most of Signore Paolo de Kock?(How is dear M. their weight from a feeling with which at the presde Kock?)

ent day we have little sympathy, — that the soul of is said, when Lamartine had an audience with man can be stained by uncleanliness in which we Pope, Gregory XVI. said to him, “I hear that should be disposed to say the body only has taken are a man of talent, and have already written part imber of pretty things. But how is your illus-. The Danes, like the English of an earlier time, is countryman, Paul de Kock?”

and the Norsemen for centuries afterwards, were adherents of the old faith of Odin and Thor, once

held by the common ancestors of them all in the HORSE-FLESH.

forests of Germany. It excited the curiosity of the CERTAIN adventurous gentlemen have lately been Romans and the indignation of the early Christians; ng the meat hitherto reserved for dogs and but we should know little of its nature were we -ving' garrisons, and have taken some credit to obliged to depend only on the narratives of missionmselves for having imperilled their vile bodies for aries and invaders. We have to sketch an outline

public weal, but do not seem to have been aware from half a dozen lines of Tacitus, and a few notices t their exploit may bave put soul and estate also scatttered about in the letters of bishops in partibus, eopardy. * Had the recent horse banquets taken far too busy taming their unruly flocks to care about ce at an earlier period of English history, every preserving their uncouth features for the amusement n present would have incurred grave religious, of posterity: but for color and expression we must go al, and social disabilities; in fact, in the existing to the songs and sagas of the north, many of which Ey state of English ecclesiastical law, it is by no are the work of heathen authors, and most of which

ans certain that all these innovators are not ipso are full of the spirit of paganism. Nearly all of : excommunicate, for the opinion of ancient these have been preserved in Iceland, and someristendom is very decided on the point, and the times an enthusiastic German antiquarian will hint dgment of the mediæval Church has been most un- a tender regret that little far-away Iceland was not stakably set forth by the voice of councils, popes, allowed to remain longer undisturbed by intruding d archbishops. " Ignorantia legis neminem ex- Christianity. Enough, however, has been saved sat" is the stern maxim of the state. The regu- from the wreck to give us a very good idea of the cions of the Church have always been more elastic; old religion, and, in particular, to make us under

d the canons against the eaters of unclean and stand why its adherents ate horse, and why its perrbidden meats imposed mild penances upon igno- verts did not. nt transgressors. This ignorance we propose to These old gods were not thought to be careless of move, and we shall proceed to marshal such an mankind, but were always roaming over the earth, -ray of hostile authorities in Church and State as putting down goblins and witchcraft, causing war all daunt the most thorough-going partisan of the or peace, and making corn to grow. They delightght of private judgment.

ed in the brave and true; but what pleased them This is not the first time the English public has as much as anything was liberality in bloody sacriasted horse. Although spoken of with loathing for fices. “I am bound to aid him," says the goddess

e last thousand years, in the eighth century it was Freya. “ He has raised me an altar, and made it ommon, if not fashionable ; for St. Egbert, Arch- red and slippery with the blood of cattle." We are

ishop of York, a friend of Venerable Bede, in a told of Leif, one of the discoverers of Iceland, that Ort of episcopal charge, gives very minute directions he never would offer sacrifices, and we know he

hat to eat, drink, and avoid. He says, “ It is law- came to a bad end. They accepted every kind of : ul to eat fish that have died a natural death, but living offering, but delighted most in the costliest, — 10t birds or any other animals which have been suf- sheep, oxen, horses, captives, the king's son, or the ocated in nets, or have been torn by a hawk. I do king himself. When Earl Hako was sorely pressed not forbid horse-flesh, although many families object by the rovers of Jom, he cried for aid to his favorite co it. He adds the valuable suggestion, that boiled goddess, but she made no answer. Then he offered herring is good for a fever, and peppered gall excel- a thrall, but she would not listen. At last he offered Lent for a sore mouth. But the fathers of the En- the blood of his son, which she graciously accepted, glish Church soon began to set their faces against and, descending in a bodily shape, sate on the prow the practice, as we see by a decree of the Council of his vessel, with arrows darting from every finger. of Culcheth in Lancashire, held A. D. 785: | And we hear of an atrocious old king who sacrificed

EVERY SATURDAI.

On no alur anotuer to prolong kuis own life, and highest reyrart for an is er die wune utr sujeru would not permit tuli. to kill uatia's sake lett i

els ** sce, I ure was a familk. I was usual with Frer to pur aim to testa e ut *** W ritick the King just as we turn out and is dc e fortantia

¢ en suy Autot of disaster.

ious fulfiiner of you , but but human borilmes wice masle only on very course of whick Lamar termo s que son, such as the defeat of the Roman we are toit. witt: aven. en- I= we Varuk, or the ticeatened introduction of Kel: and his famil- br a 100 pages : Purista küxty ww a country. Tue usual offering wat 'ankie, zil tire Dioc m. So e Huy, ozou, or boints. Herde od tisse uvly aumit tim of al. that he had l f ir ca. wat manbalay kay wart in bacred place until their Freysteed as ti care o al te S E

we war - Nekoribus ac iucis candidi et me death of the sacred beast gart e n ty murtati opure contacta. " caye Lacitur. 'They were princapies such & Doc. test te s t treetd with due starost mekbeck and we are express prarens: * For said ik. I so se 231 dy wid chat w pull their taut was an act of daring , worsnipping the gotis after this baixo:

pravy: Juukaut us pilos copyallere ucları , Lirine power of the bronze L ive the uw." - Sax, (. Prowly encry temple in a ser long afterwards we rear of anotte Freet un en losure, withio Wun grand the work or was worshipped by his fond BETE. ILE*

hack Uk gun Tue par ulars of one or two of the only born in Western Icelane tor 3 The aux very larung, dot. Wilbrod. an Page ! a sledge tirough the snow-stor a witcom darbo sant of the eight cautury, cande te Hengoland ured Tuu bold beast had a Holy Contas As u cours his miniary bavors, Iere he whose story shows how these sanetten towa mwdow, in the worst of which was a sing looked on by Christian Thorrik : w sy dpt durrt wat nk while they crew arir discoverens of Greenland, * MRI: W E', AU WA MA awtul for a jayman so much as to vorage into the unknown Is Dean wach the cand Wat were feeding around it. The that Thor appeared to him, and enesTEE

tant plus the pring by trapstwing three men in treate and promises to win him back ), bidend om et the holy cattle, to the horror neigion. But when he was not able 1 * the beathana, who unght to see him ezitten him, be said, “ Albeit thou make me .

yet pay me my own" Thorgils mixed outua Our Tryggvasm is si vo bave found a similar perceived the god must be demanding a t berly walow in hown of Prey at Dromtheim, where he had given hion whilst vet & calf. 2. W*** yn ewrel borses for the pod himself to led awoke, be determined to throw the ax ore 1. (We u b er stories of Frey's kindliness in And this he did, although they were shor Buting w dunking with men, Ac Crai be even ions, in spite of the angry remonstrancs 62

We wanted t o e, e mortal maiden.) Olar heathen shipinates. As a proof of the ante b uat to the horses, and rode on him to the the practice, we may remember that craZTL time, where be defied the god, and bewed off his who wanted to raise his horse to tbe consola

seen a good deal of the Germans Many of these saepud animals have individual! The actual sacrifice consisted in slaughtex Distance of their own. The following account of devoted animal; sprinkling his blood ore in Inde of Wein is taken from a somewhat rare Icelandic place; cutting off his head, and setting it en

the god; and eating the rest of the files *trafnkell loved Prey best of the gods, and honor. We have numerous accounts of the payu tom half share in all the best things that he quets in the sagas and Church historians. Ik

dWhat he loved heat was a bay horse, half of remarkable festival of the kind was held in Lua which he gave to be friend Prey, calling it Frey- mark every ninth year, when ninety-nine mens blll. lle loved the horse so dearly, that he swore ninety-nine horses were sacrificed. The recuma and lies would be the death of him who should of the number nine shows the solemnity ? want him without his leave." Ile had fifty sheep occasion; for there are nine worlds, nine holy ***! ani thirteen hores, which he gave in charge to one and nine fatal maidens who tarry nine years ! Human, budding him beware of mounting Freysteed, mortal lovers; the grim mother of the giant " o he would be the death of him; but adding, he nine hundred heads, and when this world is passion might ride any one of his remaining twelve horses away, Thor shall reel nine paces, and die; the la poleadell. One morning the sheep were missing, wolf is doomed to his unholy shape for nine din amil Cimar, being in a hurry, rode after them on the his sister, the night-mare, has nine foals; the blare saarad horse, and when he came home "the horse of a nine-year-old ox is a mighty charm, and 3* was all wet with sweat, and dripping from every able augury is obtained by observing bow 3 bez hair, and he was mightily tired: then he turned steps over nine spears. To refuse to partaket round twelve times, and neighed loudly, and ran meal which accompanied a sacrifice was to down the valley to lIrafnkell's house, where he sat the god and his guests; but it is obvious that at table : when the horse came to the door, he neighed Christian to share in such an entertaina aloud. Then said Hrafnkell to the woman that was little short of open apostasy. How such a waiting, Go to the door, for a horse neighed, and actually was regarded on all hands is best sea it is like the neighing of Freysteed.' So she told the famous incident in the Ite of Hako him he was outside, in very evil condition. Then himself an excellent Christian, but before out he went, and saw Freysteed, and said, “Ill usage it has often been told before, bat be hast thou received, my foster-child, but thou hadst again. Snorri writes :thy wits about thee in coming to tell me: it shall be “King Hako was at a great religios avenged; so now go home to thy mates.'” With It had always been his custorn me fond

" that he turned about and went home to his herd. friends while the sacrifice was being

Next morning Hrafnkell informed Einar he had the land owners clamored against him becaus e

Saturday

is seat of honor on this great occasion; so he came hares, and touch no wild horse: my reverend sate there, and when the first bowl was filled Earl brother must know all this from Holy Writ.” He urd called upon the name of Odin, and drank, and further advises him not to eat bacon before it has ed it on to the King, and he took it and signed over been smoked, and boiled too, if circumstances perne sign of the cross.

mit. Then said one of the guests, 'Why has the King

As soon as the Christians got the upper hand, e this thing ? does he refuse to offer sacrifice ?

the Earl answered. «The King has drunk in honor | they began to employ more forcible arguments Thor, as a strong man should, and he made over it against all these abominations, and in the penal sign of Thor's hammer.' So the matter passed; but codes of the time we see breaches of religious duty he morning the guests said he must eat some horse- and offences against public order denounced on the h: he stoutly refused, neither would he drink horse- same page. As every crime is ticketed with its th. Then they threatened to fall upon him; but appropriate penalty, we can understand at a glance rl Sigurd strove to pacify them, and bade the King the comparative heinousness of each transgression, n open-mouthed over the caldron whence ascended and or

nded and are at once impressed with the fact that no - steam from the horse-flesh. So the King bound over = vessel a linen cloth, and did as the Earl bade him ;

offence which a reasonably respectable man of the E both parties were ill pleased. At Yule was another P

period would be likely to commit - such as theft, at festival, and twelve men who had most to do with

bigamy, or the murder of a stranger - rivalled in erifices banded themselves together to compel the atrocity a deliberate violation of Church regulations, ng to sacrifice. So first they slew three Christian and that no ecclesiastical crime was of deeper dye ests, and burnt three churches, and then they came to than the advised eating of horse. “He that, havfeast with as many followers as possible. As soon ing a wife,” says the old law of Norway, 6 taketh they were met together, they came to the King in unto him another woman, shall pay a fine of tbree arlike fashion, and required him to sacrifice, or it should marks.” If a man murdered another without ag- ill with him. And, by the mediation of Earl Si

gravating circumstances, – that is to say, if the ard, it was agreed that the King should eat some mouth

murdered man was not a relation or bosom friend, ls of horse-liver and drink all the toasts without makg the sign of the cross. But the King was very sad,

if the fatal blow was not given in the churchyard, nd went away immediately, threatening to return with

with and if the murderer lost no time in telling the ore followers and avenge this outrage.”

neighbors what he had done, — he simply retired

into honorable banishment. But the eating of Poor Hako never quite recovered his spirits, and horse was a far more serious matter, and was as as ashamed even to ask for Christian burial. As heavily punished as high treason, eating meat in n additional outrage, a heathen bard sang such Lent, or deeds without a name. “ If a man eat erses over his body as might have made him turn

horse or dog, let him lose cattle, land, the king's his grave. The poet describes Odin sending for peace, and his goods, and go to a heathen country, is friend Hako, and all the gods welcoming his and return no more to Christian men." Then folrrival at Walhalla, where he shall revel till the lows the singular qualification : “ Howbeit, if he lose ay, of doom.*

his way in a storm, let him fast seven days, and then This story makes very intelligible the frequent eat dog or horse, for it is better to eat dog than to be autions of popes and bishops of the eighth and ninth eaten by him. Nevertheless, when he cometh to a enturies to abstain from meat offered to idols. St. dwelling-house, let him confess his fault to the first Boniface asks Pope Gregory whether the faithful priest he shall meet, and submit to such penance as nay eat food offered to idols, if it be marked with shall be laid upon him ; but if he shall conceal what he cross, and is told to observe the apostolic in- he hath done, he shall lose land and goods, and be unction and abstain if eating would offend his banished from the land.” When the faith was introbrother; but the sin of eating such food profanely duced into Iceland the natives strenuously resisted is so great, that baptism by a priest who has done it this paternal legislation, and succeeded in carrying is of doubtful validity. Pope Zachary's directions a compromise, by which it was mercifully provided are more precise : * Abstain," he writes, “ from that, in consideration of the severity of the climate, ackdaws, crows, and storks; eat no beavers or and the difficulty of bringing up a large family, it

should still be lawful for a man in reduced circum* Hako's Lament is a very fine specimen of the old Norse war. stances to put to death any babies that were in his song, and the bard has worked in several passages from the Edda : thus giving to the song a little of the tone of a heathen hymn, and

way, or to eat horse-flesh, provided always that he showing how coinpletely Hako's fatal horse-banquet had identified carried on the latter time-honored practice in an him with his religious antagonists. We feel tempted to append a

unobtrusive manner, without shocking his weak rough trauslation of a few lines :

brothers by an open indulgence in the forbidden "Spoke the Mighty Monarch

dainty. But as Christianity gained strength these Of men and gods, To his daughters the Dealers-of-doom :

last shreds of toleration were swept away; in a few Fly down to the tighters

years the Norwegian Ecclesiastical Law was in full And find me a king Who is worthy of Woden's hall.'

force in Iceland : if a man ate horse without stary

ing for a fortnight, any man who met him was not Then follows a grand description of Hako's last battle, in which he carries all before him, until the admiring Doom-Maiden's voice,

only allowed, but commanded, to put him to death; which he alone can hear, summons him to Walhalla.

and so far from being permitted to kill an unwelThe bard ends with the mournful lines:

come infant, the father was obliged, under pain of " His bonds shall be broken,

banishment, to have him baptized, and was bound The Beast shall rise From hell to the homes of men,

by a very stringent poor-law to see to his support. Ere so kindly a king

The antipathy to horse-flesh soon grew so strong Shall come once more

that the word " horse-eater” became an abusive To walk in the ways of earth.

epithet equivalent to “ foul * Paynim," and it is so " Dying are our cattle,

applied to the Swedes, whose conversion took place
And dying our kin,
And allow lie field and lea:

later than that of the other northern nations.
The good king is sitting
With the gods of his race:

* "The King of Spain is a foul Paynim, and 'lieveth on Mar But many are the men that mourn."

hound."

But why was horse-flesh singled out for reproba- | drawn several curious particulars on the site tion, when beef and mutton, which had also been German superstition, quotes a singular stay largely used at heathen festivals (there was mutton friar wbom the Livonian pagans were about a on the board when Hako was obliged to eat horse), to death, but first they consulted a hors were allowed unless actually offered to idols? The moved his right foot the prisoner was to Ere reason is, the horse was not holy because he was moved his left he was to die. In answer to offered, but was offered because he was holy. I ar's prayer the animal moved his right foot: 2 Quite apart from his consecration he possessed many heathen priest who stood by cried out, “ T: mysterious virtues, and seems to have been consid- | the Christians is upon the horse's baek; II ered a kind of living goblin of more or less kindly down and the god will fall off.” But, after the disposition, but a goblin still. When Mad Tom in done so, the horse still moved his right foot. -4 “ King Lear” sings —

friar was spared. He mentions also simili “Swithold footed thrice the wold,

among the Pomeranians; and among his D Met the Night Mare and her nine fold,

German superstitions is one which directs
Bade her alight

man to allow a horse to eat out of her april
And her troth plight,
Aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!”

a warrior died, his horse, in obedience to he is not stringing together nonsensical rhymes about

precept, was laid under the same mound; za

stories of profane men who violate the sol courting an indigestion, but is misquoting a widely known charm against a demon of the darkness.hu

y the grave, and wrestle with the dead ma'ru

| buried treasure, the ghost of the departed by According to a Danish legend, the night-mare is the sister of the wer-wolf, and both are the dreaded

more dangerous when the bones of the hors."

him. offspring of a woman who, by wicked spells, has

The magical power of a horse was in his wa eased the pains of childbirth. 'In old English, and in many kindred languages, the word " mare "

which had the power of terrifying men and 1 means " horse," and also “goblin," and no doubt

If placed on a pole, especially of hazel Tour derives the latter meaning from the well-known

carved with Runic characters, the most dari

could not face it. There is a long story in si magical powers of the animal: thus, in a Norse saga, a wise woman, interpreting the dream of a

the employment of this device in battle:

| against whom it was directed were obliged **! man who has seen a red horse, says with a kind

cute a flank march to avoid the evil iutinene." of pun on the double meaning of the word: “It is as Napoleon eluded the Mameluke battery K. bad luck to dream of a horse, for a horse is a mare, Piramids: and an old saga tells us of a and mare is man's wraith.” These two meanings

which one of the combatants was prevented are capitally illustrated by another very old Norse legend:

storm from keeping his appointment, whereas . * King Vanland spent the winter in Finland

antagonists carved a horse head on a pole, the with Snow the old, whose daughter Drift he mar

end of which he drove through the heart of an

and planted in the earth: as the head base ried. In the spring he went away, promising to return after three years ; but, as ten years passed

towards his enemy's dwelling, he was thought 89 and he did not come, Drift sent for Huld the witch, I had no power to pass such a spell.

sustained a fearful affront. Even the plagesand prevailed upon her by gifts so to work that Vanland must either come to Finland or die.

| These and other similar rites did not at care o -- When the witchcraft had been set to work, it made

appear with the religion which had given then tie

chief force. The sermons and letters of him long to go to Finland, but bis advisers dissuaded his

bishops show us that their converts were there him, saying, This longing to travel must be the device of the Finns. Then a heavy slumber fell upon

believers in the efficacy of their old usages, and an

very unwilling to drop them. “ Sacrilege in s him, and he lay down to sleep; and when he had slept a while he cried out, “ The mare tramples me.”

tal sin,” preaches St. Boniface, " by which 11 So his men went and would have helped him: and

the worship of idols or the practice of divinatra)

dead bodies.” “If a man destroy his neighbor'? when they took him by the head, she trampled on bis legs till they were wellnigh broken: then they ;

| incantations, he shall fast seven years," says took him by the feet, and she kicked his head that|

| bishop Egbert. “Suffer not your subjects," ***] he died.” This supernatural power of the horse is

Pope Gregory to the Queen of the Franks,“ to referred to in an old heathen spell of such power which

enchantments with the heads of animals”; a repol that the Christian writer who records it lacks cour

which seems to have been complied with, as was age to put it all down, and warns honest men not to

Charlemagne imposing a fine of fifteen shillings take it into their mouths after dark. The witch,

any one who should perform the magical rites who seems to be laying on her foe the curse of the

were condemned by the Council of Lippestadt. sleepless eye, mutters, —

some nooks of Germany the head of a horse

held to possess strange powers to ban and to bles "May the horse trample on thee,

and many readers will remember the excellent May thy straw prick thee,

fairy tale of Falada, the horse who could talk, Whether the horse gained this equivocal reputa- whose head was cut off lest he should tell i tion from the frequent use made of him in spells and had seen; but the murderer, being uriacqua auguries, or whether he was so used because he was with magie, nailed the head upon a door-post, previously deemed uncanny, we do not know. It is own confusion ; for that is the precise situation, true we frequently hear of a cat possessed by the is most favorable to the development of the am devil, and sometimes of a heathen cow that puts an mysterious power. army to light; but the borse, living or dead, is all Horse-flesh is only one of many articles on the ways being pauployed for supernatural purposes. wbich were continually being prohibited by

Tacitus tells us his neighing was a most trustworthy councils, and bishops. Some of these were omen, and w as part of Curmany it is lucky to den as being contrary to the spirit of ibe a hoar it to this Hiny. Grimm, from whom we bave injunction to abstain from things strangled and

M

lod; such as dogs, cats, and all beasts which ha- | nation as human flesh itself, sit down to this strange ually eat carrion, the flesh of clean-feeding ani- food as calmly as though they were about to make als which had tasted human blood, or the honey of trial of eland. We readily acquit the hundred and es which had stung a man to death; some again fifty respectable gentlemen who on a recent Thurscause of their employment in sacrilegious rites, day made the experiment, of any intention to do ch as beef or mutton which had been offered to reverence to him from whom that day is named; ols, - even a starving man might not eat such but there are many bitter old laws, civil and ecclesiod without guilt: and many others because they astical, in which allusion is made to “ Christianos ere disgusting, for the Fathers of the early Church illos qui sive verbis sive operibus diabolum colunt.” It themselves bound to teach the decencies of daily The penalties are too numerous to mention, but a fe as part of their religion; and some of their in- few of them are loss of goods and chattels, perpetructions convince us that if an age of primitive in- ual imprisonment, and the burial of a dog. “All ocence ever existed, we need not look for it among things pertaining to the jurisdiction of the Church ur heathen forefathers. Here is an episcopal di- of England over a disaffected member are envelection which we will leave in the Latin : “ Qui oped in awful and daily thickening obscurity; and omedit scabiem aut vermiculos qui pediculi dicuntur, the projectors of the next equine orgy would do el corporis aquam bibit, sive stercora comedit, xx well first to satisfy themselves that recent legislation ies pæniteat”; and that this prohibition of filth has abrogated the laws of Canute. That they will vas not superfluous we see by a curious story of an readily obtain a favorable opinion of counsel we do arly explorer on the coast of Greenland, who, in not doubt, — when does any unnatural son who seeks tress of weather, was sorely tempted by the devil, to inflict a wound on his poor old spiritual mother n the likeness of a gull, to resort to one of the prac- fail to find a flaw in her rusty armor? But we enices mentioned above; but he had power to with- treat those well-meaning persons who are striving to stand the trial.* It is however, possible that some change the diet of a race, and also other conscienof these unseemly habits were connected with witch- tious introducers of new-fangled practices in Church craft, for many of the spells with which we are ac- and State, to pause before they lend further strength quainted were of a disgusting character.

to the perilous maxim, that all things may rightly The sin of a breach of these rules was only les- be done which are not forbidden, totidem verbis, by sened, not removed, by ignorance ; for some small some lawful authority. For innovation is like horsepenance, usually one half, is imposed upon the man flesh, l'appétit vient en mangeant, and when we have who has unwittingly eaten a filthy or accursed robbed our cats and dogs of the morsels we now disthing. That the soul could be polluted by a me- tribute to them temptingly displayed upon skewers, chanical act of the body was a notion more nearly we shall soon proceed to cast a greedy eye upon allied to the old pagan superstitions than to the Grimalkin and Toby, all whose grossness will then Christian religion ; it was but natural for a convert have been purged away by a purely vegetable diet. to be sick with horror when he discovered that the These successive steps of the unbridled appetite whale, whose flesh he had eaten, had been sent as which has cast aside all the restraints of conventionan answer to a prayer to Thor; † but the feeling ality seem to be foreshadowed in the following was encouraged by the missionaries, because they graphic lines of the Scottish ballad:found it begot a horror of the loathsome practices

"In there came a griesly ghost, with which heathen spells and incantations were ac

Stood stamping on the floor." companied. It was of course possible for a half

(Ghost loqurtur.) hearted convert to eat horse without intending any

"6Some meat, some meat, ye King Henrie, reverence to (din; but he was more secure from

Some meat je gie to me!'"

"And what meat's in this house, ladye, any temptation to sacrilege if persuaded that the an

That ye 're na welcome tie?' imal had become so contaminated by long employ

“O, ye 'se gae kill your berry-brown steed, ment in a variety of wicked ceremonies, that even

And serve him up to me.' unknowingly to taste his flesh was to commit a sin

“0, when he killed his berry-brown steed,

Wow gin his heart was sair! requiring special absolution. Abstinence from horse

She ate him a' up, skin and bane, flesh in those days closely resembled teetotalism at

Left naething but hide and hair. present. We do not indeed find in old writers the

« « Mair meat, mair meat, ye King Henrie ! reasonings with which we are now so familiar; for

Mair meat ye gie to me!!

* And what meat's in this house, ladye, the church in the eighth century was not in the

That I hae left to gie?' habit of employing verbal arguments; but we can

" • O, ye do slay your gude grey houndes,

And bring them a' to me.' easily understand what is to be said in favor of leg

“0, when he slew his gude grey houndes, islation against a man if he persists in eating a

Wow but his heart was sair! steak that recalls to the minds of his neighbors cer

She's ate them up a' up, ane by ane, tain scenes of impious revelry into which they half

Left Daething but hide and hair." long to relapse.

This terrible visitor was really a lady of high degree, For good or for evil, the horse has had his day; who was in the habit of acting in this extraordinary the military emblem in which our forefathers hailed manner in order to test the politeness of her hosts; the protecting presence of Frey, and of other un-but King Henrie may be pardoned for having inknown but mighty agencies, and before which Ro-ferred, as at first he did, that the stranger was none man and Pict quailed in religious panic, is now other than “the fiend that wons in hell.". seen only on the useless shield of Brunswick, or on There is really no saying where we shall arrive at the caps of Kentish volunteers. Men whose ances- last if we once make up our minds to overstep all tors thought horse-flesh exactly half as foul an abomi- the barriers of custom and instinct unless they are

fortified by the precise words of some recent Act of * This story is pleasantly told by Mr. Baring Gould in his amusing and valuable work on the Sagas of Iceland ; but here as else

Parliament, or of one of the Ten Commandments; where he not unnaturally shrinks from calling a spade a spade, so, for we cannot call to mind any text, or any modern for the benefit of Arctic voyagers, we will append a few words of the

canon, article, or statute, which forbids the eating original Norse, “Menn hafa blandat saman sio ok hlandi.” + This happened to some aute-Columbian discoverers of America

Or

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