full of money was buried there. One
night, however, two men dug down to the kettle, and seized it by the
handle; but immediately wonderful things happened, with a view of
preventing them from taking away the kettle and the money--first, they
saw a black dog with a red hot tongue; next, a cock drawing a load of
hay; then a carriage with four black horses. The men, however, pursued
their occupation without uttering a word. But at last came a man, lame
in one foot, halting by, and he said, 'Look, the town is on fire!' The
two men looked, and sure enough the town appeared to them to be on
fire. One of them uttered an exclamation, and the kettle and the
treasure sank in the earth far beyond their reach. There are many of
these stories, but the principle inculcated is, that when digging for
treasure it must be carried out in perfect silence. You will have
observed that a great many of the tumuli you have met with in Denmark
have been opened. This has chiefly been done by the hidden-treasure
seekers; but it has had one good result, and that is, it has enriched
the museums in Denmark, especially that of Northern Antiquities in
Copenhagen. You have probably seen the museum in Bergen, Norway. You
will have seen precisely the same type of subjects there as in
Copenhagen; and in the tumuli in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, what has
been found is, _coeteris paribus_, identical in type."

"You said just now that a slave was killed at places where treasure
was hidden," said Hardy; "is there much belief in that direction?"

"Yes; the belief in ghosts was very strong," replied the Pastor, "and
still exists. The general view was that if a man's conduct was
criminal in a high degree, that within three days after he 'walked;'
that is, his ghost appeared at the places he had been attached to when
in life, attended by more or less supernatural attributes. This, of
course, arose from our Saviour's resurrection on the third day; but as
to this, I will tell you a tradition that is an exception. There was
once a man who was exceptionally wicked and bad; he was a thief and a
robber, never went to church, and committed all manner of crimes. When
he died and was buried in the churchyard, and the people who had
attended the funeral had returned to the man's house to drink the
Gravol--that is the beer that was specially brewed for consumption at
a funeral--lo! there was the dead and buried man sitting on the roof
of the house, glaring down on all tho