, and killed him under
circumstances of great cruelty. A flock of wild geese was flying over
head, and the pedlar said the birds of the air shall witness against
you of my murder. Years went by, when, one day, the people were
waiting in the churchyard for the priest to come to service. A flock
of geese was flying overhead, when a horse-dealer from Holstein, a
stranger to the place, said, 'There goes the pedlar's witnesses.'
These words excited attention. The man lost all control over himself,
and confessed the murder."

"A very extraordinary story," said Hardy, "but a very possible one.
But have you not traditions of very supernatural things, as the story
of the Kraken?"

"There is the tradition of the Basilisk, as we call it, and that of
the Lindorm. The legend of the Basilisk is, of course, of classic
origin. It is that when a cock becomes very old, it lays an egg, and
the heat of a dungheap hatches it, and a Basilisk is produced. It is
so hideous a monster, that whoever looks on it can no longer live, but
melts away. It is also said that the Basilisk inhabits wells, and that
it is dangerous to look down a well, as to encounter the gaze of a
Basilisk would be to turn the beholder to stone. There is also another
variation of the legend. The egg when laid by the cock must be hatched
by a toad; but when the Basilisk is hatched, if it be first seen by a
human being, it at once dies, but if the contrary, the beholder dies."

"There is a novel written by Sir Walter Scott," said Hardy, "under the
title of 'Count Robert of Paris' in which he describes the Varanger
guard. It is possible that as such a body of men did exist, that such
legends were brought back by them."

"It may be," said Pastor Lindal; "but in all such matters we may
dogmatize, and be very wide of the mark, although we cannot deny the
possibility."

"But what about the Lindorm?" asked Hardy.

"The Lindorm is a legendary serpent," replied the Pastor. "Your
English story of St. George and the dragon is a contest with a
Lindorm, and we have many variations of the story. The principal
incidents, however, coincide with your English story. One story of a
Lindorm is, that a girl went out to milk her master's cows, and as she
went over the fields she saw a little spotted snake. It appeared so
pretty that she took it home and kept it in a box. Every day she fed
it with milk and what else she could get that it would eat, but it
became at last so large that it co