tion.

[61] This last opinion has been put forward with great force by
Fahlbeck, and accepted by Vigfusson. See Ward, "Catalogue of Romances,"
ii. p. 15, and Appendix.

[62] They are numerous especially in the province of Finmarken; they are
to be found further south in winter.

[63] According to the account of a Scandinavian burial left by Ahmed Ibn
Fozlan (tenth century, see above, p. 27), the custom was to bury with
the dead ornaments and gold embroideries to the value of a third part of
what he left.

[64] "Chanson de Roland," line 2804.

[65] "Talis mihi videtur, vita hominum praesens in terris ad
comparationem ejus, quod nobis incertum est, temporis, quale cum te
residente ad coenam cum ducibus ac ministris tuis tempore brumali,
accenso quidem foco in medio et calido effecto coenaculo, furentibus
autem foris per omnia turbinibus hiemalium pluviarum vel nivium,
adveniensque unus passerum, citissime pervolaverit; qui cum per unum
ostium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ipso quidem tempore quo intus
est, hiemis tempestati non tangitur, sed tamen parvissimo spatio
serenitatis ad momentum excurso, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens, tuis
oculis elabitur. Ita haec vita hominum ad modicum apparet; quid autem
sequatur, quidve praecesserit, prorsus ignoramus. Unde si haec nova
doctrina certius aliquid attulit merito esse sequenda videtur."
"Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum," book ii. cap. 13, year 627.

[66]

Je voudrais qu'a cet age,
On sortit de la vie ainsi que d'un banquet,
Remerciant son hote. (viii. 1.)

[67] Ragnar Lodbrok, thrown among serpents in a pit, defies his enemies,
and bids them beware of the revenge of Woden ("Corpus Poeticum Boreale,"
vol. ii. pp. 341 ff.). In the prisons, at the time of the Terreur, the
guillotine was a subject for _chansons_. The mail steamer _la France_
caught fire, part of the cargo being gunpowder; the ship is about to be
blown up; a foreign witness writes thus: "Tous jusqu'aux petits
marmitons rivalisaient d'elan, de bravoure et de cette gaiete gauloise
dans le peril qui forme un des beaux traits du caractere national."
Baron de Huebner, "Incendie du paquebot la France," Paris, 1887. This
account was written, according to what the author told me, on the day
after the fire was unexpectedly mastered.

[68] "Codex Exoniensis," "Seafarer," p. 306, "Wanderer," p. 291. See
also "Deor the Scald's Complaint," one of the oldest poems in "Codex
Exonie