14 On the IFkite Horses of Wiltshire. 



ancestors to the horse, and it is perhaps probable that when Caligula 

 spoke of raising his horse to the consulship, it was not a mere freak of 

 imperial caprice, but was with the idea of a compliment to the 

 superstition of his Grallic and British subjects. 



Among the Scandinavian nations, the horse was not only an object 

 of religious reverence, but the sacrifice of horses appears to have 

 been one of their sacred rites. I find in a curious book of Keysler's 

 called Antiquitates selecta Septentrionales, a quotation from 

 Dithmar, Bishop of Merseberg, a historian of the XI. Century, 

 in which he says of the Danes, " There is a place in these 

 parts, the capital of the country, called Lethra, in the district 

 of Selon, where the whole people are accustomed to come to- 

 gether, and there to sacrifice to their Gods ninety-nine men, and as 

 many horses, together with dogs and cocks, with the certain hope 

 of appeasing the Gods by these victims.^' Ditm. Mers. T. 1, p. 327. 

 And Sturleson, in his "Vita Haquini Adelstani,^' says "mac- 

 tabant omnis generis animalia, prsesertim equos quoque.'"'' And 

 again Agathius Scholasticus de rebus Justiniani says " the Alemanni 

 are accustomed to appease the deities of certain trees, sacrificing to 

 them horses and many other victims with their heads thrown back." 

 And Hartknock tells us the same thing with regard to the Prassi, 

 and Herod. Halic. with regard to the Scythians. 



After the sacrifices followed a feast upon the flesh of the victims, 

 called " Blotfagnat " or " Blotveislor," of which we have some very 

 curious details in the Saga of Haco, cap. 18. I quote a few lines : 

 " On the feast day, as soon as they had sat down to the tables, the 

 country folks came to the king, and prayed him to taste the horse 

 flesh. And when he would on no account consent to do this, they 

 entreated him to drink some of the gravy. Which when he equally 

 refused, they assure him that the fat would be far from disagreable. 

 At last Sigard makes petition that he will at least bend down to- 

 wards the cauldron and touch the handle of it with the tip of his 

 lips. Accordingly the king rose up and having first covered the 

 handle with linen, applied the extremity of his lips to the cauldron. 

 Then taking his place again upon the royal seat he is hailed by all 

 as having clearly done that which was well-pleasing to the people." 



