554 REPORT OF NATIONAL MU8EUM, 1891. 



much easier maintained by the position oi" the oars which were not 

 fixed faec remos in ordinem lateribus adjugiintj, that is not permanently 

 fixed to the sides of the shij), but were fsolutumj loosely suspended fet 

 mutahUe) iind capable of being- cliauged in so far as to be employed in 

 either direction (hine vel Uliuc remiyium); or, in other words, that, 

 althougli in a measure fixtures to the sides of the ship, yet they were 

 lianging loosely in loops or straps fastened to the rowlocks that, like 

 the rowlocks for a forward motion, would act as points of resistance to 

 permit a backward rowing without change of oar or of rowers. 



The next mention of the people of the I^orth we find in the middle 

 of the second century, when the Danes are mentioned as inhabitants 

 of Scania,' but it is not until the beginning of the sixth century that 

 the Scandinavians (Danes) announce their coming to the West by en- 

 tering the river Maas ami pillaging the viciiuty of Geldern.-* 



A navy of ships of the kind described by Tacitus nuist necessarily 

 have been the growth of centuries, and must have been the result of 

 active service upon the sea, in accordance with the historical trutli that 

 powerful nations do not remain idle; and it is, therefore, to be inferred 

 that the Scandinavians (Suiones of Tacitus, Danes of Prokop) navi- 

 gated the sea many centuries before the l)eginningof the Christian era. 



The early history of a people finds its beginning in tlie traditions of 

 the deeds and achievements of prominent men among them that were 

 recounted upon festive occasions and thus handed down from genera- 

 tion to generation. Although based on facts, they soon assumed a 

 mythical character and they do not now admit of being assigned a 

 definite i)eriod of origin, while others, becoming more and more vague, 

 were gradually forgotten, a circumstance much regretted by Cicero'^ as 

 regards the loss to history of important facts. 



Rock-scul/ptiires. — The oldest form of the tradition of the people of the 

 North has been discovered in the rock sculptures so abundantly found 

 along the Scandinavian coast. They give, in an ideographic form, 

 an account of the important events, a permanent record to be handed 

 down to posterity. A second form, of much more recent date, is pre- 

 sented in the " Sagas.'' 



The rock sculptures have received the name Hellristninger, (or Hiill- 



' Ptolemy, lib. ii, c. ii, speaks of the /^avXiove^ or /iaxyioveg. Procop. de bello goth. 

 lib. 2, c. xi, XV. H. M. Petersen: Daumarks Historie i Heclenold, 1, 24. Worsaa', 

 J. J. A.: Zur Alterthiimskmide des Nordeus, p. 78. Eeyser, E.: Om Normiiiidens 

 Ilerkoinst og Folkeslagstkab. 



-Greg. Turou, iii, c. 3. Jiarthold: Gescliiclite der Deutsclieu .Seeiiiacht (in Rau- 

 mer's Ilistor. Tasclienbucb, iii Folge, i J3and, 18.50, p. 304). 



^ " Gravissimus auctor iu 'Originihus' dixit Cato, morem apiidmajores liuiic .specu- 

 larum fuisse, nt deinceps, qui accubarent canereut ad tibiam clarorum vivorum 

 laudes atque virtiites" (Cic. Tusc. Quajst. iv, 3). "Utiuam existarent ilia carmiua 

 qua^- miiltio sieculis ante suam iTetatem in spnlis esse cantitata a singulis convivis 

 declamorum vivorum laudibus iu 'Originibus' scriptum reliquit Cato" (Cic. Brut. 



XIX). 



