84 THE NATUEALIST IN NORWAY. 



Many singular superstitions prevailed in Norway 

 concerning the lemming, and do so still in certain 

 country places. Some of the ignorant peasants still 

 believe that the lemmings fall from the clouds, and an 

 ancient chronicler has left this statement behind him, 

 " Lcemings illis dicti sunt mures noxii segetibus, Nor- 

 wegis peculiar es, quos ccelo decidisse," etc. 



Olaus Magnus described the lemming as a little 

 animal with four feet, and of " divers colours," which 

 fell from the air during tempests and heavy showers. 

 He also supposed that they were either brought during 

 great storms of wind from remote countries, or were 

 engendered of putrescent matter in the heavens. The 

 same quaint writer thought it very strange that when 

 the lemmings fell from the clouds to the earth, grass in 

 state of semi-digestion was found in their stomachs ; 

 but this ought to have been a convincing proof that 

 they had never left the earth at all. Olaus Magnus 

 further describes the lemmings as like locusts, destroy- 

 ing everything green before them, while their bite was 

 considered to be venomous. People who resided in 

 the neighbourhood of heaps of dead lemmings were 

 afflicted with giddiness and jaundice. Says Pont- 

 oppidan, " Of Norway's four-footed creatures, one de- 

 scription is found which belongs to the tribe of rats or 

 mice, and which some persons call lemming ; from 

 what we see of them, though, God be praised ! that is 

 not often, once or twice in twenty years, they increase 

 very fast. When they migrate they assemble in great 

 flocks of some thousands, like the host of God to exe- 

 cute His will, namely, to punish the inhabitants by the 

 destruction of the seed, corn, and grass ; for where this 

 flock goes forward they make a visible trace on the 



