ROMAN PAVEMENTS AND INTRECCI. iyq 



" And thus they promised me and wrote it in my heart ; 

 ' If thou go down to Egypt and bring thence the Pearl, 

 ' That which the Irssing Serpent guardeth in the Sea 

 ' Then, with thy Brother in our Eealm, thou shalt be Heir.' 



" Straight to the Serpent I advanced and near him dwelt, 

 The cruel hissing Serpent I began to charm 

 And lulling him to slumber, seized the Pearl." 



4. Another dracontine intreccio indicates the death of the 

 earth-serpent Fafni. We may see the story told on a stone dis- 

 covered at Ramsundsberg, on the Maler Lake, Sweden. It is 

 shown in Illustration XXII. 



Fafni guarded a hoard of gold, and Sigurd, his destroyer, dug 

 a pit beneath the dragon's trail, between the treasure-heap and a 

 stream. And as the Serpent passed by, Sigurd thrust him 

 through with his sword. Then Regin, the dwarf smith, who 

 was Fafni's brother, cut open his breast and drank the blood, 

 and desired Sigurd to toast the heart. And Sigurd, toasting it 

 on a spit, burnt his thumb and put it to his mouth, and so, tast- 

 ing dragon's blood, he suddenly understood the voice of the 

 birds that were talking together on a tree. And they said it 

 would be wise of Sigurd to make Regin shorter by the head, that 

 all the treasure might be his. And so Regin was slain. 



No story was more popular than this. Everywhere, even, at 

 last, in Christian churches, the Fafni contortions were carved, 

 the intreccio that signified the overthrow of evil. Among 

 pagans we see it on Gotland circular brooches of bronze ; in a 

 tomb -carving at Maeshowe ; and on the hilt of Saxon swords. 



Among Christians, we see it on church portals in Norway, and 

 on a cross in Halton graveyard, Lancaster, which presents many 

 details of this altogether heathen story, including the dragon's 

 death-knot. 



None of these carvings is pre-Roman ; but what they relate 

 discloses a primitive state of society, and must have come down 

 from a remote antiquity. There is nothing like it in Roman 

 legends, and intrecci of this kind never came from Italy. On 

 the other hand, Egyptian influence, spreading through eastern 



