98 



NATURE 



{June 2, 1887 



and though they were stolen and melted down in 1802, 

 faithful representations of them have been preserved. 

 The horns were divided by projecting rings into a series 

 of compartments, in nearly all of which there were groups 

 of human and animal figures accompanied by various 

 symbols. The meaning of these, Worsaae, by the light of 

 northern mythology, has undertaken to interpret ; and 

 though it is impossible here even to attempt to reproduce 

 his interpretation, it may fairly be said that it is one that 

 commends itself for its consistency, and which the corre- 

 sjxtndence between the subjects on the two horns tends 

 strongly to corroborate. There can, as he says, be 

 scarcely a doubt that these gold horns, unique both in 

 size and embellishment, originally formed a pair, and that, 

 like other heathen representations in metal, stone, bone, or 

 wood, they were a sort of sacred picture-book kept in a 

 temple and intended to preserve the kernel of the old 

 theology for the people. Accepting the view of certain 

 marks and symbols being especially those of Thor, Odin, 

 Frey, and other divinities, it is found that not only in 

 later times did the Northmen cling with tenacity to their 

 ancestral reverence for the images and sacred marks of 

 their gods, but that in early times, even in the Bronze 

 Age, traces may be discovered of similar objects of rever- 

 ence, and that the whole system of northern mythology, 

 such as it existed at the time of its supersession by the 

 Christian faith, was but the development of religious ideas 

 that had subsisted in the same regions in remote pre- 

 historic times. Some speculations with regard to these 

 sacred signs will also be found in our author's " Danish 

 Arts" (p. 65 et seq., p. 114). 



The same may be said as to his views with regard to 

 many of the deposits of arms and implements, both of 

 stone and bronze, having originated from religious motives 

 (" D. A." p. 63). It is certainly the case that considerable 

 hoards of large flint axes, crescent-shaped knives of 

 flint, and lance- or spear-heads of the same material, have 

 been found deposited under large stones in fields and 

 bogs, the uniformity of the objects in the deposit raising 

 a presumption that it was not due to the mere hiding 

 away of the private property of one individual, but rather 

 to the fact that some offering to the gods was intended. 

 In the case of hoards of bronze objects, there are some 

 which comprise lumps of rough metal, old and worn-out 

 inplements, and even moulds. Such must, with all prob- 

 ability, be regarded as the property of bronze founders, 

 hidden in the ground for the sake of security, and, from 

 some cause or other, never afterwards recovered by the 

 owners. There are, however, other deposits which, like 

 those of stone already mentioned, would appear to have 

 been due to a religious motive. In some instances the 

 objects have been purposely broken and rendered useless, 

 in the same manner as the gold Gaulish coins found in 

 the Seine, which appear to have been offerings to the Dea 

 Sequana, have been so constantly defaced. Such offerings 

 to the divinities of springs and rivers were not unfrequent 

 in Roman times, and continued in vogue even in later 

 ages. The subject of the religious rites of the early pre- 

 historic ages is, then, one the investigation of which has 

 been fairly started by Worsaae, and offers a field in 

 which future research may profitably be prosecuted. 



The meaning and derivation of the devices on Scandi- 

 navian bracteates, which to a certain extent correspond 



with the bullce of the Romans, is also discussed in the 

 book before us, which, though extending to little more 

 than 200 pages, contains the result of much thought on 

 the part of the author, and is suggestive of much more 

 for the attentive reader. 



It remains to say a few words with regard to the 

 translator, who on the whole has done his work in a 

 satisfactory manner, though probably a more intimate 

 acquaintance with the Danish language and with Scandi- 

 navian archaeology would have been advantageous. Such 

 terms as grave-heights for barrows, or grave-mound-, 

 and the mention of a Society of Ancient Northern Texts, 

 and the account of a discovery of relics of a primitive 

 Stone Age in ancient chalk deposits under the earth's 

 surface might have been avoided. But the most pro- 

 voking part of the book is the author's or printer's mis- 

 placed economy in the matter of commas. Such a sen- 

 tence as the following may serve as an example (p. 146) ; 

 " Many other objects have been discovered in bogs and 

 fields as well as in skeleton-graves from the close of the 

 early Iron Age and from the middle Iron Age in Den- 

 mark, as for instance an angel of gold in deacon's robes 

 an armlet with Christian symbols a ball of crystal a 

 jewel carved with Christian Gnostic inscriptions in Greek 

 (" Ablanathanalba," i.e. Thou art our Father) brooches 

 mountings with barbarized semi-Christian ornaments, 

 known also in other countries, and many others." But 

 with all these slight defects the work of Worsaae still 

 retains its full value, and English archaeologists should 

 gladly welcome its appearance in what Prof Stephens, 

 of Copenhagen, would call their " mother-tung." 



John Evans. 



PROFESSOR STOKES ON LIGHT. 



Burnett Lectures. Third Course: On the Beneficial 

 Effects of Light. By G. G. Stokes. (London : 

 Macmillan and Co., 1887.) 



T^'HIS volume completes the course of the First 

 Burnett Lecturer on the New Foundation. We 

 have already (vol. xxix. p. 545, and vol. xxxii. p. 361) 

 noticed the first two volumes ; and we are now in a 

 position to judge of the work as a whole. But we must 

 first speak of the contents of the present volume. 



The author commences by extending the term " Light " 

 to radiation in general, and proceeds to a consideration 

 of the effects which (unlike vision) are not merely bene- 

 ficial to living things, whether plants or animals, but 

 absolutely essential to their existence. Here, so far at 

 least as matters suitable for an elementary work are con- 

 cerned, there is not much room for novelty : — for the 

 subject has of late been pretty well threshed out by 

 various writers. Still, the mode of treatment adopted is 

 of interest, especially that of marshalling our reasons for 

 regarding all forms of radiation as due to one and the 

 same agent. 



" When we stand by some mighty waterfall, such for 

 example as Niagara, and are struck by the grand exhibi- 

 tion of power that we see before us, we do not perhaps 

 reflect that while it is through light that we are enabled 

 to see what is going on, it is from light also that the 

 energy is derived that we thus see in action." 



