THE RAVEN. 141 



" Just before we reached Oljochi, an open 

 space in the forest, cleared for the purpose, ex- 

 hibited upon three wheels, the mangled carcase 

 of a miscreant Finn, who, in a fit of intoxication, 

 had cut off a woman's head with an axe. His 

 head was placed upon one wheel, his right hand 

 upon another, and his body, dressed in the habit 

 of his nation, upon the third, between the other 

 two. The punishment of criminals for capital 

 offences, in Sweden, requires that the right hand 

 be struck off before the culprit is beheaded. We 

 halted for a few moments, to make a sketch of 

 this fearful spectacle. Amidst the gloom and 

 solitude of the forest, where the silence was that 

 of death itself, it was indeed a sight that spoke 

 terrible things. The body of a human creature, 

 thus exposed to the birds of prey, by the side of a 

 public road, cannot fail of affecting the mind of 

 every passenger. The enormity of the crime 

 itself is almost absorbed in a feeling of pity, call- 

 ed forth by the exemplary nature of the punish- 

 ment. And this poor Finn, it is said, had a 

 father and a mother, ' who watched, and toiled, 

 and prayed' for him ; whose good counsels were 

 disregarded, until the awful moment arrived, 

 when, faithful in its threatenings, the warning 

 voice of Scripture was fulfilled: 'The eye that 

 mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his 



