MEAD. 239 



Fill the meath and spread the board, 



Vassals of the grisly lord ! 

 The feast begins, the skull goes round 

 Laughter shouts the shouts resound !" 



Hence likewise, in an ode by Mr. STIRLING, we 

 find the following illustration of the northern Ely- 

 sium. 



" Their banquet is the mighty chine 



Exhaustless, the stupendous boar; 

 Virgins of immortal line 



Present the goblet foaming o'er : 

 Of heroes' skulls the goblet made, 

 With figur'd deaths and snakes of gold inlaid." 



Boar's flesh was considered by these tribes as 

 the highest delicacy ; the celestial boar was sup- 

 posed to be daily renewed, and to afford an ample 

 repast for the most numerous party : a quantity 

 of mead also, sufficient for the intoxication of 

 this paradisiacal community, was imagined to be 

 daily supplied by a goat called Heidruna, 



" Whose spacious horn would fill the bowl 

 That rais'd to rapture Odin's soul ; 

 And ever drinking, ever dry- 

 Still the copious stream supply." COTTLE. 



I could not refrain from adducing these short 

 historical and poetical evidences of the high esti- 

 mation in which mead was held by our northern 

 ancestors. I trust that I shall also stand excused 

 for still further lengthening my preamble by en- 



