48 ^HlLOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [anNO 1703. 



and unicorn's horn, neatly carved and turned; besides some others of ebony, 

 heart-oak, box, amber, silver, brass, &c. 4. In another chamber there is no- 

 thing but the garments, arms, and utensils, of Indians, Turks, Greenlanders, 

 and other barbarous nations, in greai number and variety. 5. A perspective of 

 the late King of Denmark's family, the queen's face being in the middle, and 

 eight princes and princesses round her, yet all conspire to form the king's face 

 through a hole of a glass tube. 6. Six golden sepulchral urns, found in the 

 island of Fuenen, Anno l685, by a boor, as he was ploughing his land; when 

 found they were full of ashes or a greyish earth. The largest weighs 24- oz. 

 the other five about 2 oz. and a drachm. This confirms the accounts given by 

 Saxo Grammaticus, Olaus Wormius, and others, that it was a very ancient 

 custom among the northern nations to burn their dead, and then bury their 

 collected ashes in golden urns. They were very thin, and had three rings of 

 gold round their necks, and several circles one within another, with one com- 

 mon centre, carved on the outside round the body of the urn. They held 

 between 4 and 5 oz. of liquids. 7. Another sepulchral urn of crystal, of a 

 conical figure, found near Bergen in Norway, about 30 years since, with a gold 

 wire about it, that weighs 8 oz. 8. I saw in another chamber several urnae 

 lachrymales, in which were collected the tears of friends, which afterwards the 

 old Romans mixed with the ashes of the dead; these were some of glass, and 

 some of earth, and of several sizes. Brass lamps of several magnitudes and 

 shapes, some of other metals, others of earth, in the shape of animals or idols, 

 that were worshipped by the ancients. The stylus aeneus of the Romans, the 

 one end sharp, to write with, the other blunt, to rub out what was written. 

 9. The large Danish horn of pure gold, weighs 1024- oz. is 2 feet 9 inches 

 long, and holds about 2 quarts English measure. This horn was accidentally 

 discovered by a country girl. Anno 1639, in the diocese of Ripen in Jutland; 

 it is doubtless some Runic piece, of great antiquity by the figures carved on the 

 outside, which seetn to be hieroglyphics, monstrous shapes of devils, hobgob- 

 lins, &c. perhaps some of these might represent their gods, and probably this 

 horn was used in their sacrifices, as of old among the Assyrians and other an- 

 cient nations, who were wont on solemn occasions to entertain the croud with 

 mighty noises of horns and trumpets, or rather to drink out of at their solemn 

 treats. 10. The Oldenburg horn of pure silver gilt with gold, and variously 

 enamelled with green and purple colours, and weighs about 4 lb. The Danish 

 antiquaries tell strange stories of this horn. I found in the same chamber a 

 great many horns of this kind, some in metal, seme of bullocks* horns, tipped 

 with gold about the ed^es, others of ivory, unicorns' horns, &c. 



In the tower of Copenhagen I saw Tycho Brahe's own celestial globe, which 



