265 



Harold he would not remain longer with Jarl Hakon, who valued gold 

 more than Skalds and their praises ; he would rather go over to Signaldi, 

 if he would receive him. But Einar suffered himself to be persuaded, 

 when he got a present of a golden pair of scales with two weights, one 

 of gold, the other of silver (which were also magical dies) which revealed 

 the future. Prom this circumstance, Skald Einar got the surname of 

 Skalagtam (Scale King)." 



We have before said that Christianity introduced the cross in lieu of 

 the ring, for summoning the clans ; and fitness and its greater readiness 

 of being seen at a distance rendered this cross fiery. In the following 

 beautiful lines from Scott's Lady of the Lake," the knowledge of this 

 custom is rendered immortal for his country; bat before I give them, 

 permit me to make a remark on the emphatical introduction of the goat 

 into the custom and sacrifice, as it may show the poet's great knowledge 

 of the practice even abroad, and give German mythologists a better in- 

 terpretation of Ditmar of Merseburg's enigmatical Senil than has yet 

 appeared. I must again refer to my Shakespeare's Puck," where at 

 p. 239 is the mythical figure of a fawn, and the following pages expla- 

 natory of it and kid bearing in general ; it is there remarked that kid in 

 our language means both the j^oung of the goat and a faggot or bundle 

 of sticks ; now, the Latin hinnulus for kid is merely a prosopopoeia of the 

 natural bleating of the young animal, and may therefore have been as 

 easily received by one nation as another, for its designation ; it would 

 be merely requisite to supply the other sense of baculus in the northern 

 tongue ; at all events, the oldest Teutonic word for a sheep is hammel, 

 and many instances may be adduced from all languages of the indiscri- 

 minate use of the letters m and n. Adelung, on the letter n, gives 

 various examples of the change ; and hammer, Thor's Hamar, which 

 Adelung (s. v.) deduces from the same root as differing (objective and 

 subjective) views of mutilation, has both a verbal and national con- 

 nexion, and would give the Icelandic axe, which was sent round for 

 their gatherings, as my extract from Arngrim Jonas proves ; so that Vi- 

 gila ! Senile Vigila ! interpreted by modern practice, would mean. Awake, 

 there is the fiery cross to hear! awake! But I will no longer detain my 

 readers from the beautiful lines of Scott, as a compensation for the pos- 

 sibly dry details of the preceding pages : — 



'* 'Twas all prepared, and from the rock 

 A goat^ the parent of the flock, 

 Before the kindling pile was laid, 

 And pierc'd by Roderick's ready blade. 

 Patient the sickening victim eyed 

 The life-blood ebb in crimson tide 

 Down clotted beard and shaggy limb, 

 Till darkness glaz'd his eye-balls dim. 

 The grisly piiest, with murm'ring prayer, 

 A slender erosslet form'd with care, 



VIII. 



A cubit's length in measure due, 

 The shaft and limbs were rods ofyewy 

 Whose parents in Inch-Caillach wave 

 Their shadows o'er Clan Alpin's grave. 

 And answering Lomond's breezy deep, 

 Soothe many a chieftain's endless sleep. 

 The cross thus form'd he held on high 

 With wasted hand and haggard eye. 

 And strange and mingled feelings 



woke 



While his anathema he spoke. 



