of those three virgins concerning the destiny of children recently born. But oracles were not the only efforts made by the ancient Scandinavians to penetrate into futurity. They had diviners, both male and female, honored with the name of prophets and prophetesses, and they did the same as Moses says, Deuter., chap. 18th, of some pagan nations, "They hearkened unto observers of times and unto diviners." Some of them were said to have familiar spirits, whom they consulted under the form of idols; others dragged the ghosts of the departed from their tombs. Poetry was often used for the like absurd purpose, and the Skalds or bards boasted of power to disturb the repose of the dead, and to drag them out of their graves by certain songs which they knew how to compose. The belief in this power ascribed to these skalds or bards was so engrafted in the community, that even after the introduction of Christianity the priests were considered to have inherited this power from the skalds, wherewith they, amongst the superstitious people, made a most lucrative business. Nay, even a long time after the introduction of the Lutheran Reformation, the ministers of the Gospel were believed to understand the black art, as this power was called, and although this imposture was, as an abomination unto the Lord, severely forbidden by the government, the ministers often clandestinely made use thereof, thereby to increase their income.

But the same superstition and ignorance which made the ancient Northern nations believe in the power of the priests to disturb the repose of the dead, and to drag them out of their graves by certain formulas and songs, persuaded them also that some letters or runic characters, consisting of sixteen marks, and beginning with the letter "F," the origin of which is ascribed to Odin, included in them certain mysterious and magical properties. Impostors easily made a credulous people believe that these letters, combined after a certain system, were able to work miracles and to predict future events. There were letters or runes to pro cure victory, to relieve women in the perils of child-birth, to soften the severity of a cruel master, and to secure fidelity to the

connubial bed. Some engraved runes on their nails to make their sweet-hearts faithful to them, some on the hilt of their swords to be successful in war, some on the helm of their ships to avoid tempest and hurricane. The same superstition induced them to lend an attentive ear to the singing of birds, which some sorcerers or sorceresses boasted of being able to interpret. The ancient history of Scandinavia is full of these superstitious practices, which continued a long time after the introduction of Christianity, nay, even after the introduction of the Lutheran Reformation. Upon the whole, superstition was so engrafted in the people that even men of extensive learning, whose reason was brought to the greatest perfection, and who engaged themselves in the deepest speculations, were more or less superstitious. Tycho Brahe, the celebrated Danish astronomer of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was very superstitious, considering certain days in the year pregnant with misfortune, wherefore in Denmark, up to this very day, the laboring class call such days on which they happen to meet with some unfortunate accident, Tycho Brahe's days. He did even carry his superstition so far, that when going out in the morning his first meeting was with an old woman, he believed that something unfortunate would happen to him before the conclusion of the day.

But this superstition, however deeply rooted and engrafted, did not blind all the ancient Scandinavians without exception. History testifies that there were after all amongst them men wise enough to discover the folly of the received opinions, and coura. geous enough to ridicule them without reserve. In the history of the Norwegian king, Olaf Trygveson, a warrior, did not fear to say that he placed more confidence in his own strength and in his arms, than in Odin and Thor. "I have travalled in many places," he says, "I have met with giants and monstrous men; they could never overcome me, thus to this present hour my own strength and courage are the sole objects of my belief." of Denmark in the sixth century after Christ, said one day when one of his companions proposed to offer a sacrifice to Odin, that

Rolf Krake, King

he feared nothing of that blustering and swaggering spirit, and that he would never reverence him nor make sacrifices to him. Indeed we see appear at intervals men endued with a real strength of mind, who did not only trample under foot all the objects of credulity and idle superstition, but who even raised their minds to the invisible Master, the Father of the sun and of all nature. In an Icelandic chronicle, a man by the name of Giest says to his nephew, who was about to embark for the discovery of America, "I beseech and conjure Him who made the sun and the stars, to give success to thy great undertaking." But still more remarkable are the words of Harold Hairfair, the first king of all Norway in the ninth century, when Christianity had not yet found its way to that country, "I swear in the most sacrel manner that I will never offer sacrifices to any of the gods adored by my people, but to Him only who has formed the world, and what I behold in it." To describe minutely like expresssions from many wise men would only occasion tiresome repetitions, and I shall, therefore, confine myself to remarking that at the end of the ninth century Christianity was introduced into the three Scandinavian kingdoms, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the vestiges of the pagan worship were destroyed, its idols overthrown, its altars demolished, and its temples closed, and Christianity has since prevailed in Scandinavia, and formed the great bond of the social happiness and the great source of the intellectual eminence which this remote quarter of the globe now so richly enjoys.

It is scarcely necessary, I think, that I should take notice, before. concluding, that I here only have been delineating a nation in its infancy, and that the greatest part of the other Europeans were neither less savage nor less uncivilized during the same period; and the great prerogative of Scandinavia, and what ought to recommend its inhabitants beyond almost every people on earth, is that they afforded the great resource to the liberty of Europe. Montesquieu, the admirable author of the Spirit of Laws, calls Scandinavia the fabric of those instruments that broke the fetters manufactured in the South, and I do not hesitate to conclude by saying

that the stalwart men who ventured upon unknown, cold and stormy seas, and at length landed on the New England shores, and who since have controlled the world's history in many things and at many times, and whose achievements in war and in letters are worthy the most heroic age of Rome and the most finished period of Greece, should be saluted with respect by all succeeding generations.

PAPER V. THE SLESWICK-HOLSTEIN QUESTION.

BY PROFESSOR PAUL C. SINDING, OF COPENHAgen, Denmark,

COR. MEM. OF QUEBEC LIT. AND HIST. SOC.

(Read before the Society, 19th April, 1865.)

The Sleswick-Holstein question-the term "Sleswick-Holstein," however, being a combination of words falsely devised by the ringleaders of the first insurrection of 1848, unheard of before, and just as unjustifiable by any existing relations as a CanadaHolstein would be,-has of late assumed such an importance in the great events of the present age, and in the European politics, as to lead your humble servant, who is addressing you, to believe that an impartial elucidation of this somewhat intricate controversial point, based upon incontrovertible historical facts, would not be altogether unprofitable. However, before entering upon the survey of the merits of the question, let it be clearly understood, that I will not attempt to give even a sketch of these two disputed provinces before the dawn of authentic history, as I would then be obliged to examine a number of hypotheses, that, after all, would prove inconclusive. Nevertheless, the importance, and at the same time, the complication of this subject, make it incumbent on me to treat it with some extent, and to bring together, with the utmost care, all the feeble and scattered rays which may throw any light upon it, serve to bring order out of confusion, and view the whole question in its naked reality.

The history of the two dukedoms-Sleswick and Holstein-is like the history of human achievements,-a history of great results from small beginnings. For centuries Sleswick has been subject to the rule of the Danish kings. Sleswick was anciently called. Anglia, held as a Danish Province of the Danish Crown, ruled according to the code of the Jutland law-book, given by the Danish king, Waldemar the Second, in the year 1239, up to this very