The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-26 00:00:00

lies prostrate, exhausted by a savage rite, in which,
according to the fashion of the time, he has sworn
eternal friendship with his older colleague, wound-
ing his arm and giving the bloody fillet to his col-
league to wear. He is soon restored by the cordial

which she carries, and then discovers that while he

slept his companions have fired a town and massa-

cred the male inhabitants, the female survivors

rushing for shelter to the cave where he has lain.
His natural instinct prompts him to kill them too,
but his guardian genius reproves him, and he pro-
tects them instead, incurring in so doing the risk

of being killed by his sworn brother, who has fallen
into one of those ecstacies of rage in which the

Northmen, like the Malays, used sometimes to " run
a muck" against all comers. The point where this
first adventure is laid does not very clearly appear,
but the costume of the peasants points to England
or the opposite coast. The next quarter to which
their love of roving carries them is to the Island

of Sicily, where the young chief, surrounded by
gay native companions, gives way to the seductions
of women and wine. His old companion
remains for a time proof against temptation, re•
striding his food to raw flesb, as before. But in
time he, too, is persuaded to put on rose•wroaths, and
to gird himself with flowers, and one of the most

humonronaly-acted scenes in the ballet is where this

rude son of the North endeavours to emulate the

gambols of the nymphs who dance around him.
The Daughter of the Air again appears, and regards

with sadness the effeminate life into which her hero

has fallen. She brings together the two companions,
who are so shocked at each other's altered appear•

ance that they tear away their trappings of luxury,
and gather round them a band of their old followers
just in time to resist a plot of assassination set on

toot by the natives. These hem them into a temple,

and set fire to the door with logs, but the Danes,

rushing through the fire, engage in a hand-to-hand
combat with the Sicilians, and against all odds re-

deem their character for prowess. Then they turn
their steps homeward, and are received by the King

with their great rejoieing. Their swords are only
too welcome, for at that moment he is engaged in

preparations for a great battle, and the ceremony of
imparting mystic virtues to the raven standards is
performed with due solemnity. The battle takes
place :on the stage, archers let fly their arrows,

epearmen charge home, and finally a general rush
takes place, in which the King is borne along on
the arms of his:followers. The Daughters of the
Air have a busy time of it now, but their work is

effectually done, for the curtain rises on the field of
the slain, among whom the young hero is sought
for some time in vain. His aerial guardian is in-
consolable, and swoons in the arms of Odin, but a
transformation is on the point of taking place, in
which all the chiefs who have been killed rise

radiant in Valhalla, to bs welcomed by Odin
himself, to wear the star spangled robes, to drink

delicious drinks in the halls of the blest, to share

in never ending triumphs, and to find themselves
in the arms of those who in life exercised so powerful
an influence on their fortunes. It may easily be

conceived with what interest a piece of this descrip.
tion is followed by a Scandinavian audience, how
every morsel of antiquarian lore is caught up and
appreciated, and hew well the motto over the pro-
scenium is justified, which says in Danish, El blot
til Lyst—that the performances are not intended for
amusement alone. For the majority of the Eaglish
present there was of course a good deal to guess at,
and the narrative of the piece just given is scarcely

more than an outline of the numberless details come

prehended in four acts. The beauty of the dresdes,
however, the well sustained pantomime, and the
continual crowding of the stage with most effective
tableaux prevented the interest from flagging for a
moment. As a spectacle the Copenhagen ballet may
have lacked some of the grandeur of La Scala or the

completeness in point of scenery of a few German
theatres, but there is one point in which the stage in
Denmark stands pre-eminent, and this deserves to
be mentioned. Through the measures adopted by the
management, to belong to the corps dc ballet at the
Hof Theatre, instead of being a reproach is an hon-
ourable employment. The dresses and dances are
such as would be seen with pleasure by many minds
which in other capitals rather endure than admire
the ballet, The danseteses are brought to the theatre
and sent home again in carriages hired by the State;
and, lastly, there are pensions for those who have
served for a given number of years. At the close
of the performances, and as the royal party rose to
leave the house, a voice cried out in Danish,
" Long live the Prince and Priecess of Wales !"
it was an anxious moment, and more than one
face among the royal party was listening with
evident anxiety for the result of this appeal to a
mixed assembly. It came in no doubtful tunes,
but in a standing volley of cheers from all parts of
the house, again and again repeated, the orchestra,
as if catching the general enthusiasms, swelling the
uproar with a pas de charge. The Prince and
Princess bowed their acknowledgments and retired
from the house ; but outside there was even a more
astonishing reception, a crowd, roughly estimated at
10,000 to 15,000-801130 estimates place it at 20,000
—persons surrounding the theatre and lining the
avenues through which the Royal carriages had to
pass. It was necessary for these to pass at a walk-
ing pace, and both on leaving the theatre and as
they drove in the direction of Bernstorf the mani-
festations of popular enthusiasm were frequent and
enthusiastic.
This morning, at half-past 11 o'clock, the Royal
party paid a visit to the Ethnological Museum,
another of the great collections of Copenhagen,
occupying a suite of the rooms in the same palace
in which the Museum of Northern Antiquities is
lodged ; and its neighbour, the Ethnological Col•
lection, 15 distinguished by the excellence of its
arrangement, due to the exertions of M. Steinhauer,
a gentleman holding a responsible appointment
under the Government here, end well known in
England, where his services i❑ a similar capacity
have been duly acknowledged. The idea pervading
the museum is to avoid what may be called, for the
sake of distinction, the national system, in which
the products of a particular country are clubbed
together, simply because in successive centuries all
those things happen to have had their origin in a
particular division of the earth; and, on the con-
trary, to trace the progress of man's education and
culture all over the globe by discovering the
stages through which he has passed. With this
objeet in view, this department brings together,
in the first instance, the weapons, dresses, cull.
nary utensils, &c:, of those tribes which know,
or in times past have known, nothing of the use
of metals ; secondly, illustrations of the pro-
ducts and made of life of those nations aware of the
existence of metals, but not yet in possession of a
literature of their own ; thirdly, examples of the
relative condition of the countries enjoying both
these advantages, and of the uses to which such
knowledge is then applied. Ethnological collections
made in this spirit are of incalculable and increasing
value, because they not only throw light on the his-
tory of past ages, but preserve some rapidly dis-
appearing features of the present. Many of the
islands, which until comparatively of late were in a
savage state, but are now civilised, or partially so,
will in a few years be able to discover the shadows
of their former selves only in sunk museums. Steam
is changing the character of the human race; and
it is well that, in doing so, it should help to plane
us in possession of the means of measuring by actual
relics the vast strides that it is enabling the world
to make, and that storehouses should be ready for
the treasures that it brings us. The Royal party
spent about two hours in examining the museum
very olosely, and on taking their leave expressed to
the head of the department the satisfaction which
tho visit had afforded them.
Their Royal Highnesses and suite lunched in one
of the rooms of the Palace, and then, passing through
the chapel, emerged immediately in the vicinity of
the Thorwaldsen Museum, where they spent a great
part of the remainder of the afternoon. In the
evening they will dine with the Queen Dowager at
Sorgenfri.
It is not yet settled what is to be done to-morrow
morning by the Royal party, but to-marrow even-
ing the King will entertain at dinner the staff
officers of the Burgher Guard, Volunteers, &a.,
who were to have taken part in the review on
Saturday last. The dinner will be given in the
Christianshorg Palace, and his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales will be present.
According to present arrangements the Royal