Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-09-03
SHIPS AS BURIAL PLACES.
A Curious Scandinavian Disposition
of the Dead.

Burial ships have so far been dis
covered to the number of about dozen
in Sweden and Norway. The bodies laid
in them, burned or unburned, were
equipped with pathetic care. Besides
being elaborately armed and adorned,
they had placed at their disposal means
of employment and diversion, such as
writing tablets, forging tools, whetting
stones, scissors, cooking utensils, chess
men, draughtsmen and dice. In one of
nine boats containing as many bodies,
disinterred in the churchyard of Wendell
in Uppland, weapons and implements
were associated with the remains of
three horses, three dogs, COW, pig,
ram, eve and goose. Another sheltered
the bones of a goose, duck, falcon,
rock owl and crane.
The inference seems justified that all
these birds were domesticated. Inside
the ribs of the celebrated Gokstadt ship
some peacocks' feathers lay scattered
with fragments of gold-embroidered
silken stuff; and the tumulus near
Sandefiord, from which it was unearthed
in 1880, contained the skeletons of at
least twelve horses and six dogs. But
the treasures of the sepulchral chamber
amidship had long ago fallen prey to
some of the numerous and nameless
thieves who
"Ransacked the graves of warriors old,
Their falchions wrenched from corpses'
hold"
The vessel itself, which is of oak,
clinker-built and rs feet long, is pre-
served in the Archaeological Museum at
Christiania.
Life in the North, however, fundamen-
tally homely, was attended in those days
by accessories of considerable splendor.
Gastronomic retinements were indeed un-
known. Boiled veal counted as the
"best of danties"; roast pork with
wheaton bread might also be provided
for favored guests, in default of which
delicacies, curds and buttermilk were
welcome; and the bill of fare dur
ing a royal visit comprised, on alternate
days, fish and milk, meat and ale. Yet
the tables spread with such simple re-
pasts were often gay with embroidered
cloths and radiant with gilded vessels,
dainty glass breakers and repousse silver
and bronze drinking horns. They were
surrounded, too, by gorgeously clad
jewellers. Scarlet cloaks lined with fun
and secured with magnificent fibulm Of
bronze inlaid with silver, or of silver gill
diversified with filagree-work, garnets OF
walrus ivory, were flung over silker
tunics, or kirtles made of kind of velvet
called "poll."
These were belted in with girdles
finely wrought of precious metals; gold
rings encircled legs, arms and fingers;
silk caps, adorned with lace, covered the
head; shoes were of leather covered with
beaten gold and stitched with silk; gold
band like diadem confined tawny and
profuse locks flowing down to the shoul-
ders. We hear, beside, of gloves made
soft with down, of suits of "many-
colored English CLOTH" rain-and-dust
cloaks and of fur-lined mantles with
golden neck straps. Sigurd the Jari
figures in st. Olaf's Saga as clad in ga
blue kirtle and blue hose, high shoes
laced around his legs, gray cloak and u
gray broad -brimmed hat and hood over
his face, staff in his hand with gilt
silver mounting at the upper end, from
which silver ring hung. Edinburg
Review.