Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1891-08-06
OLD SCANDINAVIA.
Burial Ships and Their Contents Dlscov-
cred in Sweden and Norway.

Burial Ships and Ihelr Cohteh's
cred in sweden and Norway.
Burial ships have SO far been dis
covered to the number of about q dozen
in Sweden and Norway. The bodies
laid in them, burned or unburned,
were equipped with pathetic care. Be
sides being deliberately armed and
adorned, they had placed at their dis
posal means of employment and diver
sion, such as writing tablets, forging
tools, Whetting stones, SCISSORS, COOKING
utensils, chessmen, draughtsmen ana
dice. In one of nine boats containing
as many bodies, disinterred IN the
churchvard of Wendell in UPLAND,
weapons and implements were asso-
ciated with the remains OF three horses,
three dogs, a COW, pig, ram, eve and
goose. Another sheltered the bones OF
a goose, duck, falcon, rock-ow and
crane. The inference seems JUSTIFIED
that all these Lirds were domestlcated.
Inside the ribs ofthe celebrated Cox
stadt ship some peacocks' feathers lay
scattered with fragments Of gold-em-
broidered silken stuff, and the tumulus
near Sandefiord, from which it was I'M
earthed 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
a prey to some OF the numerous ana
nameless thieves who
"Ransacked the graves of warriors old.
Their fal chions wrenched from corpses hold,
The vessel itself. which is of oak,
clinker built and IS feet long, is pre-
served in the Archaeological Museum of
Christiania.
Life in the North, however funda-
mentally homely, was attended in those
days by accessories of considerable
splendor. Gastronomic refinements
were indeed unknown. Boiled veal
counted as the "best of dainties;' roast
pork with wheaton bread might also be
provided for favored guests, in default
of which delicacies curds and butter
milk were welcome. and the bill of fare
during royal visit comprised, on alter
nate days, fish and milk, meat and ale.
Yet the tables spread with such simple
repasts were often gay with embroidered
cloths and radiant with gilded vessels,
dainty glass beakers, and repousse
silver and bronze drinking horns. They
were surrounded, too, by gorgeously
clad jewellers. Scarlet cloaks lined with
fur, and secured with magnificent
fibulae of bronze inlaid with silver, or of
silver gilt diversified with tiligree work,
garnets or walrus ivory, were flung over
silken tunics, or kirtles made of a kind
of velvet called "pell." These We're
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; a
gold band like a diadem confined tawny
and profuse locks flowing down to the
shoulders. We hear. besides, 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 fig
ures in st. Olaf's Saga as clad in "a blue
kirtle and blue hose, high shoes laced
round his legs, a gray cloak and gray,
broad brimmed hat and hood over his
face, staff in his hand with a gilt silver
mounting at the upper end from which
silver ring hung. Edinburgh RecieoO