while the sedgy marshes are covered with pluming cotton-grass and gay yellow iris. According to tradition, a murderer once took refuge on Elf Backe. To him appeared an old man from the waters, saying, "Go to the King of Norway, and order him to build a fort on Elf's Backe,-never shall it be taken by sword, nor fall into the hands of the enemy, provided a powerful dog drags to its place the first corner-stone of the building :" hearing which, the king founded Bohus.* At Yttaby (extra muros) is a stone church, founded by St. Olaf on his way to Norway. Beyond a rude carving of its patron saint, Halfward,† nothing of note remains. The beans smelt sweet as we drove along -untidily sown, not planted in ridges. Many of the buildings are roofless; so long was the last winter, the farmers were compelled to feed their cattle with thatch. A rustic funeral wends its way through the valley; the coffin, striped over with white linen towels, has been carried a distance of twenty miles; on no account The origin of this legend may be thus explained. Count Jacob of Halland, outlawed for the murder of Erik Glipping, took refuge in Norway, when, struck by the position of this island, he counselled King Hako to build a fortress of wood (1308) for the protection of the frontier. In 1448 this castle was replaced by one of stone, for which every male in Bohuslän above fifteen years of age furnished a granite block of given size, already cut and fashioned. When the boundaries were altered, Bohus, no longer a frontier fortress, lost its importance, and was turned into a prison. † A merchant of Dramnen, cousin to St. Olaf, was murdered and cast into the river Drams; the corpse refused to sink; he was therefore pronounced "Holy," and his relics placed in a splendid shrine on the high altar of Opslo cathedral. Many churches were built in his honour, and the 15th of May chosen for the celebration of his mass. Bishop Brynolf did not think much of him, but it was difficult in those uproarious days to find a saint of home manufacture, VOL. I. Q would a peasant allow the corpse of a relative to be drawn to its last resting-place by horses. Two girls follow as chief mourners, decently clad in black, with white aprons, gloves, and black handkerchiefs pinned across their heads. Behind ride aged women, in solemn garb and studied attitudes, like moving epitaphia. Each man, woman, and child carries a prayerbook rolled in a white pocket-handkerchief. The scenes of drunkenness which once disgraced a Swedish wake are now of rare occurrence. On gaining Kongelf we hail the Stockholm steamer, and ascend the Göta for Trollhättan. Ant-baths-Kong Gösta's courtship - Falls of Trollhättan - The Robbers' cave-Custom of lying in straw on Christmas Eve-Skalds of Odin-Poor Snip the tailor - The tribe of the Huns - Tradition of King Ane-Thor's beetle - Herb Paris, a plant of ill omen Wallhall and the family clubs Last of the bears. TROLLHÄTTAN. As we steamed along and munched our gingerbread— a heart with a golden crown-my mind ran over the dynasties which have passed away since the first 66 meeting at Kongelf;" then to the revolutions at this time brewing, and the fresh crowns a-baking ; wondering if any of the batch would prove of more solid stuff than the "pepparkakor" I was eating. Having finished the heart, I handed over the gilt crown, which looked unwholesome, to the nearest baby, at which the mother smiled and entered into conversation, singing the praises of her offspring: "It had such a constitution, though where he got it from Heaven only knows, not from her, she was a poor weakly creature now on her way to baths near Wretakloster*-maybe I had heard The baths of Medewi in Öster Götland, good for all diseases, say the Swedish doctors. Wonderful miracles occurred there in the early ages, before ants were ever thought of. There exists in the Vatican a letter to the pope from the monks of Wadstena, written in the thirteenth century, mentioning how they had discovered a "sour spring" of great healing properties at Medewi. The peasantry accuse the monks of |