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Hunc non ruricolæ Panes, nemorumque potentes Sylvani, Nymphæque tenent: sed barbara ritu Turba Deûm: structæ sacris feralibus are, Omnis et humanis lustrata cruoribus arbos.

Claudian compliments Stilico, that, among other advantages accruing to the Roman armies through his conduct, they could now venture into the awful forest of Hercinia; and follow the chase in those so much dreaded woods, and otherwise make use of them.

26 Ut procul Herciniæ per vasta silentia sylvæ
Venari tutò liceat; lucosque vetustâ
Relligione truces, et robora numinis instar
Barbarici, nostræ feriant impune secures.

These practices prevailed among all the people of the north, of whatever 27 denomination. The Mas

26 Claudian. in Laudes Stiliconis. lib. 1. v. 228.

27 Jornandes de Rebus Geticis.-of the Goths.

Procopius de Bello Goth. lib. 2.-of the Franks and other

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Helmoldi Annal. Sclavorum. lib. 1. cap. 53.-of the Rugians, &c.

Dithmar Episc. Mersburg. lib. 1. pag. 12.-of the Danes and Norwegians.

Tacit. Annal. lib. 14. cap. 30.-of the Britons in the island of Mona. Excisi luci sævis superstitionibus sacri. Nam cruore captivo adolere aras, et hominum fibris consulere Deos, fas habebant.

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sageta, the Scythians, the Getes, the Sarmatians, all the various nations upon the Baltic, particularly the Suevi and Scandinavians, held it as a fixed principle, that their happiness and security could not be obtained, but at the expence of the lives of others. Their chief gods were 29 Thor, and 30 Woden; whom they thought, they could never sufficiently glut with blood. They had many very celebrated places of worship; especially in the island "Rugen, near the mouth of the Oder; and in 32 Zeeland: some too very famous among the 33 Semnones, and 4 Naharvalli. But the most reverenced of all, and the most frequented, was at 35 Upsal; where there was every year a grand cele

28 Quin vulgata inter omnes opinio, ut Crantzius in Vandalicis, lib. 3. cap. 22. notat, delectari sanguine Deos. P. Hachenberg. Germania Media. pag. 286.

29 Stephanus Stephanius, quoting Dudo of St. Quintin, says; Cæterùm sacrificant venerantes Thur dominum suum; cui non aliquid pecudum, vel pecorum, sed sanguinem mactabant hominum, holocaustum omnium putantes pretiosissimum. In Librum tertium Saxonis Gram. pag. 93.

30 Othinum, qui bellis præsidebat, cruore et morte captivorum placabant; opinantes bellorum præsidem aptiùs humano cruore placari. Olaus Magnus. lib. 3. cap. 7.

31 Crantzius. lib. 5. cap. 12, 13.

See Tacitus de Mor. German. cap. 40. Est in insula Oceani rastum nemus, dicatumque in eo vehiculum.

32 Dithmar Episc. Mersburg. lib. 1. pag. 12.

33 Adam Bremensis de situ Daniæ. cap. 233.

34 Tacitus de Mor. German. cap. 43. 35 Scheifferi Upsal. cap. 16.

brity, which continued for nine days. During this term they sacrificed animals of all sorts: but the most acceptable victims, and the most numerous were men. 36 Ipsas victimas apud plerosque commendabat humanus sanguis, effusus ante Deorum aras, et diro carmine devotus: introductâ immani illâ, ac barbara Scytharum consuetudine, qui Deos immortales hominum scelere et sanguine placari posse arbitrabantur. Of these sacrifices none were esteemed so auspicious, and salutary, as a sacrifice of the prince of the country. When the lot fell for the king to die, it was received with universal acclamations, and every expression of joy; as it once happened in the time of a famine, when they cast lots, and it fell to king Domalder to be the people's victim: and he was accordingly put

Olai Wormii Monumenta Danica. lib. 1. cap. 5.

Olai Magni Hist. de Gent. Septentrion. Epitome. lib. 3. cap. 5. Antverp. 1558.

Steirnhook de jure Sucorum et Goth. vetusto cap. ult. p. 399. 36 Pauli Hachenbergi P. P. Germania Media. Dissert. 8. p. 286. cap. 30. p. 287. concerning king Domalder.

37 Snorro Sturleson. Ynglinga Saga. pag. 18: from whom Loccenius seems to have borrowed the account, which he gives. Sub eo Rege [Domalder] tantâ fame Suecia afflicta est, ut ei vix gravior unquam incubuerit. Cives inter se dissidentes, cùm pœnam delictorum divinam agnoscerent, primo anno boves, altero homines, tertio regem ipsum, velut iræ cælestis piaculum, ut sibi persuasum habebant, Odino immolabant. Loccenii Antiq. Sueo-Gothicæ.

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to death. Olaus Tretelger, another prince, was burnt alive to Woden. They did not spare their own children. Harald the son of Gunild, the first of that name, slew two of his children to obtain a storm of wind. "He did not let," says " Verstegan, to sacrifice two of his sons unto his idols, to the "end he might obtain of them such a tempest at

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sea, as should break and disperse the shipping of "Harald king of Denmark." Saxo Grammaticus mentions a like fact. He calls the king Haquin ; and speaks of the persons put to death, as two very hopeful young princes: 4° duos præstantissimæ indolis filios, hostiarum more, aris admotos, potiundæ victoriæ causâ, nefariâ litatione mactavit. Another king slew nine sons, in order to prolong his own "life; in hopes, I suppose, that, what they were abridged of, would in great measure be added to himself. Such instances however occur not often: but the common victims were without end. Adam

38 Snorro Sturleson. above. Chronic. Norvegicum.

Johannes Magnus. lib. 1. cap. 12. Romæ. 1554. Accidit nonnunquam reges ipsos eâdem sorte delectos immolari. He speaks of it as faustissimum regno sacrificium.

39 Antiquities. Antwerp. 1605. pag. 81.

4o Saxo Grammaticus. lib. 10. pag. 183. Sore 1644. Patris nomine, quàm patriâ, carere maluit.

41 Olaus Wormius. pag. 28. Rex Sueciæ Aune novem filios · Othino mactavit, ut ætatis obtineret prorogationem.

Bremensis, speaking of the awful grove at Upsal, where these horrid rites were celebrated, says, that there was not a single tree, but what was reverenced, as if it were gifted with some portion of divinity and all this, because they were stained with gore, and foul with human putrefaction. 42 Lucus tam sacer est gentilibus, ut singulæ arbores ejus ex morte vel tabo immolatorum divina videantur. The same is observed by Scheiffer in his account of this place. 43 Deorum sacer ille lucus erat: in arboribus singulis Dii ipsi habitare credebantur: ergo ad earum ramos corpora illa, veluti munera quædam Diis gratissima, suspende

bant.

ax.

The manner, in which the victims were slaughtered, was diverse in different places. Some of the 44 Gaulish nations chined them with a stroke of an The Celta placed the man, who was to be offered for a sacrifice, upon a block, or an altar, with his breast upwards; and with a sword struck him forcibly across the sternum: then tumbling him to the ground, from his agonies and convulsions, as well as from the effusion of blood, they

42 Adam Bremensis de situ Daniæ. cap. 234. 43 Scheiffer of Upsal, and Eric Olaus above. Corpora verò in luco quodam proximo suspendebant, putantes arbores ipsas ex morte immolatorum divas et sacras.

44 Strabo. lib. 4. pag. 303.

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