this marvellous history in the same page of our note books, with Platerus's account of the wonderful skeleton of Ricon de Valmont, a great warrior, seventeen feet in length, which he saw at Lucerne, and Plutarch's history of the skeleton of Antæus at Tangier, which was thirty yards long.

The history of heroes who figure in the Teutonic cycle of Romance-Sigurdr-Theodoric of Berne-and the AngloSaxon Beowulf, would shew most clearly the traditive nature of this early poetry. The adventures of the god-Odin or Thor-pass into those of the mortal whose name has become the centre round which all that is great, wonderful, and heroic is brought from every quarter. Beowulf, or the tamer of the wolf, is a most remarkable instance-and this celebrated lay or romaunt, for such it unquestionably is, quite as much as "Horne-Child," or "Havelok the Dane," whilst it records the fight between the hero and the fierce spirit of the moors, Grendel, seems to be identical with the Eddaic myth of Odin's combat with the evil being— the wolf Fenris.

The personification of something divine and supernatural, and generally evil, under the figure of a wolf, is most widely spread. Its "malevolent sagacity, fearful howling, and that singular obtrusiveness which leads the wolf to roam about the habitations of mankind," would seem to be the causes of the mysterious qualities thus attributed to it: k nor must it be forgotten that throughout the early centuries, whilst the continent was covered with thick forests and impenetrable masses of jungle and brush-wood, the wolf was the great plague of Europe. In Athelstane's reign they abounded in Yorkshire, and small huts were built in the woods "to defend passengers from the wolves, that they should not be devoured by them ;" and such ravages

k Col, Hamilton Smith's first vol. on "Dogs," in the Naturalist's Library: to whom I am indebted for many notices of great value.

did these animals make during winter, particularly in January, when the cold was most severe, that the Saxons distinguished that month by the name of the "wolf moneth;" and as late as 1577 the wolf was destructive to the flocks in Scotland, nor were they entirely extirpated, till about 1680, when the last fell by the hand of the famous Sir Ewen Cameron. The ravages of the Saracens on the southern coasts of France and Spain left the country so desolate, and caused such an extraordinary increase in the number of wolves, that pilgrims could no longer pass to Rome by the maritime Alps. And the black wolf of Spain is yet to be dreaded in the passes of the Pyrenees, where it congregates in large troops.

It was from the mysterious character given to the wolf in the religions of antiquity, that that most remarkable idea prevalent during the middle ages-the transformation of men into wolves at certain periods-seems to have arisen. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this belief assumed the form of a disease; and numerous instances occur, where the individual, on being brought before examiners, appears fully persuaded not only that he had undergone transformation, but also that he had devoured children and dead bodies when in the form of a wolf:-and that these unfortunate beings actually were for a time under the influence of a phrensy like that of the old Bersækir, (who also drank wolves' blood to inspire them with ferocity)and that they actually fed on human flesh is proved beyond all possible doubt. Both sorcerers and evil spirits have in all ages had the power of transforming themselves, and producing a change of shape in the persons of their victims; and the ancient belief in the doctrine of metempsychosis was, as is well known, prevalent throughout western Europe.

1 Reinaud-Invasions des Sarrazins en France,-et de France en Savoie, en Piemont, et dans la Suisse, p. 176.

In Britanny it was believed that all sins were visited by a metamorphosis: for smaller crimes a man might be turned into a wind, cloud, or fire; but wehr-wolf was the greatest pain. Sir Walter Scott was of opinion that it is only since the extirpation of wolves that our British sorceresses have adopted the disguise of hares, cats, and other familiar animals; and it must certainly be confessed that Jarmara, an Impe "like to a dog, verie fatte and plumpe with verie short legges," or what Matthew Hopkins describes as a "black thing proportioned like a cat, only thrice as big, sitting on a strawberry bed, and fixing its eyes on this informant," m nay, even the marvellous "cat Ruterkin' himself, are but poor substitutes for the "gold footed wolf," who swept by in the storm of chace when Odin came forth in the forests of Germany; yet if a cat fail in dignity, what shall we say of a sow? Listen, Mr. President, I pray you, it is Froissart himself who speaks-and we have only to premise that Raymond, Lord of Corasse, had a familiar named Orthone.

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"Well," quod Orthone, "ye wil do so moche, that ye wil lose me, and I to go fro you, for ye desyre to moche of me." "Nay," quod the Knight, "thou shalt not go fro me; let me se thee ones, and I will desyre no more." Well," quod Orthone, "ye shal se me tomorrow; take hede, the fyrst thynge that ye se, after ye be out of your chamber, it shall be I." Well," quod the Knyght, " I am than content; go thy waye-lette me slepe.” And so Orthone departed, and the next mornynge the lord arose and yssued out of his chambre, and wente to a windowe, and looked downe into the courte of the castell, and cast about his eyen. And the fyrst thynge he sawe was a sowe-the greatest that ever he sawe; and she seemed

m A true and exact relation of the late Witches in the County of Essex. (reprint, London, 1837.)

to be so leane, and yvell favoured, that there was nothynge on her but the skynne and the bones, with long eares, and a longe, leane mouthe. The Lord of Corasse had marveyle of that leane sowe, and was wery of the sighte of her, and commaunded his men to fetch his houndes, and sayde, "Lette the dogges hunt her to dethe, and devour her.” His seruaunts opened the kenells, and lette oute his houndes, and dyd sette them on thys sowe-and at the last, the sowe made a grete crye, and looked up to the Lord of Corasse as he looked out at a windowe, and so sodaynlye vanyshed awaye, no man wycte howe. Than the Lord of Corasse entred into his chambre, right pensyve, and than he remembered hym of Orthone, his messangere, and sayd, “I repent me that I sette my houndys on hym; it is an adventure an I here any more of him; for he sayd to me oftentymes, that yf Y displeased hym, Y shulde lose him." The lord sayde truth, for never after he came into the Castle of Corasse, and also the Knyghte dyed the same yere next followynge. "

n Lord Berners' Froissart, vol. ii. chap. 37.

CHAPTER III.

ORIGIN OF ROMANCE IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND, AND IN ARMORICA.

'Why, man, there was once a people called the Piks."

"More properly Picts," interrupted the Baronet.

"I say the Pikar, Pihar, Piochtar, Piaghter, or Peughtar," vociferated Oldbuck, "they spoke a Gothic dialect."

"Genuine Celtic," again asseverated the Knight.

"Gothic! Gothic! I'll go to death upon it!" counter-asseverated the Squire.

The Antiquary.

THE literature of Europe during the middle ages presents, so to speak, two distinct pictures: on the one side we have the great hall of the castle hung with its armour and its banners-strewed with rushes, and adorned with divers goodly lights of stained glass; on the dais is the seat of the lord, and by its side a perch for hawks, whilst his noble brach is crouching at his feet;-but if you will look towards yonder window, in whose recess certain young knights are constantly lounging, you may discern the huge "boke of romaunts," with its gorgeous illuminationsblazing with azure and gold and crimson,-perhaps it is the "noble and joyous historie of the Gestes of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table,-together with the dolorous death and departure of them all:" or it