Σ resided one winter on the island, and collected much valuable inforın- VOL. CCLXXIV. M M One more severely than any other country, and the Frisians were pilla by both sides. As time passed on, however, the islanders bec incerely attached to Denmark. King Christian VI., in 1 abbed the compulsory service; King Christian VIII. vi For every year for sea-bathing, and was very popular indeed. m.ch so, that when in 1850 the young men of that island an were invited to serve as volunteers in the Schleswig-Hol navy against Denmark, not one from Föhr would go, and less wenty from Sylt. Within five years of Prussia's acquisition o Dochies (what other polite word for that act can one use?) Persons emigrated from Föhr rather than serve the Pruss Perhaps the whirligig of time may bring its revenge! Before tre of the legends, it is perhaps as well that some idea of the p among whom they are found, and some historical summary, how rapid, should be given. Their annals are like the annals of peoples, with deeds of valour and adventure, and of shame treachery. During the last two or three centuries the island Fri have been a peculiarly adventurous people; they were in the rank as Greenland fishers, and as adventurers they were four Barbary. But wherever they went to live, they came home to to die. The people have a sterile and inhospitable shore, b industrious are they at bome and abroad, that there is scarce poverty in Sylt. This too, is true of Heligoland, not so much the Heligolanders have boards, like the Sylt investments in Danish funds, but that all are comfortable, and all are proud. wishes are modest, his life simple. His temptations to expense the Heligolander knows that poverty in the sense of actual want little be dreaded, and any lonely old person is well looked fe his wants, too, are few, and half the sand are his mind. Take the island Frisians as a whole, the men are incl straight-nosed, sea-tanned folk; the worren en early you but are all small, and have much hard work. She marr they have excellent education for Per caldre, men her e hours they have a store of legends mi ukura, za ndez which I can now give but a gleaning the must menge The traditions of the island have not il teen enmily veil mese Heligoland has of the whole group the east mares nok mes is partly explained by its small pen my minera education insisted upon by the Erg so Government. Jurious the customs and folklore of the island, such is there, have h yet found a capable collector. Oetker, who best German book on the island, though: resided one winter on the island, and collected much vainable infornation. I confess, however, to doubt as to his accuracy in al respects, as the Heligolanders, like many other people will blow your lead n conversation if they think you will like 1. "vier" as the Heligolander's numerai Cese. For example, gres but the word the people always esse pel concur. as I have never seen the word a pra, ni sa zi je jaar 1 i doubt if he would have reproduced enten der Cave JEST told by my boatman that a German “stooé.” It is a slow and met unless you are one of their race and then, it is a common experience fg buys my cellent and very useful hand-was Folklore Society, "that persons omgilining the most curious and interesting space know any; and it is difficult to recommack, even after long periods of trendy k are the only means, unless the les key of all, the ability himself toe teid GK he can once set the ball roiling, the ERQs allow it to stop. Nothing is more com those who can tell tales." I had a mar Heligoland. Knowing the people indeve me visits, I have endeavoured more that mad sess something of their folklore, not of night, however, walking with a young information on many points by tellir Scotland. "But we have those fire sponds with Old Christmastide, showed me the place on the cliffs Semme is a Sylvesterabend;" that is the day be sise: be he and other lads had played are the st of May, so the old man or English, cann undoubtedly, stands first of all the islands in respect of tradition owing to her good fortune in possessing in Hansen a most invaluable collector of folklore and legends. To his pages we owe all the best North Frisian tales. He was a true follower of Grimm in his method of simple, nay childish, narration. I may be prejudiced by having acquainted myself with Sylt before I read his Sagen, but every page of that book seems instinct with local colour, and one sees as a background to all the tales weird or humorous, that he has to narrate, the long stretches of treetr , and the lonely, scattered steep-roof houses, a to feel the keer liteweeps along the level land, hill-less but for funeral mounds, Feeps Sea on the miles oftime S North Friesland a haps form a true idea ofind, ar earnest, innocently Their the hoarse and constant roar of the North Itisto such scenery that all the dramas of be thout this background one can scarcely lly be persiste dren all of seamen.alour aheir rele action of the characters-simple, eople, seamen, or wives and chilNorth Frisians generally the promise of Revelation, "and th two cl be no sea there" must be indeed incomprehensible, for witho entur ea no Frisian could live, and it seems to him a strange promise for nd as 1. Hansen's position, undoubtedly, gave him great opportunitiy went llecting folklore, but it is not everyone who has the opportu sterile o has the necessary literary ability to write down what he he and a estly and simply. I have more than once elsewhere acknowl rue do so again, for withou, lik oncegations to Hansen, and I gladly folklore to help us. wwe should have little Frisian Heli mforten Sylt, like most other, hi 13 giants and the dwarfs; therty id hints tale of wars between the inhabitants, the dwarfs werd p s also the ancestors of the present are not pure legends. This efore live inhabitants. over and over again in almosho the t what must have occurred population overcome a feeblevor here Such tales where a strong migrating who were afterwards allowed ared ju inadequately armed race, who ultimately died out. Whe CPassi sufferance as servants, but ginal population is rapidly extinguished we may expect to find it is they who are represented as the giants, because the greate my attaches to their conquerors, but where the struggle resultecb the conquest of a race who rapidly thereafter diminish in numst ve may rather anticipate they will be described as dwarfs, and by r by confounded with fairies and goblins, and all mysterious, half-ernatural qualities attributed to them. As, of course, we have no torical account of those wars we must take the stories as we get in, with all their wealth of anachronistic detail-detail which shorather be appreciated than otherwise, because it shows that the story-teller of each generation, who handed it on, felt that the bold narration of an ancient tale really in decency required the addition of little embellishments to make it realistic enough for hearers who were growing even more and more suspicious of the probability of old battles. Hansen tells us he heard the tale of the giants' war from an old woman, Frau Inken Nessen, of Braderup, in Sylt. The war arose, it appears, from the depredations of the underground folk who drank one Frisian's beer, stole the bride of another, misled a blind man, and so forth. Then assembled their King Ring, with his gilded helmet with a boat as crest, and King Bn who rode in a golden carriage. Most of their followers hacky skins as clothing, but Bramm, King Bröns's councillor, had ches of which he was inordinately proud. The Bull of Mors had a hide, with gilded horns standing above his head. Tsmith, of the same place, was always a thirsty fellow, so he took sk of beer on his back, but as he desired no one to know of itgave out that the cask was a drum. His comrades found one trick, however, very soon, and bade Niss, the smith, go on idvance while they would mind the drum. (It is still an oath ylt, says Hansen, to swear "By the Drum.") Tjul, of Arch was a peasant, and as fat as a haystack. He brought his barnr with him, for he said, "When we go into the fight I can hold before me, so that the enemy cannot get at me, and if they o near I shall squash them flat with it." His name is still perpated at Archsum. The Boar of Stedum was groom to King com Brö er In ty gift he had a cord round his neck to show that he was a servant, and beam in his hand which served as vaulting-pole and weapon; Hake had a scythe; Boh and Boik had boat-hooks; Tix and The came from Tinnum, but while the former was King Bröns's secary and had a golden necklet, Thör was the King's fool, and woh beer-hoop, or a willow branch round his neck to show he was a se. The Uwen (a family) came from the east, and the Mannen (ather family) from the west. (Hansen remarks on the peculiarity ofch names in a footnote, and mentions that near Morsum among ahe Frisian population there was a family called "The Frisians," a their graves were even in the last century called the Frisian unds.) Barming came with his whole family, for he lived at lum, and that, as land distances are counted by Frisians, was a g way off; he was a travelled thane, and had even brought home glass jar. When his hill or mound was opened fifty years ago or a glass urn was found in it by one Henning Rinken, but he sold in 1843 to King Christian VIII. of Denmark. Riaul and his |