"And ours," said the Pastor, "is Kaempehoi, or Kaempedysse, meaning a
fighting man's burial place; the verb to fight is kaempe, and present
Danish. It was, however, a custom to bury treasure in secluded places,
and to kill a slave at the place that his ghost might guard the
treasure. There is a tumulus or barrow between Viborg and Holstebro.
It is related that this barrow was formerly always covered with a blue
mist, and that a copper kettle full of money was buried there. One
night, however, two men dug down to the kettle, and seized it by the
handle; but immediately wonderful things happened, with a view of
preventing them from taking away the kettle and the money--first, they
saw a black dog with a red hot tongue; next, a cock drawing a load of
hay; then a carriage with four black horses. The men, however, pursued
their occupation without uttering a word. But at last came a man, lame
in one foot, halting by, and he said, 'Look, the town is on fire!' The
two men looked, and sure enough the town appeared to them to be on
fire. One of them uttered an exclamation, and the kettle and the
treasure sank in the earth far beyond their reach. There are many of
these stories, but the principle inculcated is, that when digging for
treasure it must be carried out in perfect silence. You will have
observed that a great many of the tumuli you have met with in Denmark
have been opened. This has chiefly been done by the hidden-treasure
seekers; but it has had one good result, and that is, it has enriched
the museums in Denmark, especially that of Northern Antiquities in
Copenhagen. You have probably seen the museum in Bergen, Norway. You
will have seen precisely the same type of subjects there as in
Copenhagen; and in the tumuli in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, what has
been found is, _coeteris paribus_, identical in type."
"You said just now that a slave was killed at places where treasure
was hidden," said Hardy; "is there much belief in that direction?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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