in which she kept the charms and spells with which she conjured. But her great power was over the elements, shipmates, for Tronda was a witch of Lapland—that dreary coast of snow which mariners skirt, sailing into the White Sea—and her name was known as a potent trafficker in such powers as ordinary mortals possess not, and many shipmen came to her and spoke her fair, and gave her money, and she sold them fair winds to waft them on their course. But I have heard, shipmates, that such was the nature of these unnatural breezes, that they wrecked every seventh ship which sailed before them. Six would go prosperously to their port, but the wind which the seventh had purchased, would gradually swell and wax great and mighty, until it became a hurricane, which tore sail and mast before it, and beat the ill-fated ship down into the sea. ‘It was by certain rhymes, comrades, that Tronda and the other Lapland witches ruled the air, and made the storm-clouds fly as they wished. I have heard that she would stand high on a rock, or upon the poop of a ship, when the sea was calm below, and the summer air clear above. Then would she toss her arms above her head, and kneeling down, with her fair hair streaming over her shoulders, sing the magic song, which brought forth clouds upon the heavens, and unchained the wind, to rush over the howling sea. No one understood this song, but its name was _Vard lokur_—and it was in an ancient northern tongue called Lap, many words of which have power over the swart demons, and dwarfs, and elvish workers in metals, who live under the mountains of Finland and Jutland. ‘Now, Tronda was a miser, and loved gold, and when mariners came to her and told her legends about a new world lying to the west, far across the ocean, and where the yellow metal and stones still more precious glistened and shone, on every mountain and on every beach, she said—“I, too, will depart and see that golden land, where there is neither frost nor cold, but diamonds bright as icicles, and pearls as white as snow.” Then she embarked in her galley, and raised a magic wind, which bore her across the Atlantic, and at sunrise one bright morning, she saw before her the land of the New World. But the galley had not coasted far, when two caravals came forth and gave her chase. The Spaniards knew little with whom they had to deal; Tronda stood on the poop of her ship, and stretched her arms forth, singing her magic rhymes in Lap, and straightway a squall came rushing down from the land, and before the Spaniards could lower their sails, it broke upon the caravals, and ships and crews sunk together in the sea.