Superstitions handed down from the Stone Age.
We have seen in the preceding chapter that in the Neolithic age the tombs were the habitations of the dead,[1] in which they were supposed to live. This superstition has been current in Europe from that remote age to the present time. The Scandinavian warriors, who had entered the gates of Walhalla and sat in Odin's Hall, made visits to their tombs on the earth. Helge, one of the heroes of the Edda, in spite of the magnificent welcome which he received from Odin, returned on horseback into his tumulus, accompanied by many horsemen. There he received the visit of his surviving wife, who lay down by him in the sepulchre. The inhabitants of the tumuli—the spirits of the mountain, the Voettir, the Elves, and the Manes,—are traceable over the greater part of Europe, and are supposed still to be able to avenge themselves on mortals by whom they have been disturbed. The tumuli in the Isle of Man are protected from destruction by this superstition: and it is reported in the island that the dread of their occupants is still so strong, that about the year 1859 a farmer offered a heifer as a burnt- sacrifice, that he might avert their anger, excited by the exploration of a chambered tomb near the Tynwald Mount by Messrs. Oliver and Oswald. This is probably the last example of a burnt-sacrifice in civilised Europe.
On some of the stones composing the tombs in Britain and Ireland are to be seen small round holes, seldom more than three-quarters of an inch to an inch deep. These have evidently been made on purpose,
- ↑ C. F. Wiberg, Matériaux, 1877, p. 408.
