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whom the lot fell, were treated with such honours by all the assembly, they were so overwhelmed with caresses for the present, and with promises for the life to come, that they sometimes congratulated themselves on their destiny. But they did not always sacrifice such mean persons: In great calamities, in a pressing famine for example, if the people thought they had some pretext to impute the cause of it to their king, they even sacrificed him without hesitation, as the highest price with which they could purchase the divine favour. In this manner the first king[1] of Vermland was burnt in honour of Odin to put an end to a great dearth; as we read in the history of Norway. The kings, in their turn, did not spare the blood of their subjects; and many of them even shed that of their children. Hacon, king of Norway, offered his son in sacrifice, to obtain of Odin the victory over his enemy Harald[2]. Aune, king of Sweden, devoted to Odin the blood of his nine sons, to prevail on that god to prolong his life[3]. The ancient history of the North abounds in
