form of the horn of the ox. Ox-horns were the most usual drinking vessels, and thus it was said that the heroes in Walhalla should drink mead from horns. Similar to these, were the celebrated golden horns, which occupy so conspicuous a place among the antiquities found in the North. The first known example was exhumed in 1639, at Gallehuus, close to Mögeltondern, in the domain of Ribe. It consisted of a piece which was solid internally, round which were thirteen rings, seven of them loose, which were adorned with numerous images and figures. The horn was about two feet nine inches in length, the mouth four inches in diameter, and it weighed six pounds six ounces and a half, of the very finest gold. Almost a hundred years afterwards, namely in 1734, at the same village of Gallehuus, another golden horn was discovered, with one end broken off. It weighed seven pounds five ounces and a half, that is, fifteen ounces more than the former complete specimen. Like the former it was covered with ornamental rings, and it also bore round the mouth a heterogeneous inscription, in Runic characters. Unfortunately these invaluable rarities were stolen from the place in which they were preserved, and melted down, about forty years ago.
In connection with the drinking vessels have been found cullenders, and parts of bowls or large dishes, in which drink was handed round. They were either of metal, or of wood, with metal rings, handles, &c., of which the metallic portion alone remains[1].
- ↑ The accompanying engraving represents the remains of a bucket or vessel of such character, found in the right hand corner of a grave in a barrow in Bourne Park, the seat of Lord Albert Conyngham, in August,
