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[245] The Romans, who had but an imperfect knowledge of this part of the
world, imagined here those "vast insular tracts" mentioned in the
beginning of this treatise. Hence Pliny, also, says of the Baltic sea
(Codanus sinus), that "it is filled with islands, the most famous of
which, Scandinavia (now Sweden and Norway), is of an undiscovered
magnitude; that part of it only being known which is occupied by the
Hilleviones, a nation inhabiting five hundred cantons; who call this
country another globe." (Lib. iv. 13.) The memory of the Hilleviones is
still preserved in the part of Sweden named Halland.

[246] Their naval power continued so great, that they had the glory of
framing the nautical code, the laws of which were first written at Wisby,
the capital of the isle of Gothland, in the eleventh century.

[247] This is exactly the form of the Indian canoes, which, however, are
generally worked with sails as well as oars.

[248] The great opulence of a temple of the Suiones, as described by Adam
of Bremen (Eccl. Hist. ch. 233), is a proof of the wealth that at all
times has attended naval dominion. "This nation," says he, "possesses a
temple of great renown, called Ubsola (now Upsal), not far from the cities
Sictona and Birca (now Sigtuna and Bioerkoe). In this temple, which is
entirely ornamented with gold, the people worship the statues of three
gods; the most powerful of whom, Thor, is seated on a couch in the middle;
with Woden on one side, and Fricca on the other." From the ruins of the
towns Sictona and Birca arose the present capital of Sweden, Stockholm.

[249] Hence Spener (Notit. German. Antiq.) rightly concludes that the
crown was hereditary, and not elective, among the Suiones.

[250] It is uncertain whether what is now called the Frozen Ocean is here
meant, or the northern extremities of the Baltic Sea, the Gulfs of Bothnia
and Finland, which are so frozen every winter as to be unnavigable.

[251] The true principles of astronomy have now taught us the reason why,
at a certain latitude, the sun, at the summer solstice, appears never to
set: and at a lower latitude, the evening twilight continues till morning.

[252] The true reading here is, probably, "immerging;" since it was a
common notion at that period, that the descent of the sun into the ocean
was attended with a kind of hissing noise, like red hot iron dipped into
water. Thus Juvenal, Sat. xiv, 280:--

  Audiet Herculeo stridentem gurgite solem.
  "Hear the sun hiss in the Herculean gulf."

[253] Instead of formas deorum, "forms of deities," some, with more
probability, read equorum, "of the horses," which are feigned to draw the
chariot of the sun.

[254] Thus Quintus Curtius, speaking of the Indian Ocean, says, "Nature
itself can proceed no further."

[255] The Baltic Sea.

[256] Now, the kingdom of Prussia, the duchies of Samogitia and Courland,
the palatinates of Livonia and Esthonia, in the name of which last the
ancient appellation of these people is preserved.

[257] Because the inhabitants of this extreme part of Germany retained the
Scythico-Celtic language, which long prevailed in Britain.

[258] A deity of Scythian origin, called Frea or Fricca. See Mallet's
Introduct. to Hist. of Denmark.

[259] Many vestiges of this superstition remain to this day in Sweden. The
peasants, in the month of February, the season formerly sacred to Frea,
make little images of boars in paste, which they apply to various
superstitious uses. (See Eccard.) A figure of a Mater Deum, with the boar,
is given by Mr. Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 268, engraven
from a stone found at the great station at Netherby in Cumberland.

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