When Nyhalennia, whose real name was Min-erva, was well established, and the Krekalanders loved her as well as our own people did, there came some princes and priests to her citadel and asked Min-erva, where her possessions lay. h.e.l.lenia answered, I carry my possessions in my own bosom. What I have inherited is the love of wisdom, justice, and freedom. If I lose these I shall become as the least of your slaves; now I give advice for nothing, but then I should sell it. The gentlemen went away laughing and saying, Your humble servants, wise h.e.l.lenia. But they missed their object, for the people took up this name as a name of honour. When they saw that their shot had missed they began to calumniate her, and to say that she had bewitched the people; but our people and the good Krekalanders understood at once that it was calumny. She was once asked, If you are not a witch, what is the use of the eggs that you always carry with you? Min-erva answered, These eggs are the symbols of Frya's counsels, in which our future and that of the whole human race lies concealed. Time will hatch them, and we must watch that no harm happens to them. The priests said, Well answered; but what is the use of the dog on your right hand? h.e.l.lenia replied, Does not the shepherd have a sheep-dog to keep his flock together? What the dog is to the shepherd I am in Frya's service. I must watch over Frya's flocks. We understand that very well, said the priests; but tell us what means the owl that always sits upon your head, is that light-shunning animal a sign of your clear vision? No, answered h.e.l.lenia; he reminds me that there are people on earth who, like him, have their homes in churches and holes, who go about in the twilight, not, like him, to deliver us from mice and other plagues, but to invent tricks to steal away the knowledge of other people, in order to take advantage of them, to make slaves of them, and to suck their blood like leeches. Another time they came with a whole troop of people, when the plague was in the country, and said: We are all making offerings to the G.o.ds that they may take away the plague. Will you not help to turn away their anger, or have you yourself brought the plague into the land with all your arts? No, said Min-erva; I know no G.o.ds that do evil, therefore I cannot ask them to do better. I only know one good spirit, that is Wr-alda's; and as he is good he never does evil. Where, then, does evil come from? asked the priests. All the evil comes from you, and from the stupidity of the people who let themselves be deceived by you. If, then, your G.o.d is so exceedingly good, why does he not turn away the bad? asked the priests. h.e.l.lenia answered: Frya has placed us here, and the carrier, that is, Time, must do the rest. For all calamities there is counsel and remedy to be found, but Wr-alda wills that we should search it out ourselves, in order that we may become strong and wise. If we will not do that, he leaves us to our own devices, in order that we may experience the results of wise or foolish conduct. Then a prince said, I should think it best to submit. Very possibly, answered h.e.l.lenia; for then men would be like sheep, and you and the priests would take care of them, shearing them and leading them to the shambles. This is what our G.o.d does not desire, he desires that we should help one another, but that all should be free and wise. That is also our desire, and therefore our people choose their princes, counts, councillors, chiefs, and masters among the wisest of the good men, in order that every man shall do his best to be wise and good. Thus doing, we learn ourselves and teach the people that being wise and acting wisely can alone lead to holiness. That seems very good judgment, said the priests; but if you mean that the plague is caused by our stupidity, then Nyh.e.l.lenia will perhaps be so good as to bestow upon us a little of that new light of which she is so proud. Yes, said h.e.l.lenia, but ravens and other birds of prey feed only on dead carrion, whereas the plague feeds not only on carrion but on bad laws and customs and wicked pa.s.sions. If you wish the plague to depart from you and not return, you must put away your bad pa.s.sions and become pure within and without. We admit that the advice is good, said the priests, but how shall we induce all the people under our rule to agree to it? Then h.e.l.lenia stood up and said: The sparrows follow the sower, and the people their good princes, therefore it becomes you to begin by rendering yourselves pure, so that you may look within and without, and not be ashamed of your own conduct. Now, instead of purifying the people, you have invented foul festivals, in which they have so long revelled that they wallow like swine in the mire to atone for your evil pa.s.sions. The people began to mock and to jeer, so that she did not dare to pursue the subject; and one would have thought that they would have called all the people together to drive us out of the land; but no, in place of abusing her they went all about from the heathenish Krekaland to the Alps, proclaiming that it had pleased the Almighty G.o.d to send his clever daughter Min-erva, surnamed Nyh.e.l.lenia, over the sea in a cloud to give people good counsel, and that all who listened to her should become rich and happy, and in the end governors of all the kingdoms of the earth. They erected statues to her on all their altars, they announced and sold to the simple people advice that she had never given, and related miracles that she had never performed. They cunningly made themselves masters of our laws and customs, and by craft and subtlety were able to explain and spread them around. They appointed priestesses under their own care, who were apparently under the protection of Festa, our first Eeremoeder, to watch over the holy lamp; but that lamp they lit themselves, and instead of imbuing the priestesses with wisdom, and then sending them to watch the sick and educate the young, they made them stupid and ignorant, and never allowed them to come out. They were employed as advisers, but the advice which seemed to come from them was but the repet.i.tion of the behests of the priests. When Nyh.e.l.lenia died, we wished to choose another mother, and some of us wished to go to Texland to look for her; but the priests, who were all-powerful among their own people, would not permit it, and accused us before the people of being unholy.

FROM THE WRITINGS OF MINNO.

When I came away from Athenia with my followers, we arrived at an island named by my crew Kreta, because of the cries that the inhabitants raised on our arrival. When they really saw that we did not come to make war, they were quiet, so that at last I was able to buy a harbour in exchange for a boat and some iron implements, and a piece of land. When we had been settled there a short time, and they discovered that we had no slaves, they were very much astonished; and when I explained to them that we had laws which made everybody equal, they wished to have the same; but they had hardly established them before the whole land was in confusion.

The priests and the princes declared that we had excited their subjects to rebellion, and the people appealed to us for aid and protection. When the princes saw that they were about to lose their kingdom, they gave freedom to their people, and came to me to establish a code of laws. The people, however, got no freedom, and the princes remained masters, acting according to their own pleasure. When this storm had pa.s.sed, they began to sow divisions among us. They told my people that I had invoked their a.s.sistance to make myself permanent king. Once I found poison in my food. So when a ship from Flyland sailed past, I quietly took my departure. Leaving alone, then, my own adventures, I will conclude this history by saying that we must not have anything to do with Finda's people, wherever it may be, because they are full of false tricks, fully as much to be feared as their sweet wine with deadly poison.

HERE ENDS MINNO'S WRITING.

THESE ARE THE THREE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH THESE LAWS ARE FOUNDED.

1. Everybody knows that he requires the necessaries of life, and if he cannot obtain them he does not know how to preserve his life.

2. All men have a natural desire to have children, and if it is not satisfied they are not aware what evil may spring from it.

3. Every man knows that he wishes to live free and undisturbed, and that others wish the same thing.

To secure this, these laws and regulations are made.

The people of Finda have also their rules and regulations, but these are not made according to what is just--only for the advantage of priests and princes--therefore their states are full of disputes and murder.

1. If any man falls into a state of dest.i.tution, his case must be brought before the count by the maidens, because a high-minded Frisian cannot bear to do that himself.

2. If any man becomes poor because he will not work, he must be sent out of the country, because the cowardly and lazy are troublesome and ill-disposed, therefore they ought to be got rid of.

3. Every young man ought to seek a bride and to be married at five-and-twenty.

4. If a young man is not married at five-and-twenty, he must be driven from his home, and the younger men must avoid him. If then he will not marry, he must be declared dead, and leave the country, so that he may not give offence.

5. If a man is impotent, he must openly declare that no one has anything to fear from him, then he may come or go where he likes.

6. If after that he commits any act of incontinence, then he must flee away; if he does not, he may be given over to the vengeance of those whom he has offended, and no one may aid him.

7. Any one who commits a theft shall restore it threefold. For a second offence he shall be sent to the tin mines. The person robbed may forgive him if he pleases, but for a third offence no one shall protect him.

THESE RULES ARE MADE FOR ANGRY PEOPLE.

1. If a man in a pa.s.sion or out of ill will breaks another's limb or puts out an eye or a tooth, he must pay whatever the injured man demands. If he cannot pay, he must suffer the same injury as he has done to the other. If he refuses this, he must appeal to the Burgtmaagd in order to be sent to work in the iron or tin mines until he has expiated his crime under the general law.

2. If a man is so wicked as to kill a Frisian, he must forfeit his own life; but if the Burgtmaagd can send him to the tin mines for his life before he is taken, she may do so.

3. If the prisoner can prove by proper witnesses that the death was accidental, he may go free; but if it happens a second time, he must go to the tin mines, in order to avoid any unseemly hatred or vengeance.

THESE ARE THE RULES CONCERNING b.a.s.t.a.r.dS.

1. If any man sets fire to another's house, he is no Frisian, he is a b.a.s.t.a.r.d. If he is caught in the act, he must be thrown into the fire; and wherever he may flee, he shall never be secure from the avenging justice.

2. No true Frisian shall speak ill of the faults of his neighbours. If any man injures himself, but does no harm to others, he must be his own judge; but if he becomes so bad that he is dangerous to others, they must bring it before the count. But if instead of going to the count a man accuses another behind his back, he must be put on the pillory in the market-place, and then sent out of the country, but not to the tin mines, because even there a backbiter is to be feared.

3. If any man should prove a traitor and show to our enemies the paths leading to our places of refuge, or creep into them by night, he must be the offspring of Finda; he must be burnt. The sailors must take his mother and all his relations to a desolate island, and there scatter his ashes, in order that no poisonous herbs may spring from them. The maidens must curse his name in all the states, in order that no child may be called by his name, and that his ancestors may repudiate him.

War had come to an end, but famine came in its place. There were three men who each stole a sack of corn from different owners, but they were all caught. The first owner brought his thief to the judge, and the maidens said everywhere that he had done right. The second owner took the corn away from his thief and let him go in peace. The maidens said he has done well. The third owner went to the thief's house, and when he saw what misery was there, he went and brought a waggon-load of necessaries to relieve their distress. Frya's maidens came around him and wrote his deed in the eternal book, and wiped out all his sins. This was reported to the Eeremoeder, and she had it made known over the whole country.

WHAT IS WRITTEN HEREUNDER IS INSCRIBED ON THE WALLS OF WARABURGT.

(See Plate I.)

What appears at the top is the signs of the Juul--that is, the first symbol of Wr-alda, also of the origin or beginning from which Time is derived; this is the Kroder, which must always go round with the Juul. According to this model Frya formed the set hand which she used to write her Tex. When Fasta was Eeremoeder she made a running hand out of it. The Witkoning--that is, the Sea-King G.o.dfried the Old--made separate numbers for the set hand and for the runic hand. It is therefore not too much that we celebrate it once a year. We may be eternally thankful to Wr-alda that he allowed his spirit to exercise such an influence over our forefathers.

In her time Finda also invented a mode of writing, but that was so high-flown and full of flourishes that her descendants have soon lost the meaning of it.

Afterwards they learned our writing--that is, the Finns, the Thyriers, and the Krekalanders--but they did not know that it was taken from the Juul, and most therefore always be written round like the sun. Furthermore, they wished that their writing should be illegible by other people, because they always had matters to conceal. In doing this they acted very unwisely, because their children could only with great difficulty read the writings of their predecessors, whereas our most ancient writings are as easy to read as those that were written yesterday.

Here is a specimen of the set hand and of the running hand, as well as of the figures, in both.

(See Plate II.)