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“peas TRAVELS
covered his breaft. He had the look of thofe bards who are de-
f{cribed with fo much enthufiafm in the hiftory of the North, not
one of whom probably was equal to this poor man in {cience or
intelligence. His audience were not gathered round him for
nothing: he fang verfes, and related to them tales and anecdotes ;
but our prefence broke in upon the filence and tranquillity of the
affembly ; every body withdrew; children are. children in. all
countries. The fight of {trangers was fuch a novelty, that, for-
getting the bard, they began to mock at our figure, and to laugh
in our faces, while the poor mendicant finifhed by afking us, in
bad Swedith, fome halfpence or {killings in charity.
Night was approaching, and we were extremely fatigued with
our amphibious mode of travelling, half on foot and half in the
fledge. In this emergency I had a ftrong proof of the utility of
an invention which I was fhewn in the model repofitory at Stock-
holm: it was a fledge, with four wheels fufpended from its fides,
which by means of a fpring could be placed under the fledge, and
raife it from the ground; and thus in a moment conyert the.
fledge into a fpecies of wheel carriage.
On the 30th of March towards midnight, we were ftill upon
the road, fuffering from a cold of 13 degrees of Celfius, when an
aurora borealis prefented us with a magnificent fpectacle, which
ferved to relieve the irkfome monotony of our journey. The
heavens began to appear illuminated in the quarter of the north;
prefently it afflumed a bright ruby colour, fuch as we have on a
fine evening in Italy with the fetting fun, when, as Virgil fays,
and
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