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238
COPENHAGEN.
Chap. XVI.
gold or of bronze, highly wrought, the survivors, anxious
to retain the property for their own advantage, but at
the same time desirous of continuing on pleasant terms
with the ghost of their departed relative, caused
miniature models of the originals to be cast in bronze or gold
and ranged them around the urn, in the place of the
larger objects of more considerable value: so particular
were they in their imitations that you find miniature
swords, the hilts plated with gold, or twisted round with
gold wire—facsimiles of the original weapons. In some
cases, however, the surviving relatives were superior to
any such meanness, as is attested by ten splendid cups
(skaal) hammered out of solid gold, and richly engraved,
which have been discovered in tumuli—two at Boeslunde
near Slagelse, five in Funen in 1685, and three in
Jutland. They are very beautiful, and must have been
the property of personages of high rank and great
possessions.
The ornaments characteristic of this period are four
in number—the spiral, the double spiral, the ring, and
the wave, of which the spiral is said to be the most
ancient. The serpent decoration is of later date, when it
appears to have been almost universally adopted. That
these objects of bronze are of northern workmanship there
can be no doubt, as many of the paalstabs and celts have
been discovered with the mould over which they were cast
still inserted within them. I recollect, some two years
since, a discovery of a manufactory of these articles was
made near Lannion in Brittany, on the banks of the
adjoining riviere, as they there term a fiorde; and 1 am
afraid to say how many tons were brought to light, and
for the most part melted down, in an incredibly short
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