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202
VOSBORG.
Chap. XLIII.
herself growing old and infirm, she was anxious to
transform herself into a night raven, and fly; that, according
to the laws of necromancy, to procure such a boon she
must first devour “nine raw bleeding hearts,” taken
hot from as many maiden breasts—symbolical of the
nine hearts of Denmark, representing the nine syssels
or counties of Jutland. She had already devoured her
seventh, when the unlucky cries of the pedlar girl
brought from the herdsmen the assistance which ended
in her capture and condemnation. Long Margaret was
not, however, doomed to the stake, as such a witch
should have been—none were ever burnt in Jutland
after the end of the seventeenth century—she merely
lost her head like common mortals; and they neglected
to bury her remains in a moor, with a stake in her
inside, as they ought to have done; for she is said
occasionally to make her appearance, and walk in the
long passages of the wing of the chateau where she
was imprisoned at Vosborg.
Second-sight is as common in Jutland as in the
Highlands of Scotland, particularly as regards “the
foretelling of fire.” Bad luck to the owner of a mill
whose conflagration is foretold by a “wise womanit
invariably comes to pass.
What excellent portraits you meet with in every
private house in Denmark, and more so in Jutland than
elsewhere, setting aside Juel, who really, by the number
one comes across, must have painted with both hands at
once! This may, however, be easily accounted for by
the number of pupils who studied in the atelier of
every great Dutch master. •Finding at first little or no
employment in their own land, they were glad to make
their “tour du monde,” as the artisans do that of
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