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354
BORNHOLM.
Chap. LUI.
urns were here discovered some years since and
forwarded to the Northern Museum at Copenhagen.
Foxes abound in Alminde, chevreuil too, but the larger
deer, though frequently imported, do not thrive. Many
rare birds here build their nests which have been known
to do so nowhere else among the islands of Denmark.
The eggs of the peregrine falcon, as well as the larger
woodcock, were both taken here last spring. Herons
are plentiful in Bornholm, but the stork is more
chary of its visits. When the swallow abounds in
summer, the peasants and folks of the little towns can
happily console themselves for the stork’s absence, for
the swallow is even more beloved of the two, and in
old papistic times was supposed to live and fly under
the special protection of Our Lady. There exists a
charming old song—I have, however, never been able
to procure a copy of it—sung still, sometimes, by the
old crones of the island of Zealand, in which the
swallow goes to the Virgin to beg the loan of a needle and
thread to sew her nest together.
Then again there is an old Popish tradition, which
may be known in other lands, but to me is new, so I
may as well give it:—“ It was on that fearful Friday
when our Saviour hung in his agony upon the cross,
when the sun was turned into blood, and darkness was
upon all the earth, that three birds, flying from east to
west, passed by the accursed hill of Golgotha. First came
the lapwing ; and when the bird saw the sight before him
he flew round about the cross, crying, in his querulous
tone, ‘Piin ham! piin ham!—torment him! torment
him!’ For this reason the lapwing is for ever accursed,
and can never be at rest; it flies round and round its
nest, fluttering and uttering a plaintive cry; in the
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