“Hard will be the age,
And harlotry prevail,—
An axe-age, a sword-age—
Shields oft cleft in twain,—
A storm-age, a wolf-age,
Ere earth shall meet its doom.”
The Völuspà.
[58] Stags are not common so far north, but they are to be met with now and then. Elks are much more often seen, and are now pretty plentiful. In the days of which the author is writing, the Game Laws were, on paper at least, very strict about both elks and red-deer. Time was, when the former of these were classed with the bear and the lynx, and were absolutely outlawed as noxious beasts. At the time the author was in Sweden, the laws had gone to the other extreme, and they were absolutely protected,—everybody being forbidden to shoot them; a prohibition which, though it prevented men from going after them openly, was, in fact, as little regarded as most laws are in the fjeld. Now, they may be shot, only under certain restrictions.
[59] A cant phrase in Sweden, for “going on foot.”
[60] The only time the author ever did get a sight of one was in the fjeld on the right bank of the Gotha, near Trollhättan, when he was making his way through some tangled ground in search of a lake, which lies at no very great distance from the fall. On leaping down from a low ledge of rock, he very nearly pitched upon the top of a filfras, as much to his own surprise as that of the beast. He struck at him with his spiked fishing-rod—the only weapon he had with him. Fortunately for both parties, as he now thinks, he missed him; so they parted, much to their mutual satisfaction, and have not met since.