"Where did you find all those Bible verses just now about the sword, Ditto?"
"References here, Maggie."
"Well, go on, Ditto. There were three children of the devil."
"The third was the goddess Hel or Hela. She was the goddess of the lower world, and was half black and half blue. I wonder! that must be where our word 'hell' comes from. What dreadful old times! And times now are just as bad, for a great part of the world. The goddess Hel was very like the horrible Hindoo goddess Kali, they say here."
"I don't believe those times were so much worse than these times," said Flora.
"You think human sacrifices are a pleasant religious feature?"
"Not to the victims; but I suppose the rest were all accustomed to it, and didn't feel so shocked as you do."
"Landolf seems to have been a good deal shocked."
"Are you going to read us anything more, Ditto, about those queer old gods?"
"There isn't much more that I need read, Maggie. I have told you about the principal deities. They believed in quantities of lesser ones—really, personifications of the good and evil powers of nature. The elves and their king, and the dwarfs living inside the hills. The dwarfs owned the treasures of the mines, and worked in metals and precious stones."