TO MIGNON.

BY F. N. DEVEREUX, KEMPTVILLE, ONT.

If you really do not care, Mignon,
If your words are light as air, Mignon,
Why cast at me such artful glances,
Full of love and full of longing?
Why permit my Love's advances,

Why torture with your cruel wronging,
If you're but a simple friend, Mignon,
If our friendship soon must end, Mignon?

If you really do not care, Mignon,
If your words are light as air, Mignon,
Why entice me to your side

With a soul-destroying smile?
Why bridge the gulf so very wide-
Fate's deep and dismal, dark defile,
If you're but a simple friend, Mignon,
If our friendship soon must end, Mignon?

If you really do not care, Mignon,
If your words are light as air, Mignon,
Why come so often in my way,

Why make your life a gilded lie?
Why thus inspire Hope's brightest ray,
To mock my wretched heart's low cry,
If you're but a simple friend, Mignon,
If our friendship soon must end, Mignon?

Life is divided into three terms :That which was, which is, and which will be, Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better for the future.

Time is like a ship that never anchors; while I am on board, I had better do those things that may profit me in my landing than practise such things as will cause my commitment when I come ashore,

An English engineer was trying to explain the electric telegraph to a Persian governor. Finally he said, 'Imagine a dog with his tail in Teheran and his muzzle in London. Tread on his tail here, and he will bark there.'

NCE there was a man, living in

Norway, called Harald Haarfagr. He was a Jarl-one of many Jarls, or petty kings, or great chiefs, who, at that time, shared amongst them the rule over the lands and coasts of Norway. Much and long-continued fighting they had had, too, in their incessant disputes over those same shares. But Harald, called Haarfagr-or Fairhaired-was more than a common Jarl, as he was a very uncommon man. His father before him had made himself comparatively powerful amongst his fellows of the Norwegian Jarldoms; so that Harald, in succeeding him, succeeded almost to a state of downright kinghood. He, at the outset of his public career, determined that he would forthwith settle that point beyond all possible dispute.

It is reported that the youthful Harald found himself in love with a

beautiful young lady, named Gyda, and made her the offer of his hand. But the Lady Gyda was as ambitious and lofty-minded as she was beautiful. She certainly did not give her young lover a cool reception; for she met his proposal with stinging words which might have instantly terminated the suit of any one of less spirit than Harald. They were to the effect that he had better go and crush out the independence of that host of neighbouring Jarls who were carrying things with so high a hand on land and sea, and win a kingdom for himself, as one great warrior had recently done in Sweden, and another in Denmark. Then he might come to her with proposals of marriage, and she might deign to look upon them with favour, but not until then. Harald swore to himself that he would take her at her word. Nay, he swore that he would

never again allow that mass of fair hair of his to be cut until he had become sole master and King of Norway. He kept his word, and won his kingdom and his bride, and got his hair cut. Thus it came about, curiously enough, that what is now called America, first became known to the forefathers of the fair-skinned race who now rule this continent.

That result came about in this way. A large proportion of the haughty and hitherto independent Norsemen entertained very decided objections to Harald's proceedings, for he not only insisted upon being sole monarch of Norway; he further insisted upon keeping his kingdom in order, and especially in putting down the Viking occupation or piracy, especially upon the coast of his own domains. As this was not only the principal means of amusement, but a large source of profit to the more irrepressible Jarls and their congenial followers, it was but natural that they should resent such an unheard of innovation on Harald's part. He was not a king, however, with whom many of the disaffected were desirous of contending openly and face to face. So there came into vogue amongst this class a variety of rebellion which seems a novelty to our modern conceptions, but which was not uncommon in longpast centuries, and especially among Asiatic peoples. That is, they rebelled by summarily packing themselves on board their ships-being pre-eminently a sea faring people--hauling up anchor and taking their departure to other and strange lands, where they could do as they pleased.

Divers were the countries to which these impatient Norsemen hied in their search for what they considered free and independent homes. There was one of these chieftains of men, and a thorough Viking, too, whose headquarters had been in and about the three Vigten Islands, on the midNorway coast, named Rollo, or Rolf. He was also surnamed The Ganger—

probably from the very determined, expeditious, and effective way in which he gathered up his followers, andganged' out of Norway, and into what was found to be a much more pleasant country. However that may be, Rolf the Ganger and his followers, in the year A.D. 876, sailed down from their native fiords in force, and, with but little ado about it, pounced upon the Northern coast of what we now call France. There they extended themselves, and conquered, and gave their name to the tract of country which they appropriated; and thus Rolf, or Rollo, became the first Duke of Normandy.

Others of these Norsemen who resented Harald Haarfagr's rule, went out and colonized the Faroe Islands, said to have been previously inhabited. Others went to the Shetlands, the Orkneys, and the Hebrides, of all of which they had, doubtless, known something before. But the immigration in which we are most interested just now, is that of the daring Norse adventurers who made their way to the still more distant Iceland. That island had been discovered by some of these restless and fearless explorers a few years before. They had found it uninhabited at the time; but they also found there certain utensils employed in Christian rites and other remains, clearly indicating that this remote region had a!ready been the abodes, for a time, of some Irish monks. To Iceland, then, boldly steered those whom we may fairly suppose to have been the most unmanageable and implacable of the Norsemen whom Harald Haarfagr sought to reduce to his rule. There, in that far-remote and only too-well named region, they might well suppose that they would be safe, without the reach of the conquering arms and detested laws of the self-made king— Harald Haarfagr.

This migration from Norway to Iceland was no combined expedition and hostile invasion, such as that which went forth from the Vigten Is

lands, and spread itself over the northern shore of France. It was a movement which continued for several years. The first arrival was that of a chieftain named Ingolf, who eventually settled himself upon the spot where the town of Reykjavik, the little capital of Iceland, now stands. To this spot he believes himself to have been directed by the will of his tutelary divinities; which will was ascertained in this way. These pagan Norsemen

were accustomed to having set up in front of the residences of their chiefs what they called Seat-posts (Setstokkar). These were, in each case, a pair of large and lofty beams of timber, elaborately carved and surmounted by figures of Odin, Thor, Friga, or whoever were assumed to be the tutelary deities of him who thus set them up. Upon a change of residence, these Seat-posts were carefully removed and embarked, with other probably lessvalued chattels, on ship-board, the sea being, of course, almost the invariable means of local communication. On arrival in the vicinity of the intended new home, the Seat-posts were thrown overboard, and the point on shore to which they drifted became their owner's new seat, or place of residence. The reader may be curious to know what would be the result in the not at all improbable event of two men's Seat-posts being washed ashore at the same place. In that case, we must suppose that the first arrival would secure the land, and that the new comer woald try again elsewhere; or that, if they arrived simultaneously, and were on particularly friendly terms, and nearly equals in power and wealth, they would effect an amicable arrangement; or that if one was weak and the other strong, the weakling would judiciously find some good reason for betaking himself elsewhere, notwithstanding the previous dictation of his gods. If otherwise, we may rely upon it that, as a matter of course, the stronger man just killed the weaker one, without any needless ado, and

thus settled the business at once. These old Norsemen had ever a prompt and simple way of arriving at results.

It is a singular fact that, at this very day, there are certain tribes of Indians in British Columbia, on the northern coast of the Pacific, who have Seatposts set up in front of their wigwams, and have had them from time immemorial. These posts are often so elaborately carved that, considering the tools employed, the work expended upon one of them must have cost several years of the native artist's life. It would be an interesting investiga. tion, that of tracing to its origin and primeval meaning, this rare custom, now practised by a few of the Aborigines of the North-West coast of America, and which seems to be identical with a custom, or religious usage of the Norsemen of Europe, a thousand years or more in the past.

The pioneer, Ingolf, was rapidly followed to Iceland by others of his fellow countrymen. The navigation continued for about sixty years—-until, indeed, King Harald, fearing that his kingdom was about to become depopulated, laid such an embargo upon the exodus of his subjects that it became difficult for them to get out of Norway-at all events, when going in the direction of Iceland.

Our task is not, however, to submit to the reader a political history of Iceland. Yet it becomes necessary for us to say a few words as to the character and habits of these Norse Icelanders and their descendants. These emigrants, who had proved so refractory under Harald Haarfagr's iron rule, consisted of men who must have belonged to the highest class of the magnates of Norway, together with their families and servants. They must have been very wealthy, even to have owned the shipping which sufficed to convey their several households and retinues, with all their cattle and other effects, over a voyage which may have lasted, and probably did last, for several

months. We know that they must have been highly cultivated, and even learned, for the period in which they lived; for of that fact they have left us ample proof. Their demeanour towards Harald Haarfagr in itself shows that they were an essentially high spirited and independent class; and the records which they and their descendants have left behind them, show that they were exceedingly proud— not only personally haughty, but proud of their families, of their ancestors, and of their race. No people-not even the Jews, or any other racehave given so much study to genealogy and to family history, and have so carefully kept, continued, and preserved their genealogical records, as these Norsemen. We have proof of this propensity in a branch of the race other than the Icelandic-to wit, the Norman, specially so called. The propensity-perhaps it may be said the passion-of those of the original Norman stock, or having Norman blood, for tracing back their ancestry through all its connections, to its earliest known source, is sufficiently notorious. And, by-the-bye, their example has, in these our days, led the credulous imagination, or unscrupulous invention, of many vain people to the construction of family pedigrees of a very mythical character.

The Norseman, in becoming an Icelander, lost nothing of the dauntless bravery which had made him the dread of Europe. His occupation as a Viking was indeed gone. He would not, in Norway, condescend to abandon that pleasant and profitable pastime, at Harald Haarfagr's bidding. Now, in Iceland, he abandoned it of his own accord, his good intention, however, being much aided by circumstances under which he found himself placed. Norway, then as now, abounded in timber suited to ship-building. There the Viking and his company could easily build and fit out their ships; and, on putting out to sea, the propinquity of their Norwegian home

to more fertile and wealthier shores, afforded a fair prospect of easy success in their piratical forays. With Iceland for their home, the case was very different. There, growing timber was scarce, and that little was of but stunted growth. The Icelanders were under the necessity of procuring their larger vessels their long ships, as they were called-from Norway. Hence it was only the more wealthy of their number who could afford such possessions. Again, their new home was far removed from all of those shores which had long been the Vikings' paradise. But the Norse daring and love of adventure, still, were the most prominent characteristics of the Icelanders, as was also his love of the sea for its own sake. From all this, it turned out eventually that the Icelanders, having ceased to be Vikings, became almost equally noted as roving merchant adventurers; and, as such, they visited almost every clime and country of which they had any knowledge. In this respect they, for centuries after the colonization of Iceland, unquestionably outshone all other nations.

The Icelander at home, during this same period, became, in like manner, pre-eminent among his contemporaries for his rapid progress in intellectual culture. Even if he possessed luxuricus tastes and appetites, which is doubtful, the necessities of his position forbade him to indulge them. His own little tillage land, his pastures, and his abundant fisheries, supplied all his immediate wants. At the same time, the labours which they imposed upon him were far from engrossing all his time and attention. There were, especially in that high latitude, the long winter evenings of leisure to be disposed of. Men of the Viking bloodmen of a race who had for ages been engaged in the fiercest of national wars, or the most daring of piratical adventures-must, when once they had cut themselves off from their former pursuits, have found themselves with an immense amount of surplus energy on