The early laws against Sabbath-breaking were very severe. Fines were demanded for absence from divine service, and in Brö parish posts are still shown to which iron bars were once fixed. If service was in progress no one could pass these bars without first entering the church, if only for a short time. In England, at that date, even more rigorous penalties were exacted for Sabbath-breaking. It was necessary to ascertain the religious tendencies of your guests, for unless they went regularly to divine service a heavy fine was imposed on their host.

ing of a knight on horseback. On the color. One of the earliest is found in reverse, a viking's vessel in full sail, the church dedicated to sailors at Brö. containing six men up-standing. The Among other figures is a horned cendesigns are much defaced and difficult taur carrying an axe, and a knight on to decipher. We find also memorial horseback with a pointed helmet. Over crosses, each with its own legend. the churchyard gates may frequently That at the village of Rute commemo-be seen two-storied porches, designed rates the scene of a famous steeple- for the protection of the churchyards, chase, ridden by two sporting priests. which in time of war formed places of Both were candidates for the vacant refuge. There are few buttresses and benefice, and they agreed to settle the no clerestories, and it is rare to find any affair by a point to point race. The lights on the south side. The walls are goal was to be the lych gate of the par- invariably of considerable thickness. ish church. Off they galloped, neck and neck, continuing thus, without apparent advantage to either, till the spot where stands the cross was reached. Here an unlucky stumble brought the horse of the elder candidate to the ground, and his rider's neck was broken by the fall. His companion raised the monument to his memory, presumably less in sorrow than in gratitude for the removal of his rival. At Larbro, not far from Visby, is another cross, also relating to the death of a priest. Among his parishioners he had the misfortune to number an overbearing farmer named Taxten, who had acquired an undue influence in the place. Such cases are not wholly unknown in more civilized times and places. Among other petty tyrannies, Taxten would never allow mass to commence before he arrived. One morning, however, the people had waited so long and became so impatient, that in despair the priest began the service. So enraged was Taxten on his arrival to find mass half over, that he rushed up to the altar and ran the priest through the body with his sword. The assailant was, in his turn, despatched by the infuriated congrega-bered, once the seat of the caliphs.

tion.

In default of other evidence, the frequent discoveries of Roman coins belonging principally to the second century would point to the fact of great commercial enterprise among the Gotlanders in early days. Equally suggestive are the Byzantine and Kufic coins, which are the more interesting from the fact that they bear not only the names of the rulers, but also of the cities where they were struck. Over twenty thousand Kufic coins have been found in Sweden and Gotland. Kufa, near Bagdad, was, it will be remem

Specimens of these coins, as well as semi-circular silver ornaments, beads. bracteates, pins, and bracelets, may be seen in the museum at Visby, in which are also preserved the seals of the ancient guilds.

Of the ninety churches in the island scarcely one is devoid of beauty or interest. In exterior, the most striking peculiarity is the southern doorway, consisting of a shallow porch decorated with elaborately carved figures in white marble. Characteristic of the interior is a massive pillar in the centre of the nave, from which spring pointed arches. The fonts are often very quaintly adorned, and sometimes bright with for several generations. Close to the

At the present day quarrying, limeburning, and agriculture form the chief occupations of the islanders. The gards are small for the most part, and have often belonged to the same families

that

house is usually a small orchard, and | ical position and natural defences, at every farm can be seen refuges for from a strategic point of view it might the starling, the sacred bird of Gotland. readily be made a padlock upon the These consist of wooden boxes, called Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia. It has Star Stunke, fixed on poles or out- even been declared that by means of Gotbuildings, and surmounted by a cross. land the Russian navy could be locked up and the navigation of the Baltic commauded. AUGUSTA NASH.

In Sweden, the veneration for starlings is shown in less pleasing fashion. The aviaries in the public gardens abound with them, reminding one sadly of the bird which evoked Sterne's celebrated soliloquy on the bitterness of captivity.

From The Gentleman's Magazine. ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE.

"YES, gentlemen," said the young lieutenant, "you may say what you like, conscience is an affair of geography. Put the best man you like down in a foreign country, and he'll laugh at things that he'd drop a hard hand ou here in Gotham. Don't believe me - eh? I fancy I can convince you. You all know old Roberts, and know that he's as good a Christian as he is a captain, and that's not saying a little; well, I've seen that man twisting and turning like a cat on hot bricks for fear that a rogue should be punished; and it wasn't because the fellow had only broken some petty local law either, for he would have got five years' Sing Sing here, and the captain have been the first to say, 'He's got off easy.'

A peasants' heraldry, called bomärken, is still extant. These housemarks may be seen painted above the doorways of the farms. Those most in use are horseshoes, buckles, and hourglasses. There are parochial as well as private bo-märken, and the custom has been found very useful in the recovery of lost or stolen property. Sheep are often marked on the right ear with the parish bo-mark, while the left bears the mark of the gard to which they belong. Gotland is seventy-six miles in length, and in breadth twenty-two miles. Its physical features differ considerably from those of Sweden. There are no large lakes or rivers, but innumerable trisks or marshes, from which vast quantities of peat are extracted. Cliffs, composed of encrinite limestone, aver- "I was serving in the U.S. frigate aging in height one hundred and twenty Delaware, and we had been cruising on feet, surround the island. Only in the the China station for a couple of years, extreme south is any red sandstone and for the principal part of that time found. Both lime and sandstone have we'd had a young Chinaman helping in furnished materials for several of the the cook-house. He was a pleasant, northern palaces of Europe, and have good-tempered young fellow, not badeven been exported to Holland. Faith- looking for a Celestial, and had become ful to its earliest tradition, Gotland a great favorite with us all, officers as continues to rise above the waters. On well as men. the north coast as many as fifty tiers of shingle are said to have been counted, one above the other.

"There was a bit of romance attaching to him; he was in love with the orphan niece of an opulent ship-chandler, at Hong Kong, and that was why he was with us. His sweetheart, little Sing Ooh, was a great beauty, with eyes like button-holes, and golden lilies' no bigger than a three-year-old's fists; so her uncle had made up his mind that she must connect him with

The sole existing trace of former independence is a standing army, which belongs exclusively to the island, and can only be employed in its defence. Every Gotlander, from the age of eighteen to that of fifty or sixty, may be called upon to serve. The active services of the army are unlikely to be some middle-class mandarin or rich called upon. Yet of so much impor- banker, and when Wan Lee made his tance is the island, from its geograph-advances the old rascal simply de

manded a payment of five hundred Wan Lee says his relatives have raised

ounces of silver as a recompense for the expense he had been put to in bringing her up.

the money for his marriage, and begs me to let a "Melican officer" go with him to see it paid over to Lung Sien and by-the-by, Mr. Arnold, as I have promised to put him ashore at Cheefoo when we weigh anchor, I want you to keep an eye on him and see that he comes back to the ship after he is married. It may be all right, and he is a very civil fellow, but I shall have the officers' jewellery looked over. It's rather queer his coming into this money so suddenly.'

"Now, as far as Wan Lee was concerned, he might just as well have asked five thousand, and that the old rascal knew very well, and doubtless thought that when poor little Sing had taken time to dry her tears, and reflect how impossible it was she should ever become Mrs. Wan Lee, she would, like a sensible girl, take the man of her uncle's choice, rather than run the risk of becoming that most miserable of created beings, a Chinese old maid. And no doubt Lung Sien (Long Sin-life, so solemnly promising to keep my ner' the sailors called him; and they weren't far wrong) was correct in his calculations, for Chinese girls are very much like their American sisters.

'Well, Wan Lee had taken service on the Delaware as a last despairing hope. All the foreign devils were rich, and surely among them there must be some chance of making money. But the poor fellow found that, even on such a mine of wealth as the Delaware must have seemed, there were very close limits to the amount to be picked up by a pigtail.'

"Of course I wasn't sorry for the chance of seeing a little real Chinese

eyes glued on to Wan Lee, I went on shore with him in the gig.

"Wan, who was dressed in his best, took me to a little tea-house near the quay, where we found a couple of coolies waiting for us, for the expectant bridegroom had come on shore the night before and made his preparations. I expected to see some of his relatives waiting to meet us, but no one appeared save the proprietor, who received us most obsequiously, and led us into the back room, where Wan took out a key and opened the door of a little off-room "Had it been only a small sum he he had hired for a treasure chamber. needed he might have got help when In it was a long box, which he inthe men knew his story, but five hun- structed the coolies to take up and foldred ounces means five hundred dol-low us. Now, as you most likely all lars, more or less, and that was beyond know, there are no Chinese coins larger even Jack's openheartedness. than the cash,' about six of which go to a cent. So all large sums are paid by silver ingots, which are always carefully weighed at each transaction, and

"So poor Wan's gains were confined to what he could save out of his monthly five dollars, and that was roughly shaken every third month the balances adjusted by strings of (when we ran into Hong Kong) by the preserved violets, candied slugs, and similar dainties which he would smuggle in to Sing Ooh, for human nature is pretty much the same whether under a dude's silk hat or a coolie's skull-cap.

cash, so I could make a very fair guess at what the box contained. We hadn't far to carry it, for of course Long Sinner's place was near the river, and very shortly we were in the cool shade of the mat-hung piazza, and Wan was unpacking the box.

"The old merchant had evidently had notice of our coming, for his money scales were ready, and in the room behind the shop we could hear soft voices and the swish of calico. As might be expected, my companion had eyes for nowhere but the door into that apart

der such circumstances. Anyhow, she settled the question, for a jinrickshaw was fetched, and the poor little maid packed in it, and trotted off to the Consulate. Neither her uncle nor any of his family accompanied her, for he had evidently washed his hands of her. Her belongings were bundled out; one little bamboo box held all, and that was carried on the head of a coolie, who did not need to shirk his turn at the 'rickshaw in consequence.

ment, and the old man and his cashier the idea that had passed through my had the weighing pretty much to them- mind, that if Lung Sien was left with selves. I nudged Wan once, and asked the money in his hands a lucky day if he oughtn't to check the weights, but might be some time in coming, had also his only answer was, 'Lung Sien hon- presented itself to her, and she spoke orable merchant, if watchee him take as a young woman would be apt to unaway his face' (namely, make him blush, which I knew to be a grave breach of Chinese etiquette). I must own I stared a little at Wan's ill-timed politeness. I've been in love a few times myself, and I know how soft it makes a man, but it struck me if it could blind poor Wan to the character of the villainous old chandler opposite us, he must have it badly; but it was no affair of mine, I had done my duty by warning him. So when Lung Sien had weighed each bar very carefully, he brought over the receipt signed and countersigned by himself and his cashier, and also the balance, for the bars weighed a few ounces over the five hundred, which he handed to Wan Lee in long strings of cash, for I can tell you a dollar in Chinese currency makes quite a respectable show.

"When we got to the Consulate the poor girl was helped out, and up the steps, looking rather frightened and woebegone, as ladies, white or yellow, will do when they've got their own way, and are not quite sure what's coming of it; and any one who knows the amount of fuss and ceremony attending a Chinese marriage, even of the lowest class, can understand her feelings in such a position,

With no glad bells, no marriage feast,
No joyous home returning.

"But, pale and trembling as she was, there was no back-out in her, and, by the aid of the interpreter, the happy pair were made one in a very few minutes. Then my worry began, for I was afraid that Wan Lee would make some excuse for not going straight back to the ship, and if he did I should be at my wits' end to find out how to fulfil my promise to Captain Roberts.

"The next thing to settle was the marriage, and Lung Sien intimated that the honorable festivities' should take place as soon as the astrologers had picked out a lucky day; but this didn't suit the lover; he very soon informed the old gentleman that, being on the books of the Delaware, he was allee same Melican man,' and that he meant to be married at the American Consulate that very day, whatever might be the luck. The uncle remonstrated pretty vigorously, and threatened to return the silver and break off the match, rather than submit to such an indignity; but Wan was firm, and it ended in the "If Hong Kong had been under matter being left to Sing Ooh's deci-native rule it would have been easy sion, and that young lady was brought enough—just take him by the pigtail out from the back shop to give it. She and march him down to the boat, and let was not long in making up her mind; the captain and the American consul put her remarks to the old gentleman I was it right afterwards with the authorities. not scholar enough to understand, but "But under the despotic rule of her from the stamp of the small foot, and Britannic Majesty, where a man mustn't the expression of the little mouth, it wallop his own nigger, this would have seemed something decisive, and from been a risky proceeding, and I should the way her lover and the coolies have been stopped before I had got laughed I think it must have been three streets' length, by some puggaslightly sarcastic. In fact, I fancy that reed oppressor.

"However, my trouble did not last was his custom to take silver without at

long, for Wan himself was the first to propose an immediate return to the Delaware. So I escorted him and the 'rickshaw to the quay, and did not leave them till I saw both in the gig and the oars splashing up the water. Then I went off for my own private spree. Well, that has nothing to do with this tale, so I'll only say that next morning I was just thinking of getting up (I was staying with an old friend in the tea trade), and trying to make sure whether the thing on my shoulders was a head or a forge with the hammers going inside it, when there came a knock at the door, and one of our midshipmites was shown in. 'Captain Roberts wishes you to meet him at the police office at once, sir; Wan Lee has been arrested; the silver he paid for his wife wasn't silver at all, and you are wanted for a witness.' You may guess I tumbled out sharp and dressed at a sailor's rate, and was soon on my way, the boy giving me the particulars as we went along. After the first surprise was over I didn't so much wonder at Wan Lee's fraud as at his being so mad as to stay near the scene of his knavery, knowing how soon it must be discovered. When we got to the office the case had commenced before the police magistrate and a red-buttoned mandarin, who was sitting with him to act as assessor on knotty points of Chinese law. Wan Lee was in the dock, looking pallid, but not so cast down as I expected; but poor little Sing Ooh was weeping bitterly, in spite of a gruff word of sympathy given her by the good old captain from time to time. There were the usual court loungers, and a number of liberty men from the frigate mixed among them, freely expressing their sympathy for Sing Ooh, and their desire to give 'Long Sinner' a keelhauling. Lung Sien was giving his evidence as I came in, and it was terribly simple and plain. Wan Lee had paid him the silver, it was put straight into the strong room, and on being tested in the morning was found to be base metal.

"On the magistrate asking him if it

once testing it, he replied Certainly not,' but that the fact of an American officer, whom he knew to belong to the Delaware, coming with the prisoner had thrown him off his guard, as it seemed to corroborate the tale which Wan Lee had told him the night before, that the officers of the frigate had raised the money by subscription for him.

"I felt rather a buzzing in my head at this answer, which was not improved by Frank Morley, the wildest young scapegrace in the ship, whispering in my ear, 'Oh, Arnold! Arnold! only to think of the 'cute Jack Arnold being used as a tool by a Chinese coolie; what will they say at Harvard when I write home!' However, the magistrate seemed to think it was a very reasonable answer, and the plaintiff left the stand, to be followed by his cashier, whose evidence was only a copy of his master's. Then came my turn, and I of course corroborated them as far as the buying of the silver was concerned.

"Then a silversmith was called to prove the baseness of the metal, and that closed the case for the prosecution, and very black it looked against poor Wan Lee, as the magistrate turned to him for his defence. That poor little girl is in for two years' widowhood at least,' whispered Frank to me; they can't give him less for such an attempt.'

"But before the prisoner was sworn (following the very sensible custom of the middle kingdom,' where they don't shut out the evidence of the man who may be supposed to know most about the case) a question arose as to how the oath was to be administered. The other witnesses had taken it in the usual Shintoo way, by breaking a plate, and the mandarin was for swearing Wan in the same way; but the magistrate, looking to the marriage of the day before, thought the oath should be put in the usual Christian form. After some little discussion the prisoner's opinion was asked, but that astute young man, with an evident determination to offend neither of his judges,