part of the ceremony consisted in setting apart a space enclosed
within birch boughs, on entering which the blindfolded and scantily
attired youth who was to be initiated into the order of journeymen was
thoroughly trounced by "angels of paradise" in the form of lusty
companions who were usually unsparing of the rod. A festive procession
through the streets followed. It was led by two fantastically attired
youngsters who impersonated a Norwegian peasant and his wife, and
whose duty it was to play tricks upon the sightseers and to amuse
them. After a baptism in the sea the unfortunate youth who figured as
the hero of this festival was subjected to a procedure akin to that of
roasting a herring in the flue; and it is singular enough that the
records show only one case of death by suffocation consequent upon
this ordeal. Good days, however, now followed upon evil ones, and the
youthful novitiate was fêted and entertained by his companions and
made to forget the sufferings and hardships of his initiation. Many
other pastimes were indulged in by the members of the bureaus, which,
however, cannot be touched upon here. Suffice it to say that they were
characterized by the humor and roughness of the age. Despite repeated
attempts of the Hansa and of the several cities to put an end to these
sports, they nevertheless continued to be practised for centuries,
upon the rather plausible plea that they served as a wholesome
training for the mercantile youth. Never before or since, however, has
the pedagogy of the rod found so thoroughgoing an application as here.

One of the busiest centres of Hanseatic activity remains to be touched
upon: namely, the small tongue of land near Skanor and Falsterbo, and
constituting an appendage of the larger peninsula of Skane or Schonen.
The once prosperous stretch of beach here referred to is now a desert
tract of sand, the furrows and ruins on which are the only relics of
the busy commercial life once prevailing. After the herring had during