morning, and then commenced a scene of ghost-seeing unheard of in the
annals of superstition. The first victim was Thorer, who had presaged
the calamity. Going out of doors one evening, he was grappled by the
spectre of the deceased shepherd as he attempted to re-enter the house.
His wooden leg stood him in poor stead in such an encounter; he was
hurled to the earth, and so fearfully beaten, that he died in
consequence of the bruises. Thorer was no sooner dead than his ghost
associated itself to that of the herdsman, and joined him in pursuing
and assaulting the inhabitants of Froda. Meantime an infectious disorder
spread fast among them, and several of the bondsmen died one after the
other. Strange portents were seen within-doors, the meal was displaced
and mingled, and the dried fish flung about in a most alarming manner,
without any visible agent. At length, while the servants were forming
their evening circle round the fire, a spectre, resembling the head of a
seal-fish, was seen to emerge out of the pavement of the room, bending
its round black eyes full on the tapestried bed-curtains of Thorgunna.
Some of the domestics ventured to strike at this figure, but, far from
giving way, it rather erected itself further from the floor, until
Kiartan, who seemed to have a natural predominance over these
supernatural prodigies, seizing a huge forge-hammer, struck the seal
repeatedly on the head, and compelled it to disappear, forcing it down
into the floor, as if he had driven a stake into the earth. This prodigy
was found to intimate a new calamity. Thorodd, the master of the family,
had some time before set forth on a voyage to bring home a cargo of
dried fish; but in crossing the river Enna the skiff was lost and he
perished with the servants who attended him. A solemn funeral feast was
held at Froda, in memory of the deceased, when, to the astonishment of
the guests, the apparition of Thorodd and his followers seemed to enter
the apartment dripping with water. Yet this vision excited less horror
than might have been expected, for the Icelanders, though nominally