trary Prince, to trust the care and power of
arms either with a nobleman or with a freeman, or indeed with any man
above the condition of a slave.

Beyond the Suiones is another sea, one very heavy and almost void
of agitation; and by it the whole globe is thought to be bounded and
environed, for that the reflection of the sun, after his setting,
continues till his rising, so bright as to darken the stars. To this,
popular opinion has added, that the tumult also of his emerging from
the sea is heard, that forms divine are then seen, as likewise the rays
about his head. Only thus far extend the limits of nature, if what fame
says be true. Upon the right of the Suevian Sea the AEstyan nations
reside, who use the same customs and attire with the Suevians; their
language more resembles that of Britain. They worship the Mother of the
Gods. As the characteristic of their national superstition, they wear
the images of wild boars. This alone serves them for arms, this is the
safeguard of all, and by this every worshipper of the goddess is secured
even amidst his foes. Rare amongst them is the use of weapons of iron,
but frequent that of clubs. In producing of grain and the other fruits
of the earth, they labour with more assiduity and patience than is
suitable to the usual laziness of Germans. Nay, they even search the
deep, and of all the rest are the only people who gather _amber_. They
call it _glasing_, and find it amongst the shallows and upon the very
shore. But, according to the ordinary incuriosity and ignorance of
Barbarians, they have neither learnt, nor do they inquire, what is
its nature, or from what cause it is produced. In truth it lay long
neglected amongst the other gross discharges of the sea; till from our
luxury, it gained a name and value. To themselves it is of no use: they
gather it rough, they expose it in pieces coarse and unpolished, and for
it receive a price with wonder. You would however conceive it to be a
liquor issuing from trees, for that in the transparent substance are
often seen birds and other animals, such as at first stuck in the soft
gum, and by it, as it hardened, became quite enclosed. I am apt to
believe that, as in the recesses of the East are found woods and groves
dropping frankincense and balms, so in the isles and continent of the
West such gums are extracted by the force and proximity of the sun; at
first liquid and flowing into the next sea, then thrown by the winds
and waves up