arly death.
It is a tradition of the cathedral at Aarhus, that such a horse is
occasionally seen there. A man whose window looked out to the
cathedral exclaimed one day to a neighbour, 'What horse is that?'
There is none,' said his neighbour. 'Then it must be the Helhest,'
said the other, who shortly after died. It is said that in the
cathedral at Roeskilde, there is a narrow stone on which, in old
times, people used to spit, because a Helhest was buried there. The
word 'hel' is from 'hael,' a heel, because the horse lacked one hoof or
heel. The legend appears to have existed in the Roman times, as they
called it Unipes, or the one-footed."

"The pronunciation of 'hel' in Danish is as if it were spelt in
English as 'hael'" said Hardy. "I certainly never heard that legend
before."

"There are other legends of animals," said Pastor Lindal. "There is
the Kirkelam, or the church lamb. This arose from the practice, when a
church was founded, to bury under the altar a living lamb, to prevent,
it was said, the church from sinking. This lamb's ghost was called the
Kirkelam, and, if at any time a child was about to die, the church
lamb was supposed to appear at the threshold of the door. In
Carlslunde church tower there is a bas-relief of a lamb, to show that
a living lamb was buried there when the church was built. It is
related that a woman was sent for to nurse another woman who was very
ill; as she went through the churchyard, she was aware of something
like a dog or a cat rubbing itself against her clothes. She stooped
down to look at it, in the half light of the evening, when, lo! it was
the church lamb. The sick woman died at the very same instant, so runs
the legend."

"The legend of the Kirkelam," said Hardy, "is distinctive, insomuch as
it appears symbolical, and not based, as most legends are, on the
fancies and wild imaginations of the people."

"In the olden times of Christianity," said Pastor Lindal, "it was
found necessary to employ symbols, and to take measures to occupy the
attention of an ignorant people, and it is possible that thus the
practice arose to be followed by the legend."

"It was a heathen practice to bury living creatures," continued the
Pastor, "to avert the plague, when sometimes they buried children, or
for other fantastic reasons. Thus, there is the legend of the Gravso,
meaning the buried sow. The reason for its having been buried alive is
lost. The sow is supposed to appear in the stre