the Falm or road skirting the edge of the precipice from the head
of the stairs to Government House, one of the loveliest views in all the
world lies before our eyes. Immediately beneath are the winding stairs,
with their constant stream of broad-shouldered seamen, or coquettish
girls, or brown boys, passing up and down, while at each resting-place
some group is sitting on the green-red-white seats gossiping over the
day's business. Trees and plants nestle in the stair corners, and almost
conceal the roadway at the foot.

Lifting one's eyes away from the little town, the white pier sprawls on
the, sea, and countless boats at anchor spot with darkness the shining
water. Farther away, the Duene lies like a bar of silver across the view,
ribbed with emerald where the waves roll in over white sand; and all
around it, as far as the eye can reach, white sails gleam in the light,
until repose is found on the horizon where sea and sky meet in a vapory
haze. At night the Falm is a favorite resort of the men whose houses are
on the Oberland. With arms resting on the broad wall, they look down on
the twinkling lights of the houses far beneath, listen to the laughter
or song which float up from the small tables outside the cafe, or watch
the specks of light on the dark gleam of the North Sea. It is a prospect
of which one could hardly tire, if it was not that in summer one has in
Heligoland a surfeit of sea loveliness....

Heligoland is conjecturally identified with the ocean island described
by Tacitus as the place of the sacred rites of the Angli and other
tribes of the mainland. It was almost certainly sacred to Forsete, the
son of Balder the Sun-god--if he be identified, as Grimm and all Frisian
writers identify him, with Fosite the Frisian god. Forsete, a
personification to men of the great white god, who dwelt in a shining
hall of gold and silver, was among all gods and men the wisest of
judges.

It is generally supposed that Heligoland was first named the Holy Island
from its association with the worship of Forsete, and latterly in
consequence of the conversion of the Frisian inhabitants. Hallier has,
however, pointed out that the Heligolanders do not use this name for
their home. They call the island "det Lunn"--the land; their language
they call "Hollunner," and he suggests that the original name was
Hallig-lunn. A hallig is a sand-island occasionally covered with water.
When the Duene was connected with the rock there w