No More Learning

Next occur the communities
of the Suiones, situated in the ocean itself; and besides their strength
in men and arms, very powerful at sea. The form of their vessels varies
thus far from ours, that they have prows at each end, so as to be always
ready to row to shore without turning nor are they moved by sails, nor
on their sides have benches of oars placed, but the rowers ply here and
there in all parts of the ship alike, as in some rivers is done, and
change their oars from place to place, just as they shift their course
hither or thither. To wealth also, amongst them, great veneration is
paid, and thence a single ruler governs them, without all restriction of
power, and exacting unlimited obedience. Neither here, as amongst other
nations of Germany, are arms used indifferently by all, but shut up and
warded under the care of a particular keeper, who in truth too is always
a slave: since from all sudden invasions and attacks from their foes,
the ocean protects them: besides that armed bands, when they are not
employed, grow easily debauched and tumultuous. The truth is, it suits
not the interest of an arbitrary 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 upon the opposite shore. If you try the nature of amber by
the application of fire, it kindles like a torch; and feeds a thick and
unctuous flame very high scented, and presently becomes glutinous like
pitch or rosin.

Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and, agreeing with them in
all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is
exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from
a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage. Here end the
territories of the Suevians.

Whether amongst the Sarmatians or the Germans I ought to account the
Peucinians, the Venedians, and the Fennians, is what I cannot determine;
though the Peucinians, whom some call Basstarnians, speak the same
language with the Germans, use the same attire, build like them, and
live like them, in that dirtiness and sloth so common to all.
Somewhat they are corrupted into the fashion of the Sarmatians by the
inter-marriages of the principal sort with that nation: from whence
the Venedians have derived very many of their customs and a great
resemblance. For they are continually traversing and infesting with
robberies all the forests and mountains lying between the Peucinians
and Fennians. Yet they are rather reckoned amongst the Germans, for
that they have fixed houses, and carry shields, and prefer travelling
on foot, and excel in swiftness. Usages these, all widely differing from
those of the Sarmatians, who live on horseback and dwell in waggons.
In wonderful savageness live the nation of the Fennians, and in beastly
poverty, destitute of arms, of horses, and of homes; their food, the
common herbs; their apparel, skins; their bed, the earth; their only
hope in their arrows, which for want of iron they point with bones.