Seite:Marsh Wolfe of the knoll.djvu/7

INTRODUCTION.

   The scene of the following poem is laid alternately on the
island of Amrum near the coast of the duchy of Schleswig-
Holstein, and in the city of Tunis and the territory of that Bey-
lik. In the descriptions of the island and of the manners of
its inhabitants, are embraced not only the characteristic features
of Amrum itself, but those belonging to the Halligs, or low tide-
washed islands of the same shallow waters, and they have been
drawn principally from J. G. Kohl's "Marschen und Inseln der
Herzogthümer Schleswig und Holstein," and from a tale by
Biernatzki.
   The singular geography of the Frisian country, and the strange
life of its people, seem to have made a powerful impression on
Tacitus and the elder Pliny. The latter gives, in Book xvi.,
chap. i. of his "Natural History," a lively description of the
scene of this part of our story, which, in the words of Kohl,
"is as faithful and striking, as if, like me, he had himself sailed
over from Wyk to Oland with Skipper Jilke Junk Jürgens."
For Holland's translation of the passage the reader is referred to
the Appendix I.
   Tacitus, speaking of Germany generally, argues that the