the fen, where one Tatwin (who after became a saint likewise) took
him in his canoe to a spot so lonely as to be almost unknown, buried
in reeds and alders; and among the trees, nought but an old 'law,' as
the Scots still call a mound, which men of old had broken into
seeking for treasure, and a little pond; and how he built himself a
hermit's cell thereon, and saw visions and wrought miracles; and how
men came to him, as to a fakir or shaman of the East; notably one
Beccel, who acted as his servant; and how as Beccel was shaving the
saint one day, there fell on him a great temptation: Why should he
not cut St. Guthlac's throat, and install himself in his cell, that
he might have the honour and glory of sainthood? But St. Guthlac
perceived the inward temptation (which is told with the naive honesty
of those half-savage times), and rebuked the offender into
confession, and all went well to the end.

There we may read, too, a detailed account of a Fauna now happily
extinct in the fens: of the creatures who used to hale St. Guthlac
out of his hut, drag him through the bogs, carry him aloft through
frost and fire--'Develen and luther gostes'--such as tormented
likewise St. Botolph (from whom Botulfston=Boston, has its name), and
who were supposed to haunt the meres and fens, and to have an
especial fondness for old heathen barrows with their fancied treasure
hoards; how they 'filled the house with their coming, and poured in
on every side, from above, and from beneath, and everywhere. They
were in countenance horrible, and they had great heads, and a long
neck, and a lean visage; they were filthy and squalid in their
beards, and they had rough ears, and crooked nebs, and fierce eyes,
and foul mouths; and their teeth were like horses' tusks; and their
throats were filled with flame, and they were grating in their voice;
they had crooked shanks, and knees big and great behind, and twisted