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diff --git a/old/52195-0.txt b/old/52195-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5c61b01..0000000 --- a/old/52195-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7278 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oxonian in Thelemarken, volume 1 (of 2), by -Frederick Metcalfe - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Oxonian in Thelemarken, volume 1 (of 2) - or, Notes of travel in south-western Norway in the summers - of 1856 and 1857. With glances at the legendary lore of - that district. - -Author: Frederick Metcalfe - -Release Date: May 30, 2016 [EBook #52195] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN *** - - - - -Produced by Charlene Taylor, Bryan Ness and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - -[Illustration: “He picked his way, with much circumspection, between -the prostrate forms of the tiny people.” - -_T. G. J._ VOL. I., p. 233.] - - - - - THE OXONIAN - IN - THELEMARKEN; - - OR, - - NOTES OF TRAVEL IN SOUTH-WESTERN NORWAY - IN THE SUMMERS OF 1856 AND 1857. - - WITH GLANCES AT THE LEGENDARY LORE - OF THAT DISTRICT. - - BY - THE REV. FREDERICK METCALFE, M.A., - FELLOW OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD, - AUTHOR OF - “THE OXONIAN IN NORWAY.” - - “Auf den Bergen ist Freiheit; der Hauch der Grüfte, - Steigt nicht hinauf in die schönen Lüfte, - Die Welt is volkommen überall, - Wo der Mensch nicht hinein kömmt mit seiner Qual.” - - “Tu nidum servas: ego laudo ruris amœni - Rivos, et musco circumlita saxa, nemusque.” - - IN TWO VOLUMES. - VOL. I. - - LONDON: - HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, - SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, - 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. - 1858. - - [_The right of Translation is reserved._] - - LONDON: - SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, - COVENT GARDEN - - - - -PREFACE. - - -In the neighbourhood of Bayeux, in Normandy, it is said that there -still lingers a superstition which most probably came there originally -in the same ship as Rollo the Walker. The country folks believe in -the existence of a sprite (goubelin) who plagues mankind in various -ways. His most favourite method of annoyance is to stand like a horse -saddled and bridled by the roadside, inviting the passers-by to mount -him. But woe to the unlucky wight who yields to the temptation, for -off he sets--“Halloo! halloo! and hark away!” galloping fearfully -over stock and stone, and not unfrequently ends by leaving his rider -in a bog or horse-pond, at the same time vanishing with a loud peal -of mocking laughter. “A heathenish and gross superstition!” exclaims -friend Broadbrim. But what if we try to extract a jewel out of this -ugly monster; knock some commonsense out of his head. Goethe turned the -old fancy of _Der getreue Eckart_ to good account in that way. What -if a moral of various application underlies this grotesque legend. -Suppose, for the nonce, that the rider typify the writer of a book. -Unable to resist a strong temptation to bestride the Pegasus of his -imagination--whether prose or verse--he ventures to mount and go forth -into the world, and not seldom he gets a fall for his pains amid a loud -chorus of scoffs and jeers. Indeed, this is so common a catastrophe, -from the days of Bellerophon downwards (everybody knows that he was the -author of the _Letters_[1] that go by his name), so prone is inkshed to -lead to disaster, that the ancient wish, “Oh that mine adversary had -written a book,” in its usual acceptation (which entirely rests, be it -said, on a faulty interpretation of the original language), was really -exceedingly natural, as the fulfilment of it was as likely as not to -lead to the fullest gratification of human malice. - -In defiance, however, of the dangers that threatened him, the writer -of these lines did once gratify his whim, and mount the goblin steed, -and as good luck would have it, without being spilled or dragged -through a horse-pond, or any mischance whatsoever. In other words, -instead of cold water being thrown upon his endeavours, _The Oxonian in -Norway_ met with so indulgent a handling from that amiable abstraction, -the “Benevolus Lector,” that it soon reached a second edition. - -So far the author’s lucky star was in the ascendant. But behold his -infatuation, he must again mount and tempt his fate, “Ay! and on the -same steed, too,” cries Mr. Bowbells, to whom the swarming sound of -life with an occasional whiff of the sewers is meat, and drink, and all -things; who is bored to death if he sees more of the quiet country than -Brighton or Ramsgate presents, and is about as locomotive in his tastes -as a London sparrow. - -“Norway again, forsooth--_nous revenons à nos moutons_--that horrid -bleak country, where the cold in winter is so intense that when you -sneeze, the shower from your olfactories rattles against the earth like -dust-shot, and in summer you can’t sleep for the brazen-faced sun -staring at you all the twenty-four hours. What rant that is about - - The dark tall pines that plume the craggy ledge, - High over the blue gorge, - -and all that sort of thing. Give me Kensington Gardens and Rotten Row!” - -Still--in spite of Bowbells--we shall venture on the expedition, and -probably with less chance of a fiasco than if we travelled by the -express-train through the beaten paths of central Europe. There, all -is a dead level. Civilization has smoothed the gradients actually -and metaphorically--alike in the Brunellesque and social sense. -As people progress in civilization, the more prominent marks of -national character are planed off. Individuality is lost. The members -of civilized society are as like one another as the counters on a -draft-board. “They rub each other’s angles down,” and thus lose “the -picturesque of man and man.” The same type keeps repeating itself with -sickening monotony, like the patterns of paper-hangings, instead of -those delightfully varied arabesques with which the free hand of the -painter used to diversify the walls of the antique dwelling. - -But it is not so with the population of a primitive country like -Norway. Much of the simplicity that characterized our forefathers -is still existing there. We are Aladdined to the England of three -centuries ago. Do you mean to say that you, a sensible man or woman, -prefer putting on company manners at every turn, being everlastingly -swaddled in the artificial restraints of society; being always among -grand people, or genteel people, or superior people, or people -of awful respectability? Do you prefer an aviary full of highly -educated song-birds mewed up so closely that they “show off” one -against another, filled with petty rivalries and jealousies, to the -gay, untutored melody of the woods poured forth for a bird’s own -gratification or that of its mate? Do you like to spend your time -for ever in trim gardens, among standards and espaliers, and spruce -flower-beds, so weeded, and raked, and drilled, and shaped, that you -feel positively afraid of looking and walking about for fear of making -a _faux pas_? Oh no! you would like to see a bit of wild rose or native -heather. (Interpret this as you list of the flowers of the field, or -a fairer flower still.) You prefer climbing a real lichened rock _in -situ_, that has not been placed there by Capability Brown or Sir Joseph -Paxton. - -Indeed, the avidity with which books of travel in primitive -countries--whether in the tropics or under the pole--are now read, -shows that the more refined a community is, the greater interest it -will take in the occupation, the sentiments, the manners of people -still in a primitive state of existence. Our very over-civilization -begets in us a taste to beguile oneself of its tedium, its frivolities, -its unreality, by mixing in thought, at least, with those who are -nearer the state in which nature first made man. - -“The manners of a rude people are always founded on fact,” said Sir -Walter Scott, “and therefore the feelings of a polished generation -immediately sympathize with them.” It is this kind of feeling that -has a good deal to do with urging men, who have been educated in all -the habits and comforts of improved society, to leave the groove, and -carve out for themselves a rough path through dangers and privations in -wilder countries. - -“You will have none of this sort of thing,” said Dr. Livingstone, in -the Sheldonian theatre, while addressing Young Oxford on the fine -field for manly, and useful, and Christian enterprise that Africa -opens out,--“You will have none of this sort of thing there,” while he -uneasily shook the heavy sleeve of his scarlet D.C.L. gown, which he -had donned in deference to those who had conferred on him this mark of -honour. Yes, less comforts, perhaps, but at the same time less red tape. - -“Brown exercise” is better than the stewy, stuffy adipocere state of -frame in which the man of “indoors mind” ultimately eventuates. Living -on frugal fare, in the sharp, brisk air of the mountain, the lungs -of mind and body expand healthfully, and the fire of humanity burns -brighter, like the fire in the grate when fanned by a draught of fresh -oxygen. Most countries, when we visit them for the first time, turn -out “the dwarfs of presage.” Not so Norway. It grows upon you every -time you see it. You need not fear, gentle reader, of being taken -over beaten ground. “The Oxonian” has never visited Thelemarken and -Sætersdal before. So come along with me, in the absence of a better -guide, if you wish to cultivate a nearer acquaintance with the roughly -forged, “hardware” sort of people of this district, content to forget -for a while the eternal willow-pattern crockery of home. Thelemarken is -the most primitive part of Norway; it is the real _Ultima Thule_ of the -ancients; the very name indicates this, and the Norwegian antiquaries -quote our own King Alfred in support of this idea. It is true, that on -nearer inspection, its physical geography will not be found to partake -of the marvellous peculiarities assigned to Thule by the ancient Greek -navigator, Pytheas, who asserts that it possessed neither earth, air, -or sea, but a chaotic mixture of all three elements. But that may -emphatically be said to be neither here nor there. Inaccessible the -country certainly is, and it is this very inaccessibility which has -kept out the schoolmaster; so that old times are not yet changed, nor -old manners gone, nor the old language unlearned under the auspices -of that orthoepic functionary. The fantastic pillars and arches of -fairy folk-lore may still be descried in the deep secluded glens of -Thelemarken, undefaced with stucco, not propped by unsightly modern -buttress. The harp of popular minstrelsy--though it hangs mouldering -and mildewed with infrequency of use, its strings unbraced for want of -cunning hands that can tune and strike them as the Scalds of Eld--may -still now and then be heard sending forth its simple music. Sometimes -this assumes the shape of a soothing lullaby to the sleeping babe, or -an artless ballad of love-lorn swains, or an arch satire on rustic -doings and foibles. Sometimes it swells into a symphony descriptive -of the descent of Odin; or, in somewhat of less Pindaric, and more -Dibdin strain, it recounts the deeds of the rollicking, death-despising -Vikings; while, anon, its numbers rise and fall with mysterious cadence -as it strives to give a local habitation and a name to the dimly seen -forms and antic pranks of the hollow-backed Huldra crew. - -The author thinks that no apology is needed for working in some of the -legendary interludes which the natives repeated to him, so curious and -interesting, most of which he believes never appeared before in an -English dress, and several of them in no print whatever. Legends are -an article much in request just now; neither can they be considered -trifling when viewed in the light thrown upon the origin of this -branch of popular belief and pastime by the foremost men of their time, -_e.g._, Scott, and more especially Jacob Grimm. Frivolous, indeed! not -half so frivolous as the hollow-hearted, false-fronted absurdities -of the “great and small vulgar,” is the hollow-backed elf, with the -grand mythological background reaching into the twilight of the -earth’s history, nor so trifling the simple outspoken peasant, grave, -yet cheery, who speaks as he thinks, and actually sometimes laughs a -good guffaw, as the stuck-up ladies and gentlemen of a section of the -artificial world, with their heartless glitter, crocodile tears, their -solemn pretence, their sham raptures. - -I must not omit to say that the admirable troll-drawing, which forms -the frontispiece of the first volume, is one selected from a set of -similar sketches by my friend, T. G. Jackson, Esq., of Wadham College, -Oxford. It evinces such an intimate acquaintance with the looks of -those small gentry that it is lucky for him that he did not live in the -days when warlocks were done to death. - - F. M. - - LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD, - _May, 1858_. - - - - -CONTENTS TO VOL. I. - - - CHAPTER I. - - The glamour of Norwegian scenery--A gentle angler in a - passion--The stirring of the blood--A bachelor’s wild scream - of liberty--What marriage brings a salmon-fisher to--Away, - for the land of the mountain and the flood--“Little” circle - sailing--The Arctic shark--Advantages of gold lace--A lesson - for laughers--Norwegian coast scenery--Nature’s grey friars--In - the steps of the Vikings--The Norwegian character--How the - Elves left Jutland--Christiansand harbour pp. 1-15 - - CHAPTER II. - - Disappointed fishermen--A formidable diver--Arendal, the - Norwegian Venice--A vocabulary at fault--Ship-building--The - Norwegian Seaboard--Sandefjord, the Norwegian Brighton--A - complicated costume--Flora’s own bonnet--Bruin at large--Skien - and its saw-mills--Norway cutting its sticks--Wooden - walls--Christopher Hansen Blum--The Norwegian phase of - religious dissent--A confession of faith--The Norsk Church the - offspring of that of Great Britain pp. 16-28 - - CHAPTER III. - - A poet in full uniform--The young lady in gauntlet gloves - again--Church in a cave--Muscular Christianity in the - sixteenth century--A miracle of light and melody--A romance - of bigotry--How Lutheranism came in like a lion--The Last - of the Barons--Author makes him bite the dust--Brief - burial-service in use in South-western Norway--The - Sörenskriver--Norwegian substitute for Doctors’ Commons--Grave - ale--A priestly Samson--Olaf’s ship--A silent woman--Norwegian - dialects--Artificial salmon-breeding--A piscatorial prevision pp. 29-47 - - CHAPTER IV. - - Mine host at Dal--Bernadotte’s prudent benignity--Taxing the - bill of costs--Hurrah for the mountains--Whetstones--Antique - wooden church--A wild country--“Raven depth”--How the - English like to do fine scenery--Ancient wood-carving--A - Norwegian peasant’s witticism--A rural rectory--Share and - chair alike--Ivory knife-handles--Historical pictures--An - old Runic Calendar--The heathen leaven still exists in - Norway--Washing-day--Old names of the Norsk months--Peasant - songs--Rustic reserve--A Norsk ballad pp. 48-68 - - CHAPTER V. - - A lone farm-house--A scandal against the God Thor--The - headquarters of Scandinavian fairy-lore--The legend of Dyrë - Vo--A deep pool--A hint for alternate ploughboys--Wild - goose geometry--A memorial of the good old times--Dutch - falconers--Rough game afoot--Author hits two birds with one - stone--Crosses the lake Totak--A Slough of Despond--An honest - guide--A Norwegian militiaman--Rough lodgings--A night with the - swallows--A trick of authorship--Yea or Nay pp. 69-81 - - CHAPTER VI. - - No cream--The valley of the Maan--The Riukan foss--German - students--A bridge of dread--The course of true love never - did run smooth--Fine misty weather for trout--Salted - provisions--Midsummer-night revels--The Tindsö--The priest’s - hole--Treacherous ice--A case for Professor Holloway--The - realms of cloud-land--Superannuated--An ornithological - guess--Field-fares out of reach of “Tom Brown”--The best - kind of physic--Undemonstrative affection--Everywhere the - same--Clever little horses pp. 82-96 - - CHAPTER VII. - - An oasis--Unkempt waiters--Improving an opportunity--The church - in the wilderness--Household words--A sudden squall--The - pools of the Quenna--Airy lodgings--Weather-bound--A - Norwegian grandpapa--Unwashed agriculturists--An uncanny - companion--A fiery ordeal--The idiot’s idiosyncrasy--The - punctilious parson--A pleasant query--The mystery of making - flad-brod--National cakes--The exclusively English phase of - existence--Author makes a vain attempt to be “hyggelig”--Rather - queer pp. 97-113 - - CHAPTER VIII. - - Northwards--Social colts--The horse shepherd--The tired - traveller’s sweet restorer, tea--Troll-work--Snow - Macadam--Otter hunting in Norway--Normaends Laagen--A vision - of reindeer--The fisherman’s hut--My lodging is on the cold - ground--Making a night of it--National songs--Shaking down--A - slight touch of nightmare pp. 114-128 - - CHAPTER IX. - - The way to cure a cold--Author shoots some dotterel--Pit-fall - for reindeer--How mountains look in mountain air--A - natural terrace--The meeting of the waters--A phantom - of delight--Proves to be a clever dairymaid--A singular - cavalcade--Terrific descent into Tjelmö-dal--A volley of - questions--Crossing a cataract--A tale of a tub--Author reaches - Garatun--Futile attempt to drive a bargain pp. 129-141 - - CHAPTER X. - - The young Prince of Orange--A crazy bridge--At the foot of - the mighty Vöring Foss--A horse coming downstairs--Mountain - greetings--The smoke-barometer--The Vöring waterfall--National - characteristics--Paddy’s estimate of the Giant’s - Causeway--Meteoric water--New illustrations of old - slanders--How the Prince of Orange did homage to the glories - of nature--Author crosses the lake Eidsfjord--Falls in - with an English yacht and Oxonians--An innkeeper’s story - about the Prince of Orange--Salmonia--General aspect of - a Norwegian Fjord--Author arrives at Utne--Finds himself - in pleasant quarters--No charge for wax-lights--Christian - names in Thelemarken--Female attire--A query for Sir Bulwer - Lytton--Physiognomy of the Thelemarken peasants--Roving - Englishmen--Christiania newspapers--The Crown - Prince--Historical associations of Utne--The obsequies of Sea - Kings--Norwegian gipsies pp. 142-160 - - CHAPTER XI. - - From Fairy-lore to Nature-lore--Charming idea for stout - folk--Action and reaction--Election-day at Bergen--A laxstie--A - careless pilot--Discourse about opera-glasses--Paulsen Vellavik - and the bears--The natural character of bears--Poor Bruin - in a dilemma--An intelligent Polar bear--Family plate--What - is fame?--A simple Simon--Limestone fantasia--The paradise - of botanists--Strength and beauty knit together--Mountain - hay-making--A garden in the wilderness--Footprints - of a celebrated botanist--Crevasses--Dutiful snow - streams--Swerre’s sok--The Rachels of Eternity--A Cockney’s - dream of desolation--Curds-and-whey--The setting-in of - misfortunes--Author’s powder-flask has a cold bath--The shadows - of the mountains--The blind leading the blind--On into the - night--The old familiar music--Holloa--Welcome intelligence pp. 161-187 - - CHAPTER XII. - - The lonely châlet--The Spirit of the - hills--Bauta-stones--Battlefields older than - history--Sand-falls--Thorsten Fretum’s hospitality--Norwegian - roads--The good wife--Author executes strict - justice--Urland--Crown Prince buys a red nightcap--A melancholy - spectacle--The trick of royalty--Author receives a visit - from the Lehnsman--Skiff voyage to Leirdalsören--Limestone - cliffs--Becalmed--A peasant lord of the forest--Inexplicable - natural phenomena--National education--A real postboy--A - disciple for Braham--The Hemsedal’s fjeld--The land - of desolation--A passing belle--The change-house of - Bjöberg--“With twenty ballads stuck upon the wall”--A story - about hill folk--Sivardson’s joke--Little trolls--The way to - cast out wicked fairies--The people in the valley--Pastor - Engelstrup--Economy of a Norwegian change-house--The Halling - dance--Tame reindeer--A region of horrors pp. 188-214 - - CHAPTER XIII. - - Fairy-lore--A wrestle for a drinking-horn--Merry time is - Yule time--Head-dresses at Haga--Old church at Naes--Good - trout-fishing country--A wealthy milkmaid--Horses subject - to influenza--A change-house library--An historical - calculation--The great national festival--Author threatens, - but relents--A field-day among the ducks--Gulsvig--Family - plate--A nurse of ninety years--The Sölje--The little fat - grey man--A capital scene for a picture--An amazing story--As - true as I sit here--The goat mother--Are there no Tusser - now-a-days?--Uninvited guests--An amicable conversation about - things in general--Hans saves his shirt--The cosmopolitan - spirit of fairy-lore--Adam of Bremen pp. 215-241 - - CHAPTER XIV. - - A port-wine pilgrimage--The perfection of a landlady--Old - superstitious customs--Levelling effects of unlevelled roads--A - blank day--Sketch of an interior after Ostade--A would-be - resurrectionist foiled--The voices of the woods--Valuable - timber--A stingy old fellow--Unmistakeable symptoms of - civilization--Topographical memoranda--Timber-logs on - their travels--The advantages of a short cut--A rock-gorge - swallows a river--Ferry talk--Welcome--What four years can - do for the stay-at-homes--A Thelemarken manse--Spæwives--An - important day for the millers--How a tailor kept watch--The - mischievous cats--Similarity in proverbs--“The postman’s - knock”--Government patronage of humble talent--Superannuated - clergymen in Norway--Perpetual curates--Christiania - University examination--Norwegian students--The Bernadotte - dynasty--Scandinavian unity--Religious parties--Papal - propagandists at Tromsö--From fanaticism to field-sports--The - Linnæa Borealis pp. 242-276 - - CHAPTER XV. - - Papa’s birthday--A Fellow’s sigh--To Kongsberg--A word for - waterproofs--Dram Elv--A relic of the shooting season--How - precipitous roads are formed in Norway--The author does - something eccentric--The river Lauven--Pathetic cruelty--The - silver mine at Kongsberg--A short life and not a merry - one--The silver mine on fire--A leaf out of Hannibal’s book--A - vein of pure silver--Commercial history of the Kongsberg - silver mines--Kongsberg--The silver refining works--Silver - showers--That horrid English pp. 277-296 - - CHAPTER XVI. - - A grumble about roads--Mr. Dahl’s caravansary--“You’ve waked - me too early”--St. Halvard--Professor Munck--Book-keeping - by copper kettles--Norwegian society--Fresh milk--Talk - about the great ship--Horten the chief naval station of - Norway--The Russian Admiral--Conchology--Tönsberg the - most ancient town in Norway--Historical reminiscences--A - search for local literature--An old Norsk Patriot--Nobility - at a discount--Passport passages--Salmonia--A tale for - talkers--Agreeable meeting--The Roman Catholics in Finmark--A - deep design--Ship wrecked against a lighthouse--The courtier - check-mated pp. 297-317 - - - - -THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - The glamour of Norwegian scenery--A gentle angler in a - passion--The stirring of the blood--A bachelor’s wild scream - of liberty--What marriage brings a salmon-fisher to--Away, - for the land of the mountain and the flood--“Little” circle - sailing--The Arctic shark--Advantages of gold lace--A lesson - for laughers--Norwegian coast scenery--Nature’s grey friars--In - the steps of the Vikings--The Norwegian character--How the - Elves left Jutland--Christiansand harbour. - - -A strange attraction has Norway for one who has once become acquainted -with it: with its weird rocks and mountains--its dark cavernous -fjords--its transparent skies--its quaint gulf-stream warming -apparatus--its “Borealis race”--its fabulous Maelstrom--its “Leviathan -slumbering on the Norway foam”--its sagas, so graphically portraying -the manners and thoughts of an ancient race--its sturdy population, -descendants of that northern hive which poured from the frozen loins -of the north, and, as Montesquieu says, “left their native climes -to destroy tyrants and slaves, and were, a thousand years ago, the -upholders of European liberty.” - -“Very attractive, no doubt,” interrupts Piscator. “In short, the -country beats that loadstone island in the East hollow, which extracted -the bolts out of the ships’ bottoms; drawing the tin out of one’s -pockets, and oneself thither every summer without the possibility of -resistance. But a truce to your dithyrambs on scenery, and sagas, and -liberty. Talk about the salmon-fishing. I suppose you’re coming to -that last--the best at the end, like the postscript of a young lady’s -letter.” - -Well, then, the salmon-fishing. A man who has once enjoyed the thrill -of _that_ won’t so easily forget it. Here, for instance, is the month -of June approaching. Observe the antics of that “old Norwegian,” the -Rev. Christian Muscular, who has taken a College living, and become a -sober family man. See how he snorts and tosses up his head, like an -old hunter in a paddock as the chase sweeps by. He keeps writing to -his friends, inquiring what salmon rivers are to be let, and what time -they start, and all that sort of thing, although he knows perfectly -well he can’t possibly go; not even if he might have the priest’s water -on the Namsen. But no wonder Mr. Muscular is growing uneasy. The air -of Tadpole-in-the-Marsh becomes unhealthy at that season, and he feels -quite suffocated in the house, and prostrated by repose; and as he -reads Schiller’s fresh ‘Berglied,’ he sighs for the mountain air and -the music of the gurgling river. - -But there are mamma and the pledges; so he must resign all hope of -visiting his old haunts. Instead of going there himself, in body, he -must do it in spirit--by reading, for instance, these pages about the -country, pretty much in the same way as the Irish peasant children, -who couldn’t get a taste of the bacon, pointed their potatoes at it, -and had a taste in imagination. Behold, then, Mr. Muscular, with all -the family party, and the band-boxes and bonnet-boxes, and umbrellas -and parasols numbered up to twenty; and last, not least, the dog “Ole” -(he delights to call the live things about him by Norsk names), bound -for the little watering-place of Lobster-cum-Crab. Behold him at the -“Great Babel junction,” not far from his destination, trying to collect -his scattered thoughts--which are far away--and to do the same by his -luggage, two articles of which--Harold’s rocking-horse and Sigfrid’s -pap-bottle--are lost already. Shall I tell you what Mr. Muscular is -thinking of? Of “the Long,” when he shut up shop without a single care; -feeling satisfied that his rooms and properties would be in the same -place when he came back, without being entrusted to servants who gave -“swarries” above-stairs during his absence. - -Leaving him, then, to dredge for the marine monstrosities which abound -at Lobster-cum-Crab, or to catch congers and sea-perch at the sunken -wreck in the Bay--we shall start with our one wooden box, and various -other useful articles, for the land of the mountain and the flood--pick -up its wild legends and wild flowers, scale its mountains, revel in the -desolation of its snowfields, thread its sequestered valleys--catching -fish and shooting fowl as occasion offers; though we give fair notice -that on this occasion we shall bestow less attention on the wild -sports than on other matters. - -On board the steamer that bore us away over a sea as smooth as a -mirror, was a stout English lady, provided with a brown wig, and who -used the dredging-box most unsparingly to stop up the gaps in her -complexion. - -“A wild country is Norway, isn’t it?” inquired she, with a sentimental -air; “you will, no doubt, have to take a Lazaroni with you to show you -the way?” (? Cicerone). - -“The scenery,” continued she, “isn’t equal, I suppose, to that of -Hoban. Do you know, I was a great climber until I became subject to -palpitations. You wouldn’t think it, so robust as I am; but I’m very -delicate. My two families have been too much for me.” - -I imagined she had been married twice, or had married a widower. - -“You know,” continued she, confidentially, “I had three children, and -then I stopped for some years, and began again, and had two more. -Children are such a plague. I went with them to the sea, and would you -believe it, every one of them took the measles.” - -But there was a little countrywoman of ours on board whose vivacity -and freshness made up for the insipidity of the “Hoban lady.” She -can’t bear to think that she is doing no good in the world, and spends -much of her time in district visiting in one of the largest parishes -of the metropolis. Not that she had a particle of the acid said to -belong to some of the so-called sisters of mercy--reckless craft that, -borne along by the gale of triumphant vanity, have in mere wantonness -run down many an unsuspecting vessel--I mean trifled with honest -fellows’ affections, and then suddenly finding themselves beached, in a -matrimonial sense, irretrievably pronounce all men, without exception, -monsters. And, thus, she whose true mission it was to be “the Angel in -the House,” presiding, ministering, soothing, curdles up into a sour, -uneasy devotee. - -At sea, a wise traveller will be determined to gather amusement -from trifles; nay, even rather than get put out by any delay or -misadventure, set about performing the difficult task of constructing -a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. For instance, our vessel, being -overburdened, steered excessively ill, as might be seen from her -wake, which, for the most part, assumed the shape of zigzags or arcs -of circles. This disconcerted one grumpy fellow uncommonly. But we -endeavoured to restore his good humour by telling him that we were not -practising the “great” but the “little” circle sailing. His mantling -sulkiness seemed to evaporate at this pleasantry; and, subsequently, -when, on the coal lessening, and lightening our craft astern, she -steered straighter, he facetiously apostrophized the man at the wheel-- - -“You’re the man to take the kinks out of her course; we must have you -at the wheel all night, and as much grog as you like, at my expense, -afterwards.” - -The captain, who was taken prisoner on returning from the Davis’ -Straits fishery, during the French wars, and was detained seven years -in France, gives me some information about the Arctic shark (Squalus -Arcticus), which is now beginning to reappear on the coast of Norway. - -“We used to call them the blind shark, sir--more by token they would -rush in among the nets and seize our fish, paying no more attention to -us than nothing at all. They used to bite pieces out of our fish just -like a plate, and no mistake, as clean as a whistle, sir. I’ve often -stuck my knife into ’em, but they did not wince in the least--they did -not appear to have no feeling whatsomdever. I don’t think they had any -blood in ’em; I never saw any. I’ve put my hand in their body, and it -was as cold as ice.” - -“By-the-bye, captain,” said I, to our commander, who was a fubsy, -little round red-faced man, with a cheery blue eye, “how’s this? Why, -you are in uniform!” - -“To be sure I am. Th’ Cumpany said it must be done. Those furriners -think more of you with a bit of gowd lace on your cap and coat. An -order came from our governor to wear this here coat and cap--so I put -’em on. What a guy I did look--just like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” - -“Or a daw in borrowed plumes,” suggested I. - -“But I put a bould face on’t, and came a-board, and walked about just -as if I had the old brown coat on, and now I’ve got quite used to the -change.” - -Now this little fellow is as clever as he is modest--every inch -a seaman. I’ve seen him calm and collected in very difficult -circumstances on this treacherous old North Sea. - -Last year, in the autumn, the captain tells me he was approaching the -Norwegian coast in the grey of the morning when he descried what he -took to be a quantity of nets floating on the water, and several boats -hovering about them. He eased the engine for fear of entangling the -screw. Some Cockneys on board, who wore nautical dresses, and sported -gilt buttons on which were engraved R. T. Y. C., laughed at the captain -for his excessive carefulness. Presently it turned out that what had -seemed to be floating nets were the furniture and hencoops of the -ill-fated steamer _Norge_, which had just been run down by another -steamer, and sunk with a loss of some half a hundred lives. A grave -Norwegian on board now lectured the young men for their ignorance and -bravado. - -“They just did look queer, I’ll a-warrant ye,” continued our -north-country captain. “They laughed on t’other side of their mouths, -and were mum for the rest of the voyage.” - -“What vessel’s that?” asked I. - -“Oh! that’s the opposition--the Kangaroo.” - -This was the captain’s pronunciation of _Gangr Rolf_ (Anglicè, Rollo, -the Walker), the Norwegian screw, which I hear rolls terribly in a -sea-way. - -“Hurrah!” I exclaimed. “Saall for Gamle Norge,” as we sighted the loom -of the land. How different it is from the English coast. The eye will -in vain look for the white perpendicular cliffs, such as hedge so much -of old Albion, their glistening fronts relieved at intervals by streaks -of darker hue, where the retreating angle of the wall-like rock does -not catch the sun’s rays; while behind lie the downs rising gently -inland, with their waving fields of corn or old pastures dotted with -sheep. Quite as vainly will you cast about for the low shores of other -parts of our island--diversified, it may be, by yellow dunes, with the -sprinkling of shaggy flag-like grass, or, elsewhere, the flat fields -terminating imperceptibly in flatter sands, the fattening ground of -oysters. - -As far as I can judge at this distance, instead of the coast forming -one sober businesslike line of demarcation, with no nonsense about it, -showing exactly the limits of land and ocean, as in other countries, -here it is quite impossible to say where water ends and land begins. It -is neither fish nor fowl. Those low, bare gneiss-rocks, for instance, -tumbled, as it were, into a lot of billows. One would almost think -they had got a footing among the waves by putting on the shape and -aspect of water. Well, if you scan them accurately you find they are -unmistakeably bits of islands. But as we approach nearer, look further -inland to those low hills covered with pine-trees, which somehow or -other have managed to wax and pick up a livelihood in the clefts and -crannies of the rocks, or sometimes even on the bare scarps. While -ever and anon a bald-topped rock protruding from the dark green masses -stands like a solitary Friar of Orders Grey, with his well shaven -tonsure, amid a crowd of black cowled Dominicans. - -“Surely that,” you’ll say, “is the coast line proper?” - -“Wrong again, sir. It is a case of wheels within wheels; or, to be -plain, islands within islands. Behind those wooded heights there are -all sorts of labyrinths of salt water, some ending in a _cul-de-sac_, -others coming out, when you least expect it, into the open sea again, -and forming an inland passage for many miles. If that myth about King -Canute bidding the waves not come any further, had been told of this -country, there would have been some sense in it, and he might have -appeared to play the wave-compeller to some purpose. For really, in -some places, it is only by a nice examination one can say how far the -sea’s rule does extend.” - -The whole of the coast is like this, except between the Naze and -Stavanger, rising at times, as up the West Coast, into magnificent -precipices, but still beaded with islands from the size of a pipe -of port to that of an English county. Hence there are two ways of -sailing along the coast, “indenskjærs,” _i.e._, within the “skerries,” -and “udenskjærs,” or outside of the “skerries,” _i.e._, in the open -sea. The inner route has been followed by coasters from the days of -the Vikings. Those pilots on the Norwegian Government steam-vessels -whom you see relieving each other alternately on the bridge, spitting -thoughtfully a brown fluid into a wooden box, and gently moving their -hand when we thread the watery Thermopylæ, are men bred up from boyhood -on the coast, and know its intricacies by heart. The captain is, in -fact, a mere cypher, as far as the navigation is concerned. - -“You’ve never been in Norway before?” I inquired of the fair Samaritan. - -“No; this is my first visit. I hope I shall like it.” - -“I can imagine you will. If you are a lover of fashion and formality, -you will not be at ease in Norway. The good folks are simple-minded and -sincere. If they invite you to an entertainment, it is because they are -glad to see you. Not to fill up a place at the table, or because they -are obliged to do the civil, at the same time hoping sincerely you won’t -come. Their forefathers were men of great self-denial, and intensely -fond of liberty. When it was not to be had at home, they did what those -birds were doing that rested on our mast during the voyage, migrated -to a more congenial clime--in their case to Iceland. The present -Norwegians have a good deal of the same sturdy independence about them; -some travellers say, to an unpleasant degree. It’s true they are rather -rough and uncouth; but, like their forefathers, when they came in -contact with old Roman civilization in France and Normandy, they will -progress and improve by intercourse with the other peoples of Europe. - -“Their old mythology is grand in the extreme. Look at that rainbow, -yonder. In their eyes, the bow in the cloud was the bridge over which -lay the road to Valhalla. Then their legends. Do you know, I think that -much of our fairy lore came over to us from Norway, just as the seeds -of the mountain-flowers in Scotland are thought by Forbes to have come -over from Scandinavia on the ice-floes during the glacial period. If I -had time, I could tell you a lot of sprite-stories; among others, one -how the elves all left Jutland one night in an old wreck, lying on the -shore, and got safe to Norway. To this country, at all events, those -lines won’t yet apply:-- - - “The power, the beauty, and the majesty - That had her haunts in dale, or fairy fountain, - Or forest, by slow stream, or pebbly spring, - Or chasms, or watery depths; all these have vanished. - They live no longer in the faith of reason.” - -“But here we are in Christiansand harbour, and yonder is my steamer, -the _Lindesnaes_, which will take me to Porsgrund, whither I am bound; -so farewell, and I hope you will not repent of your visit to Norway!” - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - Disappointed fishermen--A formidable diver--Arendal, the - Norwegian Venice--A vocabulary at fault--Ship-building--The - Norwegian Seaboard--Sandefjord, the Norwegian Brighton--A - complicated costume--Flora’s own bonnet--Bruin at large--Skien - and its saw-mills--Norway cutting its sticks--Wooden - walls--Christopher Hansen Blum--The Norwegian phase of - religious dissent--A confession of faith--The Norsk Church the - offspring of that of Great Britain. - - -Two Englishmen were on board the _Lindesnaes_, who had been fishing a -week in the Torrisdal Elv, and had had two rises and caught nothing; -so they are moving along the coast to try another river. But it is too -late for this part of Norway. These are early rivers, and the fish have -been too long up to afford sport with the fly. - -The proverb, “never too old to learn,” was practically brought to my -mind in an old Norwegian gentleman on board. - -“My son, sir, has served in the English navy. I am seventy years old, -and can speak some English. I will talk in that language and you in -Norwegian, and so we shall both learn. You see, sir, we are now going -into Arendal. This is a bad entrance when the wind is south-west, so we -are clearing out that other passage there to the eastward. There is a -diver at work there always. Oh, sir, he’s frightful to behold! First, -he has a great helmet, and lumps of lead on his shoulders, and lead -on his thighs, and lead on his feet. All lead, sir! And then he has a -dagger in his belt.” - -“A dagger!” said I; “what’s that for?” - -“Oh! to keep off the amphibia and sea-monsters; they swarm upon this -coast.” - -As he spoke, the old gentleman contorted his countenance in such a -manner that he, at all events, let alone the diver, was frightful to -behold. Such was the effect of the mere thought of the amphibia and -sea-monsters. Fortunately, his head was covered, or I can’t answer for -it that each particular hair would not have stood on end like to the -quills of the fretful porcupine. It struck me that he must have been -reading of Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon hero, and his friend Breca, and -how they had naked swords in their hands to defend them against the -sea-monsters, and how Beowulf served the creatures out near the bottom -of the sea (sae-grunde néah). - -At Arendal, where the vessel stops for some hours, I take a stroll with -a Norwegian schoolboy. Abundance of sycamore and horse-chesnut, arrayed -in foliage of the most vivid hue, grow in the pretty little ravines -about this Norwegian Venice, as it is called. - -“What is the name of that tree in Norsk,” I asked of my companion, -pointing to a sycamore. - -“Ask, _i.e._ ash.” - -“And of that?” inquired I, pointing to a horse-chesnut. - -“Ask,” was again the reply. - -Close to the church was the dead-house, where corpses are placed in -winter, when the snow prevents the corpse being carried to the distant -cemetery. In the little land-locked harbour I see a quantity of small -skiffs, here called “pram,” which are to be had new for the small price -of three dollars, or thirteen shillings and sixpence English. The -vicinity of this place is the most famous in Norway for mineralogical -specimens. Arendal has, I believe, the most tonnage and largest-sized -vessels of any port in Norway. Ship-building is going forward very -briskly all along the coast since the alteration in the English -navigation laws. At Grimstead, which we passed, I observed eight -vessels on the stocks: at Stavanger there are twenty. - -The reader is perhaps not aware that, reckoning the fjords, there -is a sea-board of no less than eight thousand English miles in -Norway--_i.e._, there is to every two and a half square miles of -country a proportion of about one mile of sea-coast. This superfluity -of brine will become more apparent by comparing the state of things in -other countries. According to Humboldt, the proportion in Africa is one -mile of sea-coast to one hundred and forty-two square miles of land. -In Asia, one to one hundred. In North America, one to fifty-seven. In -Europe, one to thirty-one. - -With such an abundance of “water, water everywhere”--I mean salt, not -fresh--one would hardly expect to meet with persons travelling from -home for the sake of sea-bathing. And yet such is the case. On board -is a lady going to the sea-baths of Sandefjord. She tells me there is -quite a gathering of fashionables there at times. Last year, the wife -of the Crown Prince, a Dutch woman by birth, was among the company. -She spent most of her time, I understood, in sea-fishing. Besides -salt-water baths, there are also baths of rotten seaweed, which are -considered quite as efficacious for certain complaints as the mud-baths -of Germany. Landing at Langesund, I start for Skien on board the little -steamer _Traffic_. - -A bonder of Thelemark is on board, whose costume, in point of ugliness, -reminds one of the dress of some of the peasants of Bavaria. Its chief -characteristics were its short waist and plethora of buttons. The -jacket is of grey flannel, with curious gussets or folds behind. The -Quaker collar and wristbands are braided with purple. Instead of the -coat and waistcoat meeting the knee-breeches halfway, after the usual -fashion, the latter have to ascend nearly up to the arm-pits before -an intimacy between these two articles of dress is effected. Worsted -stockings of blue and white, worked into stars and stripes, are joined -at the foot by low shoes, broad-toed, like those of Bavaria, while -the other end of the man--I mean his head--is surmounted by a hat, -something like an hourglass in shape. - -The fondness of these people for silver ornaments is manifest in the -thickly-set buttons of the jacket, on which I see is stamped the -intelligent physiognomy of that king of England whose equestrian statue -adorns Pig-tail-place; his breeches and shoes also are each provided -with a pair of buckles, likewise of silver. - -Contrasting with this odd-looking monster is a Norwegian young -lady, with neat modern costume, and pair of English gauntlet kid -gloves. Her bouquet is somewhat peculiar; white lilies, mignionette, -asparagus-flower, dahlias, and roses. Her carpet-bag is in a cover, -like a white pillowcase. - -Bears, I see by a newspaper on board, are terribly destructive this -year in Norway. One bruin has done more than his share. He has killed -two cows, and wounded three more; not to mention sheep, which he -appears to take by way of _hors d’œuvres_. Lastly, he has killed two -horses; and the peasants about Vaasen, where all this happened, have -offered eight dollars (thirty-six shillings) for his apprehension, dead -or alive. - -At the top of the fjord, fourteen English miles from the sea, lies -Skien. The source of its prosperity and bustle are its saw-mills. Like -Shakspeare’s Justice, it is full of saws. The vast water-power caused -by the descent of the contents of the Nord-Sö is here turned to good -account: setting going a great number of wheels. Two hundred and fifty -dozen logs are sawn into planks per week; and the vessels lie close by, -with square holes in their bows for the admission of the said planks -into their holds. All the population seems to be occupied in the timber -trade. Saws creaking and fizzing, men dashing out in little shallops -after timbers that have just descended the foss, others fastening -them to the endless chain which is to drag them up to the place of -execution; while the wind flaunts saw-dust into your face, and the -water is like the floor of a menagerie. That unfortunate salmon, which -has just sprung into the air at the bottom of the foss, near the old -Roman Catholic monastery, must be rather disgusted at the mouthful he -got as he plunged into the stream again. - -But we must return to the modern Skien. This timber-built city was -nearly half burnt down not long ago; but as a matter of course the -place is being rebuilt of the old material. Catch a Norwegian, if he -can help it, building his house of stone. Stone-houses are so cold and -comfortless, he says. Since the fire, cigar-smoking has been forbidden -in the streets under a penalty of four orts, or three shillings and -fourpence sterling, for each offence. - -The great man of Skien appears to be one Christopher Hansen Blum. - -“Whose rope-walk is that?” - -“Christopher Hansen Blum’s.” - -“And that great saw-mill?” - -“Christopher Hansen Blum’s.” - -“And those warehouses?” - -“Christopher Hansen Blum’s.” - -“And that fine lady?” - -“Christopher Hansen Blum’s wife.” - -“And the other fine lady, my fair travelling companion with the -gauntlet kid gloves?” - -“Christopher Hansen Blum’s niece.” - -This modern Marquis of Carabas (_vide Puss in Boots_) is also, I -understand, one of the chief promoters of the canal which is being -quarried out of the solid rock between Skien and the Nord-Sö; the -completion of which will admit of an uninterrupted steam traffic from -this place to Hitterdal, at the northern end of that lake, and deep in -the bowels of Thelemarken. - -A great stir has been lately caused at Skien by the secession from the -establishment of Gustav Adolph Lammers, the vicar of the place. The -history of this gentleman is one of the many indications to be met -with of this country having arrived at that period in the history of -its civilization which the other countries of Europe have passed many -years ago;--we mean the phase of the first development of religious -dissent and a spirit of insubordination to the established traditions -of the Church as by law established. We are transported to the days -of Whitfield and Wesley. Lammers, who appears to be a sincere person, -in spite of the variety of tales in circulation about him, commenced -by inculcating greater strictness of conduct. He next declined to -baptize children. This brought him necessarily into conflict with the -church authorities, and the upshot was that he has seceded from the -Church; together with a number of the fair sex, with whom he is a great -favourite. The most remarkable part of the matter, however, is that he -will apply, it is said, for a Government pension, like other retiring -clergy. Whether the Storthing, within whose province all such questions -come, will listen to any such thing remains to be seen.[2] - -A tract in my possession professes to be the Confession of Faith of -this “New Apostolic Church.” In the preamble they state that they wish -to make proper use of God’s Word and Sacraments. But as they don’t see -how they can do this in the State Church, in which the Word is not -properly preached, nor the Sacraments duly administered, they have -determined to leave it, and form a separate community, in conformity -with the Norwegian Dissenter Law of July 16, 1845. The baptism of -infants they consider opposed to Holy Writ. All that the Bible teaches -is to bring young children to Christ, with prayer and laying on of -hands, and to baptize them when they can believe that Jesus Christ -is the son of God, and will promise to obey his Gospel. Hence the -elders lay hands upon young children, and at the same time read Mark -x., verses 13-17. At a later period, these children are baptized by -immersion. The Holy Communion is taken once a month, each person -helping himself to the elements; confession or absolution, previously, -are not required. - -The community are not bound to days and high-tides, but it is quite -willing to accept the days of rest established by law, on which they -meet and read the Scriptures. - -Marriage is a civil contract, performed before a notarius publicus. - -The dead are buried in silence, being borne to the grave by some of the -brethren; after the grave is filled up a psalm is sung. - -All the members of the community agree to submit, if necessary, to -brotherly correction; and if this is of no avail, to expulsion. -Temporary exclusion from the communion is the correction to be -preferred. These rules were accepted by ten men and twenty-eight -women, on the 4th July, 1856--giving each other their right hand, and -promising, by God’s help, - - In life and death to serve the Lord Jesus, - To love each other with sincere affection, - To submit themselves one to another. - -We have given the following particulars, because the state of the -Christian religion in Norway must for ever be deeply interesting to -England, if on no other account, for this reason, that in this respect -she is the spiritual offspring of Great Britain. Charlemagne tried to -convert Scandinavia, but he failed to reach Norway. The Benedictine -monk, Ansgar of Picardy, went to Sweden, but never penetrated hither; -in fact, the Norsk Christian Church is entirely a daughter of the -English. The first missionaries came over with Hacon the Good, the -foster son of our King Athelstan; and though this attempt failed, -through the tenacity of the people for heathenesse, yet the second did -not, when Olaf Trygveson brought over missionaries from the north of -England--Norwegian in blood and speech--and christianized the whole -coast, from Sweden to Trondjem, in the course of one year--996-997.[3] - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - A poet in full uniform--The young lady in gauntlet gloves - again--Church in a cave--Muscular Christianity in the - sixteenth century--A miracle of light and melody--A romance - of bigotry--How Lutheranism came in like a lion--The last - of the Barons--Author makes him bite the dust--Brief - burial service in use in South-Western Norway--The - Sörenskriver--Norwegian substitute for Doctors’ Commons--Grave - ale--A priestly Samson--Olaf’s ship--A silent woman--Norwegian - dialects--Artificial salmon breeding--A piscatorial prevision. - - -Next day, at five o’clock, A.M., I drove off to the head of the -Nord-Sö, distant half-a-dozen miles off, and got on board the steamer, -which was crowded with passengers. An old gentleman on board attracted -my attention. His dress was just like that of a livery servant in a -quiet family in England--blue coat, with stand-up collar, and two rows -of gold lace round it. This I find is the uniform of a sörenskriver. -Konrad Swach--for that was his name--is a poet of some repute in this -country. His most popular effusion is on the national flag of Norway, -which was granted to them by the present King, Oscar--a theme, be it -remarked, which would have secured popularity for a second-rate poem -among these patriotic Northmen. To judge from the poet’s nose, it -struck me that some of his poetic inspirations is due to drink. The -front part of the vessel is beset by Thelemarken bonders, male and -female, in their grotesque dress. - -The young lady in gauntlet gloves is also on board, whom I make bold to -address, on the strength of our having journeyed together yesterday. As -we steam along through the usual Norwegian scenery of pines and grey -rocks, she points out to me the mouth of a curious cave. - -“That is Saint Michael’s Church, as it is called. The opening is about -sixteen feet wide, and about as many high, and goes some eighty feet -into the cliff. In the Catholic times, it was used as a church, and -became a regular place of pilgrimage, and was regarded as a spot of -peculiar sanctity. In the sixteenth century, as the story goes, when -the reformed faith had been introduced into the country, the clergyman -of the parish of Solum, in which St. Michael’s was situate, was one -Mr. Tovel. Formerly a soldier, he was a man of strong will, zealous for -the new religion, and a determined uprooter of ‘the Babylonian remnants -of popery,’ as he phrased it. The church in the cave was now sadly -come down in the world, and had been despoiled of all its valuables. -But in the eyes of the bonders, who, with characteristic tenacity of -character, adhered to the old faith, it had risen higher in proportion. -Numerous pilgrims resorted to it, and miracles were said to be wrought -at the spot. At night, it was said, soft singing might be heard, and a -stream of light seen issuing from the orifice, which lies four hundred -feet above the water. - -“One autumn evening, the reverend Mr. Tovel was rowing by the place -when the above light suddenly illumined the dark waters. The boatmen -rested on their oars and crossed themselves. Tovel urged them to land, -but in vain. Determined, however, on investigating the matter himself, -he obtained the services of two men from a neighbouring village, who -apparently had less superstitious scruples than his own attendants, -and watched from his abode, on the other side of the lake, for the -reappearance of the light. On the eve of St. Michael he looks out, -and sure enough the light was visible. Off he sets, with his two men, -taking with him his Bible and sword. The night was still, with a few -stars shining overhead. Reaching the foot of the rock, the priest -sprang ashore, and invited the boatmen to accompany him, but not a step -would they go. The superstition bred in the bone was not so easily to -be eradicated, even by the coin and persuasion of Herr Tovel. - -“‘Cowards! stay here, then,’ exclaimed his reverence, as he started up -the steep ascent alone. After a hard scramble, he stood a foot or two -below the cavern, when just as his head came on a level with its mouth -the light suddenly vanished. At this trying moment, Tovel bethought him -of the great Reformer, how he fought with and overcame the Evil One. -This gave him fresh courage, and he entered the cavern, singing lustily -Luther’s psalm-- - - “‘En Berg saa fast er os vor Gud, - So godt et Skiold og Vaerge; - Fra alt vor Not Han frier os ud - Han kan og nun os bierge.’ - -“At the last words the light suddenly reappeared. An aged priest, -dressed up in the full paraphernalia of the Romish church, issues from -a hidden door in the interior of the cave, and greets Tovel with the -words-- - -“‘Guds Fred,’ (God’s peace); ‘why should I fear those who come in God’s -name?’ - -“‘What!’ exclaimed the astonished Tovel; ‘is it true, then, that Rome’s -priests are still in the land?’ - -“‘Yes; and you are come sword in hand to drive out a poor old priest -whose only weapon is a staff.’ - -“As he spoke, the door of an inner recess rolled back, and Tovel beheld -an altar illuminated with iron lamps, over which hung a picture of St. -Michael, the saint often worshipped in caves and mountains. - -“‘It is your pestiferous doctrines against which I wage war, not -against your person,’ rejoined Tovel. ‘Who are you, in God’s name?’ - -“‘I am Father Sylvester, the last priest of this Church. When the -new religion was forced upon the land, I wandered forth, and am now -returned once more, to die where I have lived. The good people of -Gisholdt Gaard have secretly supported me.’ - -“Moved with this recital, the Lutheran priest asks--‘And are you trying -to seduce the people back to the old religion?’ - -“The aged man rejoins, with vehemence-- - -“‘It were an easy task, did I wish to do so; but I do not. It is only -at night that I say prayers and celebrate mass in the inner sacristy -there.’ - -“Tovel, thoroughly softened, when he finds that his beloved Reformed -faith was not likely to suffer, finishes the conversation by saying-- - -“‘Old man, you shall not lack anything that it is in my power to give -you. Send to me for aught that you may have need of.’ - -“The venerable priest points to the stars, and exclaims, solemnly-- - -“‘That God, yonder, will receive both of us, Protestant and Catholic.’ - -“After this they cordially shook hands. Tovel went home an altered man. -Some time afterwards, the light ceased to shine entirely. He knew why. -Old Father Sylvester was no more. - -“Mr. Tovel got off much better than many clergymen of the Reformed -faith in those days. Old Peder Clausen, the chronicler, relates that he -knew a man whose father had knocked three clergymen on the head. The -stern old Norwegian bonders could ill brook the violence with which the -Danes introduced Lutheranism; a violence not much short of that used by -King Olaf in rooting out heathenism, and which cost him his life.” - -I thanked the young lady for her interesting information. - -Presently a curious figure comes out of the cabin. It was a -fine-looking old man, with white hair, and hooked nose, and keen eyes, -shadowed by shaggy eyebrows. His dress consisted of a blue superfine -frock-coat, with much faded gold embroidery on a stand-up collar; dark -breeches, and Hessian boots. On his breast shone the Grand Cross of the -North Star. A decided case of Commissioner Pordage, of the island of -Silver-Store, with his “Diplomatic coat.” - -That’s old Baron W----, the last remnant of the Norsk nobility. He -wears the dress of an Amtman, which office he formerly held, and loses -no opportunity of displaying it and the star. He it was who in 1821 -protested against the phævelse (abolition) of the nobility. The Baron -was evidently quite aware of the intense impression he was making -upon the Thelemarken bonders. On our both landing, subsequently, at a -station called Ulefoss, I was highly diverted at seeing him take off -his coat and star and deposit the same in a travelling-bag, from which -he drew forth a less pretending frock, first taking care to fold up the -diplomatic coat with all the precision displayed by that little man of -Cruikshank’s in wrapping up Peter Schlemil’s shadow. We both of us are -bound, I find, for the steamer on the Bandagsvand. - -“Well, what are we waiting for?” said I, to the man who had brought my -horse and carriole. - -“Oh, we must not start before the Baron. People always make way for -him. He won’t like us to start first.” - -“Jump up,” said I, putting my nag in motion, and leaving the Baron -in the lurch, who was magniloquizing to the people around. All the -bonders “wo-ho’d” my horse, in perfect astonishment at my presumption, -while the Baron, with a fierce gleam of his eye, whipped his horse into -motion. I soon found the advantage of being first, as the road was -dreadfully dusty; and being narrow, I managed to keep the Baron last, -and swallowing my dust for a considerable distance. - -We were soon at Naes, on the Bandagsvand, where lay the little steamer -which was to hurry us forty-two miles further into Thelemarken, to a -spot called Dal. The hither end of the lake, which is properly called -Hvide-sö (white-sea), is separated from the upper, or Bandagsvand, -by a very narrow defile jammed in between tremendous precipices. We -pass the church of Laurvig on the right, which is said to be old and -interesting. The clergyman, Mr. H----, is on board. He tells me that -the odd custom of spooning dust into a small hole (see _Oxonian in -Norway_) is not usual in this part of Norway. The term used for it is -“jords-paakastelse.” The burial-service is very brief; being confined -to the words, “Af Jord er du, Til Jord skal du blive, ud af Jord skal -du opstaae.” - -For his fee he receives from one ort = tenpence, to sixteen dollars, -according to circumstances. In the latter case there would be a -long funeral oration. Close by the church is the farm of Tvisæt -(twice-sown), so called, it is said, because it often produced two -crops a year. Although placed in the midst of savage and desolate -scenery, the spot is so sheltered that it will grow figs in the open -air. - -The Sörenskriver is also on board, the next Government officer to -the Amtman, or governor of the province. He is going to a “Skifte,” -as it is called. This word is the technical expression for dividing -the property of a deceased person among his heirs, and is as old as -Harald Hârfager, the same expression being used in Snorro’s Chronicle -of his division of his kingdom among his sons. In this simple country -there is no necessity for Doctors’ Commons. The relatives meet, and -if there is no will the property is divided, according to law, among -the legal heirs: if there is one, its provisions are carried out: -the Sörenskriver, by his presence, sanctioning the legality of the -proceeding. - -He informs me that there is generally a kind of lyke-wake on the -melancholy occasion, where the “grave öl” and “arve öl,” “grave ale,” -or “heirship ale,” is swallowed in considerable quantities. In a recent -Skifte, at which he presided, the executors charged, among the expenses -to come out of the estate, one tonder malt and sixty-five pots of -brantviin; while for the burial fee to the priest, the modest sum of -one ort was charged. While the Sörenskriver was overhauling these items -with critical eye, the peasant executor, who thought the official was -about to take exception to the last item, or perhaps, which is more -likely, wishing to divert his attention from the unconscionable charge -for drink, observed that he really could not get the funeral service -performed for less. The pastoral office would seem, from this, not to -occupy a very high position among these clod-hoppers. Sixty-five pots, -or pints, of brandy, a huge barrel of malt liquor, and ten-pennyworth -of parson. - -Mr. C., who is acquainted with Mr. Gieldrup, the priestly Samson of -Aal, in Hallingdal, gives me some account of his taking the shine -out of Rotner Knut, the cock and bully of the valley. It was on the -occasion of Knut being married, and the parson was invited to the -entertainment, together with his family. During the banquet, Rotner, -evidently with the intention of annoying the priest, amused himself by -pulling the legs of his son. Offended at the insult, Gieldrup seized -the peasant, and hurled him with such force against the wooden door of -the room, that he smashed through it. After which the parson resumed -his place at the board, while Knut put his tail between his legs, as -much abashed as Gunther, in the Nibelungenlied, when, at his wedding, -he was tied up to a peg in the wall by his bride, the warrior virgin -Brunhild. - -It is customary in Hallingdal, where this occurred, to accompany the -Hallingdance with the voice. One of the favourite staves in the valley -had been-- - - Rotner Knut, Rotner Knut, - He is the boy to pitch the folks out. - -It was now altered, and ran as follows, greatly to Knut’s chagrin,-- - - Rotner Knut, Rotner Knut, - The priest is the man to pitch him out. - -On another occasion, Gieldrup was marrying two or three couples, when -one of the bridegrooms, impatient to be off, vaulted over the chancel -rails, and asked what was to pay. In the twinkling of an eye the -muscular parson caught him by the shoulders and hurled him right over -the heads of the bystanders, who stood round the rails. - -As we steam along, the Sörenskriver points out to me, on the top of -the lofty rocks on the left, a rude representation in stone of a ship, -which goes by the name of “Olaf’s skib.” Among other idiosyncrasies of -the saint and martyr, one was, that of occasionally sailing over land. -How his vessel came to be stranded here, I cannot learn. Further on, to -the right, you see two figures in stone, one of which appears to have -lost its head, not metaphorically, but in the real guillotine sense. - -The bonders will give you a very circumstantial account, part of which -will not bear repetition here, how that this is a Jotul, who had some -domestic unpleasantness with his lady, and treated her at once like the -Defender of the Faith did Anne Boleyn (we beg pardon of Mr. Froude) -casting her head across the water, where it is still lying, under the -pine trees yonder, only that the steamer cannot stop to let us see it. -The lady and gentleman were petrified in consequence. - - And lo! where stood a hag before, - Now stands a ghastly stone, &c. - -“I see you speak Norsk,” said the Sörenskriver, “but you will find -it of very little use yonder, at Dal. The dialect of Thelemarken, -generally, is strange, but at Dal it is almost incomprehensible, even -to us Norwegians. It is generally believed that the language here still -possesses a good deal of the tone and turn of the old Icelandic, which -was once spoken all the country through.” - -I did not, however, find it so difficult. The Norwegians look upon -English, I may here remark, as hard to pronounce. On that notable -occasion, say they, when the Devil boiled the languages together, -English was the scum that came to the top. A criticism more rude than -even that of Charles V. - -As we approach the landing-place, to my astonishment, I perceive a -gentleman fly-fishing at the outlet of the stream into the lake. - -He turned out to be Mr. H----, who is traversing the country, at -the expense of the Government, to teach the people the method of -increasing, by artificial means, the breed of salmon and other fish. -He tells me, that last year he caught, one morning here, thirty-five -trout, weighing from one to six pounds each. - -His operations in the artificial breeding-line have been most -successful; not only with salmon, but with various kinds of fish. -He tells me it is a mistake to suppose that the roe will only be -productive if put in water directly. He has preserved it for a long -period, transporting it great distances without its becoming addle, and -gives me a tract which he has published on the subject. As we are just -now at home in England talking of stocking the Antipodal rivers with -salmon, this topic is of no little interest. The method of transporting -the roe in Norway is in a wooden box, provided with shelves, one above -another, and two or three inches apart, and drilled with small holes. -Upon these is laid a thin layer of clean, moist, white, or moor, moss -(not sand), and upon that the roe, which has already been milted. -This is moistened every day. If the cold is very great, the box is -placed within another, and chaff placed in the interstices between -the two boxes. In this way roe has been conveyed from Leirdalsören to -Christiania, a week’s journey. Professor Rasch, who first employed -moss in the transport, has also discovered that it is the best -material for laying on the bottom of the breeding stews, the stalks -placed streamwise. Moss is best for two reasons: first, it counteracts -the tendency of the water to freeze; and secondly, it catches the -particles of dirt which float down the stream, and have an affinity -rather for it than for the roe. The roe is best placed touching the -surface of the stream, but it fructifies very well even when placed -half, or even more, out of the water. Care is taken to remove from the -stews such eggs as become mouldy, this being an indication that they -are addle. If this is not done, the mouldiness soon spreads to the -other good roe, and renders it bad. With regard to the nursery-ground -itself, it is of course necessary to select a spring for this purpose -which will not freeze in winter, and further, to protect the water from -the cold by a roofing or house of wood. - -I suppose the next thing we shall hear of will be, that roe that -has been packed up for years will, by electricity or some sort of -hocus-pocus, be turned to good account, just as the ears of corn in -the Pyramids have been metamorphosed into standing crops. Mr. H----’s -avocation, by-the-bye, reminds me of an old Norwegian legend about -“The Fishless Lake” in Valders. Formerly it abounded with fish; but -one night the proprietor set a quantity of nets, all of which had -disappeared by the next morning. Well, the Norwegian, in his strait, -had recourse to his Reverence, who anathematized the net-stealer. -Nothing more came of it till the next spring; when, upon the ice -breaking, all the nets rose to the surface, full of dead fish. Since -then no fish has been found in the lake. Mr. H---- might probably -succeed in dissolving the charm. - -“I see you are a fisherman,” said Mr. H----; “you’ll find the parson -at Mö, in Butnedal, a few miles off, an ‘ivrig fisker’ (passionate -fisherman)--ay! and his lady, too. They’ll be delighted to see you. -They have no neighbours, hardly, but peasants, and your visit will -confer a greater favour on them than their hospitality on you. That -is a very curious valley, sir. There are several ‘tomter’ (sites) of -farm-houses, now deserted, where there once were plenty of people: that -is one of the vestiges of the Black Death.” - -On second thoughts, however, he informed me that it was just possible -that Parson S---- might be away; as at this period of the summer, when -all the peasants are up with their cattle at the Sæters, the clergy, -having nothing whatever to do, take their holiday. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - - Mine host at Dal--Bernadotte’s prudent benignity--Taxing the - bill of costs--Hurrah for the mountains--Whetstones--Antique - wooden church--A wild country--“Raven depth”--How the English - like to do fine scenery--Ancient wood-carving--A Norwegian - peasant’s witticism--A rural rectory--Share and chair - alike--Ivory knife-handles--Historical pictures--An old Runic - calendar--The heathen leaven still exists in Norway--Washing - day--Old names of the Norsk months--Peasant songs--Rustic - reserve--A Norsk ballad. - - -Mine host at Dal, a venerable-looking personage, with long grey hair -floating on his shoulders, was a member of the Extraordinary Meeting -of Deputies at Eidsvold in 1815, when the Norwegians accepted the -Junction with Sweden. I and the old gentleman exchanged cards. The -superscription on his was--Gaardbruger Norgaard, Deputeret fra Norges -Storthing--_i.e._, Farmer Norgaard, A Deputy from Norway’s Storthing. - -Another reminiscence of his early days is a framed and glazed copy of -the Grundlov (Fundamental Law) of Norway, its palladium of national -liberty, which a hundred and twelve Deputies drew up in six weeks, in -1814. Never was Constitution so hastily drawn up, and so generally -practical and sensible as this. - -The Crown Prince, the crafty Bernadotte, with his invading army of -Swedes, had Norway quite at his mercy on that occasion; but the idea -seems to have struck him suddenly that it was as well not to deal too -hardly with her, as in case of his not being able to hold his own in -Sweden, he might have a worse place of refuge than among the sturdy -Norwegians. “I am resolved what to do, so that when I am put out of the -stewardship they may receive me into their houses.” So he assented to -Norway’s independence. - -For my part, at this moment, I thought more about coffee than Norwegian -liberty and politics; but as it was nine o’clock, P.M., the good people -were quite put out by the request. Coffee in the forenoon, say they, -tea in the evening. As it was, they made me pay pretty smartly for the -accommodation next morning. “What’s to pay?” said I, striding into the -room, where sat the old Deputy’s daughter, the mistress of the house, -at the morning meal. She had not long ago become a widow, and had taken -as her second husband, a few days before, a grisly-looking giant, who -sat by in his shirt-sleeves. - -“Ask _him_,” said the fair Quickly, thinking it necessary, perhaps, -just so recently after taking the vow of obedience, by this little -piece of deference to her new lord to express her sense of submission -to his authority. For my part, as an old traveller, I should rather say -she did it for another feeling. English pigeons did not fly that way -every day, and so they must be plucked; and the person to do it, she -thought, was the Berserker, her awful-looking spouse. The charge was -exorbitant; and as the good folks were regaling themselves with fresh -mutton-chops and strawberries and cream, while they had fobbed us off -with eggs and black bread and cheese--the latter so sharp that it went -like a dagger to my very vitals at the first taste--I resolutely taxed -the bill of costs, and carried my point; whereupon we took leave of the -Deputy and his descendants. - -In one sense we had come to the world’s end; for there is no road for -wheels beyond this. The footpath up the steep cliff that looks down -upon the lake is only accessible to the nimble horses of the country. -“Hurrah!” exclaimed I, as I looked down on the blue lake, lying -hundreds of feet perpendicularly below us. “Hurrah for the mountains! -Adieu to the ‘boppery bop’ of civilization, with all its forms and -ceremonies, and turnpikes and twaddle. Here you can eat, and drink, -and dress as and when you like, and that is just the fun of the thing, -more than half the relaxation of the trip.” Why, this passion for -mountain-travelling over the hills and far away is not peculiar to -Englishmen. Don’t the ladies of Teheran, even, after their listless -“_vie à la pantoufle_,” delight to hear of the approach of the plague, -as they know they are sure to get off to the hills, and have a little -tent-life in consequence? Didn’t that fat boy Buttons (not in Pickwick, -but Horace), cloyed with the Priest’s luscious cheesecakes, long for a -bit of coarse black bread, and run away from his master to get it? - -The precipitous path is studded at intervals with heaps of hones, or -whet-stones. I find that about here is the chief manufacture in all -Norway for this article. One year, a third of a million were turned -out. The next quarry in importance is at Kinservik, on the Hardanger -Fjord. Surmounting the ascent, we traverse swampy ground dotted with -birch-trees, and presently debouch upon one of those quaint edifices -not to be found out of this country--stabskirke (stave church), as -it is called--of which Borgund and Hitterdal Churches are well-known -specimens. It is so called from the lozenge-shaped shingles (staves), -overlapping each other like fish-scales, which case the roof and every -part of the outside. Smaller and less pretending than those edifices, -this secluded place of worship was of the same age--about nine hundred -years. The resinous pine has done its work well, and the carving on the -capitals of the wooden pillars at the doorway is in good preservation, -though parts have lately been churchwardenized. - -“That is Eidsborg church,” said a young student, who had volunteered to -accompany me, as he was bound to a lone parsonage up the country, in -this direction. “This is the church the young lady on board the steamer -told you was so remarkable.” - -After making a rough sketch of the exterior, we proceeded on our -journey. The few huts around were tenantless, the inhabitants all -gone up to the châlets. The blanching bear-skulls on the door of one -of these showed the wildness of the country we are traversing; while -a black-throated diver, which was busy ducking after the fish in the -sedge-margined pool close by, almost tempted me to load, and have a -long shot at him. As we proceed, I observe fieldfares, ring-ouzel, and -chaff-finches, while many English wild flowers enliven the scene, and -delicious strawberries assuage our thirst. Pursuing our path through -the forest, we come to a post on which is written “Ravne jüv,” Anglicè, -Raven depth. - -“Det maa De see,” (you must see that,) said my companion, turning off -up a narrow path, and frightening a squirrel and a capercailzie, which -were apparently having a confab about things in general. I followed him -through the pine-wood, getting over the swampy ground by the aid of -some fallen trunks, and, in two or three minutes, came to the “Ravne -jüv.” It is made by the Sandok Elv, which here pierces through the -mountains, and may be seen fighting its way thousands of feet below us. -Where I stood, the cliff was perpendicular, or rather sloped inwards; -and, by a singular freak of nature, a regular embrasured battlement had -been projected forward, so as to permit of our approaching the giddy -verge with perfect impunity. - - Es schwebt eine _Brustwehre_ über den Rand - Der furchtbaren Tiefe gebogen - Sie ward nicht erbauet von Menschen-hand - Es hätte sich’s Keiner verwogen. - -Lying flat, I put my head through an embrasure, and looked down into -the Raven’s depth. - -“Ah! it’s deeper than you think,” said my companion. “Watch this piece -of wood.” - -I counted forty before it reached a landing-place, and that was not -above half the way. - -Annoyed at our intrusion, two buff-coloured hawks and a large falcon -kept flying backwards and forwards within shot, having evidently chosen -this frightful precipice as the safest place they could find for -their young. Luckily for them, the horse and guide had gone on with -my fowling-piece, or they might have descended double-quick into the -sable depths below, and become a repast for the ravens; who, as in duty -bound, of course frequent the recesses of their namesake, although none -were now visible. - -What a pity a bit of scenery like this cannot be transported to -England. The Norwegians look upon rocks as a perfect nuisance, while -we sigh for them. Fancy the Ravne jüv in Derbyshire. Why, we should -have Marcus’ excursion-trains every week in the summer, and motley -crowds of tourists thronging to have a peep into the dark profound, and -some throwing themselves from the top of it, as they used to do from -the Monument, and John Stubbs incising his name on the battlements, -cutting boldly as the Roman king did at the behests of that humbugging -augur; and another true Briton breaking off bits of the parapet, -just like those immortal excursionists who rent the Blarney Stone in -two. Then there would be a grand hotel close by, and greasy waiters -with white chokers, and the nape of their neck shaven as smooth as a -vulture’s head (faugh!) and their front and back hair parted in one -continuous straight line, just like the wool of my lady’s poodle. How -strongly they would recommend to your notice some most trustworthy -guide, to show you what you can’t help seeing if you follow your nose, -and are not blind--the said trustworthy guide paying him a percentage -on all grist thus sent to his mill. Eventually, there would be a high -wall erected, and a locked gate, as at the Turk Fall at Killarney, and -a shilling to pay for seeing “private property,” &c. &c. No, no! let -well alone. Give me the “Raven deep” when it is in the silent solitudes -of a Norwegian forest, and let me muse wonderingly, and filled with -awe, at the stupendous engineering of Nature, and derive such -edification as I may from the sight. - -At Sandok we get a fresh horse from the worthy Oiesteen, and some -capital beer, which he brings in a wooden quaigh, containing about half -a gallon. - -On the face of the “loft,” loft or out-house, I see an excellent -specimen of wood carving. “That,” said Oiesteen, “has often been -pictured by the town people.” All the farm-houses in this part of the -country used to be carved in this fashion. One has only to read the -Sagas to know why all these old houses no longer exist. It is not that -the wood has perished in the natural way; experience, in fact, seems -to show that the Norwegian pine is almost as lasting, in ordinary -circumstances, as stone, growing harder by age. The truth is, in those -fighting days of the Vikings, when one party was at feud with another, -he would often march all night when his enemy least expected him, and -surrounding the house where he lay, so as to let none escape, set it on -fire. - -The lad who took charge of the horse next stage was called Björn -(Bear), a not uncommon name all over Norway. It was now evening, and -chilly. - -“Are you cold, Björn?” said the student. - -“No; the Björn is never chilly,” was the facetious reply. The nearest -approach to a witticism I had ever heard escape the mouth of a -Norwegian peasant. - -Two or three miles to the right we descry the river descending by a -huge cataract from its birthplace among the rocky mountains of Upper -Thelemarken. Presently we join what professes to be the high road from -Christiania, which is carried some twenty miles further westward, and -then suddenly ceases. - -Long after midnight, we arrived at the Rectory House at ----, where -I was to sleep. Mr. ---- was an intelligent sort of person, very -quiet and affable, and dressed in homespun from head to foot. After -breakfast, the staple of which was trout from the large lake close by, -I offered him a weed, which he declined, with the remark, “Ieg tygge,” -I chew. The ladies, as usual, are kind and unassuming, with none of -the female arts to be found in cities. A friend of mine, proud of his -fancied skill in talking Norsk, was once stopping at a clergyman’s -in Norway, when he apologised to the ladies for his deficiencies in -their language. He was evidently fishing for compliments, and was -considerably taken aback when one of them, in the most unsophisticated -manner, observed, taking him quite at his word, “Oh yes, strangers, you -know, often confound the words, and say one for another, which makes it -very difficult to comprehend them.” - -Ludicrous mistakes are sometimes made by the Norwegians also. An -English gentleman arrived at a change-house in Österdal late one -evening, and was lucky in obtaining the only spare bed. Presently, when -he was on the point of retiring to rest, a Norwegian lady also arrived, -intending to spend the night there. What was to be done? Like a gallant -Englishman as he was, with that true, unselfish courtesy which is not, -as in France, confined to mere speeches, he immediately offered to give -up his bed to the “unprotected female,” who was mistress of a little -English. “Many thanks; but what will you do, sir?” “Oh! I will take -a chair for the night.” At this answer the lady blushed, and darted -out of the room, and in a few minutes her carriole was driving off -in the darkness. What could be the meaning of it? The peasant’s wife -soon after looked into the room, with a knowing sort of look at the -Englishman. He subsequently discovered the key to the enigma. The lady -thought he said “he would take a _share_,” and was, of course, mightily -offended. So much for a smattering of a foreign language. Doubtless, -from that day forward, she would quote this incident to her female -friends as an instance of the natural depravity of Englishmen; and this -scapegrace would be looked upon as a type of his nation. - -The priest has some knives, the handles of which are of ivory, and -exquisitely carved in a flowing pattern. They cost as much as three -dollars apiece, a great sum. But the artificer, who lives near, is the -best in Thelemarken, the part of Norway most celebrated for this art. -The patterns used are, I hear, of very ancient date; being, in some -instances, identical with those on various metal articles discovered -from time to time in the barrows and cromlechs. - -The walls of the sitting-room are hung with some engravings on national -subjects, _e.g._, “Anna Kolbjörnsdatter og de Svenske,” “Olaf, killed -at Sticklestad,” and “Konrad Adeler, at Tenedos.” Kort Adeler, whose -name lives in a popular song by Ingemann, was born at Brevik, in 1622, -but took service under the Venetians, and on one occasion fought and -slew Ibrahim, the Turkish admiral. Ibrahim’s sword and banner are still -to be seen at Copenhagen. Adeler’s successor, as Norwegian Admiral, was -the renowned Niels Juel, the Nelson of the North. - -I saw tossing about the Manse an old Runic Calendar, which nobody -seemed to care anything about. It was found in the house when the -parson came there, and appeared occasionally to have been used -for stirring the fire, as one end was quite charred. Without much -difficulty I succeeded in rescuing it from impending destruction, and -possess it at this moment. Some of these calendars are shaped like a -circle, others like an ellipse. They were of two kinds. Messedag’s -stav (mass-day stave) and Primstav. But the latter term properly -applies to a much more complex sort of calendar than the other. It -contained not only runes for festivals and other days, but also the -Sunday letter or quarters of the moon for every golden number. Its -name is derived from prima luna, _i.e._, the first full moon after -the vernal equinox. The primstav proper was generally four feet long. -The almanack I here obtained is flat, and figured on two sides, not -as some of the old Anglo-Saxon calendars were, square, and figured on -four sides. It is shaped like a flat sword, an inch and a half broad -and half an inch thick, and is provided with a handle. The owner of it -appears to have been born on the 6th June, as his monogram which is on -the handle occurs again on that day. On the broad sides the days of the -week are notched, and on the narrow sides there is a notch for every -seventh day; _i.e._, the narrow sides mark the weeks, the broad sides -the days. - -The day-marks or signs do not go from January to July, and from July -to December. On the one side, which was called the Vetr-leid, winter -side, they begin with the 14th of October, or “winter night,” and -reach to the 13th of April. On the other side, which was called the -summer side, they begin with the 14th of April “summer night,” and -go to the 13th of October. The runes, or marks distinguishing the -days, are derived from a variety of circumstances: sometimes from the -weather, or farming operations, or from legends of saints. But it -must be observed that hardly two calendars can be found corresponding -to each other. Some are simpler, others more complex. In some, one -saint’s day is distinguished, in others another. Winter then began with -the old Norwegians on the 14th of October; Midwinter was ninety days -after--_i.e._, on the 11th January, and Midsummer ninety-four days from -the 14th of April. - -The great winter festival in honour of Thor, on 20th January, was -called Höggenät, _i.e._--slaughter-night.[4] This word is derived from -högge (to cut or hew), on account of the number of animals slaughtered -in honour of Thor. The word still survives in Scotland, in Hogmanáy -(the last night of the old year). - -Snorro Sturlesen informs us that it was Hacon the Good, foster-son -of our King Athelstan, who made a law that the great Asa, or heathen -festival, which used to be held for three successive days in January, -should be transferred to the end of December, and kept so many days as -it was usual to keep Christmas in the English Church. His missionaries -being Northmen who had resided in England, like St. Augustine, the -Apostle of England, accommodated themselves to the superstitions and -habits in vogue among the people they came to convert. The great -banquets, where people feasted on the flesh of horses and other -victims, were turned into eating and drinking bouts of a more godly -sort; and the Skaal to Odin assumed the shape of a brimming bowl to the -honour of the Redeemer, the Virgin, and the saints. In their cups, no -doubt, their ideas would become at times confused, and many a baptized -heathen would hiccup a health to Odin and Thor. Even now, as we have -seen, after the lapse of so many centuries, much of the old heathen -leaven infects their Christianity. - -We may here observe that the Norwegian word for Saturday is Löverdag, -_i.e._, washing-day, as a preparation for the Sunday festival, so that -the division of time into weeks of seven days must have originated in -Norway within the period of its conversion to Christianity. Herein, -then, they differed from the Anglo-Saxons, who called it Sæterndæg -(Saturns-day); while the South Germans called it after the Jewish -Sabbath, Sambaztag, now Samstag. The Scandinavians had exhausted their -great gods upon the other days. Sun and Moon, Tyr, Odin, Thor, and -Freya, had been used up, so they took the appropriate name Löverdag, -above-mentioned. - -The following are the old names of the Norsk months: - - Gormánaðr from Oct. 21 to Nov. 19. - Ýlir ” Nov. 20 ” Dec. 19. - Mörsúgr ” Dec. 20 ” Jan. 18. - Þorri ” Jan. 19 ” Feb. 17. - Goe, or Gœ ” Feb. 18 ” March 19. - Ein mánaðr ” March 20 ” April 18. - Gauk ” April 19 ” May 18. - Skerpla ” May 19 ” June 17. - Sólmánaðr ” June 18 ” July 22. - Heyannir ” July 23 ” Aug. 21. - Tvimánaðr ” Aug. 22 ” Sep. 20. - Haustmánaðr ” Sep. 21 ” Oct. 20. - -Some of these names are very appropriate, _e.g._, Gormánaðr is -gore-month, when so many victims were slaughtered. Ýlir, or Jýlir, is -the month that prepares for Yule. Mörsúgr refers to the good cheer -which people sucked up at that period. Þorri is said to come from -Þverra, to get short, because the good things are then nearly run out. -Gaukmánaðr is Gauk’s (cuckoo’s) month. Sólmánaðr is the sun’s month. -Heyannir is hay-time. Tvimánaðr (from tvi, two) is the second month -after midsummer, while Haustmánaðr is harvest (scotticè) “har’st” month. - -But our readers will think us becoming prosy, so we will mount the -cart, and discarding the society of the fat peasant woman who proposes -inflicting herself upon us, accept the kind offer of our intelligent -student to accompany us on our journey to Kos-thveit (Kos-thwaite, as -we should say in East Anglia), on the Lake of Totak. - -“Are there any songs current in the mouths of the peasants here?” -I inquired, as we drove very slowly along a narrow road, through -morasses, studded with birch. “This is pre-eminently the old fashioned -part of Norway, so I suppose if they are anywhere they are here.” - -“Oh, yes. There has been a student from Christiania wandering about -these parts lately, collecting songs for the purpose of publication. -Many of them are dying out fast. Some years ago, the girls used to -improvise over the loom. At weddings, lad and lass used to stevne (sing -staves) in amœbean fashion, on the spur of the moment.” - -Some of these pieces are highly witty and satirical. But the bonders -are very averse to repeating them. One of them, on being asked by the -student to repeat a stave, replied, “Ieg vil ikke være en Narr for -Byen-folk:” (I won’t play the fool to amuse the city folks.) - -Here is a specimen of one native to this part done into English. - -STAVE. - - _A._ Oh! fair is the sight to see, - When the lads and the lasses are dancin’; - The cuckoo, he calls from the tree, - And the birds through the green wood are glancin’! - - _B._ Oh! ’tis fair in Vining-town, - When to kirk the lovers repair: - Of other light need they have none, - So light is the bride’s yellow hair. - - _A._ Oh! fair is the sight I trow, - When the bride the kirk goes in, - No need of the torch’s glow, - So bright is her cherry chin.[5] - - _B._ Her neck’s like the driven snow, - Her hair’s like the daffodil, - Her eyes in their sockets glow, - Like the sun rising over the hill. - -The whole winds up with a description of the married life of the pair. - - _A._ The cock he struts into the house, - The bonder gives him corn, - The flocks on the northern lea browse, - And the shepherd he blows his horn. - - _B._ The shepherd the mountain ascends, - And the setting sun doth bide, - As blithe, when night descends, - As the bairns at merry Yule-tide. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - A lone farm-house--A scandal against the God Thor--The - headquarters of Scandinavian fairy lore--The legend of Dyrë - Vo--A deep pool--A hint for alternate ploughboys--Wild - goose geometry--A memorial of the good old times--Dutch - falconers--Rough game afoot--Author hits two birds with one - stone--Crosses the lake Totak--A slough of despond--An honest - guide--A Norwegian militiaman--Rough lodgings--A night with the - swallows--A trick of authorship--Yea or Nay. - - -At Kos-thveit, on the lake Totak, stands a lone farm-house, the -proprietor of which procured me a man and a maid to row me over the -dreary waters, now rendered drearier by a passing squall which overcast -the sky. Pointing to the westward, where the lake narrowed, and -receded under the shadows of the approaching mountains, the ferryman -told me that yonder lay the famous Urebro Urden,[6] where the god -Thor, when disguised by beer, lost his hammer, and cleared a road -through the loose rocks while engaged in searching for it. Indeed, -with the exception of Nissedal, in another part of Thelemarken, which -is reputed as the head quarters of trolls and glamour, this gloomy -lake and its vicinity abound, perhaps more than any part of Norway, in -tales of Scandinavia’s ancient gods and supernatural beings. The man -also mentioned the legend of Dyrë Vo, which has been put into verse by -Welhaven. - -The following version will give some idea of the legend-- - - The bonniest lad all Vinje thro’ - Was Dyrë of Vo by name, - Firm as a rock the strength, I trow, - Of twelve men he could claim. - “Well Dyrë,” quoth a neighbour bold, - “With trolls and sprites, like Thor of old, - To have a bout now fear ye?” - “Not a bit, were it mirk,” said Dyrë. - - Full soon, they tell, it did befal - That in the merry Yule-tide, - When cups went round, and beards wagg’d all, - And the ale was briskly plied: - All in a trice the mirth grew still: - Hark! what a sound came from the hill, - As a hundred steers lowed near ye. - “Well, now its right mirk,” quoth Dyrë. - - Then straightway he hied to Totak-vand, - And loosened his boat so snell; - But as he drew near to the other strand - He heard an eldritch yell. - “Who’s fumbling in the churn? What ho!” - “But who art thou?--I’m Dyrë Vo,-- - All in the moor, so weary; - And so dark as it is?” asked Dyrë. - - “I’m from Ashowe, and must away - To Glomshowe to my lady; - Bring the boat alongside, and do not stay, - And put out your strength: so; steady.” - “You must shrink a bit first,” was Vo’s reply, - “My boat is so little, and you so high; - Your body’s as long as a tall fir-tree, - And, remember, its dark,” said Dyrë. - - The Troll he shrunk up, quite funny to see, - Ere the boat could be made to fit him, - Then Dyrë--the devil a pin cared he - For Trolls--began to twit him. - “Now tell me, good sir, what giant you are.” - “No nonsense--you’ll rue it--of joking beware,” - Growled the Troll, so dark and dreary. - “Besides, it is mirk,” laughed Dyrë. - - But the Troll by degrees more friendly grew, - And said, when he over was ferried, - “In your _trough_ I’ll leave a token, to shew - The measure of him you’ve wherried. - Look under the thwarts when darkness wanes, - And something you’ll find in return for your pains; - A trifle wherewith to make merry.” - “For now it is mirk,” said Dyrë. - - When daylight appeared, a glove-finger of wool - He found in the boat--such a treasure-- - Four skeps it did take to fill it full, - Dyrë uses it for a meal-measure. - Then straight it became a proverb or saw, - Dyrë Vo is the lad to go like Thor - ’Gainst Trolls, and such like Feerie. - “Best of all when it’s mirk,” thought Dyrë. - -“Very deep, sir,” said the boatman, as I let out my spinning tackle, in -the faint hopes of a trout for supper. - -“Was the depth ever plumbed?” inquired I. - -“To be sure, sir. That’s a long, long time ago--leastways, I have heard -so. There was an old woman at Kos-thveit yonder, whose husband had the -ill-luck to be drowned in the lake. She set people to work to drag for -his body, but nowhere on this side of the country could she get a rope -sufficiently long for the work. So she had to send to the city for one. -At last they reached the bottom, and found the lake as deep as it was -broad, with a little to spare, for the rope reached from Kos-thveit to -Rauland, just across the water, and then went twice round the church, -which you see standing alone, yonder on the shore, three miles off.” - -“Who serves that church?” inquired I. - -“Vinje’s Priest,” he answered. “That was his boat-house we passed.” - -We landed on the eastern shore of the lake, at a spot called Hadeland, -where a cluster of farm-houses were to be seen upon a green slope, -showing some symptoms of cultivation. Richard Aslackson Berge, the -farmer at whose house I put up, a grimy, ill-clad fellow, quite -astounded me by the extent of his information. Catching sight of -my wooden calendar, he immediately fetched an old almanack, which -contained some explanation of the various signs upon the staff. Fancy -one of your “alternate ploughboys”--as the Dean of Hereford and other -would-be improvers of the clod-hopping mind, if I remember rightly, -call them--fancy one of these fellows studying with interest an -ancient Anglo-Saxon wooden calendar; and yet this man Berge, besides -this, talked of the older and younger Edda, the poem of Gudrun, and, -if my memory serves me, of the Nibelungenlied. He had also read the -Heimskringla Saga. The promoters of book-hawking and village lending -libraries will be interested to hear that this superior enlightenment -was due to a small lending library, which had been established by a -former clergyman of the district. There was a pithiness and simplicity -about this man’s talk which surprised me. - -“The wild geese,” says he, “come over here in the spring, and after -tarrying a few days make over to the north, in the shape of a -snow-plough.” Milton would have said, “Ranged in figure, wedge their -way.” - -Several old swords and other weapons have been dug up in the vicinity, -indicative of rugged manners and deeds quite in keeping with the rugged -features of the surrounding nature. On an old beam in the hay-loft -is carved, in antique Norsk--“Knut So-and-so was murdered here in -1685”--the simple memorial of a very common incident in those days. - -For the moderate sum of four orts (three and fourpence) I hire a horse -and a man to the shores of the Miösvand. To the left of our route--path -there is none--is a place called Falke Riese (Falcon’s Nest), where -Richard tells me that his grandfather told him he remembered a party -of Dutchmen being located in a log-hut, for the purpose of catching -falcons, and that they used duen (tame doves) to attract them. This is -interesting, as showing the method pursued by the grandees of Europe, -in the days of hawking, to procure the best, or Norwegian breed. At -one time, this sport was also practised by the great people of this -country. Thus, from Snorro, it appears that Eywind used to keep falcons. - -My guide, Ole, has been a soldier, but much prefers the mountain air to -that of the town. - -“In the town,” says he, “it is so traengt,” (in Lincolnshire, throng,) -_i.e._, no room to stir or breathe. - -In the course of conversation he tells me he verily believes I have -travelled over the whole earth. - -While the horse is stopping to rest and browse on a spot which afforded -a scanty pasturage, a likely-looking lake attracted my observation, and -I was speedily on its rocky banks, throwing for a trout--but the trout -were too wary and the water too still. While thus engaged, a distant -horn sounds from a mountain on the right, sufficiently startling -in such a desolate region. Was game afoot this morning, and was I -presently to hear-- - - The deep-mouthed blood-hound’s heavy bay, - Resounding up the hollow way. - -Game was afoot, but not of the kind usually the object of the chase. -The Alpine horn was blown by a sæter-lad to keep off the wolves, as I -was informed. As nothing was to be done with the rod, I tried the gun, -and as we slope down through the stunted willows and birch copses that -patch the banks of the Miösvand, I fall in with plenty of golden plover -and brown ptarmigan, and manage to kill two birds with one stone. In -other words, the shots that serve to replenish the provision-bag arouse -a peasant on the further side, who puts over to us in his boat, and -thus saves us a detour of some miles round the southern arm of the -lake. As we cross over, I perceive far to the westward the snow-covered -mountains of the Hardanger Fjeld, which I hope to cross. The -westernmost end of the lake is, I understand, twenty-four English miles -from this. To the eastward, towering above its brother mountains, is -the cockscombed Gausta, which lies close by the Riukan Foss, while all -around the scenery is as gaunt and savage as possible. At Schinderland, -where we land, after some palaver I procure a horse to Erlands-gaard, a -cabin which lies on the hither side of the northern fork of the Miösen, -said to be seven miles distant. But the many detours we had to make -to avoid the dangerous bogs, made the transit a long affair. In one -place, when the poor nag, encumbered with my effects, sank up to his -belly, I expected every moment to see the hungry bog swallow him up -entirely. With admirable presence of mind he kept quite still, instead -of exhausting himself in struggling, and then by an agile fling and -peculiar sleight of foot, got well out of the mess. - -The delay caused by these difficulties enabled me to bring down some -more ptarmigan, and have a bang at an eagle, who swept off with a sound -which to my ears seemed very like “don’t you wish you may get it.” But -perhaps it was only the wind driving down the rocks and over the savage -moorland. - -The modest charge of one ort (tenpence), made by my guide for horse and -man, not a little surprised me. I did not permit him to lose by his -honesty. - -Unfortunately, the boat at Erlands-gaard is away; so meanwhile I cook -some plover and chat with the occupants of the cabin. Sigur Ketilson, -one of the sons, is a Konge-man, (one of “the king’s men,” or -soldiers, mentioned in the ballad of “Humpty-dumpty.”) He has been out -exercising this year at Tönsberg, one hundred and forty English miles -off. The mere getting thither to join his corps is quite a campaign in -itself. On his road to headquarters he receives fourteen skillings per -diem as _viaticum_, and one skilling and a half for “_logiment_.” A -bed for three farthings! He is not forced to march more than two Norsk -(fourteen English) miles a day. The time of serving is now cut down -one-half, being five instead of ten years, and by the same law every -able-bodied person must present himself for service, though instead of -the final selection being made by lot, it is left to the discretion of -one officer--a regulation liable to abuse. - -At last the boat returns, and embarking in it by ten o’clock P.M., when -it is quite dark, I arrive at the lone farm-house at Holvig. Mrs. Anna -Holvig is reposing with her three children, her husband being from -home. There being only one bed on the premises, I find that the hay -this night must be my couch. The neighbouring loft where I slept was -a building with its four ends resting, as usual, on huge stones. At -intervals during the night I am awoke by noises close to my ear, which -I thought must be from infantine rats, whose organs of speech were not -fully developed. In the morning I discover that my nocturnal disturbers -were not rats, but swallows, who had constructed their mud habitations -just under the flooring where I slept. “The swallow twittering from its -straw-built nest” may gratify persons of an elegiac turn; but under the -circumstances the noise was anything but agreeable. - -“The breezy call of incense breathing morn,” in which the same poet -revels, was much more to my liking; indeed, one sniff of it made me as -fresh as a lark, and I picked my way to the house by the lake side, -and enjoyed my coffee. The little boy, Oiesteen Torkilson, though only -eight years of age, has not been idle, and has procured a man and horse -from a distant sæter. The price asked is out of all reason, as I don’t -hesitate to tell the owner. Before the bargain is struck, I jot down a -few remarks in my journal. With the inquisitiveness of her nation, the -woman asks what I am writing. “Notices of what I see and think of the -people; who is good, and who not.” Out bolts the lady, to apprise the -man of her discovery that “there’s a chield amang ye taking notes, and -faith he’ll print it.” My device succeeded. Presently she finished her -confab with the peasant, and returned to say that he would take a more -moderate payment. - -I observed here, for the first time, the difference between the two -words “ja” and “jo.” - -Have you seen a bear?--“Ja.” Haven’t you seen a bear?--“Jo.” I have -met educated Norwegians who had failed to observe the distinction. A -perfectly similar distinction was formerly made in England between -“yes” and “yea.”[7] - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - No cream--The valley of the Maan--The Riukan foss--German - students--A bridge of dread--The course of true love never - did run smooth--Fine misty weather for trout--Salted - provisions--Midsummer night revels--The Tindsö--The priest’s - hole--Treacherous ice--A case for Professor Holloway--The - realms of cloud-land--Superannuated--An ornithological - guess--Field-fares out of reach of “Tom Brown”--The best - kind of physic--Undemonstrative affection--Everywhere the - same--Clever little horses. - - -The path, I find, is at a higher level than I imagined, for, on -reaching a sæter, no bunker (sour milk, with a thick coating of cream) -is to be had, as the temperature is too low, the girl tells me, for the -process of mantling to take place. - -The horse being exceedingly lazy, I administered a rebuke to him, when -he was not slow in returning the compliment, striking me with his heels -in the thigh. Luckily I was close behind him, or the thread of my -story might have been abruptly snapped. - -Pine now begins to take the place of birch, and we descend very rapidly -into the valley of the Maan, pronounced Moan. To our right, among -the trees, is heard the roar of the famous Riukan foss, which at one -perpendicular shoot of nine hundred feet, discharges the waters of the -great Miösvand and other lakes into the valley. - -Leaving my guide to rest for a space, I plunged into the forest, and, -after a precipitous descent, espy a cottage close to the falls. Here -sat two strangers, regaling themselves on wild strawberries and milk, -while the master of the hut was carving a wooden shoe, and the mistress -suckling a baby. The travellers both wore spectacles and longish hair, -and a pocket-compass depending from their necks. Each carried a _beau -ideal_ of a knapsack, and I knew them at once to be German students. -After eating their meal, they observed that they had “yut yespeist,” -which stamped them at once to be from the Rhine; the pronunciation of -_g_ as _y_ being the shibboleth of detection. “Eine _y_ute _y_ebratene -_y_ans ist eine _y_ute _y_abe _Y_oddes” (a yood yoast yoose is a yood -yift of Yod), is a saying fastened on the Rhinelander by the more -orthoepic Hanoverian. But it is more than doubtful whether these good -people will have any opportunity in this country of tasting any such -delicacy. - -A few yards brought us to the magnificent amphitheatre of the Riukan, -on the further side of which we have the fall full in view. On the face -of the smooth, nearly perpendicular wall which shuts in the vast arena -to the right of us, is an exceedingly narrow ledge-- - - A bridge of dread, - Not wider than a thread-- - -along which foolhardy people have occasionally risked their -necks, either out of mere bravado or in order to make a short cut -to the Miösvand, which I left this morning. This is the famous -Mari-stien--everybody knows the legend about it--sadly exemplifying -the fact that the course of true love never did run smooth: how young -Oiesteen fell from it on his way to a stolen interview with Mary of -Vestfjordalen, and she lost her senses in consequence, and daily -haunted the spot for years afterwards, pale and wan, and silent as a -ghost, and is even now seen when the shades of evening fall, hovering -over the giddy verge of “The remorseless deep which closed o’er the -head of her loved Lycidas.” - -But as neither I nor the Teutons could see any possible good in risking -our necks for nought, and valued a whole skin and unbroken bones, -after assaying to take in and digest the wonderful sight, we presently -retraced our steps without setting foot on ledge. - -Five miles below this is Dœl, where some accommodation, at a dear rate, -is to be obtained of Ole Tarjeison. - -Next morning, the summit of Gausta, which rises just over the Maan -to the height of 5688 feet, and commands a magnificent view of the -district of Ringerike, is covered with cloud. But what is bad weather -to others, is good in the eyes of the fisherman. So, instead of -lamenting “the wretched weather,” I get out my trout-rod and secure -some capital trouts (at times they are taken here seven pounds in -weight), part of which I have sprinkled with salt, and put into the -provision-bag, with a view to the journey I purpose taking from hence -across the Fjeld to Norway’s greatest waterfall, the Vöringfoss, in the -Hardanger. - -While sauntering about, a printed notice, suspended in the passage of -the house, attracts my attention, which afforded a considerable insight -into the morals of the Norwegian peasant. It was dated April 18, 1853, -and was to this effect: The king has heard with much displeasure that -the old custom of young unmarried men running about at night, sometimes -in flocks (flokkeviis), especially on Sundays and saints’-days, after -the girls, while asleep in the cow-houses, has been renewed. His -Majesty, therefore, summons all Christian and sober-minded parents, -and house-fathers, to protect their children and servants from this -nocturnal rioting. He also calls upon them to keep the two sexes -apart, for the sake of order and good morals; and if the same shall -be detected conniving at these irregularities, they shall, for the -first offence, be mulcted one dollar seventy-two skillings; for the -second offence, double that amount, &c. The young men shall have the -same punishment; and, for the third offence, be confined from three -to six months with hard labour in a fortress. Girls who receive such -clandestine visits, shall be punished in like manner. Informers shall -be entitled to receive the fine. All Government officers are required -to make known these presents. This notice must be read at churches, -posted in conspicuous places, and sent about by messengers. - -Here, then, I obtained the certain knowledge of a custom--similar -to one which still lingers in Wales--which I had suspected to be -prevalent, but the existence of which the inhabitants of the country, -for some reason or other, I found slow to admit. The above ordinance -is a renewal of a similar one made 4th March, 1778, from which it -appears that the immorality of “Nattefrieri” (night-courting) has long -prevailed in Norway. - -Eight English miles below this the Maan finds ample room and verge -enough to expatiate in the deep Tindsö, which is, perhaps, one of the -most dangerous lakes in Norway, being subject to frightfully sudden -storms; while the precipitous cliffs that bound it, for the most part -only afford foothold to a fly, or such like climbers. There is an old -tale about this lake, illustrative of the dangers to which a clergyman -is subject in the discharge of his duties. Many years ago, the parson -of the parish had to cross over the lake to do duty in the “annex -church” at Hovind. The weather was threatening; but his flock awaited -him, and so he started, commending himself to God and his good angels. -Long before he approached his destination, the wind had so increased -in violence that the boatmen were overpowered, and the boat was dashed -to pieces against the adamantine walls of the Haukanes Fjeld. All on -board were lost but the priest, who was carried by the billows into -a small cleft in the rock, far above the usual high-water mark. For -three days he sat wedged in this hole, from whence there was no exit. -On the fourth day, the winds and waves abated; and some boatmen, who -were rowing by, as good fortune would have it, heard the faint cry -for assistance which the captive gave, as he saw them from his “coin -of vantage.” And so he was rescued from his terrible predicament; -and the notch in the wall still goes by the name of the Prestehul, -“Priest’s-hole.” - -Bishop Selwyn, with his well-found yacht, sailing among the deep bays -of New Zealand, confirming and stablishing the Maoris in the Christian -faith, will have to wait a long time before he can meet with such an -adventure as the Tindsö priest. But then you’ll say, in winter time it -is all right, and the parson can dash along over the ice, defying the -dangers of the deep and the bristling rocks. Not so, however; there -are not unfrequently weak places in the ice, which look as strong as -the rest, but which let in the unfortunate traveller. Not long ago, -five men and a horse were thus engulphed. So in the Heimskringla Saga, -King Harold and his retinue perish by falling through the ice on the -Randsfjord, at a place where cattle-dung had caused it to thaw. - -Giving up all thoughts of ascending the Gausta,--as I understand the -chance of a view from it in this misty weather is very precarious,--I -hire a horse from one Hans Ostensen Ingulfsland, to convey my luggage -to Waage, on the Miösvand. Hans was ill, apparently of a deranged -stomach and liver, and, with rueful aspect, consulted me on his case. -All the medicine he had was what he called a _probatum_, in a small -bottle. The probatum turned out to be a specific for the gravel, as I -saw from a label on the flask; so I gave him what was more likely to -suit his case, some blue pill and rhubarb. - -Hans’ father used to entertain travellers, but his charges became so -high that all his customers forsook him; and M. Doel, who appears to be -in a fair way to imitate his predecessor, set up in “the public line.” - -Hitherto the valley has been clear of cloud; and on arriving at Vaa, -I stop to rest, and sketch the distant smoke of the Riukan ascending -from its rocky cauldron towards heaven. Presently the mist, which had -all the morning hidden the “comb” of Gausta, threw off a few flakes; -these gradually extend and unite, and pour along the mountain-tops to -my left, and in a few minutes reach to and absorb the smoke of Riukan, -and hide it from view. Up boil the fogs, as if by magic, from all -sides; and, like the image of Fame, in _Virgil_, the vapour rises from -the depths of the valley, and reaches up to the sky. Doubtless it was -the spirit of the place, wroth at my profane endeavour to represent -her shrine on paper; and the sullen “moan” of the stream might, by -an imaginative person, have been supposed to be the utterance of her -complaint. - -In the foreground, intently watching my operations as he sits upon a -rock, is old Peer Peerson Vaa, who being over eighty, is past work, -and having no children, has sold his Gaard to one Ole Knutzen, on the -condition of having his liv-brod (life-bread)--_i.e._, being supported -till his death. This is not an uncommon custom in Norway. He is -“farbro” (uncle) to the man at Dœl. - -Observe the simplicity of the language. So the Norsk for “aunt” is -“moerbro,”--mother’s brother. - -I here obtain a dollar or two of small change, with which I am ill -provided. It is curious, by-the-bye, to see how one of these bonders -looks at half-a-dozen small coins before he is able to reckon the -amount. This is in consequence of the infrequency of money up the -country. - -As we ascend the Pass, I observe some dusky-looking birds, which -turn out to be ringouzels. According to a Norwegian whom I consulted -on the subject, they are the substitute, in a great measure, if not -altogether, in this part of the country, for the - - Ouzel cock, so black of hue, - With orange-tawny bill, - -whose plaintive song so delights us in Great Britain. - -Several fieldfares, also, chattered in a startled and angry manner -as they rose from the low birch bushes, impatient, no doubt, for the -period, now fast approaching, when their young ones will be ready to -fly and start for Germany, one of their chief winter _habitats_, where, -under the appellation of “Krammets-vogel,” they will appear in the bill -of fare at the hotels. What an odd notion, to be sure, of all these -birds going so far to lie-in! What an infinity of trouble they would -save themselves if they stopped, for instance, during the breeding -period, in Germany or England! Aye; but then they would be exposed to -the depredations of “Tom Brown” and others of the genus schoolboy, -whose destructive and adventurous qualities generally first develop -themselves in the bird-nesting line. - -One of the straps which fastened my luggage to the horse having broken, -my guide very soon constructs, of birch twig, a strap and buckle -which holds as fast as any leathern one I ever saw. This fertility -of invention is due to the non-division of labour. What could an -Englishman have done under similar circumstances? - -Halvor Halvorsen, my guide, is a poor weakly fellow, and having seen -me prescribe for Ingulfsland, he asks me if I can do anything for him. -Good living and less hard work are all he wants; but, unfortunately, -while he has plenty of the latter, he gets but little of the former. On -his back is a great load of milk-pails, and some provisions (potatoes -and flad-brod) for his spouse, who is taking care of a sæter, which we -shall pass. - -At length we arrive there: it is a cot of unhewn stone-slabs, and -before the door a lot of dried juniper-bushes, the only firing -which the desolate plateau affords. Gro Johannsdatter, a really -pretty-looking young woman, with delicate features, smiles in a -subdued manner as we enter, and thanks her husband quietly and -monosyllabically for bringing up the food. This, together with her -little boy, she proceeds to examine with inquisitive, eager eye. The -larder was doubtless nearly empty. She then gives her husband, whom she -had not seen for some time, a furtive look of affection, but nothing -more--no embrace, no kiss. How undemonstrative these people are! It -is a remarkable characteristic of the lower orders of Norway, that, -unlike their betters, they never think of kissing or embracing before -strangers. Compare this with those demonstrations in Germany and -France, where not the opposite sexes, but great bearded men, will kiss -each other on either cheek with the report of popguns, regardless of -bystanders. - -Presently they go into the inner compartment of the hut, and then at -length I believe I heard the sound of a kiss. While she makes up the -fire, and boils some milk for her husband, who has many hours of -mountain still before him, I endeavour to take a slight sketch of her -and the abode. - -No sooner does she become aware of my intentions, than, with true -feminine instinct, she begs me to wait a moment, while she divests -herself of an ugly clout of a kerchief which hides a very pretty neck. -The sketch concluded, she asks for a sight of it, and, with a pleased -smile, exclaims, “No, no; I’m not so smuk (pretty, smug) as that.” - -These châlets, by-the-bye, are not called sæter in this part of Norway, -but stol, or stöl. They are very inferior in accommodation to those in -the Hardanger district and elsewhere. - -Beyond crossing a river, Humle-elv, when, by my guide’s recommendation, -I spring on the horse’s back, I find nothing noted in my diary -concerning the rest of the day’s journey. - -These little horses will carry up and down steep mountains from -fifteen Norwegian Bismark lbs. (nearly two hundred weight English) up -to twenty-two. How the little nag, with my luggage and myself on his -back, managed to win his way over the stream, which was at least two -feet deep, and among the large slippery stones on its bottom, it was -difficult to divine. They are very cats for climbing, though they do -not share that animal’s aversion to water, which they take to as if it -was their natural element. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - An oasis--Unkempt waiters--Improving an opportunity--The church - in the wilderness--Household words--A sudden squall--The - pools of the Quenna--Airy lodgings--Weather-bound--A - Norwegian grandpapa--Unwashed agriculturists--An uncanny - companion--A fiery ordeal--The idiot’s idiosyncrasy--The - punctilious parson--A pleasant query--The mystery of making - flad-brod--National cakes--The exclusively English phase of - existence--Author makes a vain attempt to be “hyggelig”--Rather - queer. - - -It was already dark when we emerged from the morasses and loose rocks, -and lighted by good luck on the little patch of green sward on the -northern shores of the Misövand, adjoining the farm-house of Waagen. On -referring to the map, reader, and finding this spot set down upon it, -your imagination, of course, pictures a regular village, or something -of that sort; but this is not the case. A couple of gaards, with a belt -of swampy grass land, are all the symptoms of man to enliven this -intensely solitary waste of grey rocks, bog, birch, and water. - -The proprietors are Gunnuf Sweynsen and his brother Torkil, together -with one Ole Johnson, a cousin. Gunnuf is absent, guiding the Germans -across the Fjeld. - -The best method to proceed is, I find, to take boat from here to -Lien, which is about twenty-four miles distant, at the very top or -north-eastern end of the lake; a horse must then be procured to carry -my effects for the other seventy English miles across the mountains. A -bargain is soon struck with Johnson, who has once before traversed most -of the route; and for the sum of eight dollars (thirty-six shillings -English) he undertakes to horse and guide me the whole way to the -Hardanger. - -The stabur, or hay-loft, affords me a tolerable night’s resting-place. -There were no women-folk about to make things comfortable; so I managed -with the three unkempt _valets de chambre_ instead, who boiled me some -coffee, greased my boots, and did the needful quite as well as one -of those short-jacketed, napkin-carrying, shilling-seeking German -kellners who supersede the spruce chamber-maid of the English inn. - -By early day we walk across the dew-dank meadow down to the shore of -the lake, while a few black ducks, which scuttle off at our approach, -warn me to get my fowling-piece ready. The water is so shallow near -the land, that the boat gets aground; and the men are in the water in -a moment and pushing her off, and into the boat again in a twinkling -as she shot into the deeps, the water streaming from their legs in -cascades, about which they seemed to care as little as the black ducks -aforesaid. - -As we glide out into the offing, my spinning-tackle is got out, as I -determine to improve the opportunity, and see what the lake can boast -of in the way of fish. A banging trout is soon fixed on the deadly -triangles which garnishes the sides of the bright metal minnow, to the -great delight of the boatmen, to whom the operation is entirely novel. - -Take warning, piscatorial reader, from me, and mind you use a plaited -line with spinning-tackle. In my hurry I had used a fine twisted one, -which kinked up into a Gordian knot the moment it was slack, and I lost -some time in getting out another line. - -Yonder, on the western shore of the lake, standing in the midst of the -silent wilderness, rises the solitary house of God where the people of -these parts worship, its humble spire of wood reflected on the surface -of the lake. With the exception of Hovden Church and our boat, the -waters and shores exhibit nothing else indicative of the proximity of -man. - -The congregation must be a very scattered one, for if ever people dwelt -few and far between, it is in these solitudes. Not one of the three -clergymen of the parishes of Vinje, Sillejord, and Tind, who share in -the Sunday duty which is performed here a dozen times a year, can live -under fifty miles off. A Diocesan Spiritual Aid Society is certainly -wanted in these regions. - -Such words as “hyre,” to hire; “ede,” to eat; “beite,” to bite; -“aarli,” early, let drop by the boatmen in the course of conversation, -remind me that I am in a part of the country where a portion of the -old tongue still keeps its ground, such as it was when brought over -to England, and engrafted on its congener, the Anglo-Saxon, nearly a -thousand years ago. - -Quite a tempest of wind now suddenly springs up, sending us along at a -great pace, and rendering it difficult, when I now and then caught a -trout by the tackle trailing astern, to lay-to and secure the fish. The -twenty-four miles were soon behind us, and we found ourselves in the -Quenna river. “Ducks ahead!” was the cry of the lively Torkil, and my -fowling-piece soon added fowl to the fish. No fear of starvation now, -even though the larder at Lien prove to be empty. - -As it is some hours to nightfall, I rig my fly-rod, and try the pools -of the Quenna. Some fat, cinnamon-coloured flies, which I found -reposing under the stones, being hardly yet strong enough on the wing -to disport themselves aloft, gave me a hint as to the sort of fly that -would go down, and, my book containing some very similar insects, I -had no lack of sport, securing several nice fish. They do run as large -as five pounds, I hear. - -On returning to the small farm-house where I was to spend the night, -a horse, I found, had been procured; and as a beautiful evening gave -promise of a fine day on the morrow, we prepared to start by earliest -dawn. My bed of skins was, as usual, laid in the hay-shed; and I -retired in the highest possible spirits at the prospect of crossing the -desolate and grand mountain-plateau that separates us from the western -shores of Norway. - -As this spot stands at an elevation of some three thousand feet above -the sea, there were no pine-trees growing near; so the shed was -constructed of undressed birch poles, and was about as weather-tight -as a blackbird’s wicker cage. The chinks near my pillow I stopped up -with loose hay. Vain precaution! Before dawn I awoke, cold and stiff. -The weather had changed; my sleeping-chamber was become a very temple -of the winds, and the storm made a clean breach through the tenement, -having swept out the quasi-oakum which I had stuffed into the crevices. - -On issuing from my dormitory, I found the weather was frightful. A -deluge of rain, and wind, and thick mist filled the space between earth -and sky. To attempt the passage of the Fjeld was not to be thought -of, as there is no road whatever. Departure, therefore, being out -of the question, I made up my mind to another day’s sojourn at the -cottage, which was the most comfortless, dirty spot I ever met with in -Thelemarken; and that is saying a good deal. During the day, most of -the natives--Ole, my guide, among the rest--were away at the châlet. -Besides myself, there were only two other persons left at home; and -these, as my journey is at a stand-still, I may as well describe. - -A tall, old man, his height bowed by the weight of more than eighty -years, sat in a kubbe-stol--a high backed chair, made out of a solid -trunk of tree, peculiar to Thelemarken--warming his knees at the fire -in the corner, and mumbling to himself. Presently he lay down on a -bench, and snored. Before long up he got, and spooned up a quantity -of cold porridge; and then, turning his bleared eyes at me, as I sat -finishing a sketch of the interior of the dwelling, including himself, -croaked out,-- - -“Er du Embedsman?” (Art thou a Government servant?) - -“No.” - -“Well, that’s odd.” - -And then he commenced warming his knees and mumbling, and then snored -as before, extended on the bench; and before long, rose and spooned -up porridge. These were his daily and hourly avocations. His name was -a grand one--Herrbjörn Hermanson--but the owner of it was disgusting. -No wonder; he never washes at all, so that the appearance of his -countenance may be conceived. When he departs this life he will undergo -ablution. - -_Apropos_ of this, in the absence of a better occupation, I gave a -classic turn to the affair, and in my thoughts altered a line of -Juvenal:-- - - Pars bona _Norwegiæ_ est, si verum admittimus, in qua - Nemo sumit _aquam_ nisi mortuus. - -That I don’t think is a libel. Indeed, with “the wretchlessness of -most unclean living”--this application of the words of the Seventeenth -Article is not mine, but a late geological Dean of Westminster’s, in -his sermon on the cholera--the inhabitants of this country generally -have a very practical acquaintance. - -The other person who kept at home all day, was a young fellow of -thirty, with swarthy face and gleaming eyes. His dark, shaggy head of -hair was surmounted by a cap like that worn by the Finns, with a bunch -of wild flowers stuck in a red band that encircled it. His dress was a -short jacket, skin knee-breeches, and jack-boots. His time was occupied -between smearing the boots with reindeer fat, sharpening a knife of -formidable dimensions, and casting small bullets; while ever and anon -he would repair to a small looking-glass of three inches square, hung -against the wall, and contemplate a very forbidding, peculiar set of -features therein. There was something uncanny about the look of the -fellow which I did not much relish. Presently he takes my pipe from the -table, and coolly commences smoking it. Subsequently I find that Joh -is not as other men are, and only half in possession of his senses. - -Some twenty years ago tame reindeer were introduced upon these -mountains from Finmark, and great things were expected from the -importation; but the enterprize did not answer; and a couple of years -ago the proprietors slaughtered all the deer, and there was a great -merry-making at a farm called Norregaard on the occasion. Deep drinking -was the order of the day; raw potato brandy was gulped down in profuse -quantities. For forty-eight hours without intermission did the bout -continue. Like Paddy’s noddle in respect to the shillelagh, most of -these mountaineers’ heads are proof against the knock-me-down power of -strong alcohol. Not so Joh’s, who was one of the party; in the midst -of the festivities he lost his reason, and went stark staring mad. -It was long before he quieted down; since then he has never done any -work, or shared in the labours of the rest of the family; nothing will -persuade him, however, to touch brantviin now. The burnt child dreads -the fire--the brandy must formerly have had a fearful fascination for -him. I drew a cork from a small flask with me; the moment the sound -caught his ear, his face whirled round to where I sat with the rapidity -of an automaton, and he glared a look of peculiar meaning at me from -underneath his heavy eyebrows, which at the time I could not comprehend. - -But though he is averse to all regular work, there is one thing I find -on which he spares no pains,--reindeer stalking. This is the occupation -on which he starts day after day, without speaking a word to the rest -of the household; in season and out of it, he is continually alone on -the mountains around. Outside the door are a dozen pairs of antlers, -the trophies of his skill. Only last week he shot a female deer, the -fifth or sixth this summer, although the season fixed by law has not -yet arrived. But he is out of the ken of informers. - -Drying on the wall outside is a rein-skin, and in the house are two or -three hides which his ingenuity has converted into leather. His boots -are of that material--so are his knee-breeches. He is often absent -for days on the mountain, not unfrequently sleeping under a rock. If -he discovers a flock of deer in a spot where the nature of the ground -will not permit of his getting within shot, he bides till they move, -dodging about unperceived. Not long since, he killed two specimens -of the Fjeld-frass, or glutton, whose scent is said to be incredibly -keen, nosing wounded game miles off. One of these wretches he saw track -and catch and kill a wounded (skamskudt) deer; and while it was thus -occupied he stole upon it unawares, and became possessed of deer and -glutton both. - -At all events, he showed more gumption on this occasion than an -English parson with whom I am acquainted. One day he saw that -diminutive British equivalent to the glutton--a weazel--pursuing -similar tactics--overtake an unfortunate hare. As usual, poor puss was -fascinated, and her legs refused their office in the way of flight; -but each time the ferocious little creature tried to fasten upon her, -she knocked it over with her paws, jumping at it and pushing it over. -Off set the parson, not to smash the brute with his cane, but to tell -his Grace’s keeper. It is needless to add, that when he returned with -that functionary the vampire quadruped had got on the hare’s neck, and -sucked all the blood out of its veins, managing to get clean off to -boot. - -But to return to Joh. Observing me engaged in frying trout, he suddenly -exclaims--the first word he had spoken--“Kann De spise reen?” (can you -eat reindeer?) “To be sure.” Upon which he bolted out of the hut, and -soon returned with a lump of venison weighing perhaps four pounds, -which he silently placed on the board. It was evident to me that Joh -was a person of capabilities; and I soon got him to work, repairing my -knapsack and gun-case. A few artificial flies, of which he was not slow -in comprehending the meaning, rewarded his endeavours in the saddler’s -art. - -Towards evening the family returned from the sæter,--two strapping -maidens, Kari and Gunhild, among the number. The occupation in which -some of the party forthwith engaged--the mystery or craft of making -flad-brod, the national esculent--soon drove me into the fresh air. -At a table sits one of the girls, roller in hand, busily engaged in -rolling out huge flat cakes of dough, sprinkling them with water by -means of a little brush. The Alfred of the occasion was the father of -Joh, who, with a sort of trowel, whips up the cakes, and flaps them -down on the girdle-iron, a flat disk, about three-quarters of a yard in -diameter. At the proper moment he gives them a turn, and in a minute -they are done, and whisked into the hands of the other girl, who piles -them on a table. The girdle-iron being large, the smoke is prevented -ascending the chimney in its natural way, and becomes dissipated all -over the one sitting-room of the house, and this it is that drives me -out of it. - -This favourite food is sometimes prepared in sufficient quantities for -a whole winter’s consumption. I have seen, in a large gaard, nearly a -dozen Abigails hard at work kneading, sprinkling, rolling, and baking -the cakes. The only time when they are endurable to the palate, in my -opinion, is when they are just warm off the fire. When warm, they are -flexible, and are then folded up compactly, if wanted for travelling. - -Another national cake, something like a pikelet in taste and -consistency, is the waffel-kage, which is about half an inch thick, -oblong, and moulded into squares; this is by no means to be despised. - -I was early down among the hay for the purpose of recruiting my -vital energies for the morrow, when our work was cut out for us, -and plenty of it. The interstices between the bars of the cage were -weather-tightened afresh, and I was resolved to be as cosy and -comfortable as circumstances would permit. Neither the French nor -the Germans have any word to represent that very pleasant accident -of our being, which we call comfort; so they borrow the word and its -derivatives out and out from our English vocabulary when they desire -to express a thing, which, after all, they cannot possibly have -experienced practically. Only fancy, then, the Norwegians presuming -to think of such a phase of existence. And yet they have a word said -to answer exactly to our word “comfortable,”--viz., “hyggelig,” from -hygge; which is, no doubt, identical with our word “to hug,” or -embrace. - -Anyhow, my efforts to be “hyggelig” were not successful that night. -Like the Grecian hero under different circumstances, I could not rest; -no wonder, therefore, I was up and stirring early; indeed, I had been -stirring all night. The sun shone out brightly, every leaf and blade -of grass and rock reflecting his rays from their moist surfaces. The -rain had ceased falling from the clouds, but not from the mountains. -The river was brimful and roaring fiercely, the toying cascades of -twenty-four hours ago now swollen into blustering cataracts, while -fresh ones were improvised for the occasion. But, alas! I was ill -fitted for enjoying the glorious scene. Ague-fits shot through my limbs -and frame; and even before we started, I felt as if I had already -travelled many miles. - -It was clear I had caught cold, if nothing worse; but there was no -help for it. The very idea of stopping another day in this den, with -Joh and Herrbjörn for my companions, was intolerable. Seventy miles, -it is true, lay before me, and not a house on the route. Behind me it -was a good fifty miles back to civilized life, and double or treble -that distance to a doctor. “Nulla retrorsum,” too, is my motto, unless -things come to such a pass as they did with Havelock’s men on the road -to Lucknow. The upshot was that I trusted in Providence, and set my -breast manfully to the mountain, supported by that inward consciousness -of endurance so dear to a Briton, which every now and then tried to -express itself, comically enough, by feebly humming “There’s life in -the old dog yet.” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - Northwards--Social colts--The horse shepherd--The tired - traveller’s sweet restorer, tea--Troll-work--Snow - Macadam--Otter hunting in Norway--Normaends Laagen--A vision - of reindeer--The fisherman’s hut--My lodging is on the cold - ground--Making a night of it--National songs--Shaking down--A - slight touch of nightmare. - - -Leaving the angry Quenna, we struck northward up a gradual ascent of -rock, polished apparently by former rains, its surface fissured at -intervals by deep cracks, and dabbed with patches of yellow moss, -dwarf birch, and glaucous willow, but, for the most part, fortunately -affording capital walking ground. A covey of grey ptarmigan, a snipe -or two, and some golden plover, rose before us; but I felt so weak and -ill that I had not the heart to load my fowling-piece, which the little -horse bore, along with my other effects, attached to the straddle. - -As we journey along, a distant neigh (in Thelemarken speech “neija,” -in Norwegian, “vrinske,”) reaches my ear, and I descry three colts -bounding down the rocks to us. On joining our party, seemingly tired -of the loneliness of the mountain, and delighted at the idea of a new -equine companion, they dance round our little nag in most frolicksome -mood. In spite of all we can do to prevent them, they stick to us, now -in front, now alongside, now at our rear. At this moment a man’s voice -is heard, and a wild figure in frieze jacket, of the true Thelemarken -cut, knee-breeches, and bare calves, rushes up breathless. “Well, -Ambrose,” said my guide, “I thought they were yours, but they would -follow us. We couldn’t stop them.” Indeed, Ambrose found the task -equally difficult. He had never taken lessons from Mr. Rarey. It was -only by seizing the ringleader by his forelock, and hanging heavily -with the other arm on his neck, he managed to turn him from the error -of his way, which would most likely have only terminated with our day’s -journey’s end. - -“And who is Ambrose?” inquired I. “Where is his Stöl? I see no symptoms -of one.” - -“Stöl! bless you, langt ifra (far from it). He is a flytte-maend. He -comes up on the mountain with a lot of horses and Nöd (Scoticè nowt, -horned cattle), for about six weeks in the summer. He has a bag of -meal, and he lives upon that and the milk of one milking cow, which -he has with him. At night, he sleeps under a rock or stone, flitting -about from place to place, wherever he can find grass for the cattle. -He receives a small sum a head for his trouble, when he has taken them -back safe and sound.” - -Hard life of it, thought I. Bad food and worse lodging; not to mention -that the beasts of prey occasionally diminish the number of his charge, -and with it the amount of his earnings. - -After toiling along for twenty English miles of treeless wilderness, -skirting several lakes, floundering through many bogs, and sitting on -the horse as he forded one or two rivers, we reached a knoll, which -the guide called Grodhalse. It was a curious spot: itself green and -smiling with grassy herbage; behind it, higher up the slope, patches of -unmelted snow; while at our feet ran a rill of snow-water. - -“We must qvile (_i.e._, while = rest) here a bit,” said Ole. “There is -no other grass to be found for many miles.” - -“Well, then, light a fire in a moment,” said I, a cold shudder running -through me the very moment I stood still, and I at once enveloped -myself in my pea-coat, buttoning the collar over my ears. “Fill that -kettle with water, and have it boiling as soon as ever you can. Here -are some matches.” The green prickly juniper scrub, which he forthwith -dragged up by the roots, soon blazed up with the proverbially transient -crackling of fire among the thorns; and the little copper kettle which -I had prudently caused to be brought soon succeeded in first simmering -and then boiling. Dickens’s kettle on the hob never uttered such -delightful music. - -If I had been philosophically inclined, and had possessed a -thermometer, which I did not, I might have availed myself of the -opportunity of ascertaining the exact height we had reached, by seeing -at what number of degrees the fluid boiled. But what was much more -to the purpose, I had some tea at hand, and two quarts of the hot -infusion, with a thimblefull of brandy, were soon under my belt. Never -did opium, or bang, or haschish-eater experience such a sweet feeling -stealing over the sense. Talk of a giant refreshed with wine: give me -tea when I am knocked up. The chemistry-of-common-life people will talk -to you about Theïne and its nutritious qualities, but until that moment -I did not know what tea would do for you. My eyes, which just before -were half blind, saw again. My blood, which seemed to be curdled into -thick, heavy lumps, in my veins, was liquified afresh. That of St. -Januarius never underwent such a quick metamorphosis. Mr. Waterton will -excuse the allusion. - -The knoll was at a very high level; the snow behind us, and the icy -runnel issuing from its bowels at our feet, gave a keenness to the -air, but the tea[8] put me in a genial perspiration, the pea-coat -aiding and abetting by keeping in the caloric. And when the little -horse, refreshed by his nibble, was caught and reloaded, I loaded my -fowling-piece, and felt quite strong enough to carry it. Before long we -were among some grey ptarmigan, and I brought one or two down.[9] - -“Curious spot, this,” said I, to the guide, as we came to an -amphitheatrical ridge of abraded rock, on the very edge of which rested -huge blocks[10] of stone, some pivoted on their smallest face. The -cause of the phenomenon was evident. The glacier power, which formerly -moved these stones onward, day by day, had been arrested--_opera -imperfecta manebant_--and so the blocks came to a stand still where -they now are. “They must have been placed there by the Trolls,” I -observed, giving a peep at Ole’s countenance. “Kanskee” (perhaps), was -his slow and thoughtful reply. - -“You ought to see this in winter time,” he continued. “No stones to -be seen then--no impediments. We go straight ahead. I travelled last -winter, on snow-shoes, sixty miles in the day.” - -Winter is, emphatically, the time for locomotion here; the crooked ways -are made straight, and the mountains smooth. - -“What’s that?” said I, pointing to a snail, browsing on the irregularly -round leaf of a species of dwarf sorrel, which grows high on the -mountains. A “sneel,” said he. “Snecke” is the modern Norwegian -appellation. - -Ole is a bit of a sportsman, and has committed havoc among the -reindeer. Last winter he killed a couple of otters, and got two dollars -and a half for their skins. - -“And where did you find the otters?” inquired I, curious to know -whether these animals imitate the seal and walrus, and make breathing -holes in the solid ice. “Oh, they keep in the foss-pools of the -rivers, which are the only places not frozen over. Now and then they -cut across the land from one pool to another. I followed them on -snow-shoes, and killed them with a stave. A man paa ski (on snow-shoes) -can overtake an otter.” - -“It is strange,” he went on, “we have seen no ‘reen.’ I never came over -these mountains without seeing them.” - -But in fact the day had now become overcast, and, fearful of a relapse, -I had abstained from stopping to examine the surrounding objects more -narrowly. We had now arrived on the left of a lake, about fourteen -miles long, the name of which is Normaends Laagen. Between us and the -lake intervened a stony plain, grassed over at intervals, perhaps half -a mile in breadth; while close to our left, some little still valleys -ran up towards the higher plateau. - -“There they are,” exclaimed Ole, pointing to ten reindeer, feeding -about two hundred yards off, between us and the lake. The discovery was -mutual and simultaneous; for, with an oblique squint at us, their white -scuts flew up, and they trotted leisurely to the southward. - -“Shall I put a bullet into the gun?” asked I. - -“No use whatever,” said Ole. “They’ll be miles off in a few minutes.” - -And, sure enough, I could see them clearing the ground at a lazy -canter, and presently disappear behind some rising ground. - -Our lodging for the night was to be at a place called Bessebue. This -was a stone hut erected by some fishermen, who repair hither in the -autumn with a horse or two and some barrels of salt, and catch the -trout which abound in the lake. At that period, the fish approach -the shore from out of the deeps to spawn, and are taken in a garn, -_i.e._, standing net of very fine thread. At other times the hut -is uninhabited. But to my guide’s surprise we find that there are -occupants. These are two brothers from Urland, on the Sogne Fjord, -about sixty miles from this. They are fine young fellows, named -Nicholas and Andreas Flom, who have come up here with 110 head of -cattle to feed on the shores of the lake. None but a Norwegian farmer -would think of making such an excursion as this. In September they will -drive them direct across the mountains to Kongsberg for sale. A drove -of this sort, I find, is called drift,[11] and the drovers driftefolk. - -With much good nature these young fellows offered to share with us all -the accommodation that Bessebue afforded. “But,” said they, “we have -already got three travellers arrived, who are going to stop the night.” - -Now Bessebue, or Bessy’s bower, as I mentally nicknamed it, albeit -there was not a ghost of a Bessy about the premises, though it might -in an ordinary way lodge a couple of wayfarers did not seem to offer -anything like ample room and verge enough for “the seven sleepers” who -proposed lodging there that night. Its accommodation consisted of one -room, built of dry stones, with a hole in one corner of the roof for -a chimney, the floor being divided into two unequal parts by a ledge -or slab of stone, which served for table, and chair, and shelf. The -room might be seven or eight feet square, (not so big as the bed of -Ware,) part of which, however, was taken up by certain butter and milk -pails and horse furniture. So, how we were all to sleep I did not know. -Nevertheless, the shivering demon was again clapperclawing me--“Poor -Tom’s acold.”--The good effects of the tea had evaporated, and aches -of all sorts throbbed within my frame. So I settled down passively on -the stone ledge, and warmed my wet toes against the reeking, sputtering -brands of juniper twig that blazed at intervals, and served to show, in -the advancing night, the black, slimy, damp-looking sides of the hut. -Above my head was the smoke hole; behind me, on the floor, were the -skins which formed the drovers’ couch. - -After swallowing a fresh jorum of tea, I sank into this, my pea-coat -all around me, and my sou’-wester, with its flannel lining and -ear-covers tied under my chin; the younger drover, with all the -consideration of a tender nurse, tucking me in under the clothes. In -spite of my superfluity of clothing, and the smoke with which the -apartment was filled, I had great difficulty in getting warm. After -eating their simple suppers by the light of the fire, a song was -proposed, and one of the three strangers proceeded to sing, in a clear -manly voice, the national song on Tordenskiold.[12] - -The glow of the juniper wood, which had now burnt down into a heap of -red embers, lit up the features, grave but cheery, of the singer and -the hearers; and all sick as I was, I enjoyed the whole immensely, -after a dreamy fashion, and longed for the brush of a Schalken to -represent the strange scene. Here we were, on a wild, trackless, -treeless, savage mountain, with creature comforts none, and yet these -simple fellows, without any effort, were enjoying themselves a vast -deal more than many with all the conventional appliances and means to -secure mirth. - -The song of “Gamle Norge,” the “Rule Britannia” of the North, of -course succeeded. After this a song-book was produced from a crevice -under the eaves, and, as the fire was nearly out, and no more fuel -was inside the hut, a candle-end, which I had brought with me to -grease my boots, being lit, enabled the minstrel to sing a ditty by -inch of candle. It was one in honour of the Norsk kings, from Harald -Haarfager[13] downwards, by Wergeland, said to be Norway’s best poet. -This closed the entertainment. - -“We must get to bed, I think, now,” said Nicholas; “it is waxing -latish, and I must be up by dawn, after the kreäturen (cattle). I say, -holloa, you Englishman, Metcal; can you make room for me and Andreas?” - -“You can try, but I really don’t see how it is to be managed, we are -such big fellows; I’ll sit on the ledge, if you like.” - -“Oh, no; you’re ill. It’ll be all right. If we can only just manage to -fit in, it will be square strax (immediately). You won’t be too warm,” -continued he, pulling a slate over the smoke-hole; “the night is very -cold.” - -So, in the brothers got, merely divesting themselves of their coats -and waistcoats, while I had on all the coats in my wardrobe, like some -harlequin in his first _début_ at a country fair. At first, the squeeze -was very like the operation one has so often witnessed in the old -coaching days, of wedging any amount of passengers into a seat made to -hold four--“Higgledy piggledy, here we lie.” Truly, necessity makes us -acquainted with strange bedfellows. But by degrees we shook down. When -a tea-cup is full to overflowing, there is room for the sugar. However, -it was necessary, whenever one of us changed his position, for the -others to do the same, like the poor niggers on board the slaver in the -Middle passage. The coverlets were of the scantiest; but there did not -seem to be any unfair attempt made to steal a skin from one’s neighbour -when he had gone to sleep, as the Kansas men are said to be in the -habit of doing when bivouacking out. - -The others had, if possible, less elbow-room than we three. The two -elder were allowed to take the middle places, while the younger ones -were pressed against the damp, hard wall. The hut was soon quiet; -outside it was frosty, with no wind, and the only noise within was -the occasional snoring of one of the party, which was so sonorous, -that it made me think of “the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe” (see -Shakspeare)--though I can’t say I ever heard one. At last I fell off. -How soundly I slept that night, with the exception of a slight touch of -nightmare, in which, by an inverted order of things, I rode the mare -instead of the mare riding me; scudding along at one time after the -reindeer, over stock and stone with wonderful celerity; at another, -dashing in snow-shoes after the otters, or whirling among the moors, in -the midst of an odd set of elfin coursers and riders. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - The way to cure a cold--Author shoots some dotterel--Pit-fall - for reindeer--How mountains look in mountain air--A - natural terrace--The meeting of the waters--A phantom - of delight--Proves to be a clever dairymaid--A singular - cavalcade--Terrific descent into Tjelmö-dal--A volley of - questions--Crossing a cataract--A tale of a tub--Author reaches - Garatun--Futile attempt to drive a bargain. - - -The grey light of the morning was peeping through the hole in the -roof, when I was awoke by Nicholas bestirring himself, and kicking -his way through the conglomerate of prostrate forms. Thank goodness, -my feverish chill had left me. “Richard was himself again!” The -superfluity of vestments, together with the animal heat generated by -seven human beings, packed as we had been, had done the business. The -black wall I found trickling with moisture, like the sides of a Russian -bath, from the hot smoke and steam, condensed by the colder stones. I -felt no return of the complaint, and doubtless the sovereign nostrum -for me, under the circumstances, was the one I accidentally took. - -After a cup of coffee, some cold trout and biscuit, I was ready to -start; before doing which I put a trifle in Nicholas’ hand, which he -pronounced a great deal too much. As we trudged along, a solitary raven -or two were not wanting to the landscape; while, contrasting with -their funereal plumage and dismal croak, was the cheerful twittering -white-rumped stone-chat (steen-ducker), bobbing about from stone to -stone, seemingly determined to enjoy himself in spite of the Robinson -Crusoe nature of his haunts. Presently I let fly at a large flock of -dotterel--“Rundfugel,” as the guide called them--and made a handsome -addition to the proviant. - -In one spot, where the available space for walking was narrowed by the -head of a lake on one side, and an abrupt hill on the other, we came -upon what looked like a saw-pit, four feet long and two feet broad, -but which had been filled up with large stones. This, I was informed, -was once a pit-fall for the reindeer, but now discontinued. It was -judiciously placed in a defile which the deer were known to make for -when disturbed. - -Not far beyond, as I passed what looked like a grey stone, the guide -said--“That is Viensla Bue.” In fact, it was a small den, four feet -high, constructed by some reindeer-hunter. I peeped in, and saw an iron -pot and bed of moss, which show that it is still at times visited by -man. - -“Yonder is Harteigen,” exclaimed Ole, pointing to a singular -square-shaped mountain, to the left, with precipitous sides, which -looked two or three miles off, but which was in reality a dozen; such -is the clearness of this atmosphere. Indeed, at home, every object -appears to me to have a fuzzy, indistinct outline, when compared with -the intensely sharp, definite outline of everything here. - -“That mountain to our right, is Granatknuten,” continued my guide, “and -this is Soveringsrindan.” - -At least such was the name, as far as I could decipher his strange -pronunciation, of the curious terraced elevation on which our path now -lay. - -It looked like a regular embankment, which it was difficult to imagine -was not the work of men’s hands. In height, this terrace varied from -thirty to eighty feet; its crown, which was perfectly even, and -composed of shingle, mossed over in places, was about twenty feet -broad, and afforded excellent walking; while in length it was about -two English miles, and formed a gentle curve, cut in two about midway -by a stream flowing from the Granatknuten to our right. On either -side of the terrace were narrow moat-like lakes; while, to complete -the illusion of its being a work of defence, at the distance of a few -hundred yards to the right below the mountain, stood a mass of what -seemed the irregular fortifications of an old castle. - -Leaving the terrace, we presently walked along the bed of an ancient -torrent, the peculiarity of which was that the stones which formed it -fitted so exactly that they looked as if they had been laid by the -hand of a mason. Before long we joined company with a stream going -the same way as ourselves, so that we have now passed the water-shed. -Hitherto the waters we have seen find their outlet in the River -Lougen, which flows down past Kongsberg to Laurvig, at the mouth of the -Christiania-Fjord. Henceforward all the converging streams descend into -the Hardanger-Fjord. - -After a rough descent, we reach the first sæter, where Ole stops to -talk with a damsel, Gunvor by name. Her dark hair, being drawn tightly -back, so as to leave a thorough view of her well-cut face, eventuated -in two tails, neatly braided with red tape. - -A sleeveless jacket of red cloth fitted tightly to her figure, -reminding me of the Tyrolese bodice, while her arms were covered with -voluminous coarse linen shirt-sleeves, of spotless white, and buttoned -at the wrist, while the collar was fastened at the throat to large -silver studs. Across her bosom, in the fork of the bodice, was an inner -patch of black cloth, garnished with beads. Gunvor smiled with an air -of conscious pride as she bid us enter into her sæter, which, like -herself, was extremely neat, contrasting favourably with the slovenly -appearance of things in Thelemarken, which I had left behind me. - -Around were ranged well-scoured vessels, full of all the mysterious -products of the mountain dairy; were I to recount the names of which, -the reader, who knows practically of nothing beyond milk and cream, and -cheese and butter, would be astonished that so many things, of which -he never heard, could be prepared out of simple cow’s and goat’s milk. -The only thing that did not quite square with my notions of the idyllic -modesty and simplicity of the scene was the sight of a youth, who had -come up from the Hardanger, and was a servant of the farmer to whom the -sæter belonged, stretched out asleep on Gunvor’s bed. - -Refreshed with a lump of reindeer flesh out of my wallet, together -with thick milk and brandy, we followed the path in its circuit round -some more _rochers montonnées_, where the action of former glaciers is -visible to perfection in the smoothed inclines and erratic blocks now -standing stockstill. After many a toilsome up and down, we at length -get the first bird’s-eye view of a darksome piece of water, lying -thousands of feet below us in a deep trough of gigantic precipices. My -destination is the farm-house of Garatun (tun = town, the original -meaning of which was enclosure); but to my utter astonishment I find -that we have still fourteen miles of toil between us and the haven of -rest. - -Before long we overtake a singular cavalcade, which afforded an insight -into Norwegian peasant life. There were four light little horses, each -loaded with what looked like a pair of enormous milk pails. These are -called strumpe, and are full of whey or thick milk, or some product of -the mountain dairy. Two men followed the horses, each with a sort of -Alpen-stock, only that at the end, grasped by the hand, there stuck -out a stump of a branch. This I found is not only used as a walking -staff, but is also most useful in another way. Each of the pails has -of course to be hung on the straddle separately, and unless there is a -second man to hold up the pail, already slung, till the other is also -adjusted, the straddle would turn round under the horse’s belly, and -the pail upset. This crutched stick, therefore, is used to prop up one -side until the counterpoising pail is suspended on the other side the -horse. Besides the men, there was a young girl, with her fair hair -braided with red tape, her bodice of green cloth, while the stomacher -or “bringeklut” was of red cloth, studded as usual with strings of -coloured beads. A little boy was also of the party, dressed in the -costume of the men, the only characteristic feature of which was a -pair of red garters, tied _over_ the trousers below the knee, for the -purpose I heard of keeping them out of the dirt. - -The descent into Tjelmö-dal was terrific. My horse was lightly loaded; -but the others were weighted, as I thought, beyond their powers, and -the liquid within was alive, and swayed about, and was therefore more -burdensome than dead weight proper. But, as usual, the horses were left -to pick their own way, which was in places steeper than the ascent of -St. Paul’s, the only assistance given them being a drag on the crupper -from behind. The crupper, be it said, was not such as one generally -sees, but a pole, about two feet long, curved in the middle for the -tail to fit into, with either end fastened by wicker straps to the -corresponding pail. This pristine contrivance, which has no doubt been -in use for centuries, keeps the weight comparatively steady, and eases -the horse. - -“Who are you? Where do you come from? Are you an Englishman? Are you -a landscape painter?” was a part of the volley of questions which -they forthwith discharged at the writer of these lines, as he joined -the party at the side of a thundering torrent of some breadth and -depth--too deep to ford--where the little boy and girl, I observed, -were jumping upon the nags. - -“May I mount on that horse?” was the short interrogatory with which I -answered them, having an eye to the main chance, and thinking that my -tired horse, who was moreover far behind, had little chance of getting -safely over with me on his back. - -“Be so good! be so good! (vær so godt!)” was the good-natured reply, -and I was in a moment astride of the animal, after the fashion for -riding donkeys bareback in England, _i.e._, more aft than forward; and, -after a few plunges among the stones, we were safe over the cataract. -The two men, by the aid of their poles, crossed just above, leaping -from one slippery stone to another, at the risk of flopping into the -deep gurgling rapids that rushed between them. - -We had scarcely got through when a terrible commotion was raised in -front, and a simultaneous burst of “burra burraing” (wohoa-ing) ensued -from all the party. In turning an angle of the corkscrew descent one -of the pails had caught a projecting rock, and become unhooked, and -was rolling away, the horse very nearly doing the same thing, right -over the precipice. To stop its course, lift it up, and hook it on the -straddle, was a task speedily accomplished by these agile mountaineers. - -The fright having subsided, off we started again, and the queries -recommenced. A Norwegian is a stubborn fellow, and sticks to his point. -Little was to be got out of me but parrying answers, and the peasants -guessed me of all the countries of Europe, ultimately fixing on Denmark -as my probable native country. - -After twisting and turning and passing one or two waterfalls of -considerable height, we at length reached the bottom of the chasm, -in which the river, which I had left some hours before, had forced -its almost subterranean passage from the Fjeld. The gigantic wall of -limestone on the opposite side rose, I should say at a rough guess, -five times as high as the cliff impending over the Giant’s Causeway, -and in more than one spot a force tumbled over the battlements. - -By nine o’clock, P.M., to my great relief, as I was miserably -foot-sore, my boots not having been properly greased, we arrived at -Garatun, one of half a dozen small farmsteads that lay on the small -grassy slopes by the side of the dark Eidsfjord. An old crone showed -me upstairs into a room, round which were ranged eight chests or boxes -with arching tops, painted in gaudy colours, with the name of Niels -Garatun and his wife inscribed thereon. Round the wooden walls I -counted twenty cloth dresses of red, green, and blue, suspended from -wooden pegs. No beer being procurable, I slaked my raging thirst, while -coffee was preparing, with copious draughts of prim, a sort of whey. - -Before long, two or three peasants stalked in, hands in pockets, and -forthwith, according to custom, commenced squirting tobacco-juice from -their mouths with all the assiduity of Yankees. - -“Who are you? Are you going up to the Foss to-morrow? Will you have a -horse and a man? Many gentlemen give one dollar for the horse and one -for the man. It’s meget brat (very steep); Slem Vei (bad road).” - -To all which observations I replied that I was very tired, and could -answer no questions at all that night. Upon which the spitters retired -with an air of misgiving about me, as they had evidently calculated on -nailing the foreigner to a bargain at the first blush of the thing; -and, when the news of my arrival got wind, their market was sure to be -lowered by competition. One of them, after closing the door, popped his -head in again, and said-- - -“He thought he could do it cheaper; but I had better say at once, else -he should be up to the sæter in the morning before I got up.” - -“I would say nothing till nine o’clock the next morning,” was my reply, -and I was left to rest undisturbed; the men apparently thinking me an -odd individual. - -Long before nine o’clock my slumbers were disturbed by the entrance -of a sharp-looking individual, who asked if I would have coffee? He -did not belong to the house even; but by this _ruse_ it was evident he -intended to steal a march on the others. - -“For four orts” (three shillings and fourpence), said he, “I’ll -guide you up to the Foss, and then row you across the lake to Vik on -the Hardanger.” The bargain was concluded at once; not a little to -the consternation of the two dollar men, who, when they presented -themselves at 9 o’clock, found that they were forestalled. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - The young Prince of Orange--A crazy bridge--At the foot of - the mighty Vöring Foss--A horse coming downstairs--Mountain - greetings--The smoke-barometer--The Vöring waterfall--National - characteristics--Paddy’s estimate of the Giant’s - Causeway--Meteoric water--New illustrations of old - slanders--How the Prince of Orange did homage to the glories - of nature--Author crosses the lake Eidsfjord--Falls in - with an English yacht and Oxonians--An innkeeper’s story - about the Prince of Orange--Salmonia--General aspect of - a Norwegian Fjord--Author arrives at Utne--Finds himself - in pleasant quarters--No charge for wax-lights--Christian - names in Thelemarken--Female attire--A query for Sir Bulwer - Lytton--Physiognomy of the Thelemarken peasants--Roving - Englishmen--Christiania newspapers--The Crown - Prince--Historical associations of Utne--The obsequies of Sea - Kings--Norwegian gipsies. - - -From my guide I learn that this land’s-end nook has been lately in a -tremendous ferment, in consequence of the young Prince of Orange, who -is making a tour in company with the Crown Prince of Norway, having -visited the Vöring Foss. The Prince, whom report destines for England’s -second Princess, appears to have been very plucky (meget flink) at the -outset of the excursion, and outwalked all the rest of the party--at -all events they suffered him to think so. Half way up, however, he was -dead beat, and compelled to get on pony back. - -At first the narrow valley is tolerably level, blocked up, however, -with monstrous rocks and stones. Soon we arrive at a crazy bridge -spanning the torrent. Striding on to this, Herjus turns round to see -what I am doing. Finding me close behind, he goes on. The traveller in -Norway must learn at a pinch - - To cross a torrent foaming loud - On the uncertain footing of a spear. - -“Many people get frightened at this bridge,” says he, “and we are -forced to lead them over.” - -At this I was not surprised. Three fir trees, of immense length, thrown -across the thundering waters from two projecting cliffs, and supported -midway by a rock in the stream, formed the permanent way. This, I -understood, was very rotten; there was no sort of hand-railing, and -at every step we took the frail timbers swayed unpleasantly with our -weight. Passing Möbu, up to which salmon force their way, we recross -the stream by a newly constructed, safe bridge, and leave it to thread -its passage through cliffs, where no man can follow, to the foot of the -mighty Vöring Foss. - -We now begin to ascend a precipitous path right in front of us, which -here and there assumes the shape of a regular staircase, by means of -rough slabs of rock, placed one above another. If I had encountered -a laden horse coming down the steps of the Monument, I should not -have been more astonished than I was, on meeting upon this staircase -a horse, loaded with two great pails. Close behind him was one Knut -Tveitö. Grasping tightly at the wooden crupper described in the last -chapter (hale-stock = tail-stick), he acted as a powerful drag to break -the animal’s descent. With reins hanging loosely on his extended neck, -ears pricked up, and fore-foot put forward as a feeler into mid-air, -the sagacious little beast, with nothing more than his own good sense -to guide him, is groping his way down the loose and steep steps, now -and then giving a sort of expostulatory grunt, as the great iron nails -in his shoes slip along a rock, or he receives a jolt more shaking than -ordinary.[14] - -“Wilkommen fra Stölen” (welcome from the châlet), was the expressive -greeting of Herjus to the stranger, whose reply was, “Gesegned arbeid!” -(blessed labour). My guide’s words first awoke me to the fact that this -is the path by which Knut had to toil to the summer pasture of his -flocks and herds. - -Bidding farewell to Knut, who waited a few minutes while I made a rough -sketch of himself and his horse, we went on climbing. Hitherto the -height of the mountains around had served to keep out the sun’s rays; -but now our altitude was such, that they no longer served as a parasol, -and as we emerged from the shadow into the broiling glare, the labour -became proportionately greater. But we soon reach the top of the -ascent, and open upon a bleak moor, flagged at intervals with flattish -stones. - -To the north rose a roundish mountain, clad with snow. This is Iökeln, -5700 feet high, called by the natives Yuklin. Between us and it, at the -distance of about a mile across the moor, rose a thin, perpendicular -spire of smoke, which might have been taken for the reek of a gipsy -campfire. - -“That’s Vöring,” said the guide, stuffing a quantity of blue and cloud -berries into his mouth. “We shall have good weather; you should see -Vöring when the weather is going to be bad--doesn’t he smoke then?” - -I observed that all the people here talked thus of the Fall, assigning -a sort of personality to the monster, as if it was something more than -a mere body of water. - -“And here we are at Vöring,” said the guide, after we had -steeple-chased straight across the swamp to the shadowy spire. As -he said this, he pointed down into an abyss, from which proceeded -dull-sounding thunderings. - -I found we were standing on the verge of a portentous crater, nine -hundred feet deep, into which springs, at one desperate bound, the -frantic water-spirit. The guide’s phlegmatic appearance at this moment -was a striking contrast to the excitement of Paddy this summer, when he -was showing me the organ-pipes of the Giant’s Causeway, sounding with -the winds of the Atlantic. - -“This, yer honner, is allowed by all thravellers to be the most -wonderfullest scane in the whole world. There’s nothing to be found -like it at all at all. Many professors have told me so.” - -Straight opposite to us the cliff rose two or three hundred feet -higher, and shot down another stream of no mean volume. But it was the -contact of the Vöring with the black pit-bottom that I desired to see. -This, however, is no easy matter. At length I fixed on what appeared -to be the best spot, and requesting the man to gripe my hand tight, I -craned over as far as I could, and got a view of the whole monster at -once. Did not he writhe, and dart, and foam, and roar like some hideous -projectile blazing across the dark sky at night. Such a sight I shall -never behold again. It was truly terrific. It was well that the guide -held me fast, for a strange feeling, such as Byron describes, as if of -wishing to jump overboard, came over me in spite of myself. - -But, after all, the Vöring Foss is a disappointment. You can’t see it -properly. A capital defect. One adventurous Englishman, I understand, -did manage by making a detour, to descend the cliff, and actually -launched an India-rubber boat--what odd fellows Englishmen are--on -the infernal surge below. A man who was with him told me he held the -boat tight by a rope, while the Briton paddled over the pool. Arrived -there, without looking at the stupendous column which rose from where -he was to the clouds, or rather did _vice versá_, he pulled out of his -pocket a small pot of white paint, and forthwith commenced painting his -initials on the rock, to prove, as he said, that he had been there. - -This reminds me of one of our countrymen who arrived in his carriage at -dead of night at some Italian city of great interest. “Antonio, what is -the name of this place?” On hearing it, he puts the name down in his -pocket-book, and orders the horses, exclaiming--“Thank goodness; done -another place.” - -The next thing will be that we shall hear of some Beckford blasting the -rock, and erecting a summer-house like that at the Falls of the Rhine, -for the tourists to peep out of. - -Fancy a Dutchman in such a place! The elation of the Prince of Orange, -when he got to this spot, was such, that he and the botanist who -accompanied him, are recorded to have drunk more wine than was good -for them. “Pull off your hat, sir,” he hiccuped to the chief guide, in -reverence, the reader will suppose, to the spirit of the spot. “Pull -off your hat, I say; it is not every day that you guide a Prince to the -Vöring!” - -It was not till six o’clock that we were down at Garatun; so that the -excursion is a good stiff day’s work. But to this sort of thing I had -become accustomed, having walked on the two preceding days a distance -of more than sixty English miles. - -Crossing the gloomy little lake Eidsfjord, in a small boat rowed by -my guide, and then over the little isthmus which separates it from -the sea, I arrived at the “Merchant’s” at Vik. An English yacht, with -Oxford men on board, lay at anchor close by. This I boarded forthwith, -and was entertained by the hospitable owner with tea and news from -England. - -Magnus, the innkeeper, is evidently a man making haste to be rich. He -has cows in plenty on the mountains; but he takes care to keep them -there, and there is, consequently, not a vestige of cream or milk in -his establishment, let alone meat, or anything but flad-brod and salted -trout. He exultingly tells me that he was the guide-in-chief to the -Dutch Prince, and what a lot of dollars he got for it. I don’t know -whether these people belie his Royal Highness, but here is another -anecdote at his expense. - -“Magnus,” said the Prince, after paying him, “are you content? Have -I paid as much as any Englishman ever did? For if any Englishman ever -paid more, tell me, and I’ll not be beaten.” - -As far as I could gather, Magnus, in reply, hummed and hawed in a -somewhat dubious manner, and thus managed to extract a dollar or two -more from his Highness. - -Princes, by-the-bye, seem the order of the day. During the few hours I -stopped here, a Prussian Prince and his suite, travelling _incognito_, -also arrived, and passed on to the Waterfall. - -The stream between this and the fresh-water lake above holds salmon and -grilse, but there are no good pools. - -On a lovely morning I took boat for Utne, further out in the -Hardanger-Fjord. The English yacht had left some hours before, but was -lying becalmed, the white sail hanging against the mast, under some -tall cliffs flanking the entrance to the small Ulvik-Fjord. One or -two stray clouds, moving lazily overhead, throw a dark shadow on the -mountains, which are bathed in warm sunshine. Among the dark-green -foliage and grey rocks which skirt the rocky sides of the Fjord for -miles in front of us, may at times be descried a bright yellow patch, -denoting a few square yards of ripening corn, which some peasant has -contrived to conjure out of the wilderness. Near the little patch may -be descried a speck betokening the cabin of the said Selkirk. - -As you approach nearer, you descry, concealed in a little nook cut -out by nature in the solid rock, the skiff in which the lonely -wight escapes at times from his isolation. In fact, he ekes out his -subsistence by catching herring or mackerel, or any of the numerous -finny tribes which frequent these fjords; in some measure making up to -the settlers the barrenness of the soil. Presently I hear a distant -sound in the tree-tops. Look! the clouds, hitherto so lazy, are on the -move; the placid water, which reflected the yacht and its sails so -distinctly just now, becomes ruffled and darkens; and anon a strong -wind springs forth from its craggy hiding-place. See! it has already -reached the craft, and she is dancing out into the offing, lying -down to the water in a manner that shows she will soon lessen her -eight miles distance from us, and beat out to sea with very little -difficulty. As for poor luckless me, the boatmen had, of course, -forgotten to take a sail; so that the wind, which is partly contrary, -and soon gets up a good deal of sea, greatly retards our progress. - -At length we arrive at Utne, a charming spot lying at the north-western -entrance to the Sör-Fjord. What excellent quarters I found here. The -mistress, the wife of the merchant, a most tidy-looking lady, wearing -the odd-looking cap of the country, crimped and starched with great -care, bustled about to make me comfortable. Wine and beer, pancakes and -cherries, fresh lamb and whiting--O noctes cœnæque Deum!--such were the -delicacies that fell to my share, and which were, of course, all the -more appreciated by me after a fortnight’s semi-starvation among the -mountains, crowned by the stingy fare of the dollar-loving Magnus.[15] - -I think I have not mentioned that in Thelemarken and the Hardanger -district one meets with quite a different class of Christian names from -elsewhere in Norway, where the common-place Danish names, often taken -from Scripture, are usual. Ole, it is true, being the name of the great -national saint, is rife all over, especially in Hallingdal; so much so -that if you meet with three men from that district, you are sure, they -say, to find one of the three rejoicing in that appellation. The female -part of the family here rejoice in the names of Torbior, Guro, and -Ingiliv. - -“I wish, Guro, you would teach me the names of the various articles -of female attire you wear,” said I to the said damsel, a rosy-cheeked -lass, her mouth and eyes, like most of the girls in the country, -brimfull of good nature, though, perhaps, not smacking of much -refinement. Her hair-tails were, as usual, braided with red tape: and, -it being Sunday, these were bound round her head in the most approved -modern French fashion. - -“Oh! that is called Troie,” said she, as I pointed to a close-fitting -jacket of blue cloth, which, the weather being chilly, she wore over -all; and this is called Overliv--_i.e._, the vest of green fitting -tight to her shape, with the waist in the right place. - -What can so good a judge as Sir Bulwer Lytton, by-the-bye, be about -when he talks somewhere of a “short waist not being unbecoming, as -giving greater sweep to a majestic length of limb.” - -“And this is the Bringe-klud” (the little bit of cloth placed across -the middle of the bosom); “and this is called Stak,” continued she, -with a whole giggle, and half a blush. - -“And who was that reading aloud below this morning?” - -“Oh, that was Torbior” (the mistress of the house). - -“And what was she reading?” - -“The Bible; she always does that every morning. We all assemble -together in that room.” - -Guro was fair; not so many of the inhabitants of the Hardanger -district. The dark physiognomies and black eyes of some of the peasants -contrast as forcibly with the blond aspect of the mass, as the Spanish -faces in Galway do with the fair complexions of the generality of the -daughters of Erin. One wonders how they got them. I never heard any -satisfactory solution offered of the phenomenon. - -Two Englishmen, who have also found their way hither, are gone to have -a sight of the neighbouring Folge Fond. One of them is a Winchester -lad, who has been working himself nearly blind and quite ill. His -companion is of a literary turn, and indulges in fits of abstraction. -Emerging from one of these, he asks me whether there is ever a full -moon in Carnival-time at Rome. Eventually, I discover the reason of -his query. He is writing a novel, and his “Pyramus and Thisbe” meet -within the Colosseum walls, at that period of rejoicing, by moonlight. -But more circumspect than Wilkie, who makes one of the figures in his -Waterloo picture eating oysters in June, he is guarding against the -possibility of an anachronism. - -Among the luxuries of this most tidy establishment are some Christiania -papers. The prominent news is the progress of the Crown Prince, who is -travelling in these parts. He landed here, and sketched the magnificent -mountains that form the portals of the enchanting Sör (South) Fjord. At -Ullenswang, on the west shore of that Fjord, he invited all the good -ladies and gentlemen, from far and near, to a ball on board his yacht -_Vidar_, dancing with the prettiest of them. What particularly pleases -the natives is the Prince’s free and easy way of going on. He chews -tobacco strenuously, and to one public functionary he offered a quid -(skrue), with the observation, “Er de en saadaan karl (Is this in your -line)?” At a station in Romsdal, where he slept, he was up long before -the aides-de-camp. After smoking a cigar with the Lehnsman in the keen -morning air, finding that his attendants were still asleep, he went to -their apartment, and, like an Eton lad, pulled all the clothes from -their beds. - -The great advantage which will ensue from the personal acquaintance -thus formed between the Prince and this sturdy section of his subjects, -is thoroughly understood, and the Norskmen appreciate the good of it, -after their own independent fashion. One or two speakers, however, have -greeted him with rather inflated and fulsome speeches, going so far as -to liken him to St. Olaf, of pious memory. The only resemblance appears -to be, that he is the first royal personage, since the days of that -monarch, who has visited these mountains. - -Utne has some curious historical recollections. In a hillock near the -house several klinkers, such as those used for fastening the planking -of vessels, have been discovered. Here then is a confirmation of the -accounts given by Snorr. The ship, which was the Viking’s most valuable -possession, which had borne him to foreign lands, to booty and to fame, -was, at his death, drawn upon land; his body was then placed in it, and -both were consumed by fire. Earth was then heaped over the ashes, and -the grave encircled by a ship-shaped enclosure of upright stones, a -taller stone being placed in the centre to represent the mast. - -Sometimes, too, the dying Sea King’s obsequies were celebrated in a -fashion, around which the halo of romance has been thrown. “King Hake -of Sweden cuts and slashes in battle as long as he can stand, then -orders his war-ship, loaded with his dead men and their weapons, to -be taken out to sea, the tiller shipped, and the sails spread; being -left alone, he sets fire to some tar-wood, and lies down contented on -the deck. The wind blew off the land, the ship flew, burning in clear -flame, out between the islets and into the ocean, and there was the -right end of King Hake.”[16] - -Considering that this place is so near such an enormous tract of snow -and ice as the Folgefond, it is rather astonishing to find that it will -grow cherries, apples, and corn, better than most places around. - -I make a point in all these spots of examining any printed notice that -I may come across, as being likely to throw light on the country and -its institutions. Here, for instance, is a Government ordinance of -1855, about the Fante-folk, otherwise Tatere, or gipsies. From this I -learn that some fifteen hundred of these Bedouins are moving about the -kingdom, with children, who, like themselves, have never had Christian -baptism or Christian instruction. They are herewith invited to settle -down, and the Government promises to afford them help for this purpose; -otherwise they shall still be called “gipsies,” and persecuted in -various ways. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - - From Fairy lore to Nature lore--Charming idea for stout - folk--Action and reaction--Election day at Bergen--A laxstie--A - careless pilot--Discourse about opera-glasses--Paulsen Vellavik - and the bears--The natural character of bears--Poor Bruin - in a dilemma--An intelligent Polar bear--Family plate--What - is fame?--A simple Simon--Limestone fantasia--The paradise - of botanists--Strength and beauty knit together--Mountain - hay-making--A garden in the wilderness--Footprints - of a celebrated botanist--Crevasses--Dutiful snow - streams--Swerre’s sok--The Rachels of Eternity--A Cockney’s - dream of desolation--Curds and whey--The setting in of - misfortunes--Author’s powder-flask has a cold bath--The shadows - of the mountains--The blind leading the blind--On into the - night--The old familiar music--Holloa--Welcome intelligence. - - -From Utne I take boat for a spot called Ose, in a secluded arm of the -Fjord. My boatman, an intelligent fellow, tells me that Asbjörnsen, -the author of a book of Fairy Tales, is now, like Mr. Kingsley, turned -naturalist, and has been dredging with a skrabe (scraper) about here. -He has discovered one small mussel, and a new kind of star-fish, -with twelve rays about twelve inches long, body about the size of a -crown-piece, and the whole of a bright red. The rays are remarkably -brittle. This I afterwards saw in the Museum at Bergen. Asbjörnsen is -an exceedingly stout man, and very fat, and the simple country-people -have the idea, therefore, that he must be very rich. Wealth and fatness -they believe must go together. - -The wind, which had all the morning been blowing from the land, as the -afternoon advances veers round, like the Bise of the Mediterranean, and -thus becomes in our favour. I now see the reason why the men would not -start till the afternoon. In fine weather, the wind almost invariably -blows from the sea after mid-day, and from the mountain in the morning; -and, in illustration of the law that action and reaction are always -equal and contrary, the stronger it blows out, the stronger it blows -in. Tit for tat. - -Erik, who is very communicative, says, “This is our election day at -Bergen for South Bergen-Stift. We don’t choose directly; every hundred -men elect one; and this College of Voters elects the Storthing’s-man. -Mr. H----, the clergyman, is one of the sitting members.” - -“Has every male adult a vote?” - -“No. In the country they must have a land-qualification, and pay so -much tax to Government; besides which, before they can exercise their -franchise, they must swear to the Constitution. People think much more -of the privilege than they did formerly. Several have qualified lately. -The more voters, the more Storthing’s-men, so that the Storthing is -increasing in number.” - -As we scud along, we pass a stage projecting from a rock. This is a -Laxstie, or place where salmon are caught, as they swim by, by means -of a capstan-net, which is hoisted up suddenly as they pass over it. -But I shall have occasion to describe one of these curious contrivances -hereafter. - -“Very curious fish, those salmon,” continued my informant. “They are -very fond of light--like moths for that; always like to take up the -Fjord where the cliffs are lowest--at least, so I hear.” - -The breeze being fresh, we went gaily along; “So hurtig som sex” -(as quick as six), said the man, using a saying of the country. -Presently, he fastened the sheet, drew a lump of tobacco out of his -waistcoat-pocket, and began to chew. - -“You must not fasten the sheet,” interposed I. - -“Why, you are not ‘sö-raed’ (frightened of the sea)?” - -“No; but you Norskmen are very careless. Supposing a Kaste-wind comes -from that mountain plump upon us, where are you?” - -“Oh, that is never the case in summer.” - -“Can you swim?” said I. - -“No.” - -“Well, I can; so that in case of accident you have more reason to be -alarmed than I. But I have property in the boat, and I shan’t run the -risk of losing it.” - -“Ah! you English are very particular. Not long ago I rowed four -Englishmen. Directly we got in the bay, although it was beautiful -weather, one and all they pulled out a cloth bag with a screw to it, -and blew it up, and put it round their waists.” - -I could not help smiling at my countrymen’s peculiarities. As we swept -along under the cliffs, I inquired whether there were any bears about -here. - -“Bears! forstaae sig (to be sure)! You see that speck yonder? That’s -Vellavik.” - -I took out my double glass to discern it--they are infinitely superior -to the single ones. - -“Bless me! why you have got a skue-spil kikkert[17] (theatre-glass)!” - -“Skue-spil! what do you know about skue-spil?” - -“Why, I once was at Bergen, and went to see a play.” - -“Indeed! And how did you like it?” - -“Not much. I also saw a juggler and a rope-dancer: that I liked a vast -deal better.” - -“But about that bear at Vellavik?” - -“Oh, yes. Well, Paulsen Vellavik, who lives yonder, was up under the -mountain early in the spring. The bears get up there then to eat the -young grass, for it springs there first. He was coming down a narrow -scaur--you know what I mean? Such a place as that yonder”--pointing -to a deep scaur in the side of the mountain. “Suddenly he meets four -bears coming towards him, two old, two young. The bears did not wish to -meet him, for when they were some distance off, they turned out of the -road, and tried to climb up out of the scaur; but it was too steep. So -down they came towards him, growling horribly. He immediately stuffed -his body, head foremost, into a hole which he saw in the cliff. It -was not deep enough to get himself hidden in. His legs stuck out. In -another second two of the bears were upon him, biting at his legs. To -scream was death. His only chance of preservation was to sham dead. -After biting him, and putting him to great pain, which he endured -without a sound, the bears paused, and listened attentively. Paulsen -could distinctly feel their hot breath, and, indeed, see them from -his hiding-place. After thus listening some time, and not hearing him -breathe or move, they came to the conclusion that he was dead, and then -they left him. Faint with loss of blood, his legs frightfully bitten, -he managed, nevertheless, to crawl home, and is slowly recovering.” - -“That is a very good bear-story,” said I; “have you another?” - -“Ah, sir, the bear is a curious creature; he does not become so savage -all at once. When they are young, they eat berries and grass; presently -they take to killing small cattle--I mean sheep and goats. Later in -life they begin killing horses and cows, and when the bear is very old, -he attacks men. But they are great cowards sometimes. Ivar Aslaacson -met a she-bear and three young ones this summer. She bit his leg; but -he drove her off with nothing but a bidsel”--_i.e._, iron bit and -bridle. - -The biter bit, as you may say. This seems rather a favourite weapon of -attack. Snorro relates how those two ruffians, Arek and Erek, rode off -together into the forest, and were found dead, their heads punched in -“med hesten-hoved-band”--_i.e._, with their horses’ bits. - -“Once,” continued my informant, “I and a party of young fellows went -up to a sæter on the mainland, just opposite Utne. It was Sunday, and -we were going to have a lark with the sæter girls. They were in great -alarm, for they had seen a bear snuffing about. Off we set in pursuit. -At last we found him, skulking about, and drove him with our cries down -towards the cliffs that look over the Fjord. We saw him just below us, -and shouted with all our might, and the dogs barked. This alarmed him, -and he seemed to lose his head, for he jumped to a place where there -was no getting away from. Down we thundered rocks and stones at him. He -looked in doubt what to do. Then he tried to jump upon another rock; -but the stone slipped from under him, and rolled down, and he after it, -and broke his neck. A famous fat fellow he was. - -“A year or two ago, some men were fishing along shore at Skudenaes, -when, lo and behold, they saw something white swimming along straight -for the land. It was a white bear. One of them landed, and ran for a -gun, and shot at the beast as it touched the shore. It put up its paws -in a supplicating manner, as if to beg them to be merciful, but a shot -or two more killed the animal without it offering any resistance. It -is thought that the creature had escaped from some ship coming from -Spitzbergen.” - -After a favourable run, we enter a deep Fjord, and landing at its -extremity, march up to a cluster of houses. Here I agree with one -Simon, for the sum of three dollars, to convey my effects over the -Fjeld to the Sogne Fjord. His daughter Sunniva prepares me some coffee. -To ladle out the cream, she places on the board a stumpy silver spoon, -the gilding of which is nearly worn off. It was shaped like an Apostle -spoon, except that the shaft was very short, and ended in something -like the capital of a pillar. - -“That’s a curious spoon,” I observed to Madam, who now appeared on -household cares intent. - -“Ah! that belonged to my grandfather, Christopher Gaeldnaes. Did you -never hear of him?” - -“I can’t say I ever did.” - -“Indeed! Why he was a man renowned for wisdom and wealth all over -Norway in the Danish days. Our clergyman tells me that this sort of -spoon used to be hung round the child’s neck at baptism.” (Döbe = -dipping.) - -In the Museum of Northern Antiquities at Copenhagen, a similar one may -be seen. - -The extent of the household accommodations was not great. There were no -sheets; as a make-shift, I suggested a table-cloth, of the existence -of which I was aware; and, in place of a towel, the _pis-aller_ was -a shirt. I rose at three o’clock, A.M., as we had a long journey -before us; but Simon was not ready till much later. He was evidently a -fumbling sort of fellow; and even when we had started, he had to run -back and get something he had forgotten. From my experience in guides, -I augured ill of his capabilities. To judge from the map, I thought we -ought to accomplish the passage of the Fjeld before dark; but all that -could be got out of him on this subject was, he could not say. If we -couldn’t get over, there was a châlet where we might sleep. - -As we trudged up the very narrow valley behind the houses, following -the brawling stream, I had leisure to survey the surrounding objects. -Right and left were impending mountains of enormous height, while in -front of us stood, forbidding our approach, a wall of rock. Behind -lay the placid Fjord, with a view of Folgefond in the distance, just -catching the blush of the sunrise. The summits of some of the cliffs -were cut into all sorts of fantastic shapes. The stupendous ruins which -choked the path and stream, and were of limestone, at once explained -the reason of the horrid forms above. The rock, from its nature, is -evidently given to breaking away, and when it does so, does not study -appearances. My guide, however, has something to say on the subject. - -“Yonder, sir, is the priest. Don’t you see him? His nose -(Probst-snabel) came away some months ago, so that now his face is not -so easy to make out. That other rock goes by the name of Störk’s stool. -Did you ever hear the story? Störk was a strong man, and a daring -withal. One day he was up at a Thing (assize) at Kinservik, where the -Bishop presided. Enraged at some decision made by his right reverence, -Störk struck at him with his axe, but luckily missed him, making a -fearful gash in the door-post. Störk immediately fled to Ose, below -there. Not long after, the Bishop’s boat was descried rowing into the -Fjord, to take vengeance for the act of violence. Störk at once fled -up to that rock there, to watch the proceedings. Close by it there is -a hole, and he had ready a vast flat stone, for the purpose of drawing -it over the mouth, in case the Bishop came in pursuit. Meantime, he had -left instructions with his son Tholf (which also means twelve) how to -act. Tholf, who was a huge fellow, and nearly as strong as his father, -set out in his boat to meet the Bishop, having on board a barrel of -beer. As the other boat drew near he rested on his oars, and asked the -Bishop’s permission to drink his health; and this being given, he took -up the barrel and began drinking out of the bung-hole. The size of this -fellow rather appalled the Bishop, who discreetly inquired whether -Störk had any other such sons. ‘He has _Tholf_,’ was the crafty answer. -When the Bishop, not relishing an encounter with twelve such fellows, -turned his boat round, and retreated with all speed.” - -In spite of my anticipations, I find the path gradually unfolds itself -as we advance, worming in and out of the rocks. More luxuriant -shrub-vegetation I never beheld; a perfect Paradise of Sub-alpine -plants. There were raspberries, and strawberries, and haeggebaer -(bird-cherry), the wood of which is the toughest in Norway; besides -many kinds of wild flowers, peeping among the fallen rocks. And then -the ferns: there was the delicate oak-leaved fern, and the magnificent -“polysticum logkitis,” with several others. Growing among these was a -plant which appeared to be parsley-fern, specimens of which I stuffed -into my book. - -“Ay, that’s a nasty plant, sir,” said my guide. “En hel Maengde (a -great lot) of it grows hereabouts. We call it Torboll” (I suppose from -the destroying god Thor), “or Heste-spraeng (horse-burster). It stops -them up at once, and they begin to swell, and the only chance then is a -clyster.” - -The cause of all this luxuriance of vegetation is to be found in the -sheltered position of the valley, and the moisture caused by the - - Thousand pretty rills - That tumble down the rocky hills. - -One wonders where so much water comes from; till, lifting up the eye -beyond the tall cliffs that lie still in the shadow, the vision lights -on a field of glistening snow, which the morning sun has just caught -and illumined. - -Each step that we ascend the flowers grow perceptibly smaller and -smaller, but their tints brighter, while the scenery grows more rugged -and sombre, and its proportions vaster--an apt representation of savage -strength pillowing beauty on its bosom. - -As we climb higher and higher, we pass a waterfall, over which hovers -an iris, one of those frequent decorations of Norwegian landscape which -a British islander but seldom sees in his be-fogged home. Looking back, -and following the stream below with my eye, I perceive two figures -approaching the water’s edge. - -“That’s my son and daughter,” exclaimed Simon. “They are going to make -hay on that slope on the other side,” said he, pointing to a little -green spot high up the mountain. - -If a crop was to be got there it would be one, methought, such as the -Scripture describes, “with which the mower filleth not his hand, nor he -that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom.” Such little matters indicate -the wrestle that mankind here has to make both ends meet; in other -words, to get a supply of forage enough to last from September to May. - -“But there’s no bridge,” exclaimed I. “They can’t get over.” - -“Oh, they’ll manage.” - -And sure enough I saw the boy first, and then the girl, take off their -shoes, and with a hop, spring, and a jump, light on a stone standing -out in the torrent, and then on another; and so over with the agility -of mountain goats. One false step--an easy matter when the rocks were -so slippery--and they would have endangered limb at any rate, for the -lin was deep, and worked up to a dangerous pitch of exasperation by the -knock-me-down blows that its own gravity was giving it. - -Before we emerge from the vast labyrinth of mountain ruin, one -overhanging fragment particularly arrests my attention, for, under its -eaves, a quantity of martens had constructed their mud habitations, -and were darting out and athwart the stream and back again with their -muscipular booty, with intense industry. The trout abound in the brook -that placidly flows through the little green plain beyond; but, with -such a host of winged fly-catchers about, I doubt whether they ever -get into season. Here, taking advantage of this little oasis of sweet -grass, two or three sæters had been constructed, with the cows and -sheep around them. The bald rock, up which our path now lay, was of -mica-slate, striped with bands of white felspar; cold and grey, it -was void of grass. The beautiful ferns we had left nestling among the -clefts far behind, but a bit of stone-crop held its own here and there, -and the claret-stalked London Pride asserted its dignity with much -pertinacity. There was also abundance of a red flower. - - On the bare waterless brow - Of granite ruin, I found a purple flower, - A delicate flower, as fair as aught I trow, - That toys with zephyrs in my lady’s bower. - -“Ah!” said Simon, as I picked up some specimens, “it must be nigh -thirty years ago that I guided a Thelemarken priest over this Fjeld. He -told me the name of that ‘grass’ you’ve got there (a Norwegian calls -all flowers ‘grass’) but I don’t mind it now. He had a large box with -him, and filled it full of grass and mosses. He was very particular -about that black moss under the snow. His name was--let me see--” - -“Sommerfeldt,” suggested I, the well-known author of the _Supplementum -Floræ Laponicæ_. - -“That’s it!” exclaimed Simon; “quite right.” - -The inclined plane, up which we strode, was clearly the work of -a glacier. But though there was no ice now, there were crevasses -notwithstanding. The mountain was traversed with deep parallel -fissures, from a few inches to two or three feet in width. There might -have been a score of them--the widest spanned by little bridges of -stone, thrown across by the peasants for precaution’s sake. - -“Dangerous paths these on a dark night,” observed I. - -“Yes, and in broad daylight too,” was the response. - -“Mind how you go--it’s very slape. Do you see that mark?” continued he, -pointing to a long scrawl on the slippery surface, which terminated on -the edge of one of these yawning chasms. “The best horse in the valley -made that. He slipped in there, and was lost. Nabo (neighbour) Ole’s ox -did the same thing in another place. Forfaerdelig Spraekke (frightful -crack)! Pray take care; let me go first. It will be very bad going, I -see, to-day. The snow is so much melted this summer,” said he, as we -scrambled down into a deep basin, the bottom of which was occupied by -grim Stygian pools of snow-slush and spungy ice. We were no sooner out -of this slough of despond, than we were on a quasi glacier, with its -regularly-marked dirt bands. The snow on which we trod was honeycombed -and treacherous. Underneath it might be heard rumbling rills busily -engaged in excavating crevasses. Now and then one of them came to the -light of day, with that peculiar milky tint of freshly-melted snow, -as if the fluid was loth to give up all at once its parent colour, -dutiful child. To add to the strangeness of the scene, the sun, which -was now high in heaven, catching the face of the mica-slate, bronzed it -into the colour of the armour we have seen worn by the knights at the -Christmas pantomime. - -“We call that Swerre’s Sok,” said my guide, pointing to an eminence -on my left, reminding me that the brave Norsk king of that name, when -pursued by his foes, escaped with the remnants of his army by this -appalling route. “He took his sleeping quarters at the sæter we are -coming to,” continued Simon. - -“That’s Yuklin,” said my cicerone, pointing to a rounded mountain to -the right, muffled in “a saintly veil of maiden white,” and looking -so calm and peaceful amid the storm-tost stone-sea that howled around -us. To the left were two lesser snow mountains, Ose Skaveln and Vosse -Skaveln, looking down on the scene of confusion at their feet with -no less dignity than their sister. Striking images these of tranquil -repose and rending passion! It was a magnificent, still, autumn day; -if it had been otherwise, it would be difficult to imagine what -features the scene would have assumed. I have seen a good deal of the -Fjeld; but, until now, I had no notion how it can look in some places. -“Vegetation has ceased now,” said the old man, with a kind of shiver, -which was quite contagious, as we stumbled among - - Crags, rocks, and mounds, confusedly hurled, - The fragments of an earlier world. - -But a common-place comparison may perhaps bring what I saw home to my -readers. Suppose a sudden earthquake, or a succession of them, were -to rend, and prostrate, and jumble and tumble all London, choking up -the Thames with debris of all imaginable shapes, and converting its -bed into deep standing pools, with now and then the toppling tower of -a temple or a palace reflecting itself in the waters. And, to crown -all, not a single living mortal to be seen about the ruins. If this -will not suffice to illustrate the scene, the blame must be laid on my -barrenness of invention. - -Well, after some miles of this amusement, we came upon a broad, hollow -way. To the right of this path was the dark, soft, slaty micaceous -schist, but it came no further; and to the left of the line was nothing -but white granitic gneiss. A little further on the rock was scorched. - -“That’s the Torden,” said Simon; “a man was struck by lightning here -not so long ago.” - -At last we emerged on a sort of stony moor, and after eight hours’ walk -suddenly got upon a small plot of grass, and stopped at a châlet. I was -not sorry to preface an attack on my own stores by a slight foray among -the milky produce of the Fjeld dairy. The curds (“Dravle” or “gum”) -proved excellent. - -This spot was called Hallingskie, and was forty-two English miles from -the first farm in Hallingdal. Hitherto, on the whole, we had got on -pretty successfully, though at a rather tortoise pace. It was now that -our misfortunes began. In the first place, it was too late to think of -achieving the passage of the Fjeld by daylight. So we were to sleep -at a certain distant châlet; notwithstanding which Simon seemed in -no hurry to move; and it was only when I started off alone that he -bestirred himself, jabbering as fast as possible to the old man and -woman who lived on this lonely spot. Presently we missed our way, or -rather direction--for there was no way whatsoever--and lost much time -in hitting off the scent again. If we kept to the right, we got among -snow; if too much to the left, the valley was effectually stopped up by -inky lakes, laving the bases of perpendicular cliffs. A shot or two at -ptarmigan somewhat enlivened the horrors of the scene. - -At last, after many ups and downs and round-abouts, we descend into -a valley, and cross over a deepish stream, both of us sitting on the -horse. Once on the further bank, I, of course, relieved the horse of my -weight. Not so my precious Norskman. The unfortunate nag, pressed down -by his bulk, sunk at once almost to his hocks in the morass, and only -by a prodigious effort extricated himself, to flounder back into the -stream. Before I was aware of it, to my consternation, I saw the poor -creature was getting into deep water, and then swimming, only his mouth -out of water, with all my baggage, coat, gun, &c., submerged. The -wretched Simon, who had never had the adroitness to throw himself from -the poor beast’s back, sat firmly upon him, just like the Old Man of -the sea on the back of Sinbad the sailor--a proper incubus. Of course -they’ll both be drowned, thought I; but no! the poor beast has secured -a footing on the further side of the water, and gradually emerges, all -my traps dripping gallons of water. My maps, and powder, and gun, too, -terrible thought! So much for the pleasures of travelling in Norway. - -Presently, the quadruped recrossed at the ford above. After scolding -the man most resolutely for his carelessness, and adjusting the pack, -which had got under the horse’s belly, I proceeded. On we trudged, I -sulky beyond measure, and weary to boot, but consoling myself with the -thought of being speedily at the châlet, where I might rest for the -night, and dry my effects. The shadows of the mountains beginning to -lengthen apace over the dreary lake which we were now skirting, warned -me that the day was far spent. But still no symptoms of a habitation. -The way seemed interminable. At last, halting, I Old-Baileyed the -guide. - -“How far have we to go?” - -“Not so very far.” - -“But night is coming on.” - -“Oh, we shall get there in a liden Stund (a little while.)” - -“Hvor er Stölen (where is the châlet)?” - -“It ought to be near.” - -“Ought to be! what do you mean? Haven’t you been this road before?” - -“No. But the stöl is near the second great lake, and the second lake -can’t be far. We’ve passed the first.” - -After this agreeable revelation I was wound up into a towering state of -ire, which made it prudent not to say more. - -Picking my way with difficulty through brooks, and holes, and rocks, on -I stumped. Twilight at last became no-light, as we emerged on the side -of what seemed to be a lake. Here the châlet ought to be. But whether -or no, it was too dark to see. Halting, the guide exclaimed-- - -“What are we to do?” - -“Do? why sleep under a rock, to be sure. Take the load off the horse, -and turn him loose. But stop. Is not that the stöl?” exclaimed I, -advancing to a dark object, a few yards from us, when I plunged up to -my knees in a peat-hag, from which I with difficulty extricated myself. -Hitherto my feet had been dry, but they were so no longer. - -“Hold your tongue!” I thundered out to the guide, who kept chattering -most vociferously, and assuring me that the stöl ought to be here. - -“Listen! is not that a bell, on the side of the hill?” We listened -accordingly. Sure enough it was the sound of a bell on the side of -the mountain, mingling with the never-ceasing hum of the distant -waterfalls. It must be some cattle grazing, and the sæter could not be -far off. “Try if you can’t make your way up in the direction of the -sound. The building must be there.” - -During the half-hour that my Sancho was absent, I tramped -disconsolately, like “the knight of the sorrowful figure,” up and down -a little square of ground by the horse, to keep myself warm, as, -besides being wet, I sensibly felt the cold of the perpetual snow which -lay not far off. In due time Simon returned. The solitary bell was that -of a horse, who was feeding on the slope, but no sæter could he find. - -“Can you holloa?” I exclaimed; “let’s holloa both together.” - -“I can’t, sir,” croaked he; “I have no voice.” And now I perceived what -I had before scarcely noticed, that his voice did not rise above the -compass of a cracked tea-kettle. So, as a last resource, I commenced -a stentorian solo--“Wi har tabt Veien; hvor er Stölen,”--(We have -lost our way. Where is the stöl?)--till the rocks rebellowed to the -sound. Suddenly I hear in the distance a sound as of many cattle-bells -violently rung, and then, as suddenly, all the noise ceased. - -“Strange that. Did you not hear it?” I asked. - -“Surely they were cattle.” - -My guide’s superstitions, I fancy, began to be worked on, and he said -nothing. Neither did any response come to my louder inquiries, except -that of the echoes. There was nothing for it, then, but to unload the -horse, and take up a position under the lee of some stone. The night -was frosty, and my pea-coat was wet through, with immersion in the -river. Nevertheless, I put it on, and over all, the horse-rug, regular -cold water-cure fashion. Then, munching some of the contents of my -wallet, and drinking my last glass of brandy, I lit a pipe. Before -long, a bright star rose above the mountain, and out twinkled, by -degrees, several other stars. - -“The moon,” my man said, “must soon follow;” but before her cold -light was shed across the valley, I had dozed off. At four o’clock -I was awoke by Simon, begging me to rise, which I felt very loth to -do. Awakened by the cold, he had got up, and by the grey dawn had -discovered the sæter, not many hundred yards distant. - -“My good Englishman, do get up, and dry yourself,” he added, “they’ve -lit a fire.” - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - - The lonely châlet--The spirit of the hills--Bauta - stones--Battlefields older than history--Sand falls--Thorsten - Fretum’s hospitality--Norwegian roads--The good wife--Author - executes strict justice--Urland--Crown Prince buys a red - nightcap--A melancholy spectacle--The trick of royalty--Author - receives a visit from the Lehnsman--Skiff voyage to - Leirdalsören--Limestone cliffs--Becalmed--A peasant lord of the - forest--Inexplicable natural phenomena--National education--A - real postboy--A disciple for Braham--The Hemsedal’s fjeld--The - land of desolation--A passing belle--The change house of - Bjöberg--“With twenty ballads stuck upon the wall”--A story - about hill folk--Sivardson’s joke--Little trolls--The way to - cast out wicked fairies--The people in the valley--Pastor - Engelstrup--Economy of a Norwegian change-house--The Halling - dance--Tame reindeer--A region of horrors. - - -Bobbing my head low, I entered the châlet. One side of the small -interior was occupied by a bed, on which lay a woman with an infant -in her arms, while at the other end of the couch--heads and tails -fashion--were a little boy and girl. The other side of the den was -occupied by shelves covered with cheeses and vessels of milk, while -near the door was the hearth, on which some dried juniper and willow -bushes were crackling, under the superintendence of the stalwart Hans, -who had left his helpmate’s side. Of course the good folks bid me -welcome, and bewailed my mischance; and I felt as secure here, though -quite alone, and not a soul in England knew where I was, as if I had -been in my native country. - -Taking a seat on the end of a box, which I turned up for the -purpose--the only seat in the place--I commenced warming my outer man -with the blaze and smoke of the cabin, and my inner with a kettle of -hot tea. How fortunate it was that I thought of taking a stock of it -with me. - -“Did not you hear me cry out, last night?” asked I, when I had thawed a -little. - -“We heard a noise outside, and peeped out. All the cattle sprang to -their feet in great alarm; so we thought it might be some wild animal. -Afterwards, we heard the sound repeated, and did not know what to make -of it. I didn’t like to venture out.” - -“You thought it was a troll, no doubt,” suggested I, but did not press -him on this point. - -Reader, if you lived the life of these people, I’ll venture to say -that, were you as matter-of-fact a body as ever lived, you would become -infected with a tinge of superstition in spite of yourself. - -Presently Hans and his wife got up to milk the cows, and we resumed -our journey. There were trout of three pound weight, I learned, in the -dark lake close by, but I had had quite enough of mountain sojourn for -the present. The next two or three hours’ travel presented the same -scenes as before, savage in the extreme. Now snow, now ice, now rocks -splintered, riven asunder, cast upon heaps, and ranged in fantastic -groups, with now and then a delicate anemone, red or white, and other -Alpine plants peeping modestly out of the ruins. - -At last, emerging on a grassy slope, we saw, five or six miles below -us, the arm of the Sogne Fjord, whither we were journeying. What a -pleasure it was to tread once more on a piece of flat road, which -we did at a place called Flom. More than one Bauta stone erected to -commemorate some event, about which nobody knows anything at all, is -to be found here. Not long ago they were very numerous; but these -relics of a heathen race have been gradually destroyed by the bonders. -Offensive and defensive armour is not unfrequently picked up in the -neighbourhood, so that this secluded valley must have been at one time -the scene of great events. - -Over the stream to the left, I see one of those sand-falls so frequent -in this country, and more destructive to property than the snow -avalanche.[18] In an unlucky hour some sudden rain-storm washes off -the outer skin--_i.e._, grass, or herbage, of a steep hill of loam or -sand. From that hour the sides of the hill keep perishing--nothing will -grow upon them, and every rain the earthy particles keep crumbling off -from the slope: thus, not only curtailing the available land above, but -damaging the crops below. Woe to the farmer who has a mud or sand-fall -of this description on his property. - -Not sorry was I to darken the doors of Thorsten Fretum, whose house -stood on an eminence, commanding a view up the valley and the Fjord. -Bayersk Oel and Finkel--old and good--raw ham, eggs, and gammel Ost--a -banquet fit for the gods--were set before me. Thorsten Fretum is a man -of substance, and of intelligence to boot. He has twice been member -of parliament--one of the twenty peasant representatives out of the -aggregate one hundred and four which compose the Storthing. A person of -enlightened views, he is especially solicitous about the improvement -of the means of road-communication. At present, between the capital, -Christiania, and Bergen there are no less than sixty miles of boating; -fancy there being sixty miles of sea voyage, and no other means of -transit between London and Aberdeen. - -Mr. Fretum is well acquainted with the mountains, and from him I learn -that my guide has brought me some twenty miles out of the right way. -Mrs. Fretum, a nice-looking woman, wears the regular peasant cap of -white linen stiffly starched, but of lighter make than those used in -the Hardanger, while round the forehead is fastened a dark silk riband. -She is the mother of fourteen sons, some of whose small white heads I -could see now and then protruded through a distant door to get a sight -of the stranger. - -Mr. Fretum catches large salmon in the river, and exhibits flies of his -own construction. A few of mine will serve him as improved patterns, -and at the same time be an acknowledgment of his hospitality. - -The lyster, I find, is used, but as the river is not of a nature to -admit of boats, the weapon is secured by a string to the wrist of the -caster. I must not omit to say that I deliberately fined my guide one -dollar for the injury I had sustained by his carelessness, which he -submitted to with a tolerably good grace, evidently thinking I had let -him off very cheaply. - -An old man and a young girl row me in the evening to that most pretty -spot, Urland. Here I find shelter at the merchant’s, just close to the -whitewashed church, which, according to tradition, was originally a -depôt for merchandize, and belonged to the Hanse League. As I landed, -a crowd of peasants stood on the beach taking farewell of a lot of -drovers bound for the south. They wore, instead of the national red -cap, one of blue worsted, adorned with two parallel white lines. -This is peculiar to parts of the Sogne district. The Crown Prince, -by-the-bye, enchanted the peasants by purchasing one of the aforesaid -red nightcaps to take to Stockholm. - -Didn’t I get up a good fire in the iron stove which garnished one -corner of the comfortable room upstairs. With a palpitating heart I -then opened my box to investigate the amount of damage done by the -immersion. What a sight! Those carefully starched white shirts and -collars which I had expressly reserved for the period when I should -get back to towns and cities, limper than the flexible binding of the -guide-book. The books, too, and maps humid throughout; the ammunition -nearly in the same plight; while those captain-biscuits, on which -I counted, were converted into what I should imagine was very like -baby-food, though I am not skilled in those matters. - -There was no need of the cup of cold water, which travelling Englishmen -so often insist on placing near the red-hot thirty-six pounders -(_i.e._, iron German stoves) for the purpose of neutralising the -dryness of the atmosphere in the apartment, for I was soon in a cloud -of steam rising from the drying effects. - -The _Morgen-Bladt_, I see, still continues to give accounts of the -Crown Prince’s progress. He has been examining some extensive draining -operations near Molde, much to the wonderment of the peasants. - -“I trow the king’s son knows as much about these things as the best -farmer among us,” said a red-capped bonder to another in the crowd. - -“Ay, and a vast deal more, let me tell thee, neighbour Ole.” And then a -strapping youth exclaims, - -“How sorry I am that I’ve served out my time under the king (_i.e._, -as a soldier); I finished last year. It must be sheer holiday work to -serve under such a bonny lad as that.” - -The Viceroy continually indulges in harmless pleasantries with the good -folks, without any loss of dignity by thus unbending. Can any one tell -me why things are so different in England? When Shakspeare said “that -a sort of divinity hedges a king,” he did not mean to say that royalty -should be iced. I remember many years ago being at a public masked -ball at a continental capital when the King, who was good humouredly -sauntering all among the maskers, came up and asked me what character -my dress represented, and then made some witty _apropos_ as he passed -on through the crowd. - -The usual explanation given for the sharper distinction of ranks in -Great Britain is the vulgarity and want of _savoir faire_ of the less -elevated classes, who, if they get an inch, will take an ell. If this -is true, it is a great blot on the Anglo-Saxon, or whatever you call -it, character, that an Englishman cannot take some middle place between -flunkeyism and forwardness, sycophancy and rudeness. - -During the evening I am favoured with a visit from the Lehnsman, who -informs me that the stream close by is rented by an Englishman, who -never comes, although it holds good salmon. I also learn, that by a -very wise regulation, which might be imitated with good effect in -England, he has to report annually to the chief government officer of -the district (1), upon the amount of grain sown; (2), the prospects -of the harvest; (3), on the result of the harvest. This enables the -authorities and merchants to regulate their measures accordingly, and -neither more nor less grain is imported than is necessary. - -Mons and Illing were the names of the two clever boatmen who manned -our skiff the next day to Leirdalsören, distant nearly forty miles. -Rounding a vast cliff, whose sides were so steep as not to afford a -particle of foothold in case of need, the bark bounds merrily along -before a regular gale, and we lose sight very soon of the peaceful -Urland, and descry another little green spot, Underdal, with its black -chapel of ease to the mother church. Lower down on the same side we -open the entrance to Neri Fjord, guarded by stupendous limestone -bluffs; one of these is black with the exposure of many thousand -years, and nearly perpendicular. But the most picturesque is the -western portal, where in parts the white rock has become turned into -a beautiful purple, diversified here and there by patches of green -foliage. - -I should not have liked to be here on a sun-shiny day, just after dame -Nature had completed the operation of opening the white limestone. A -pair of green spectacles would have been much needed to take off the -edge of the glare. That street in Marseilles (see _Little Dorrit_), the -minute description of the glare and heat of which reminds one of the -tautological pie-man, “all hot, hot--hot again!” must have been nothing -to it. - -Many eagles have made these fastnesses their dwelling-places, and I -hear from the boatmen they commit frequent ravages among the sheep and -goats. - -Of aquatic birds, red-throated divers are the only ones we see. Indeed, -in this part of Norway, the traveller misses the feathered multitudes -that are to be seen within the Arctic circle. - -But the wind has suddenly failed us, and the five hours, in which we -were to accomplish the distance, will infallibly expand into ten; -for to our left lies Simla Naze, which is only half way; and the sun -resting on its arid peak tells us it is already five o’clock, P.M., -although we started before mid-day. Hence we see far down the Fjord -to seaward. Yonder is Fresvik, the snow lying on the mountain above -illuminated in a wonderful manner by the shooting rays of the sun, -which is itself hidden behind a mist-robe. Further seaward, at least a -dozen miles from here, may be plainly seen the yellow corn-fields about -Systrand, near which is Sognedal, famous for its large Bauta stones. - -We now veer round sharp to the eastward, and enter another arm of the -immense Fjord. To our right lies the farm-house of Froningen, and -behind it a large pine-forest--a rare sight about here--where the -timber has been ruthlessly exterminated by the improvident peasants. -This forest, consequently, which is seven English miles square, and the -property of a single peasant, is of great value. Our mast, which has -hitherto been kept standing, in the vain hope of the breeze revisiting -us at this point, is now unshipped; and I unship that most astonishing -contrivance, the rudder, with its tiller a yard and a-half long. It was -with such an instrument that King Olaf split open the skull of the son -of Hacon Jarl. - -As we approach Leirdal, the boat takes the ground a good distance from -the landing-place. The detritus brought down from the Fille-Fjeld by -the rapid Leirdal river, is gradually usurping the place of what was, -some years ago, deep water. And yet, notwithstanding the shallowness -and the great mass of fresh water coming in, there is less ice here -in winter than at Urland, where the water is immensely deep, and much -more salt. Indeed, the natural phenomena of this country are frequently -inexplicable. - -The throng of great, ill-fed looking peasants, who crowded the humble -pier of piles, eager for a job, told tales of a numerous population -with little to do. Although it was already night in this dark defile, -jammed in between overshadowing mountains, I forthwith order a -carriole, and drive up the road. - -“Do you go to school?” I asked of my boy-attendant. - -“Yes,” replied Lars Anders. “We must all go for six years, from eight -to fourteen; that is to say, for the six winter months, from Martinmas -to Sanct Johann’s Tid (Midsummer.) After that, we go to the clergyman’s -for six months, to receive religious instruction.” - -At Midlysne, where I spent the night, some hermetically sealed -provision boxes indicate a visit from Englishmen, who have been -catching salmon here. But the increased rate of charges would of itself -have suggested something of the kind. - -A boy met us on the road next morning with three fine salmon on his -back. He had caught them in a deep hole, near Seltum Bridge, and offers -them for sale at twopence a pound. The salmon go up as far as Sterne -Bridge, and are then stopped by a defile, where the torrent is choked -up by masses of fallen rock. - -From Husum station my attendant is a very small boy, who with -difficulty manages to clamber up on his seat behind. As we commence -the ascent of the remarkable road which surmounts the tremendous pass -beyond, a deep bass voice sounds close to my ear, startling me not a -little. I’ll tell you what, reader, you would have started too, if a -voice like that had sounded in your ears on such a spot, with no person -apparently near, or in sight, that could be the owner of it. Could it -come from that tiny urchin? Yet such was the case. Halvor Halvorsen -was sixteen years of age, although no bigger than a boy of eight. The -cause of his emitting those hollow tones was, that he wished to descend -from his perch and walk up the pass, which he cannot do unless the -vehicle is stopped; as if such a shrimp as that would make any possible -difference to the horse. I suppose he has heard that the last ounce -will break the camel’s back. His nickname is Wetle, the sobriquet of -all misbegotten imps in this country. He cannot spell, and is nearly -daft, poor child; but for voice, commend me to him. The whip he -carries is nearly as long as himself; while his dress is exactly of the -fashion worn by adults. - -Further on the road branches in two directions; that to the left -goes over the Fille-Fjeld. We take that to the right, and mount the -Hemsedal’s Fjeld, and are soon on the summit. Some miserable-looking -châlets dot the waste. One of these, Breitestöl, professes to give -refreshment; but I did not venture within its forbidding precincts. The -juniper scrub has in many places been caught by the frost, studding the -wilderness of grey rock, and yellow reindeer moss, with odd-looking -patches of russet. A series of sleet showers, which the wind is driving -in the same direction as I am going, ever and anon spit spitefully at -me. High posts at intervals indicate the presence here, for many months -in the year, of deep, deep snow, when everything is under one uniform -white, wedding-cake covering; funeral crust, I should rather say, to -the unfortunate traveller, who chances to wander from the road, and -gets submerged. Everything looks dreary in the extreme; the very brooks -seem no longer to laugh joyously as they come tumbling down from the -heights. There is a dull hoarse murmur about them to-day, whether it is -the state of the atmosphere, or the state of the wind, or the state of -my own spirit at the moment, I know not; perhaps they are loth to leave -the parental tarns for the lowlands. The bosom of mamma yonder is also -ruffled, I see, into uneasy motion. The writer of _Undine_ ought to -have been here to embody the imaginings suggested by the scene. - -I was all alone, my attendant having gone back with another traveller. -Presently, I meet a solitary peasant girl, sitting in masculine fashion -on a white pony. The stirrups are too long, so she has inserted her -toes in the leathers. It struck me that the lines in the nursery rhyme-- - - This is the way the ladies ride, - This is the way the gentlemen ride, - -will have to be inverted for the benefit of Norsk babies. The damsel -stares at me with much astonishment, and I stare at her, and, as we -pass each other, a “good morning” is exchanged. And now the water-shed -is passed, as I reach an old barrow, which appears to have been opened; -and I dart down hill in company with a swiftly coursing stream, the -beginning of the Hemsedal River. - -Yonder to the left, auspicious sight, stands the change house of -Bjöberg. I am soon in the Stuê, eating mountain trout, and regaling -myself with Bayersk Öl, and then coffee. The biting cold, although -August was not yet over, sharpened my appetite. The waiters, who -alternately bustled in and out of the room, were a thickset burly man, -wearing a portentously large knife, with a weather-beaten, “old red -sandstone” sort of countenance; and a female, dressed in the hideous -fashion of the country, her waist under her armholes; a fashion none -the less hideous from her being in an interesting condition. These two -were the landlord, Knut Erickson Bjöberg, and his spouse, Bergita. - -Warmed by the repast, I have leisure to survey the apartment. There -were the usual amount of carved wooden spoons, painted bowls and -boxes, but the prints upon the log-walls were what chiefly engaged -my attention. One of these was “The Bible map of the way to Life and -Death.” A youth, in blue coat and red stockings, is beheld on the one -side, bearing a cross. After a series of most grotesque adventures, -he arrives at heaven’s gate, and is admitted by angels, who crown him -with a chaplet. On the other side of the picture is a sort of “Rake’s -Progress.” A man is seen dancing with a lady in a flame-coloured dress. -Garlands, drinking, and fighting, are the order of the day. At last -a person in black, with red toes and red horns, appears. There is a -door into a lion’s mouth, and, amid flames burning, evil spirits are -descried. In another picture the “Marriage of Cana,” is described -not less graphically, and with equal attention to costume. The -_bizarre_--an educated person would pronounce it profane--treatment, -one would think, must sadly mar the good moral of the story. Knut was a -most intelligent fellow, as I detected at a glance, and so I prevailed -upon him to schuss me to the next station, Tuf, instead of sending a -stupid lad. - -“This is a strange wild country you live in, Knut,” said I, when we -had driven a little distance. - -“Well, sir, it is rather. What countryman are you, if I may be so bold?” - -“Guess.” - -“To judge from the fishing-rod and the gun, you must be an Englishman. -I once guided an Englishman--let me see--one Capitan Biddul (Biddulph?) -over the mountains to the Sogne Fjord. Capitan Finne, too, the -Norwegian Engineer, when he was surveying, I was a good deal with him.” - -“Do the people hereabouts believe in the hill-folk?” (Haugefolk = -fairies). - -“To be sure. There used to be a strange man living at Bjöberg before my -father took to the place; one Knut Sivardson Sivard. His head was full -of those hill-people. He used to tell an odd tale of a circumstance -that happened to him years ago. One Yule, when he was just going to -rest, came a tap at the door. ‘Who is there?’ he asked. ‘Neighbours,’ -was the reply. Opening the door, he let in three queer-looking people, -with pointed white caps and dark clothes. ‘I’m Torn Hougesind,’ said -one, with a swarthy face and a hideous great tooth in the middle of -his upper jaw. ‘I’m your nearest neighbour.’ ‘I’m Harald Blaasind,’ -said another. ‘I’m’--I forget what the other called himself, but it was -like the other two names, the name of some of those mountains near by. -‘Strange that I never saw you before,’ said Sivard, doubtfully. ‘But -we don’t live so far off; we’ve called in to see how you do this Yule -time.’ Sivard did not like the appearance of matters, but said nothing, -and set before them some Yule ale in a large birch bowl, such as we -use for the purpose in these parts. How they did drink, those three -fellows! But Hougesind beat the rest hollow. Every now and then, as the -ale mounted to his brain, the creature laughed, and showed his monster -tooth.” - -“A modern _Curius Dentatus_,” mused I. - -“Presently, in mere wantonness, he bit the board, saying, he would -leave a mark of his visit. Sivard’s son, Knut, who was a determined -young fellow, lay in bed all this while, and rightly judged that if -the ale flowed at this pace, there would be very little left for the -remainder of the Christmas festivities. So he slily reached his gun, -which hung on the wall, and taking good aim, fired right at Hougesind, -him with the tooth, when the whole three vanished in a twinkling! -Sivard used to show the mark of the tooth in the board, but I have -heard that it looked just as if it had been made by a horse tooth -hammered into it. However, the tale got all over the country, and folks -used to come up from Christiania to see Sivardson Sivard, and hear the -description of what he had seen. - -“Fond of a joke was Sivard. There is a patch of grass you passed up -the road--a very scarce article hereabouts. Drovers used to stop there -unbeknown to him, and give their cattle a bellyful, and then came and -took a glass at the house, and said nothing about it. He was determined -to be even with them; so he dressed up a guy with an old helmet on, -and a sword in his hand, and placed the figure close by a hovel there. -Not many nights after, a drover came rushing into the house almost -senseless with fright. ‘He is coming, he is coming! the Lord deliver -me!’ ‘What now?’ exclaimed Sivard. The drover explained that he was -coming along, when he spied a man in armour, with dreadful glaring -eyes and sword, rushing after him. He ran for his life. It was one of -the Hill folk. ‘Are you certain he moved?’ inquired Sivard, ready to -burst with laughter. ‘Quite certain.’ ‘But where were you?’ ‘Oh! I -had just turned out of the road a bit, to give the horses a bite of -grass’--‘that did not belong to you,’ continued the other. ‘Serve you -right for trespassing.’ - -“But we all believe in these people up here,” continued my companion. -“Not so very long ago, Margit and Sunniva--two sæter girls--just when -they were leaving with the cattle for home, at the end of the summer, -saw two little trolls steal into the deserted hut. They observed them -accurately. They were dressed in red, with blue caps, and each had a -pipe and a neat little cane.” - -“And do these people ever do harm?” - -“Oh, yes! Sometimes they injure the cattle, and make people ill. There -are some women who are skilled in breaking the charm. They are called -‘Signe-kone’ (from signe, to exorcise, and kone, woman). One or two -such live in the valley. They are considered better than any doctor for -a sore.” - -“And what is their method of cure?” - -“Why, they smear something over the place, and say a few words, and -blow (blaese). Blowing is an important part of the ceremony. They -measure children, too, from head to foot; that is a good thing.” - -“And what sort of people,” asked I, “are there in the valley?” - -“Oh! I can’t say much for them. I’m the vorstand (a kind of -churchwarden or parish trustee), so I know something about it. The -priest, not long ago, told them from the pulpit that there were more -bastards born, than children in lawful wedlock. But they don’t care. -It’s all Brantvun that does it. I’ve seen lads come to church with a -bottle of brandy, and, directly it’s over, give the girls a drink. Hard -work for the clergyman, I believe you. But Pastor Engelstrup--you’ve -heard of him no doubt;--he was the man to manage them. Prodigiously -strong he was. When he was building his gaard at Gool, there was a beam -three of them were trying to lift on the roof, but couldn’t. ‘Let me -try,’ said he, and raised the timber without more ado. He is gone up to -Aal, in Hallingdal now. We missed him very much. He was as good as he -was strong.” - -“Is he a big man?” - -“No, not so very; but he is very thickset, with curly black hair, now -got grey.” - -I find that Knut gets pretty well paid for maintaining a change-house -in such a solitary spot as Bjöberg. The Government allows him three -hundred dollars per annum for keeping the house open for travellers -through the year, besides thirty dollars for every horse. He and -others, he tells me, are endeavouring to get the Storthing to advance -money for the purpose of rendering the river navigable to Naes, which -might be done at an inconsiderable expense. - -After a continued descent, we arrive at Tuff. Here a pale-faced -little tatterdemalion offers to dance the Halling dance for the sum -of two skillings. They have a marvellous way in this national dance -of flinging their legs high up into the air (the Hallingkast), and -twisting the body a couple of times round, horizontally, in the air. -Some peasant girls in green skirts, with no cincture, fastened over -their shoulders with braces,--their yellow hair surmounted by a red -‘buy-a-broom-girl’-shaped cap, are among the bystanders. The first -course over, the lad tells me he is very poor, and begs me for some -pig-tail tobacco to chew, which I was unable to give him. - -I find that the peasants hereabouts keep two thousand tame reindeer, -but they are not found to answer. - -As we coursed down the road from Tuff to Ekre, a new station, my -schuss, Ingval Olsen, points out by the waning light, to some large -stones that strewed the Fjeld to the left. - -“There was a gaard there, Gytogaard, under the mountain fifty years -ago,” said he; “but one night, when all were a-bed, the mountain came -down and buried them all. Some human voices were heard for a day or -two, and the cock kept crowing for eight days long, and then all was -still. No human labour could have extricated them.” - -Further in the wood a spot was shown me where a man was found murdered -some time back, and nobody ever found out who did it, or who the -murdered man was--a region of horrors. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - - Fairy lore--A wrestle for a drinking horn--Merry time is - Yule time--Head-dresses at Haga--Old church at Naes--Good - trout-fishing country--A wealthy milkmaid--Horses subject - to influenza--A change-house library--An historical - calculation--The great national festival--Author threatens, - but relents--A field-day among the ducks--Gulsvig--Family - plate--A nurse of ninety years--The Sölje--The little fat - grey man--A capital scene for a picture--An amazing story--As - true as I sit here--The goat mother--Are there no Tusser - now-a-days--Uninvited guests--An amicable conversation about - things in general--Hans saves his shirt--The cosmopolitan - spirit of fairy lore--Adam of Bremen. - - -Next morning I found my schuss-karl was brimful of tales, which he -firmly believed, about the trolls. - -“You see that Fjeld,” said he, pointing to a magnificent abrupt -mountain behind us. “A friend of mine was taken in there on Yule night, -and feasted with the hill people.” - -I hummed to myself, as I thought of _Young Tamlane_-- - - The queen of fairies keppit him - In yon green hill to dwell. - -“They wanted,” continued he, “to keep him altogether, but he got away -notwithstanding. Cari Olsdatter, my sister, was changed in the cradle -too when my mother had gone out one evening; but she came back just in -time to see an old woman carrying off the baby, and made her give it -up. There was a bag of stones left in the cradle instead. - -“Torkil Hermandson, too, who lived among the hills, they say he was -married to a troll-qvind (‘elf-quean,’ as a Lowlander would say), -called Turi Hougedatter. She was to have for her dowry his fold, as -full as it would hold, of fat troll-cattle. So he set to work the -night before, and wattled in twice as much ground as his fold usually -covered. Sly fellow was Hermandson.” - -“Yes, indeed,” thought I, “it seemed almost as if he was taking a leaf -out of dame Dido’s book, when she over-reached the simple aborigines of -Africa with her ox-hide _double entendre_.” - -My attendant has got in his harvest, so he has comparatively little for -the horse to do, and offers to schuss me all the way to Naes, which -offer I accept. Presently we descend the hill at Gool, the former -residence of the Samsonian Gielstrup. - -“You see that hillock yonder, covered with firs,” said my guide, -pointing to a spot lying at the confluence of the Hemsedals Elv and -that of Hallingdal. “There it was where Arne Hafthorn wrestled with -a troll one Christmas Eve, and got from him the great drinking horn, -which has been in the family ever since. But it brought him no good. -There has always been one of the family stumm (dumb) or halv-vittig -(half-witted); and it is not so many years ago that Arne was found dead -close by the hill there. This horn is still to be seen at a farm-house -a little way up Hallingdal. It is made of ox-horn, and mounted with -some unknown metal, and rests on a stand. Ah! you smile, but it is all -virkelig sant (actually true).”[19] - -“And what do you do for the fairies at Yule?” said I. - -“Oh! we always place some cake and ale on the board when we go to bed -at night.” - -“Well, and what then? Do they partake of it?” - -“To be sure! It’s always gone in the morning. No doubt it is taken by -the ‘hill people.’ Merry time is Yule. We brew ale for the occasion, -and bake a large cake, which we keep till Twelfth Night. Everybody -stops at home on Christmas Day; but on the day after everybody goes out -to visit everybody, and if you meet a person you always say, ‘Glaedelig -Jule’ (a happy Yule to you).” - -At Haga a different sort of head-dress begins to prevail among the male -peasants, being a skull-cap of red cloth, like that worn by the Kirghis -chiefs, as sketched by Atkinson, with stripes of black velvet radiating -from the crown to the edge. Instead of the usual jacket, a green frock -is worn, with stand-up collar, and an epaulet of the same coloured -cloth on the shoulders. - -A grove of beautiful birches here overhangs the two streams, now -joined in one fine river, which abounds with trout, some of which -reach the weight of six pounds and upwards. The fly and bait are both -used, I understand. At Naes there is very good accommodation at the -“Merchant’s,” including excellent wine and fresh meat. Part of the -church here is seven hundred years old, and there are one or two old -pillars and a trefoil arch at the east end worth observing. The altar -piece, representing the crucifixion, is by no means contemptible. - -From here boats may be procured right down the stream to Green, on the -Krören Fjord, some fifty miles. Every now and then the stream widens -into a lake, and at times narrows into a cataract, so that a skilful -boatman is required. This is by far the best way of proceeding; but -the peasants are not bound by law to forward you otherwise than on the -high road; so, finding there was some difficulty, I took horse and -gig, thereby missing some excellent shooting and fishing. Trout of ten -pounds are taken here, and there are numbers of ducks. Oats begin now -to be cultivated instead of the hardier barley. - -The plump, red-faced damsel who routed me out of bed in the morning, -at the wretched station of Sevre, had actually a row of five silver -brooches confining the shirt over her exuberant bust. But this is -nothing to the jacket with fifty silver clasps, which one of the -ancient Scalds is narrated to have worn. - -As I journeyed along, on a most lovely quiet autumn morning, the road -would every now and then pierce into a thick pine wood, and then emerge -upon the banks of the stream. More tempting spots for trout-fishing I -never saw. All the horses about here, I find, come from the north of -the Fjeld, few being bred in the valley. They almost invariably get a -kind of influenza on coming south. The horse I am driving, which was -bought at Leirdalsören for fifty dollars in the spring, is only just -recovering from an attack of this kind. - -At Trostem I find a bear has been seen five or six times, but there is -no shooter about. - -While I wait for the horse, I eat breakfast, and look about me. -Wonderful to relate, I find on a shelf--what do you suppose, reader?--a -Bible! yes, that was there, but there was another volume, a cookery -book, printed at Copenhagen, 1799. One might as well expect to meet -with a book of Paris fashions among the squaws of the Ojibbeways. -Eating, it is true, forms the main part of a Norwegian’s daily -thoughts. The word mad (meat, food) is everlastingly in their mouths, -and the thing itself almost as frequently, six meals a day not being -uncommon. But then, what food! No cookery book surely required for -that. So that no doubt this book got here by mistake. - -The little almanac, edited by Professor Handsteen, of Christiania, who -is known in England as the author of “Travels in Siberia,” also lay -on the table. A little note I found in it is very significant of the -simple-minded superstition that still lingers among the peasantry, of -which I have been giving indications above. It is to this effect:-- - -“The orbit of the moon (maane-bane), has the same position with regard -to the equator every nineteenth year, and it possibly may influence -the atmosphere. It has been supposed, in consequence, that there is -some similarity in the weather on any day to that of the corresponding -day nineteen years ago. For this reason, in one column under the -heading ‘veirliget,’ the weather is given as observed at Christiania, -nineteen years ago. This, however, must not be looked on as divination -(ingen spædom), but only as an historical calculation.” This veirliget -(weather) column having, notwithstanding the above caution, been -turned by the peasants to superstitious uses, was, I hear, omitted -for a time, but it had to be restored, as the bonders would not buy -the almanac without it. I may here mention that the old dispute about -the exact day on which St. Olaf fell at Stikklestad has been recently -revived with great vigour. This great national festival has hitherto -been kept on the 29th of July, “Olsok.” Hakon Hakonson was crowned king -on that day in 1247, and ever since it has been the coronation day of -Norway. But the national mind was some time ago disagreeably disturbed -by the discovery that the 29th could not after all have been the day -of St. Olaf’s death; for although tradition and Snorro assert that -there was an eclipse of the sun on that day, it has been ascertained -by astronomical calculation, that this eclipse did not take place on -the 29th July, but on the 31st of August. One party, therefore, is -contending for the observance of the festival on the actual day (31st -of August), while another insists upon adhering to the former date. -Upon the whole, it would seem preferable to observe the day hallowed -by the traditional recollections of the people. If we may be permitted -such a comparison, who would like to see the festival of the Nativity -altered from December 25th to some other day in the calendar? - -Meantime, after an unusual delay, the fresh relay arrives; a fine black -stallion, dripping wet. - -“I must write a complaint in the book for this,” said I. “You are long -after your time. I shall never get to the end of my journey at this -rate. You’ll be fined a dollar, and serve you right.” - -“Oh! pray don’t, sir; it’s not my fault; the landlord’s son is to -blame; he never comes straight to tell us. And then the horse was over -the river. I’ve had to swim him across, and the water is bad just now -for swimming. He shall go fast, and make up for lost time.” - -Somewhat mollified, I did not put my threat in execution, much to the -satisfaction of Svend. - -Svend was a simple-minded individual in shooting matters, as I -presently had occasion to see. On the sedgy shallows of a lake, just -before the river began again to contract into rapids, a score of ducks -were assembled; some motionless, others busily employed in standing -on their heads in the water. Leaving the carriole, I stole with much -circumspection towards them, managing to keep some bushes between me -and the birds, until I got within shot. Bang went one barrel, and -then another, and four ducks were _hors de combat_. When I returned -to the vehicle with my prize, Svend expressed great astonishment that -I had fired the barrels separately, as he thought they both went off -at once.[20] He had never seen a double-barrelled gun before. Another -peasant who was by, speedily cut some birch twigs with his toll-knife, -and packed up the birds, taking care to stick the bills inside, that -the flies might not get into the gape (Gapë). - -At length we descend upon Gulsvig, at the head of the Krören Fjord. I -at once perceived, from a glance at the interior of the house, that the -station-keeper was a man of some importance. In fact, he turned out to -be the Lehnsman of the district. In the inner room there were a large -quantity of silver spoons, and a huge tankard of solid silver, pegged -inside, and of great weight, which at once bespoke the owners to be -people of substance. - -“Ah! that was left me by my grandfather,” said the landlord. “It has -been a very long time in the family.” - -“Have you got any curious remains about here?” inquired I; “any -bauta-stones, for instance, or do you know any legends?” - -“There is a bauta-stone up yonder in the field; but as for legends, old -Moer can tell you a lot of stories about the hill-folk, but she is not -always in the humour.” - -Gamle Moer (old mother), as he called her, Anna Olsdatter Gulsvig, just -then entered the room with a pipe in her mouth. An excellent portrait -of her, by a Norwegian artist, hung against the wall. Her tall figure -was still erect, her eye undimmed, while her face, the complexion -of which years had failed to sear, preserved traces of much former -beauty. A neat white cap, bound tight round with a red silk kerchief, -confined her grey locks. On her bosom were two or three pairs of -silver studs, and the national ornament, the sölje. The one which she -wore was of the size and shape of a small saucer. It was of silver -filigree-work, with a quantity of silver saucers (or bracteates), each -about half an inch in diameter, hung to it. Similar ornaments have been -found, I believe, in barrows; the pattern of them having probably been -imported hither by the Varangian guard from Byzantium and the East; in -the same way that these Northern mercenaries probably gave the first -idea of the Scandinavian-looking trinkets which have been recently -discovered in the tombs at Kertch. - -“How do you do, Mrs. Anna?” so I accosted the old lady, propitiating -her by the offer of some tobacco. “I hear you have some old stories; -will you tell me one?” - -“I can’t awhile now; besides, I’ve forgotten them.” - -“Oh! but now do, Moer,” supplicated a little boy, her grandson. But -the old lady left the room. Presently, however, she came in again. -There was a look of inspiration in her clear grey eye, which seemed to -betoken that my desire would be granted. - -“It’s some Huldra stories ye were wanting to hear?” said she in an -odd dialect; “well, I’ll just tell you one before I go and cook your -dinner; you must be hungry. Let me see; yes, I once did see one of the -Houge-folk.” - -“Indeed! how was that?” - -“Well, you see, it’s many years ago. I am an old woman now, over -seventy. Then I was a lass of eighteen. It was one Thursday evening -in September, and I was up at the sæter. Two other girls had come in, -and we thought we would have a dance--and so we danced up and down the -floor. The door was open, when suddenly I saw outside, staring fixedly -at us, a little man, with brown breeches, grey coat, and a red cap on -his head. He was very fat, and his face, it looked so dark, so dark. -What a fright I was in to be sure, and the other girls too. As soon as -we saw him, we left off dancing, you may depend upon it, directly. The -next moment he was gone, but the other girls durst not go to their -sæters, though they were only a few yards off. We all sat crouching -over the fire for the rest of the night.” Rapt into days of old, the -intelligent eye of the old lady gleamed like a Sibyl’s, as she told -her story, with much animation. At the same time, she placed her hand, -half unconsciously, as it seemed, on mine, the little boy all the while -drinking in the tale with suspended breath and timid looks; reminding -me of the awful eagerness with which Béranger, I think, describes the -grandchildren listening to some old world story of grandmamma’s. A -capital scene it was for a picture--the group is still before me. - -“You must have been mistaken,” said I. - -“Not at all. That’s not the only time I’ve seen a Tuss.” - -“Indeed! How was that?” - -“One time I was up at the sæter with Turi, another girl. We were just -going to bed, when a stave was put through the little window-pane -(gluggen), and moved gently backwards and forwards. We were frightened -at first, but we heard a titter outside, and then we knew directly what -it meant. It was two Friers (lovers) come, so we got up and let them -in, and we were soon all four in bed together.” - -“What!” exclaimed I, in amazement. - -“Oh, that’s the way we have here. Of course, you know we were dressed.” - -“And were you married to the man afterwards?” - -“No; I married quite another person.” - -“I did just the same,” put in her son, the Lehnsman, who had just -entered. “We see no harm in that. A young farmer’s son often sleeps -with a companion in this way, but she must be of the same rank of life -as he is. If it was with a servant girl, it would be considered a -disgrace.” - -“Well, but go on with your story,” said I to the narrator. - -“Where was I? Let me see. Yes, we were in bed all snug, chatting -away, when suddenly I heard a noise at the window. ‘Hush!’ whispered -I--‘what’s that? Listen.’ - -“We saw at this moment a pole put through the window, just like before. -What a fright we were in. But we lay quite still. Presently the pole -was drawn back, and a minute after there was a terrible noise in the -fiös among the cattle--a loud lowing and bellowing, just as if one -of them was being killed. Up we all got in a trice, and rushed out, -and I saw a tuss stroking a black cow. It was in a muck sweat; this is -as true as I sit here. It was at Nor-sæter, a mile from the farm in -Signedal, where I lived before I was gift (married) up here.” - -“What is that tale about the goat, mother?” - -“Oh, ah! At Fagerlid, in Eggedal, a woman came one evening with a -white female goat, and begged the master to change it for a buck. He -declined. She came again three Thursday evenings running, till at last -he consented. They knew pretty well who she must be, for they saw -something like the end of a tail behind her. So, when she went away, -they cast a toll-knife after her, to prevent any evil consequences. -They never repented the change; the female goat she left gave such an -astonishing quantity of milk. As for the person who brought her, they -never saw her again.” - -“But there are no tusser now-a-days?” inquired I. - -With a mysterious look the old lady took a pinch of snuff, and started -off talking again, to the great delight of the small urchin; and so -fast did she talk, that it was only by extraordinary attention, and -stopping her now and then for an explanation of her antique dialect, -that I succeeded in mastering the story. - -“To be sure there are; people are seeing them constantly. It is only -ten years ago, that on the evening after Christmas, Hans Östenson, of -Melbraten-gaard, three-quarters of a mile above Trostem, which you -passed, heard a terrible noise in the fiös (byre). He thought that the -cows and sheep must have got together. So he lit a torch, and went -out to see; but directly he came into the byre all was quiet in a -moment, and the cattle were in their right places. The man, suspecting -glamour, took effectual means to put a stop to it, by immediately -striking his axe into the beam over the door of the cattle-shed.[21] -Meantime Hans’ wife, who was sick in bed, observed a crowd of little -people hustle into the house as soon as her husband was out of it, -and lay dunen (bedding of eider-down) for themselves on the floor, -and betake themselves to repose. She kept quite still. Presently the -master returned with the news that ‘It’s all right; no harm done;’ at -the same moment he claps his eyes on the little people stretched on -the floor. ‘Holloa, my masters! What now?’ said he, in a jovial tone, -having drunk a tolerable quantity of Yule ale that evening. ‘Who are -you, and whither bound?’ ‘We’ve had a long journey of it,’ replied one -of the little people, rousing up, in somewhat shrill tones. ‘We’ve -come all the way from Kongsberg town. We’ve been to the doctor there.’ -‘Why so?’ ‘Why, Mars Hulte (the servant of the gaard), when he was -pouring the ale from the vat into the barrel, the other evening, let -the cullender drop on the leg of one of our people, who happened to -be near, though Hulte did not see him, and hurt it sorely. We want to -stop here to-night; besides which, we wish to have a talk with you.’ -‘Very good,’ said Hans, not a whit disconcerted; ‘make yourselves at -home; you seem to be acquainted with the house already. Just look out -there, while I step into bed!’ And forthwith he picked his way, with -much circumspection, between the prostrate forms of the tiny people. -This was no easy matter, as they lay so close together upon the floor. -But he gained the bed, fortunately without doing any more damage than -treading on the tip of one oldish fellow’s toe, who set up a sharp -scream. - -“‘Well, and where do you live?’ said Hans, resuming his place under -the skin (fell) by the side of his better half, who was perfectly -astonished at her good man’s boldness. ‘We live just below here, under -Melbraten Hatte; but we are a good deal annoyed by one of your horses, -that stables near there. The sewage leaks through, and drops on our -table. The request we have to make is, that you’ll be so good as to -move his quarters.’ ‘Besides which,’ said a Huldre, larger than the -rest, who, at this moment, came from a corner, and stood bolt-upright -by the bed-side, ‘one good turn deserves another. You were making -a coat for the lad, just before Yule--you remember?’ At this Hans -started. ‘And you thought you should not have enough cloth, but you -had. Do you know why? It was I who stretched out the cloth, so that you -had enough, and to spare. There was a bit left for me too. Look here, -this coat I have on was made of it!’ - -“On this, Hans said he should have no objection to comply with their -request. The conversation then dropped, and from odd noises, a sort -of miniature snore, which Hans heard about, he perceived that the -little men in grey were dropping off to sleep again. It would never do, -however, for the master of the house to follow their example, with such -outlandish guests in the house. So he took care to keep his eyes well -open. Before long, by the flickering embers of the fire, he saw the -tallest gentleman take his (Hans’s) shirt, which his wife had put out -for the morrow, and begin tearing it into shreds. ‘Hold hard there!’ -exclaimed Hans, whose wife, overcoming her fears, had jogged him, when -she saw the produce of her industry thus impudently destroyed. ‘Hold -hard! I say.’ ‘We’re short of linen,’ answered the Huldra, soothingly, -‘and this shirt of yours will make up into a great many shirts for us.’ -‘Hold hard!’ again screamed Hans, whose mettle was thoroughly roused, -his spouse also being in a great state of pucker, ‘or I’ll cock the -rifle, by the rood!’ - -“Whether it was his gesture to reach down the rifle, or whether the -name of Cors (Rood or Cross) did it, Hans could not say; but they were -all off in a moment. It was quite a treat to see them bundling out, -helter-skelter, as hard as ever they could get out,” added the ancient -dame, whose upraised eyebrows, and a twitch at the corner of her mouth, -showed that she was no foe to mirth, and enjoyed the rapid exit of the -Trolls extremely. - -“Such lots of them,” continued she, excitedly, as if she saw them -there and then, “he could not count them. He hurried after them to the -doorway, and got a sight of them, by the light of the snow and the -stars, mounting on their horses, and riding away as fast as they could -lay legs to ground. On examining his shirt, he found it was quite whole -again. So no damage was done after all. He took care, however, to move -the horse, in order to abate the nuisance complained of, and the animal -throve remarkably well in his new quarters. But I must get your dinner -ready.” - -And so out the old lady went, in due time returning with some pancakes -and fried siek, a sort of fresh-water herring, which, with perch and -trout, abounds in the lake close by. - -While the repast was digesting, I began to ruminate on these stories, -and the remarkable likeness, nay, even identity, some of them exhibit -to the superstitions of that part of Great Britain where the Northern -invaders mostly frequented. Fairy lore is traced by some authors to -the Pagan superstitions of Greece and Rome, and to the superstitions -of the East. But we prefer to regard these supernatural beings in -Scandinavia rather as in the main of home-growth than as exotics; the -creations of a primitive people, who, living among wonderful natural -phenomena, and being ignorant of their cause, with the proverbial -boldness and curiosity of ignorance, were fond of deriving an origin -for them of their own manufacture, and one stamped with the impress of -their own untutored imaginations. And what a country they live in for -the purpose![22] None fitter could have been devised for the residence -and operations of mysterious and frightful beings. Plod along the -calm, friendly landscape of England, dotted thickly with houses and -steeples, with the church bells ringing merrily, or the station bell -clanging imperatively (bells are the _bête noire_ of Trolls), and the -scene alive with people,--a chaw-bacon, with no speculation in his -eye, driving along the heavy wain, or a matter-of-fact “commercial” -labouring along with his loaded four-wheel over the dusty _strata -viarum_,--and I’ll defy you to be otherwise than common-place and -unimaginative. But let even a highly-educated man wander alone through -the tingling silentness of the mighty pine-woods of the North, broken -at one time by the rumble of an earthslip, at another by the roar of -a waterfall, seething in some weird chasm. Let him roam over the grey -fjeld, and see through the morning mist a vast head bent threateningly -over him, and, unless he be a very Quaker, his imagination will turn -artist or conjuror, and people the landscape with the half-hidden forms -of beings more or less than human. And so it was with the old heathen -Norskman, living all alone in the wilderness. When he heard the tempest -howl through the ravine, and saw the whirlwind crumple up the trees, it -must be the spirits of Asgaard sweeping by with irresistible force. If -in autumn evenings strange gabblings were heard aloft, caused by the -birds of passage moving southward, it must be troll-wives on their airy -ride. If lights were seen on the stream at night, they were “corpse -lights,” though in reality only caused by some fellow burning the water -for salmon. If the ice split with sudden and fearful sound, engulphing -the hopeless wayfarer, it was an evil spirit, requiring a human -sacrifice. Those pot-looking holes and finger-marks in the rocks--those -mysterious foot-marks, whence were they? Those strange, grotesque -figures, as like as they can be to human forms and faces--they must -once have been evil beings or demons, now turned to stone by some -superior power--a power that at one time revealed itself in the hissing -race aloft of the Borealis; at another time blasted and shivered the -rocks in thunder and lightning. The sea naturally would be a special -locality for these sprites. Did not they often see phantom-ships, which -a modern would explain by the natural phenomenon of the mirage? Did not -sea-monsters from time to time show themselves to the lone fisherman? -Did not they often see strange sights at the bottom of the transparent -deep? Did not the calm surface suddenly rise into ruffian, crested -billows, while dismal shrieks would echo at the same time from the -rock-piercing caverns? - -But other causes were at work. The more ancient inhabitants of -Scandinavia, some of them of giant size and prodigious strength, others -small of stature but very agile, like the Fins or Laps, were driven -into the mountains by Odin and his Asiatics. From these hiding-places -they would at times emerge--the former to do deeds of ferocity and -violence, the latter to practise some of their well-known tricks, such -as thieving, changing children, kidnapping people away with them. And -this would, in process of time, give rise to the fancy of the existence -of supernatural beings, gigantic Jotuls and tiny Trolls (in the Edda -Finnr is the name for dwarfs), endued with peculiar powers. In the same -way the vulgar Scotch ascribed superhuman attributes to the Picts, or -Pechts. - -Adam of Bremen, in the eleventh century, says that Sweyne Estridson, -King of Denmark, told him that in Sweden people used to come from the -hills and do great damage, and then disappear. The same author relates -that in Norway there were wild women and men, who lived in the woods, -and were something between men and beasts. The existence of these -creatures, by whatever name called, being once assumed, all sorts of -explanations were given of their origin. Thus, there is an odd Swedish -superstition, that when God hurled down Lucifer and his host from -heaven, they did not all fall into the burning lake, but that some fell -into the sea, others upon the earth, and became the various spirits -proper to those places. Another not less quaint Danish legend is to -this effect:--When Eve was washing her bairns one day in a spring, -the Almighty suddenly called to her. Alarmed, she threw those of her -bairns that she had not washed aside, when God asked her whether all -her children were there. She replied, “Yes.” Whereupon he said, “What -thou hast tried to hide from God shall be hidden from men.” In a moment -the unwashed children were separated from the others, and disappeared. -Before the flood, God put them all into a hole, the entrance of which -he fastened. From them all the underground people spring. Others -again, say that they descend from Adam, by his first wife, Lileth, -while others pronounce them to be a mixed race of the sons of God and -daughters of men. Even Hermann Ruge, the pastor of Slidre, in Norway, -in 1754, gravely talked of underground people who were something -between men and beasts. While that strange compound of superstition and -enthusiasm, Luther himself, speaks of changelings as a matter of course. - -But it is time to think of another sort of changeling, I mean the fresh -horse, which, after a long delay, has arrived at the door. “Good bye, -Mrs. Anna, many thanks.” - -“Farvel, farvel! if you meet with Tidemann on your travels, say Anna -Gulsvig sends him her greeting. Bless you, sir, we knew him well; he -was at my son’s wedding, and pictured us all.” - -She was alluding to the celebrated painter of that name, who resides -in Düsseldorf, but visits his native country, Norway, every summer, -returning home rich with pictorial spoils, gained in scenes like these. -Professor Gude, the eminent painter, also of Düsseldorf, is the son of -a gentleman who held a government office in this neighbourhood. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - - A port-wine pilgrimage--The perfection of a landlady--Old - superstitious customs--Levelling effects of unlevelled roads--A - blank day--Sketch of an interior after Ostade--A would-be - resurrectionist foiled--The voices of the woods--Valuable - timber--A stingy old fellow--Unmistakable symptoms of - civilisation--Topographical memoranda--Timber logs on - their travels--The advantages of a short cut--A rock-gorge - swallows a river--Ferry talk--Welcome--What four years can - do for the stay-at-homes--A Thelemarken manse--Spæwives--An - important day for the millers--How a tailor kept watch--The - mischievous cats--Similarity in proverbs--“The postman’s - knock”--Government patronage of humble talent--Superannuated - clergymen in Norway--Perpetual curates--Christiania - University examination--Norwegian students--The Bernadotte - dynasty--Scandinavian unity--Religious parties--Papal - propagandists at Tromsö--From fanaticism to field-sports--The - Linnæa Borealis. - - -Driving through the woods on the shores of the lake, after a good deal -of up and down hill, I at length arrived at the ferry, twenty miles -from Gulsvig, where the Krorenfjord contracts into a river. Green, the -station for the night, affords excellent accommodation; so much so, -that the notorious Danish Count (See _Oxonian in Norway_), so addicted -to bear-hunting, has been up as far as here on purpose to taste the -port-wine. By-the-bye, I encountered a Norsk proverb to-day, which if -it were not ancient, would almost seem to have been made for the Count: -“Han har skut Björn,” literally, “he has shot a bear,” is said of a man -who is drunk. People in that state not only see double, but shoot with -the longbow. - -Gunild Green was the perfection of a landlady, putting meat and good -bread before the wayfarer, and beer of the best. Her blue jacket, with -its odd gussets behind, and broad edging of red and yellow braid, did -not, it is true, reach nearly down to the place where a woman’s waist -ought to be. But that was no matter, for the skirt made up for the -omission by advancing to the jacket. Her Quaker-like, quiet face was -framed in a neat cap, and the forehead bound in with a silk kerchief. -All about the house betokened considerable wealth. - -But notwithstanding that these people are of the Upper Ten Thousand -of Norway, I hear that the old superstitious customs still obtain at -the gaard. A cross in chalk, or an axe or a toll-knife is placed over -every cattle-shed at Yule. The old lady gave no reason further than it -was skik (custom). A cake with a cross of juniper berries made on the -top of it is baked at Christmas against Candlemas-day (Kyndel-misse). -In other parts of Norway a small cake is baked for each person, and -not eaten till twenty days after. Again, the sledges are never allowed -at Christmas to lie flat on the ground, but are reared up against the -wall. If anybody goes thrice round the house, then looks in at a window -through a black kerchief and sees anyone at the board without a head, -that person will die before next Yule. - -The day after Yule the men go out with the cow-house ordure very early, -before light. They never, if they can help it, bring in water for the -copper on Yule, but get a supply into the house the day before. On -Christmas Eve every person of condition has a mess of rice-porridge, -and the servants in better class houses come into the room and receive -a glass of something comfortable. The cattle are not overlooked on -this great Christian festival. “Come, Dokkero,” says the milkmaid, just -like some girl in Theocritus, to her cow, “you shall have some good -food to-day.” - -Finding that I can go some five miles by water, I select that method of -conveyance. Indeed, I should prefer this species of locomotion for the -rest of the journey, for I find, on examination, that in consequence -of the jolting motion of the country carts, my effects are pounded up -as if they had been brayed in a mortar. One or two silk kerchiefs have -turned into tatters, and the sand of the cartridges has oozed out and -become mixed up with the contents of the broken Macassar oil bottle, -which I had destined for my elf-locks on again reaching civilization. -The boat was long and narrow, and easily rowed, but the stalwart rower -was hardly a match in speed for some little black and white ducks -to which we gave chase. At last we got among them. Down they dived, -and, as they reappeared, off went my gun; but in consequence of the -crankness of the boat, it was impossible to take aim quick enough, and, -after a few unavailing shots, I gave up the game, fairly beaten. My -fishing tackle likewise did no execution among the trout, which now -begin to get smaller. The boatman mentioned two other kinds of fish to -be found here, “scad” and “jup.” - -In fact we are now getting out of the wild sporting of the upper -valleys, although six rifles suspended in the passage of the next -station-house, Vassenrud, betokened the existence of large fowl, and -probably beasts of prey, in the forests around. Countless logs float -down this river, and I see here a list of the different brands used by -the Drammen merchants to distinguish the several owners. - -As the horse I was to have lived across the Sound, I had ample time to -look about me, and observe the peculiarities of the establishment. The -best room floor was painted in figures, around it were ranged a score -of high-backed, old-fashioned leather chairs, stamped with a pattern. I -wish the author of the Sketch-book could have seen them; he would have -made them all tell a history at once. Leaving this room, I followed my -nose, and entered the door facing. A very fat man, with a heavy, sleepy -eye, quite a tun of a fellow, a red skull-cap striped with black on his -head, sat in his shirt sleeves eating a leg of veal, which was flanked -by some nice-looking bread and a bottle of brandy. It was only nine, -A.M., but the opportunity was not to be lost, so I fell to also. Beside -me, on a shelf, was a tankard of massive silver, weighing one hundred -and twenty lod = about sixty-five ounces English. Pretty well to do, -thought I, these peaceful descendants of the Vikings. - -In reply to my query whether there were any old memorials about, -the obese Boniface moved his lack-lustre eye slowly, and shook his -head. Old memorials, forsooth! were not the newly-killed calf and its -appetizing adjuncts subjects much more worthy of attention? Presently, -however, after an interval of seemingly profound thought, he observed -that there was something like a coffin or two in the forest a mile off. - -“Had they been opened?” - -“No. People thought it unlucky to touch them. They were near his -hûsman’s, and the hûsman would show me them if I mentioned his name.” - -At the hûsman’s I found nobody but his wife, who was ignorant on the -subject. So, after a fatiguing search, I returned without having -accomplished my purpose, and the horse having arrived, I had to start. -The fat man was now recumbent on the bed within, looking uncommonly -like a barrel of beer. All Norwegians take a siesta at noon. The charge -made for my sumptuous repast was twelve skillings = five-pence English. -As we roll along gaily through the sombre pine-forests, the odour of -which the Norwegians, I think wrongly, compare to that of a “dead -house” (Liighus). I fall, as a matter of course, into conversation with -Knut, my schuss. - -“Had he ever seen these trolls which people talked of so much higher up -the valley.” - -“No; I never _saw_ one; but I’ve _heard_ one.” - -“Indeed, where?” - -“When I was hewing wood in the forest.” - -“What did he say?” - -“He only said ‘Knut’ three times.” - -“And did you speak?” - -“No--that would have been unlucky. They are not such bad people, folks -say, if you only become well acquainted with them.” - -In the forest we passed some splendid trees near Snarum. “Valuable -timber about here,” I observed. - -“Yes, very. It’s not long ago that some sold for a hundred dollars -apiece (twenty pound sterling); they were seventy feet long, and more -than four in diameter. Vassenrud (the fat station-master, no wonder, -with all this property, he is fat) has a deal of forest. He sold some -lately. He got sixteen thousand dollars for giving leave to fell the -timber on a square mile (seven English), none to be cut smaller than -nine inches in diameter, eighteen feet from the ground. These trees -just here belong to a stingy old fellow, who lives down there by the -side of the river, Ole Ulen. A man came from the By (town) to see them, -and make a purchase. - -“‘I have come to look at the trees,’ said he. - -“‘Oh, yes,’ said Ole Ulen; ‘we’ll go and see them.’ - -“Arrived in the forest, the stranger measured the big trees with his -eye, and thought they would suit exactly. - -“‘Fine trees, aren’t they?’ said Ole Ulen, adjusting his spectacles, -and almost breaking his neck to look up at the trees. ‘So tall and so -thick,’ he continued, like a miser gloating over his treasure. - -“‘Not bad,’ replied the proposing buyer, in a careless tone, chuckling -inwardly at the thought of the bargain he was going to drive with the -plainly-dressed, simple-looking old bonder, but careful not to betray -his admiration of the magnificent timber, for fear of sending up the -prices. - -“‘No, not so bad,’ said Ole Ulen, as they walked homeward. - -“‘Well, what’s to be the price?’ asked the merchant, while they were -drinking a glass of brandy. - -“‘Price!’ replied the other; ‘I’m not going to sell them--never thought -of it. You asked to look at them, and so you have, and welcome, and -well worth seeing they are.’ - -“‘Well, no doubt,’ said Knut; ‘he might do what he liked with his own -trees. Sell them or not, as he thought proper.’ - -“‘But he’s so fond of his money, he won’t help his own kith and kin. -There was his son-in-law, over the river, had just completed a -purchase, and went to him to borrow three hundred dollars. - -“‘Very sorry,’ was his reply, ‘but he had got no cash in the house.’ - -“The young man went and got accommodated at another farm, and then -returned to Ule’s. - -“‘Well, how have you fared?’ - -“‘All right; I got the loan. They were the more willing to lend, for -they had some notes of old date, which are to be called in by the bank -at Trondjem, before the month’s out, and it will save them the trouble -and expense of sending them up there.’ - -“‘Ay, so,’ replied Ule, meditatively. ‘What is the date of the notes -that are to be called in? Perhaps I may have some.’ And going to an old -cupboard, he produced from a coffee-pot seven hundred dollars.” - -We now get into an enclosed and more cultivated country, and see -symptoms of civilization as we approached Vikersund, in the shape of -a drunken man or two staggering homewards; and, at the merchant’s, -where I stop to make some small purchase, there is a crowd of peasants -clustering round the counter, or sitting in corners, imbibing corn -brantviin. - -At Vikersund the road forks. That to the left leads to Christiania, -by the shores of the beautiful Tyri Fjord and the pass of Krog-Kleven; -the other crossing the wide sound, the only vent of the Tyri, Hols, and -Rand fjords, by a very long bridge, goes to Drammen and Kongsberg. - -In the stream lie thousands of logs that have been cut down in the -mountains and along the feeders of this glorious waterway, to the -very foot of the Fillefjeld. Some of them have, perhaps, left their -native grove two or three years ago, and would never have got here -were it not for certain persons jogging their memories and goading -them into unwilling activity. One of the most characteristic features -of a Norwegian valley are gangs of burly broad-chested men, armed with -huge poles, the ends of which are shod with a hook and spike. Directly -there are symptoms of the water rising after rain, these fellows appear -suddenly, and are seen pushing the stranded timbers from the shore, -dashing through the water in their great jack-boots, to islands or -shoals, for the like purpose, or boating across the river to set afloat -some straggling laggard; and, forthwith, all these, like so many great -cadises, just disengaged from their anchor, and soon to take wing, go -swarming down the stream. The boat, by-the-bye, used by these Norsk -equivalents to the Far West lumber-men, is never destined to return to -its mountain home, but will be sold below for what it will fetch. - -In Norway scenes are constantly meeting the traveller’s eye, whether it -be such as that just described, or the rude log-huts, or the countless -tree stumps, the work of the axe, or the unthinned density of forests -which are not near any watercourse, which forcibly bring to one’s mind -Oliphant’s description of Minnesota and the Far West. But there is this -trifling difference, that whereas there you may as likely as not be -bulleted, or your weasand slit by a bowie-knife, you are safer in this -country than in any land in Europe. - -As it was my purpose to visit a clergyman in the neighbourhood, I -left the main route, and took a short cut, by which I saved six miles -in distance, though not in time. For the short way was a pleasant -alternation of ledges of rock and mudpits. Fortunately I was provided -with an air-cushion to sit upon, or the jolting must have proved -fatal, at all events to my teeth. If there is no dentist here--such a -thing I never heard of in Norway--there ought to be. - -After four or five miles up and down, we descended in good earnest -through a straggling grove of pines, their dark foliage now rendered -darker by the fast approaching night. To our left I could see something -white, and heard fierce roarings. The broad expanse of water at -Vikersund had narrowed into a mere fissure, only a few yards across, -with splintered walls of overhanging rock. What! that small-throated -boa-constrictor going to swallow up such a monstrous lump of water at -a mouthful? Choked it will be, and no mistake. See, what a chattering, -and frothing, and smoking! That lot of trees, too, they must stick -in his gizzard; half-a-dozen have lodged there already, firm and -immovable, as if riveted by the strongest bolts. A few steps more, and -behold! the strife has ceased; the logs, together with the boiling -soapsuds, have shot through the tunnel or funnel, and lie heaving -and panting on the waters of another river of no little breadth and -volume, which, swiftly gliding through the forest, cuts in here, and -joins the narrow outlet of the great Drammen river at right angles. - -After their prodigious tussle, it must be quite a relief to those -much battered logs to rock in the comparatively tranquil lap of -the Hallingdal river; for it is my old friend of Hemse-Fjeld -reminiscence--who kept now rollicking and roaring like a schoolboy, now -floating lightly and whispering softly, like a miss in her teens, as we -journeyed along together--that here clubs its fortunes with the lusty -progeny of the Fillefjeld. - -At the fork made by the two streams dwelt a ferryman, who speedily -transferred my effects from the carriole to his frail boat. It -required careful navigation to get over; as the surge of the Vikersund -river--which, as the ferryman told me, albeit it had come through -such an eye of a needle, was by far the bigger of the two--was of -such momentum and so sudden in its dash that the crowding waters of -the Halling were struck all of a heap by the concussion, and fairly -turned round and fled. After recovering the first shock, however, it -gradually established a nearer intimacy with the boisterous stranger, -and they presently made a fresh start forward, and vaulted together -over a rugged rapid below, which I could just see gleaming through the -dusky shades of the evening, and the forest. The first struggles with -the world of the new-married couple. - -“We have only to get up the hill,” said the ferryman, shouldering my -pack, as we safely reached the opposite shore, “and we shall be soon at -the parson’s house.” - -A warm welcome did I get from my friend the pastor. He recognised my -voice directly, as he opened the door in the dark. - -“Vilkommen, Vilkommen, Metcalfe! Hvor staae til? (welcome, Metcalfe! -how are you?) Det fornoie mig meget, at de har ikke glemt os (I’m glad -you’ve not forgotten us).” - -And I was speedily in the Stuë, shaking hands with the Fruë -(clergymen’s wives have by law this title; merchants’ wives are only -madame). Her fair, good-humoured face fatter, and her figure rounder -than when I saw her four years ago at the mountain parish in the west. -Lisa, too, the hobbledehoy girl, all legs and arms, like a giblet pie, -has now become quite a woman, and more retiring. The baby, Arilda, too, -runs about bigger and bonnier, while Katinka, another and elder sister, -whom I have never seen before, comes forward to greet her father’s -friend. There are also some ladies from the “by” (town), with the -latest news, foreign and domestic. - -I spend a day or two with my kind and intelligent host and his family. -Much of his income is derived from land, so that he farms on a large -scale. The house is beautifully situate. Beneath us may be seen the -river playing at hide and seek among umbrageous woods. On the hills -opposite is the mother church of the district, with large farms -clustering about it. The neighbourhood abounds in minerals. Not far off -is a cobalt-work, now under the auspices of a Saxon company, and which -is said to be productive. If the old derivation for cobold be from -cobalt, because that particular sort of sprite’s favourite _habitat_ -is a mine of this description, I shall, no doubt, pick up a goblin -story or two at the manse. - -Katinka, the eldest girl, is very well read; better certainly than any -I have met with in the country, for they are not a reading people. She -sings a national song or two with much feeling, and explains to me the -meaning of them, which, as they are written in old Norsk, would be -otherwise difficult of comprehension. - -“But how do you know the meaning of this outlandish lingo?--it’s not a -bit like the written Norsk of the present time.” - -“It was not for nothing,” replied she, “that I lived from a baby in -the mountain parish where we first saw you. The inhabitants of those -sequestered dales still use many of the old words and forms of speech.” - -I was soon on my hobby--legends and superstitions. - -“Have you any witches or spæ-wives, as they are called in Scotland?” -asked I. - -“Signe-kierringe, you mean. Oh, yes. They are still to be found. My -aunt there, when she was a girl, was measured by one.” - -“How so?” - -“They take a string, which they pretend has been prepared in some -wonderful manner, and measure round the waist, and along the arms, -and so on most accurately, and there is supposed to be some wonderful -virtue in the operation. It is a sure recipe against all harm from the -Nisser. But I have a book here, with a tale of one Mads, a warlock. He -was cutting timber in the forest; it was about mid-day. He had just -got the wedge into a fallen tree, when he saw his old woman come up -with his dinner. It was romme-gröd (a peculiar sort of porridge). She -sat down, when he just spied a tail peeping out behind her, which she -chanced to stick in the cleft that he had made in the tree. Mads bade -her wait a bit, and he would sit down and eat directly. The cunning -fellow meantime managed to get the wedge out. The crack closed, and the -tail was fast. At the same time he uttered Jesus’ name. Up started the -hag, and snapped off the end of her tail. What a scream she gave. On -looking at the dinner, he found it was nothing but some cow-dung in a -bark basket.” - -“Have not the peasantry here,” I inquired, “some odd notions about the -fairies stopping the wheel of the water-mill?” - -“Oh, yes!” replied Miss Katinka. “September 1st is an important day for -the millers. If it is dry on that day it will be dry, they say, for a -long time. This is owing to the Quernknurre (mill sprite). - -“There is a tale in Asbjörnsen of a miller near Sandok Foss, in -Thelemarken (I visited this place afterwards), whose mill-wheel would -not go, although there was plenty of water. He examined the machinery -accurately, but could not discover what was amiss. At last he went to -the small door that opened into the wheel-box. Opening it a very little -he spied a most vicious-looking troll poking about inside. Closing the -door with all speed, before the troll caught sight of him, he went -to his hut and put on the fire a large pot full of tar. When it was -boiling hot he went to the wheel door and opened it wide. The troll -inside, who was busy scotching the wheel, faced round at him in a -moment, and opened his mouth (or rather his head) wider than a warming -pan, indeed so wide that his gape actually reached from the door sill -to the top of the door. ‘Did you ever see such a gape as that in all -your life?’ said he to the miller. Without a moment’s delay the miller -poured the hot pitch right into the monster’s throat (which might -be called pitching it into him), and answered the inquiry by asking -another, ‘Did you ever get such a hot drink before?’ It would appear -that the miller had effectually settled the creature, for he sunk -down into the water with a fearful yell, and never was heard of more. -From that day forward the miller throve, and much grist came to him, -actually and figuratively.” - -Miss Katinka was not a classical scholar, so I suppressed certain -illustrations which rose to my tongue, as she told the story, such as -“hians immane,” and the miller having used a most effectual digamma -for stopping the hiatus; and I told her instead, that in the Scottish -highlands there is a kindred being called Urisk, a hairy sprite, who -sets mills at work in the night when there is nothing to grind, and -that he was once sent howling away by a pan full of hot ashes thrown -into his lap when asleep. - -“I have read another curious story of a mill,” continued my fair -informant. - -“There was a peasant up in the west whose mill (quern) was burned -down two Whitsuntides following. The third year, on Whitsun Eve, a -travelling tailor was staying with him, making some new clothes for the -next day. ‘I wonder whether my new mill will be burnt down to-night -again?’ said the peasant. ‘Oh, I’ll keep watch,’ exclaimed the tailor; -‘no harm shall happen.’ True to his word, when night came on, the -knight of the shears betook himself to the mill. The first thing he -did was to draw a large circle with his chalk on the floor, and write -‘Our Father’ round it, and, that done, he was not afraid, no not even -if the fiend himself were to make his appearance. At midnight the door -was suddenly flung open, and a crowd of black cats came in. The tailor -watched. Before long the new comers lit a fire in the chimney-corner, -and got a pot upon it, which soon began to bubble and squeak, as if it -was full of boiling pitch. Just then, one of the cats slily put its paw -on the side of the pot, and tried to upset it. ‘Mind, nasty cat, you’ll -burn yourself,’ said the tailor, inside his ring. ‘Mind, nasty cat, -you’ll burn yourself, says the tailor to me,’ says the cat to the other -cats. And then all the cats began dancing round the ring. While they -were dancing, the same cat stole slily to the chimney-corner and was on -the point of upsetting the pot, when the tailor exclaimed, ‘Mind, nasty -cat, you’ll burn yourself.’ ‘Mind, nasty cat, you’ll burn yourself, -says the tailor to me,’ says the cat to the other cats. And then the -whiskered crew began to dance again round the tailor. Another attempt -at arson was made with no better success. And all the cats danced round -the tailor, quicker and quicker, their eyes glowing, till his head spun -round again. But still he luckily kept his self-possession and his -sense. At last the cat, which had tried to upset the pot, made a grab -at him over the ring, but missed. The tailor was on the alert, and next -time the cat’s paw came near he snipped it off short with his shears. -What a spitting and miauling they did make, as they all fled out of the -mill, leaving the tailor to sleep quietly in his ring for the rest of -the night. In the morning he opened the mill door and went down to the -peasant’s house. He and his wife were still in bed, for it was Whitsun -morning, and they were having a good sleep of it. How glad the miller -was to see the tailor. ‘Good morrow to you,’ he said, reaching out his -hand, and giving the tailor a hearty greeting. ‘Good morrow, mother,’ -said the tailor to the wife, offering her his hand. But she looked so -strange and so pale, he could not make it out. At last she gave him her -left hand, and kept the other under the sheepskin. Ay, ay, thought the -tailor, I see how the ground lies.” - -“The miller-wife was one of the subterranean people, then,” I put in. - -“No doubt of it,” said Miss Katinka. - -“If the tailor had been an Englishman,” observed I, “we should have -said that he ‘knew which way the cat jumped;’” and then I had to -explain, and this elicited the remark, that the Norwegians are by no -means deficient in proverbs. - -“Have you a Norwegian equivalent to our commonest of English -proverbs--‘to carry coals to Newcastle?’” - -“Yes,” put in the worthy pastor, “but with a difference. We say, ‘to -carry the bucket over the brook to fetch water.’” - -“Well, we have another, not less common--‘to reckon upon your chickens -before they are hatched.’” - -“That’s our ‘you must not sell the skin till you’ve shot the bear.’ -It’s just the same as yours, but with a local colouring.” - -“All these proverbs, by the way, are not true,” continued I. “There -is an English proverb that it requires nine tailors to make a man: as -if a tailor was inferior to the rest of mankind in courage. That last -story of Miss Katinka’s is a proof to the contrary. I remember being in -Berlin, just after the revolution of 1848, and visiting the cemetery -of those who had fallen. There was one monument to the memory of one -Johann Schwarz, with an inscription to the effect that he fought like -a hero, and received nine, or maybe nineteen wounds. Indeed, at the -London police-offices, whenever a man is brought before his Worship -for assault and battery of the worst description, or for drubbing the -policemen within an inch of their lives, the odds are that it will be a -tailor with a little body and a great soul.” - -But my last observations were quite lost on my fair informant. For at -this moment a letter was put into her hands, and she escaped from the -room, her colour rising, and her thoughtful eye assuming a softer and -more conscious expression. - -“It’s Katinka’s weekly letter from her betrothed,” explained her -father, when she had gone; “they always correspond once a week, and -this is the day when the post arrives.” - -As I was walking about the house, in company with my clerical friend, -I had a fresh proof of the facilities afforded in this country to -clever artisans to improve themselves. Thus, one Ole, who is driving -the hay-cart up the steep inclined plane to the hay-loft, over -the cow-house, has shown a strong turn for mechanics, and on the -clergyman’s recommendation has obtained from the government three -hundred dollars to defray the expense of a journey to England, that he -may be further initiated and perfected in the mysteries of his trade. -Another man about the farm, who has exhibited much natural talent as an -engraver, is going to be sent to Christiania, to a craftsman in that -line. - -Among other things, I hear from my host of a regulation, in respect to -ecclesiastical matters, which is well worth mentioning. In England, -as we all know, no provision is made by the law for pensioning off a -superannuated clergyman, or for the support of a clergyman’s widow; -nay, the very sensible proposal to pension a bishop, the other day, was -decried as simony. Not so in Norway. The widow of a beneficed clergyman -here has a proportion of the income of the benefice (from twenty to -sixty dollars) during her life. Besides this, there is attached to -most parishes what is called an Enkesæde (widow farm). Formerly she -cultivated this herself; but, by a late regulation, these places have -been sold, and she has the profits, which vary, in different cases, in -amount. - -Besides the beneficed clergy, there are in Norway another class of -clergy called Residerende Capellan. He holds a chapel of ease in some -large parish, with land and house attached, but is quite independent -of the rector. His appointment, like that of the beneficed clergy -generally, is vested in the king. On a vacancy, the applications are -received by the government, and sent to the king, marked 1, 2, 3, in -order of merit. He generally chooses the first, but not always. The -number of these chaplains is small--not above ten in all Norway. In -some respects, the Residerende Capellan has less work than the Sogne -Prest, or rector. Thus the Fattig-wesen, or arrangement for the relief -of the poor, is chiefly managed by the Sogne Prest. - -The Personal Capellan corresponds to an English curate. Whenever -a rector requires a curate, he is bound to take one who is out of -employment; and he cannot get rid of him, but must retain his services -as long as he is rector. His successor in the living, however, is not -similarly bound. It is conceivable that the rector and curate may -have differences, and that this perpetuity of connexion may in some -instances become irksome to both. Generally, however, it is found to -work well--they make the best of it, like a sensible man and wife. -And the curate is not exposed, as he sometimes is in England, to the -caprices of a rector, or a gynæcocratical rectoress. Nor, again, -is the public eye offended in this country with those unpleasant -advertisements of curates holding the views of Venn, with strong lungs, -or of Anglicans skilful in intoning and church decoration. - -“What examinations have you at the University of Christiania?” I asked. - -“There are three. First, the Philosophisk, _i.e._, a mixed classical -examination; second, one in mathematics, physics, theology, and other -subjects; and, three years later, there is what is called an Embeds -examen (faculty examination), which, for the future clergyman, is in -divinity; for the lawyer, in law; and so on. After this examination, -however, a clergyman is not compelled to be ordained directly--indeed, -he can put this off for some years.” - -“And are the Norwegian students such ardent spirits as their brethren -in Germany?” - -“Ardent enough, but blessed, I hope, with more common sense. They are -intense lovers of liberty, and their minds are full of the idea of -Scandinavian unity--_i.e._, a junction not only moral, but political, -of the three kingdoms, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. It was only the -other day that a thousand Norwegian students paid a visit to Upsala and -Stockholm, and then went over to Copenhagen. They were received with -open arms by the Danes. The shopkeepers would have no money for the -articles they disposed of to them, begging them to take what they had -asked for as a _souvenir_ of Denmark. They lived in private houses, and -partook of the best during their stay, entirely gratuitously; the King -himself bore his share of the Leitourgia, lodging and boarding them in -the palace. This Scandinavian party is gaining ground. It would be a -great thing for Norway if the Bernadotte dynasty could succeed to the -throne of the three kingdoms. They are of a much better stock than the -descendants of Christian the First. Look at Oscar and his eldest son, -the free-hearted, outspoken soldier; and then look at the throne of -Denmark--a king who first marries a respectable princess and divorces -her for another, and does the same by her for no reason but because he -has set eyes on a sempstress at a fire one night in the capital, and -is determined to be possessed of her--and there she is, the Countess -Danner. But he is blessed with no offspring, and when he dies the Danes -get a Russian for their king, or what’s next to it. No wonder, then, -that the Scandinavian idea finds favour in Denmark. Even the king -favours the idea; his toast, ‘Denmark, Sweden, and Norway--three lands -in peace, one in war,’ shows that, selfish as he is, and careless of -trampling on the feelings of those he has sworn to love and cherish, he -has some little regard for the future of his people, and has not so far -forgotten Waldemar and Knut, as to wish Denmark to be a mere appanage -of Russia--in short, he has always aimed at being a popular monarch.” - -“A grand idea,” said I, “no doubt, this of Scandinavian unity. I hear -that Worsaae, and many of the Danish professors, have taken it up. But -I don’t think professors, generally, are practical men--at least, not -in Germany, judging from what they did in Frankfort in 1848. They were -with child for many months, big with an ineffable conception, but they -only brought forth wind after all.” - -“Ay! but we Norwegians don’t manage in that way. Look at Eideswold, in -1814, and say whether we are not practical men.” - -“Don’t you think Norway has anything to fear from the jealousy of -Sweden?” I went on, changing the subject. - -“No. There have been two or three times when we have been in a klem -(hitch); but the good, sturdy common sense, and quiet resolution of us -Norwegians has won the day. And now I think of it, this appointment of -the Crown Prince to be viceroy at Christiania will be of inestimable -benefit to the country. Our future ruler will get to understand the -people, and know their worth. He will see what our freedom is doing for -us. He makes himself quite at home with all, gentle and simple: dances -with the parsons’ wives and daughters, and smokes cigars with the -merchants, but he is observing all the while very narrowly; and he sees -we are all united in our attachment to our liberal institutions, and -thriving under them wonderfully; while, at the same time, all are most -loyal to the kingly house.” - -“But don’t you think these religious schisms, Lammers on the one hand -and the Roman Catholics on the other, will be causing a split in your -national unity?” - -“Oh! no. It is true the Roman Catholics have a great cathedral at -Christiania; but they don’t number more than a couple of hundred in -all.” - -“Ah! but there are some more in the North. It was only the other day -I heard that some Papists are engaged in an active propaganda about -Tromsö.” - -“No doubt; the people up there have always been peculiarly inclined -to be carried about by every wind of doctrine. It is there that the -Haugianer made way; and it is there that these Papists have pitched -their tents. They are going to work very systematically. They have -purchased an estate at Alten. Every Sunday they preach to whoever will -come. One of their addresses begins with the following attractive -exordium:--‘Beloved brethren, we have left father and mother, brothers -and sisters, fatherland and friends, from affection to you.’ Again, -they boldly talk of bringing into the country light for semi-darkness. -The poor Laps much want some little book to be distributed gratis to -explain to them the subtilty of these people. I wish you could make -the case known to the excellent English Bible Society. And whereas -the Haugians were always reputed to be cold and indifferent to the -poor, these missionaries are very kind to them, visiting the sick, and -offering food, clothing, and instruction gratis. The whole plan is most -subtly contrived, especially when the fanatic character of the Laps, -and their poverty is considered. If the Government does not take care, -and see after their spiritual and temporal wants, they may fall, I -grant, into the hands of those people. But I don’t think the Norwegians -will ever listen to them. There is an independence in our character -that rebels against all priestly domination.” - -“So there is in England. But even there it is astonishing to see how -far matters are going. Why! it is only the other day that a petition to -our Queen, to restore the ‘Greater Excommunication,’ was put into my -hands to sign.” - -But our conversation now turned from the vanities and vagaries of man -to another topic. - -The woods around are not deficient, I find, in capercailzie and black -cock. Woodcocks, also, from the priest’s description, must be here at -times. It was a brown bird, he said, larger than a snipe, which at dusk -flies backwards and forwards through an alley in the wood. - -“That is the Linnæa borealis,” said my host to me, pointing to a -beautiful little white flower. “A strange thing happened to me,” he -said, “when I was at my mountain parsonage in the West. One Baron von -Dübner, a Swedish botanist, drove up one day to my house. I found -that he had journeyed all the way thither to make inquiries about a -peculiar plant which grows, he said, just under the Iisbrae, on a -particular spot of the Dovre Fjeld, and produces berries something like -a strawberry, which ripen at the time when the snow melts in spring. I -made particular inquiries, and at last found a lad who said he knew -what the stranger meant. He had seen and eaten these berries while -tending cattle on that particular part of the Fjeld. I gave him a -bottle, and he promised next spring to get me some; the baron promising -to give a handsome reward. But alas! poor Eric did not survive to -fulfil his promise. He was drowned that winter by falling through the -ice. Now, do ask your botanists at Oxford about it.”[23] - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - - Papa’s birthday--A Fellow’s sigh--To Kongsberg--A word for - waterproofs--Dram Elv--A relic of the shooting season--How - precipitous roads are formed in Norway--The author does - something eccentric--The river Lauven--Pathetic cruelty--The - silver mine at Kongsberg--A short life and not a merry - one--The silver mine on fire--A leaf out of Hannibal’s book--A - vein of pure silver--Commercial history of the Kongsberg - silver mines--Kongsberg--The silver refining works--Silver - showers--That horrid English. - - -On the morning of my departure, I find the Norsk flag hoisted on a tall -flagstaff, on the eminence in front of the house. - -“What is the meaning of this, Miss Lisa?” - -“Oh! that’s for papa’s birthday,” said she, in high glee. - -“I wish you many happy returns of the day,” was my greeting to the -pastor, who was evidently not a little pleased at receiving the -compliment in English. - -Each of the ladies had something pretty to say to him on the occasion, -and the Fruë produced a very handsome new meerschaum pipe mounted with -silver, which, by some magic process, she had obtained from the distant -By against this auspicious morning. - -As we are off the high road, there is no change-house near; but, by my -host’s assistance, I have procured the services of an excellent fellow, -who agrees to take me with his own horse in my friend’s carriole all -the way to Kongsberg, twenty miles off, where I am to visit the silver -mines, and return by the same conveyance to Hougesund, on my way to -Drammen. How very kind these people are. - -Seeing I took an interest in legends, the two elder sisters had routed -out some tracts on the subject, and the little Arilda presented me with -some Norwegian views, and a piece of ore from the neighbouring mine. -Miss Lisa blushed and smiled, and did not know what to make of it, when -I wickedly proposed that she should come with me to Oxford. - -“No,” said mamma, “if you were twenty years older, perhaps.” - -“And I hope, when next you visit us,” said the priest, “you’ll be -married, and bring Mrs. M.” - -“Married! you know what I’ve told you about Fellowships. We are -Protestant monks.” - -“Well,” retorted his reverence, “I always say England is a great and -enlightened country; but if you wish to see an _effete_ custom clung to -with desperate tenacity, go to England.” - -What torrents of rain poured down that day, as we journeyed along -towards Kongsberg. - -Poor Sigur was speedily soaked through, his wadmel coat mopping up -the deluge like a sponge. But he took the thing quite as a matter of -course. As for the horse, he went on quite swimmingly. Being encased in -lengthy Cording’s fishing boots, a sou’-wester on my head, and a long -mackintosh on my shoulders, I was quite jubilant, and could not help -defying the storm with certain exclamations, such as, - - Blow winds, and crack your cheeks, &c. - -Sigur, astonished at my spouting, asked for an explanation, and on -getting it, looked anything but an assent to my proposition. - -Truth be told, I was sorry for Sigur. But, at the same time, -waterproofed as I was, I had a sort of self-reliant and independent -feeling, as the rain pattered off my caoutchouc habiliments, pretty -much the same, I should think, as the water-fowl tribe must have, when -they are having a jolly sousing, but keep perfectly dry withal. - -“Well,” said I, “Sigur,” remembering it was September 1, “it will be -fine weather for the millers, at all events. No Quernknurre to be -feared this autumn.” Sigur smiled curiously through the fringe of -rain-drops that bugled his hat-rim. He was evidently astonished that -the Englishman had found out that. - -“That elv is called Dram Elv,” said he, pointing to the river tearing -along with its fleet of logs. “Once, that farm-house which you see -yonder, a couple of hundred feet above the river, was close to the -water’s edge, but the water burst through some rocks below, and now -it’s a river instead of a lake. There is some old story about it,” -continued he, scratching his grizzled locks, “but I forget it now. They -say that the river takes its name from that Gaard.” - -At Hougesund I remarked what I had never seen before out of the towns -in Norway--an intimation over the merchant’s door that travellers -would find accommodation there. This will give a very good notion of -the amount of hotel competition in this country. I had a bag of shot, -No. 5, and as all shooting was now over, Sigur received directions to -sell the same to the merchant for what he could get. The merchant took -it, loudly protesting the while that he should never be able to sell it -again. “Our shooters,” said he, “use the largest hagel, not such dust -as this.” I can imagine that people accustomed to shoot game sitting, -would do so. - -It was pitch dark long before we reached Kongsberg. There was nothing -left for it but to let the horse take his own course; but as he was -unacquainted with the road, this was pretty much that of a vessel -without a compass. - -As good luck would have it, we overtook a traveller in a carriole, or -these lines would mayhap never have been written. “Ye gentlemen of -England, who live at home at ease,” are perhaps not aware, that in -Norway, excepting on two or three pieces of newly-constructed road, -there is no such a thing as posts and rails to fence the highway from -danger. Now and then, as in Switzerland, the edge of a sheer precipice -is supposed to be guarded by blocks of granite, placed two or three -yards apart, but ordinarily fences are only used to keep in cattle. It -was not till the next day on returning that I became aware what I had -escaped. It is true that there was no great depth to fall, but quite -enough to break all my bones. But I might console myself with the -thought, that I should have had an opportunity of talking to the doctor -at Kongsberg, and obtaining from him some more information about his -brownie patient, mentioned at page 232 above. - -The object of my detour to Kongsberg was to have a sight of the -celebrated silver mine in its neighbourhood. I had brought an -introduction to the Director, Lammers (brother of the Dissenting -Lammers of Skien), whom I found, next morning, deeply engaged in -studying a plan of the workings. Provided by him with a note to the -Superintendent, I put myself on my carriole, and started with Sigur for -the mine. The excellent Larsen, at whose comfortable caravansary I put -up, had indoctrinated Sigur that it was usual for strangers to take a -carriage from the inn; for which, of course, I should have had to pay -pretty smartly. But I was determined to be eccentric for once, and did -the most obvious thing--take my own vehicle and attendant. The Lauven, -the best salmon river in the south of Norway, cuts the town in two with -a stream of great width. The old wooden bridge, being worn out, is -now being superseded by a new one, built exactly over it; so that we -have the novel sight of two bridges one above the other. I could not -learn that the good old Northern custom of burying a child under the -new bridge, to make it durable, has been observed. At all events, the -Kongsbergers, if they did so, kept their own counsel about it. - -In Germany, too, this custom prevailed. Nay, within the last twenty -years (see Grimm, “Deutsche Mythologie”), when a new bridge was built -at Halle, the people said that a child ought to be built into it. -Thiele, also, in his “Danmark’s Folkesagn,” relates as follows:--“A -wall had to be built in Copenhagen, but as fast as they built it up, it -sank into the swampy ground. In this dilemma, a small, innocent child -was set upon a stool with a table before it, on which were playthings -and sweetmeats; and while it was amusing itself with these, twelve -masons set to work and built a vault over it, and, at the same time, -set up the wall again to the sound of music. Since that time the wall -has never sunk the least.” - -Nothing noticeable caught my eye on the road, except a Thelemarken -peasant-girl, in her quaint costume, dragging a little cow to market; -but as on our return we again encountered both of them, it was clear -that, with the dogged obstinacy of these people, rather than bate the -price, she was marching back with the cow to her distant home in the -mountains. A roundabout ascent of nearly four miles English brought us -to the principal mine, which, as the crow flies, can be reached by a -footpath in half that distance. The device of a hammer and pick, set -crosswise over a door, with the German motto, “Gluckauf,” reminded me -that these mines were first worked by miners from that country. - -Presenting my credentials, I was ushered into a room in the -superintendent’s house, and equipped with the toggery worn on those -occasions--a dark green blouse, a leather apron fastened by a broad -belt, and worn on the opposite side of the person to what aprons -usually are; and lastly, an uncommonly stout black felt hat, with no -brim--in shape, I should imagine, just like those worn by the Armenian -priests. Such was the disguise which I assumed, and very suitable it -was. The apron and blouse protected my clothes from dirt, and, if a -piece of silver ore had attempted to fall upon my head, the hat would -have acted as a helmet, and warded it off. My guide into “the bowels of -the harmless earth” now approached, and we entered the level--commenced -in 1716 by Frederick the Fifth--and progressed for nearly two miles -along the tramway, lighted by a flaring torch, the ashes of which the -conductor ever and anon knocked off into a vessel of water on the -route. All was still, except that now and then a sound as of rushing -waters jarred upon the ear. I found that it was the water pumped out -of the mine by the engine, which usually glides quietly along in its -wooden channel; but in places where there was a slight ascent, got -very angry, and shot along with increased velocity. At the end of this -passage we came upon a group of miners, cooking their porridge for the -mid-day meal. They are on duty, I understood, twenty-four hours at a -stretch, so as to save the loss of time in getting to their work and -back again, the distance in and out being so considerable. The men -looked prematurely old, as far as I was able to judge from the very -unfavourable light; and that, no doubt, has a great deal to do with -looks at all times. The prettiest girl that ever joined in a Christmas -revel, would be shocked if she could see a faithful representation -of her face as it looked by the blue flickering light of the envious -snapdragon. - -But, to speak seriously, I find that though there is no explosive -air in the mine, yet there is a closeness in the atmosphere which is -prejudicial to health. At a comparatively early age the men become -“ödelagt”--_i.e._, worn out. After a certain number of years of service -they are pensioned. Their wages are, for one class of men, 24 skillings -to 30 skillings per diem; for another, 30 skillings to 36 skillings; -so that the lowest is about 10_d._, and the highest rate about 1_s._ -3_d._, English. In this mine, which is called the Kongengrube (King’s -Mine), two hundred are employed. Where we now stood was about the -centre of the mine; above us was a perpendicular ascent to the top -of the mountain, which we had avoided by entering the level. But we -now had to descend, perpendicularly, a series of ladders, lighted by -the dim light of a candle, which the guide, for fear of fire, had -taken instead of the torch. We now descended fifty-five perpendicular -ladders, of unequal lengths, but averaging, I understood, five fathoms -each; so that, according to Cocker, the “tottle” we descended was 1650 -feet, though, when we stood at the bottom of the perpendicular shaft, -we were in reality 3120 feet from the upper mouth. Each ladder rests on -a wooden stage, and the top of it against a sort of trap-door let into -a similar stage above. This perpendicularity of the shaft is its chief -danger. Should a large piece of rock become loosened above, there is -nothing but these wooden stages to prevent it smashing through to the -bottom of the shaft; and as no notice, such as “Heads below--look out,” -is given, not a few dreadful accidents have taken place in consequence. -Again, from the construction of the mine, it is peculiarly dangerous in -case of fire. - -It was only in May last that a fire broke out suddenly in the -Gotteshülfe in der Not (God’s help in time of need) Mine, where there -are eighty-eight ladders. The fire raged with such fury that four -unfortunate men were choked before they could escape. A fifth got out -alive. The burning continued eight days. The bodies have only just been -found, August 18th. - -Fire, I find, is used to make new horizontal shafts. We went into -one of these side shafts to see the operation. Arrived at the end of -the gallery, which was as symmetrical as a railway tunnel, and very -hot, our further progress was barred by a great iron door; this being -opened, I saw a huge fire of fir poles blazing away at the far end of a -kind of oven. After the fire has thus burned for several hours, it is -suffered to go out; and the miners, approaching with their picks, can -with very little effort chip off several inches of the hard rock, which -has become as brittle as biscuit from the action of heat. The biscuit -being cleared away, a fresh fire is lit, and another batch baked and -removed; and so on, day by day, till the miners come to ore. - -At the bottom of the mine I was rewarded by the sight of a vein of pure -silver. At first it seemed to me very like the rest of the rock, except -that it was rougher to the touch; but with a little beating, like a -dull schoolboy, it brightened up wonderfully, and I saw before me a -vein of native silver, two or three inches in width, and descending -apparently perpendicularly. The native silver thus found, together with -the argentiferous rock, is packed up in a covered cart, under lock and -key, and driven into Kongsberg, where the smelting works are situate. - -“How does the refined silver go to Christiania?” I inquired. - -“In a country cart,” was the reply, “driven by a simple bonder.” Even -Queen Victoria’s baby-plate might pass in this manner through the -country without danger of spoliation. - -No specimens are permitted to be sold in the mine; the men, I -understand, are searched each time that they leave work. - -The fortunes of these celebrated silver mines, which were discovered -in 1623, have been like the mines themselves. There have been many ups -and downs in them. At one time they have been worked by the State; at -another, they have been in private hands; and sometimes the exploration -stopped altogether. After thus lying idle for some years, the works -were, in 1814, if I am rightly informed, offered for sale by the -Danish Government to our present consul-general at Christiania, and -the purchase was only not completed in consequence of that gentleman -declining to keep up the full amount of workmen, a condition which -the Government insisted on. Be this as it may, they were set a-going -by the Government in 1816, and the Storthing voted 21,000 dollars for -the purpose, and even greater sums in subsequent years. And yet, in -1830, the mine was not a paying concern. Just about this time, however, -the miners hit upon a rich vein, and ever since 1832 it has paid. The -greatest yield was in 1833, when about 47,000 marks of pure silver -were obtained. At present, about 400 marks are obtained weekly, or -about 21,000 per annum. There is an actual profit of nearly 200,000 -dollars a year. Notwithstanding this brilliant state of affairs, there -has, reckoning from first to last, been a loss of several millions of -dollars on the venture. - -At one time Kongsberg was a city of considerable importance. At -present, there are less than 5000 inhabitants; but in 1769, when -Christiania had only 7496 inhabitants, Trondjem 7478, and Bergen -13,735, Kongsberg had over 8000. But it must be always considered -important, as being the great mining school of the country--a country -which contains, no doubt, vast mineral treasures under its surface. - -Tough work it was ascending the ladders, and very hot withal. But as -I intended to be in Drammen that evening, distant five-and-twenty -miles, no time was to be lost. My climbing on the fjeld had been -capital practice; and such was the pace at which I ascended, that the -superintendent, who joined us, broke down or bolted midway. - -We were soon at Kongsberg, it being down hill all the way. People -told me I must by no means omit going to see a monument on the hill, -between the mines and the town, where the names of ten kings, who -had come to see the mine, were recorded, including Bernadotte. But I -preferred devoting the rest of my spare time to what I considered much -more instructive, viz., a visit to the establishments for reducing -and refining the silver ore. As good luck would have it, I had an -opportunity of witnessing the process for refining silver. About 2000l. -worth of the precious metal was in an oven, with a moveable bottom, -undergoing the process of refinement by the intense heat of a pine-wood -fire, blown upon it from above. - -Schiller’s magnificent “Song of the Bell” rose to my mind-- - - Nehmet Holz von Fichtenstamme, - Doch recht trocken lasst as seyn, - Dass die eingepresste Flamme - Schlage zu dem Schwalch hinein! - -The mynte-mester, a fat man, of grave aspect, illuminated by large -spectacles, ordered one of the Cyclopses around to put what looked -like a thin, long poker, with a small knob at the end, into the boiling -mass. It came out coated with a smooth envelope of dead metal. This -the director examined, and shook his head; so away went the blow-pipe -as before. Presently the same process was repeated. On the poker-knob -being inserted a third time, the director scrutinized it carefully, -and then said, “færdig!” On examining it, I found projecting, like a -crown of airy thorns, a coating of exceedingly fine spicula of frosted -silver. That was the signal that it was sufficiently purified. Never -till now had I known so exactly the force of the words of the Psalmist, -“Even as silver which from the earth is tried and purified seven times -in the fire.” - -It was desired to have the silver in small nodules for silversmiths, as -more easily workable than in a lump. For this purpose, a vessel of cold -water was placed under the furnace-spout. Another Cyclops stationed -himself in front of the said spout, holding in his hand the nozzle of -some hose connected with a water-engine. With this he took aim at the -orifice (reminding me much of a Norskman shooting game sitting, but in -this case it was flying, as will be seen). A signal is given, a cock -turned, and out rushes the white-hot molten metal; but at the moment of -its escape from the trap, the fireman discharges a jet of cold water -at it; the consequence is, that, instead of descending in a continuous -stream, the blazing jet is squandered, and falls into the vessel below -in a shower of silver drops. Danaë could have explained the thing -to a nicety, only her shower was one of gold; while the metal most -predominant in her own composition would seem to have been brass. - -The gentleman who had been conversing with me in German, and apparently -considered me a Teuton, said he could talk French also; but as for -that horrid English, those people began a sentence and rolled it -in their mouths, spit it half out, and the rest they swallowed. I -strongly recommend any Englishman, who wishes to hear what people on -the Continent think of John Bull and his wife, not to betray his nation -if he can help it, and then he has some chance of getting at the true -state of opinion without flattery. This rule will apply to general -society, such as one meets abroad. But there is a no less golden -exception, which is this: never at a custom-house or police-office know -the language of the officials; if you do, they are sure to badger you, -especially if you are above suspicion. If, on the other hand, you shrug -your shoulders, and keep replying to their remarks in English, you will -completely foil their efforts at annoyance, and they will not be able -to make anything of you, and look out for other prey. - -Another remarkably polite and intelligent official now proceeded to -show me some beautiful specimens of pure silver in another part of the -building. Some of these “Handstene,” as they are called, I purchased. -Here, too, were those splendid specimens that appeared at the Great -Exhibition in London, and also in Paris; and gained a medal in both -instances. The bronze medal, designed by Wyon, with the busts of -Victoria and Albert, and likewise the silver one of Napoleon, were side -by side; the latter pretty, doubtless, but, to my thinking, and also -that of the inspector, vastly inferior to the former, which, he said, -was a real work of art. - -My companions at dinner were the engineer of the new road out -of Kongsberg, and a Hungarian refugee, getting his living by -portrait-painting. All things considered, I should think that the -engineer’s trade was the better of the two. But the artist was a -good-looking fellow, and twirled his moustache with great complacency; -so that, perhaps, he got sitters. At all events, he could have no -competition. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - - A grumble about roads--Mr. Dahl’s caravansary--“You’ve waked - me too early”--St. Halvard--Professor Munck--Book-keeping - by copper kettles--Norwegian society--Fresh milk--Talk - about the great ship--Horten the chief naval station of - Norway--The Russian Admiral G----Conchology--Tönsberg the - most ancient town in Norway--Historical reminiscences--A - search for local literature--An old Norsk patriot--Nobility - at a discount--Passport passages--Salmonia--A tale for - talkers--Agreeable meeting--The Roman Catholics in Finmark--A - deep design--Ship wrecked against a lighthouse--The courtier - check-mated. - - -The new road, which avoids some fearful hills, will soon be finished; -and that is the excuse for not repairing the old one, which was -something like what Holborn Hill would be with all the paving-stones up. - -Prince Napoleon, who has just returned from his voyage to Spitzbergen -and the Arctic regions, is about to visit Kongsberg in company with -one of the Royal Princes of Sweden, to-morrow. It is lucky for the -highway surveyors that it is not the King of Oude. They doubtless -would have been put into the ruts to fill them up, or smelted in the -smelting-houses, or have had to undergo some other _refined_ process. - -Sigur and I parted company at Hougesund; he proceeding homewards, and -I crawling along to Drammen, by the side of the elv, with the worst -horse I ever drove in Norway. Fortunately, the road is a dead level, -and good. The river abounds in salmon, which cannot get up higher than -Hougesund. - -On the other side of it, I saw several lights, which I learned were at -saw-mills, which are working night and day. I suppose they are taking -time by the forelock. Hitherto, saw-mills have been in the hands of a -few privileged persons; but in 1860 the monopoly expires, and anybody -may erect one. - -I had been strongly recommended to one Mr. Dahl. His caravansary I -found both comfortable and reasonable. The St. Halvard steam-boat, -which was to convey me next morning to some station in the Christiania -Fjord, started at seven o’clock, I found, so I requested to be called -at a little before six. The damsel walked into my bedroom, without any -preliminary knock, long before that hour. - -“You’ve come too early,” said I; “the boat does not start till seven.” - -“Oh, yes; but the passengers are accustomed to assemble on board half -an hour before.” - -So much for the Norwegian value of time. - -At five minutes to seven I found myself on board the boat, much to -the astonishment, no doubt, of the numerous passengers; who, with the -patient tranquillity of Norwegians, had long ago settled in their -places. - -“St. Halvard--who was St. Halvard?” said I to a person near me, as we -scudded along through the blue wares, glistening in the morning sun, -and curled by a gentle breeze. He did not know, but he thought a friend -of his on board knew. The friend, an intelligent young lieutenant -in the army, from Fredrickshall, soon produced a book of Professor -Munck’s, but the volume made no mention of the enigmatical personage. -Seeing, however, that I looked over the pages with interest, nothing -would content the young _militaire_ but that I should retain possession -of it; which I accordingly did, with many thanks. It may be as well to -mention, that there are two Muncks in Norway; A. Munck, the poet, and -Professor A. P. Munck, the historian, a person of European reputation, -who is now engaged on a comprehensive work, “Norske Folks Historie,” -“History of the Norsk People.” He is also author of several other works -of antiquarian research. - -“You have been in Thelemarken?” inquired the lieutenant. “That’s the -county for old Norsk customs and language. With all their dirt and -rude appearance, some of the bonders are very rich, and proud of their -wealth. I remember being at a farm some miles above Kongsberg, where I -saw a number of copper kettles ranged on a shelf, as bright as bright -could be; I found that these were the gauge of the bonder’s wealth. -For every thousand dollars saved a new copper kettle was added. You -have no idea how tenacious these people are of their social position. -When the son and daughter of two bonders are about to be married, a -wonderful deal of diplomacy is used, the one endeavouring to outwit the -other. It is surprising with all the chaffering and bargaining between -the elders that the marriages turn out so well as they do. - -“And yet even the wealthiest of them live in the meanest manner. -I don’t suppose you would get any fresh milk in your travels in -Thelemarken, except at the sæters. You would not believe it, but -they are in the habit of keeping their milk from spring to autumn. -To prevent it becoming stale or maggoty, they stir it every day. In -process of time it assumes a very strong scent, which the people inhale -with great gusto. It is a filthy affair: but people accustomed to it -like it, I am told, above all things. A curious case in point occurs to -my mind: A Voged, who had been for some years stationed up in a wild -part of Thelemarken, was translated to Drammen, which is an agreeable -place, and by no means deficient in good society. But, with all this -improvement in neighbourhood, and the appliances of life; in spite of -his increased pay and higher position, the Voged sickened and pined; in -short, became a regular invalid. What could it be? He missed the thick, -stinking milk of the Thelemarken wilds. He petitioned to return to the -old Fogderie, where he would have less pay, but more milk; and, from -the last accounts, he is fully restored to health, and enjoying himself -amazingly.” - -As we approached Horten, the chief naval station of Norway, I saw a new -church, apparently built in red stone, and in the Gothic style; which, -as far as I could judge, reflected no little credit on the architect. -At this moment, a Norskman tapped me on the shoulder, and asked-- - -“Are you an Englishman? Do you live in London? Have you seen the great -ship that is building on the banks of the Thames? They say it is twice -as long as the magazine at Horten yonder; but I can’t believe it.” - -“You mean the _Great Eastern_, as they call it? I don’t know how long -the magazine is; but the ship is 680 feet long.” - -“Vinkelig! det er accurat dobbelt.” (Really! then it is exactly double, -just as I heard.) - -The daily steamer from Christiania to Fredrickshall met us here, -_Halden_, by name; and separated me from the intelligent lieutenant, -with whom I exchanged cards. - -As we steamed out of Horten, past the gun-boats and arsenals, a -naval-looking man said-- - -“We have had a great man here lately, sir: the Russian Admiral G----. -The newspapers were strongly against his being allowed to pry about our -naval station; but he was permitted by the Government. After examining -everything very accurately, he said, ‘It’s all very good, too good: for -England will come and take it away from you.’” - -“And what did the dockyard people think of that? Did they agree with -him?” - -“Heaven forefend! They knew whom they had to deal with. As he walked -through the arsenal, he saw some shells lying about. ‘What is that? -some new invention?’ ‘Oh! no,’ said the officer; ‘it is only shells, -after the old fashion.’ The Russian admiral seemed contented with the -reply; but he was not going to be put off the real scent by a feint -of this kind. In fact, a Norwegian captain, not long ago, did invent -a peculiar kind of shell, which, with unerring precision, can be so -managed as to burst in a vessel’s side after effecting an entrance. The -Russian knew this, but kept his counsel then. Subsequently, he found an -opportunity of drawing a subaltern officer aside, to whom he offered -two hundred dollars to reveal the secret. But the Norskman would not -divulge the secret (shell out), only telling his superior, who took no -notice, but merely chuckled at the Russian’s duplicity.” - -“It is an old Russian trick, that,” replied I; “if I remember rightly, -the Muscovites obtained the secret of the Congreve rocket by some such -underhand manœuvre.” - -The admiral’s curiosity will remind the reader of the facetious -_Punch’s_ “Constantine Paul Pry,” who visited England and France for a -similar object. - -As we steered down the vast Fjord, which is here of great width, and -ramifies into various arms, we see the _Nornen_, a new Norsk frigate, -in the offing, on her trial trip. - -A little after noon, we were steaming down a shallow bay, surrounded -by low wooded islets, to Tönsberg, the most ancient town in Norway. -The harbour for shipping is in the Tönsberg Fjord, distant a bowshot -from where we land; but to get there by water would require a detour of -several miles. The isthmus is low and flat, and presents no engineering -difficulties whatever. In any other country, a ship canal would long -since have joined the two waters. At present, there is only a ditch -between. - -The ruins of the old fortified castle are still discernible on the -elevation to the north of the town; and a sort of wooden building, -something between a summer-house and an observatory, has lately been -erected on the spot. The old castle (Tonsberg-hus) suffered a good deal -from an attack of the Swedes in 1503; and was totally destroyed in -1532, in the disturbances that ensued on the return of King Christian -II. to Norway. As early as the close of the ninth century, the city -was a place of resort for merchants, and the residence of the kings in -the middle ages. At one time there were half a score of churches in -the place; but of these none remained fifty years ago, except one very -ancient one, in the Pointed style; but this was pulled down by some -Vandal authorities of the place. During the troubles of the twelfth and -thirteenth centuries the town was taken and plundered more than once; -but it received its finishing blow from the Union of Calmar. - -An eminence to the east of the town is called the Mollehaug, where in -the middle ages the renowned Hougathing, or Parliament, was held, and -the kings received homage. There being nothing left in the town to -indicate its former importance, I mounted up the Castle-hill, and took -a look of the surrounding country and Fjords, with the blue mountains -of Thelemarken far in the distance. The ancient seat of the Counts of -Jarlsberg is near at hand; from which family the surrounding district -bears the name of Grefskabet (county). - -Afterwards I strolled into the cemetery. Some of the tombs were of -polished red granite, which is obtained in the neighbourhood; most of -them had long inscriptions. Under two relievo busts in white marble -was the short motto, “Vi sees igien,” (we shall meet again,) and then -a couple of joined hands, and the names of So-and-so and his Hustru -(gudewife). On an obelisk of iron I read--“Underneath rests the dust -of the upright and active burgher, the tender and true man and father, -merchant Hans Falkenborg. His fellow-burghers’ esteem, his survivors’ -tears, testify to his worth. But the Lord gave, the Lord took. Blessed -be the name of the Lord.” On another stone was written--“Underneath -reposes the dust of the in-life-and-death-united friends, Skipper F. -and Merchant B. Both were called from the circle of their dear friends -December 10, 1850, at the age of 28. Short was their pilgrimage here -on earth; but who hath known the mind of the Lord, who hath been his -councillor? Peace be with their dust.” Altogether there was much good -taste exemplified in these memorials of the dead. - -As I returned towards the inn, I called at the only bookseller’s in -this town of nearly three thousand inhabitants, in hopes of obtaining -some local literature in reference to a place of such historical -celebrity; Madame Nielsen, however, only sold school-books of the -paltriest description. After my walk, I was by no means sorry to sit -down to a good dinner at the inn. Opposite me sat a fine old fellow, -with grey streaming locks, while two bagmen and the host completed -the company. Under the influence of some tolerable Bordeaux, the old -gentleman became quite communicative; he had been in arms in ’14, when -Norway was separated from Denmark, and the Norskmen recalcitrated -against the cool handing them over from one Power to another. - -“That was a perilous time for us; one false step, and we might have -been undone; but each man had only one thought, and that was for -his country. In this strait,” continued he, his eyes sparkling, -“one hundred Norskmen met at Eidsvold on May 1, and on May 17 the -constitution was drawn up which we now enjoy. Please God it may last. -The Norwegians may well be proud of it, and no wonder that the Swedes -are jealous of us with their four estates, and their miserable pretence -of a constitution--the worst in Europe. Their shoals of nobility are -the drag-chain; we got rid of them here in 1821. That was a great -blessing; Carl Johann was against it, and three thousand Swedish -soldiers were in the vicinity of Christiania. Count Jarlsberg, our -chief noble, was for the abolition; its chief opponent was Falsing. He -said in the Storthing, that if our nobility were abolished he would say -farewell to Norway. Another member took him up short, and said, ‘And -the Norsk hills would echo well.’” - -Dinner over, I drove through the woods back to Vallö, where I was to -meet the steamer. Two Swiss gentlemen possess a large establishment -here for the manufacture of salt by the evaporation of salt water; a -cotton mill is also adjoining, belonging to the same proprietors. - -On applying for my ticket at the office--where it may be had a trifle -cheaper than on board--my passport is demanded and examined, and the -office-keeper informs me that it is against the rules to give a ticket -for an outward-bound steamer to any one whose passport has not been -countersigned by the Norwegian authorities. Now, on leaving Norway by -way of Christiania, as I was aware, it is required to be shown to the -police, and _viséd_, but as I had never been near the capital this -year, and, from the moment I had landed to this, the passport had never -been demanded, it did not occur to me that a _visé_ would be required. -For the moment I was disconcerted, as nobody was to be found at Vallö -who could remedy the defect. - -On inquiry, however, I found that the naval officer in command of the -coming vessel was my old friend Captain H., and so I felt secure. There -were plenty of faces that I knew on board, among the rest some Oxford -Undergraduates returning from a delightful excursion up the country; -there were also some “Old Norwegians,” who had been fishing in the -north, and complained loudly of the unfavourableness of the season. -There had been an unusual amount of rain and cold, and the rivers had -been so full of snow-water, that the salmon had stuck at the mouths, a -prey to nets, &c., in preference to braving the chills of the Elv. - -Among other small talk, I began to recount as I sat in the Captain’s -room, how I had seen the old gentleman with the star and diplomatic -coat. (See _antè_). Just then somebody came and called out the first -lieutenant by name, which was, I perceived, the very same as that of -the last baron whom I was engaged in taking off. - -“Is he any relation?” I inquired in alarm. - -“Only his son,” was the reply. - -Fortunately I had not said anything derogatory to the papa, or I might -have placed myself in an awkward fix. This is only another proof how -cautious you ought to be on board one of these steamers of talking -about whom you have seen, and what you think, for the coast being the -great high road, everybody of condition takes that route--you may have -been, perhaps, for instance, abusing some merchant for overcharges--and -after speaking your mind, _pro_ or _con_, the gentleman with whom you -are conversing may surprise you with a-- - -“Ja so! Indeed! That’s my own brother.” - -“Were you ever up beyond the North Cape?” said a Frenchman to me, at -dinner. - -“Oh! yes; I once went to Vadsö.” - -“And what sort of beings are they up there? Half civilized, I suppose?” - -“Not only half, but altogether, I assure you,” said I. “I met with -as much intelligence, and more real courtesy and kindness, than you -will encounter half the world over.” At this moment my neighbour to -the left, a punchy, good-humoured-looking little fellow, with a very -large beard and moustache, which covered most of his face, and who had -evidently overheard the conversation, said, in English: - -“You not remember me? You blow out your eyes with gunpowder upon the -banks of the Neiden. What a malheur it was! Lucky you did not be blind. -I am Mr. ----, the doctor at Vadsö. We went, you know, on a pic-nic -up the Varanger Fjord. Count R----, the bear-shooter, who was such a -tippler, was one of the party.” - -“Opvarter (waiter), bring me a bottle of port, first quality, strax -(directly),” said I, remembering the little gentleman perfectly well, -and how kindly he and his companions had on that occasion drunk skall -to the Englishman, and made me partake of the flowing bowl. We had a -long chat, and presently he introduced me to his wife; who, I found, -was, like himself, a Dane. They were journeying to their native -country, after several years’ absence. - -“What are those Roman Catholics doing up in Finmark?” said I. - -“The people hardly know yet what to make of them,” he replied. “The -supposition generally is, no doubt, that they wish to convert the Fins. -But I don’t think so. They are aiming at higher game.” - -“How so?” - -“Russia!--That’s their object. They can’t get into that country itself. -But a vast quantity of Russians are continually passing and repassing -between the nearest part of Russia and Finmark. And they will try to -indoctrinate them. Their _point d’appui_ is most dexterously selected. -There is no lack of funds, I assure you. They have settled on an estate -at Alten, which they have bought.” - -“And so clever and agreeable they are,” put in the Dane’s lady. “Mr. -Bernard especially. He has a wonderfully winning manner about him.” - -“The chief of the mission,” continued the doctor, “is M. Etienne, a -Russian by birth, whose real name is Djunkovsky, and who has become a -convert from the Greek faith. He is styled M. le Préfet Apostolique des -Missions Polàires du Nord, de l’Amerique, &c.; and proposes, he says, -to operate hereafter on parts of North America. On St. Olaf’s day, he -invited forty of the most respectable people in the neighbourhood to a -banquet, and, in a speech which he made, said that the Norsk religion -had much similarity with the Roman Catholic; and that Saint Olaf was -the greatest of Norsk kings. Still, I think they have higher game in -view than Norway.” - -A master-stroke of policy, thought I. The Propaganda will have -surpassed itself if it should succeed in setting these people thinking. -The children of the autocrat will cast off their leading-strings yet; -and the strife between the Latin and Greek Church rage, not between the -monks at the Holy City, but in the heart of holy Russia. - -At this pause in the conversation, the Frenchman, who did not seem a -whit disconcerted at his former _faux pas_, recommenced his criticisms. -The fare, and the doings on board generally, evidently did not jump -with his humour. “What is this composition?” he inquired of the -steward. “Miös-Ost?” (a sort of goat’s-milk cheese, the size and shape -of a brick, and the colour of hare-soup). “It’s very sweet,” observed -the Frenchman, sarcastically; “is there any sugar in it?” - -“No!” thundered the captain, who did not seem to relish these -strictures. “No. It’s made of good Norsk milk, and that is so sweet -that no sugar is required.” - -This remark had the effect of making the Gaul look small, and he gulped -down any further satire that he might have had on his tongue. - -I heard, by-the-bye, an amusing anecdote of these cheeses. They are -considered a delicacy in Norway; and a merchant of Christiania sent -one as a present to a friend in England. The British custom-house -authorities took it for a lump of diachylon, and charged it -accordingly, as drugs, a great deal more than it was worth. - -As we sail through the Great Belt, the mast-tops of a wrecked vessel -appear sticking out of the water near the lighthouse of Lessö. It -has been a case of collision, that dreadful species of accident that -threatens to be more fatal to modern navies than storms and tempests. -In this case, the schooner seemed determined to run against something, -so she actually ran against the lighthouse, in a still night, and when -the light was plain to see. The concussion was so great, that the -vessel sank a few yards off, with some of her crew. The lighthouse rock -is in _statu quo_. - - Run your head against a wall, - It will neither break nor fall. - -On board was Mr. D----, a chamberlain at the Court of Stockholm. This -gay gentleman professed to be terribly smitten by the charms of a -Danish lady, and wished very much to know whether she was married. -I heard that she was, but she apparently desired to relieve the -monotony of the voyage by a little flirtation, and kept her secret. On -awaking from a nap on one of the sofas, a friend informed me that the -chamberlain, whom I saw sketching a dozing passenger, had done the like -by me. I quietly got out my sketch-book, and took him off as quickly -as possible. Happening to look my way, he saw what was going on, and -sprang up, as if shot. “Those who live in glass houses,” &c. I begged -him to look at the caricature I had made;--eyes staring out of head, -hair brushed up, &c. This counterfeit presentment seemed to strike him -all of a heap; he shut up his sketch-book, and walked out of the cabin; -while a Swedish Countess, very young and pretty, who had been smoking -a very strong cigar on deck, and had to abide the consequences of her -rashness, came downstairs, and took refuge in the ladies’ apartment. - -END OF VOL. I. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] See Lempriere’s _Classical Dictionary_. - -[2] His application has been refused. - -[3] Since the above was written, we find that the plot is thickening. -Archdeacon Brun, of Norderhoug, insists on all communicants being -examined by him previously to being admitted to the rite; while, at -Sarpsborg, there has been a meeting to discuss the sin of eating the -blood of animals, and the possibility of holiness free from sin in this -life. - -[4] Their days always began with the sunset of the day before. Our -fortnight and se’night are lingering reminiscences of this old Norsk -method of calculation by nights instead of days. - -[5] In the original, kinn = cheek. - -[6] (See _Oxonian in Norway_, second edition, p. 170.) Close to this -desolate spot lives the möller-gut (miller’s lad) as he is called, -whose real name is Tarjei Augaardson. This man is a famous fiddler. -His countryman, Ole Bull, hearing of his musical talents, sent for -him, and he often played in public at Christiania and Bergen. He now -only exercises his talents at bryllups (weddings), receiving at times -ten dollars and upwards, which are chiefly contributed by the guests. -With the money earned by him in the capital he bought a farm in this -desolate spot; but he seems but ill-adapted for the bonder’s life, and -is much in debt. Could not he emulate Orpheus, and set some of these -rocks dancing off which now encumber the land? - -[7] “Yea” and “nay,” in Wiclif’s time, and a good deal later, were the -answers to questions framed in the affirmative. “Will he come?” To this -would have been replied “yea” and “nay,” as the case might be. But -“Will he not come?” To this the answer would have been “yes” or “no.” -Sir T. More finds fault with Tyndal that in his translation of the -Bible he had not observed this distinction, which was evidently going -out even then,--that is, in the reign of Henry VIII.; and, shortly -after, it was quite forgotten.--TRENCH’S _Study of Words_. - -[8] “Under circumstances of most privation I found no comfort -so welcome as tea. We drank immoderately of it, and always with -advantage.”--_Dr. Kane’s Arctic Voyage._ - -[9] The greatest height at which grouse have been seen was by -Schlagentweit in the Himalaya, 11,000 feet above the sea. - -[10] Many of these stones are so nicely balanced, that they may -be moved without losing their equilibrium. Hence they are called -Rokke-steene (rocking-stones). Formerly they were looked upon as -ancient funereal monuments, like similar upright stones in Great -Britain and elsewhere. Lieut. Mawry, who overturned the Logan stone, -and was forced to set it up again at his own expense, might indulge his -peculiar tastes with impunity in this country. - -[11] - - Anton Shiel he loves not me, - For I gat two drifts of his sheep. - _Border Ballad._ - -[12] Tordenskiold was a renowned admiral. According to tradition, he -never would have a man on board his ship who would not stand up at a -few paces with outstretched arm, and a silver coin in his fingers, and -let him have a shot at it. The Norwegian still considers it an honour -to trace his descent from one who served under Tordenskiold. - -[13] It begins thus-- - - Lord of the North is Harald Haarfager, - Petty kings all from their kingdoms he hurls, - “Bloody axe” Erik for tyranny banished - After becomes one of England’s proud Earls, &c. - -[14] Ordinarily on the high roads these animals are unshod, and yet -seem to take no damage from the want of this defence. One is reminded -of the text--“Their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint.” The -shoe of the mountain horses is usually fastened on with four prodigious -nails. - -[15] The following is the printed tariff of charges at these places. It -is fixed by the Voged of the district: - - skill. _d._ - “Bed with warm room 24 = 10 English. - ” ” cold room 16 - Contor (_i.e._ large) cup of coffee 8 - Small cup of coffee 4 - Large cup of tea 6 - Small ditto 3 - Warm breakfast 20 - Warm dinner 24 - Bed for single folk 2 - Eggedosis (glass of egg-flip) 10 - Bottle of red wine 48 - -N.B.--Servants nothing, but if a traveller stops in cold room for half -an hour without taking any refreshment, he must pay 4 skill, or if in -a warm one, 8 skill.” It must be observed that the latter charges are -never enforced, and that in some districts a bed is only 12 skill, and -a cup of coffee 5 skill. - -[16] Emerson. - -[17] From “kige,” to spy, still extant in the Scottish word “to keek.” - -[18] To life also sometimes. Thus, King Ormud was overwhelmed, Snorro -tells us, by a rush of stones and mud caused by rain after snow. - -[19] The famous Oldenburg horn was, according to Danish tradition, -given by a mountain sprite to Count Otto of Oldenburg. - -[20] The robber chief, Kombaldos, in Chinese Tartary, is related by -Atkinson to have entertained a similar idea. - -[21] In the Isle of Man, so long occupied by Norwegians, we find a -similar legend. At the good woman’s second accouchement, Waldron -relates, a noise was heard in the cow-house, which drew thither the -whole assistants. They returned, on finding that all was right among -the cattle, and lo! the second child had been carried from the bed, and -dropped in a lane. - -[22] Faye, Norske Folkesagn. - -[23] I have not succeeded in obtaining any satisfactory information -about this plant. - - - - - NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION, REVISED. - - _Now ready, in One Volume, with Map and New Illustrations, - price 10s. 6d._ - - THE OXONIAN IN NORWAY; - Or, Notes of Excursions in that Country. - - BY THE REV. F. METCALFE, M.A., - Fellow of Lincoln College. - -FROM THE SPECTATOR.--“By far the best book of general travels that we -have met with on this section of Scandinavia. Part of the excellence -arises from the length of time devoted to the subject and pursuits of -the author. A persevering angler, he penetrated fiord, lake, and river; -a plucky sportsman, he clomb mountains and threaded marsh and forest in -search of game. These pursuits, too, forced him into connexion with the -peasantry and farmers, with whom a knowledge of the language enabled -the traveller to make himself at home. His Oxford character gave him -a standing in more civilized places--towns and steamers. Mr. Metcalfe -possesses an eye for the beauty of scenery, and the peculiarities of -men. He has also an easy, off-hand, and lively English style. The -reader will find the _Oxonian in Norway_ a very agreeable companion.” - -FROM THE MORNING CHRONICLE.--“_The Oxonian in Norway_ is replete with -interest, is written in an animated style, and is one of those books -which cannot fail to be at the same time amusing and instructive. Mr. -Metcalfe visited places where an Englishman was a rarity; and all who -take an interest in customs practised by various peoples, will welcome -his book for the accounts of Norwegian manners and customs which -have not been touched upon before. Numerous interesting and exciting -anecdotes, in connexion with the author’s excursions in pursuit of -fishing and shooting, pervade throughout.” - -FROM BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.--“Mr. Metcalfe’s book is as full of facts -and interesting information as it can hold, and is interlarded with -racy anecdotes. Some of these are highly original and entertaining. -More than this, it is a truly valuable work, containing a fund of -information on the statistics, politics, and religion of the countries -visited.” - -FROM THE DAILY NEWS.--“We have seldom met with a more readable record -of sporting reminiscences. The sketches of life and scenery are also -vigorous and characteristic. We recommend these volumes to all lovers -of sport. There is a vast amount of information in them, conveyed in a -pleasant form.” - -FROM THE MORNING HERALD.--“We welcome the second edition of this truly -interesting work with great pleasure. It will prove a useful handbook -to those who contemplate a similar excursion, whilst people who remain -at home will scarcely find a better book from which to obtain useful -and interesting information concerning the country and its inhabitants.” - -FROM THE ATHENÆUM.--“Mr. Metcalfe went about with much activity both by -land and sea, and a great deal of information is to be found in these -volumes. His matter is good, his style free, candid, and agreeable, and -his general tone manly and genial.” - -FROM THE LITERARY GAZETTE.--“These volumes are extremely lively and -entertaining, written in a vein of high animal spirits, and full of -details which bring the country and the people vividly before us.” - -FROM THE PRESS.--“We have to thank Mr. Metcalfe for a couple of very -amusing volumes. He has made several trips to Norway, and has here -given to the public the fruits of his experience. He is a keen angler, -and at the same time an intelligent observer--gifted with excellent -powers of description and a quick perception of humour. Hence his -notices of Norwegian scenery and of the manners and social state of the -people are of a kind to attract all classes of readers.” - - HURST & BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, - 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. - - * * * * * - - [Illustration] - - Under the Especial Patronage of - HER MAJESTY & H.R.H. THE PRINCE CONSORT. - NOW READY, IN ONE VOLUME, ROYAL 8vo., - WITH THE ARMS BEAUTIFULLY ENGRAVED, - - _Handsomely Bound, with Gilt Edges_, - - LODGE’S PEERAGE - AND - BARONETAGE, - For 1858. - - ARRANGED AND PRINTED FROM - THE PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS OF THE NOBILITY, - AND CORRECTED THROUGHOUT TO THE PRESENT TIME. - -LODGE’S PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE is acknowledged to be the most -complete, as well as the most elegant, work of the kind that has ever -appeared. As an established and authentic authority on all questions -respecting the family histories, honours, and connexions of the titled -aristocracy, no work has ever stood so high. It is published under the -especial patronage of Her Majesty, and His Royal Highness the Prince -Consort, and is annually corrected throughout, from the personal -communications of the Nobility. It is the only work of its class in -which, _the type being kept constantly standing_, every correction is -made in its proper place to the date of publication, an advantage which -gives it supremacy over all its competitors. Independently of its full -and authentic information respecting the existing Peers and Baronets -of the realm, the most sedulous attention is given in its pages to the -collateral branches of the various noble families, and the names of -many thousand individuals are introduced, which do not appear in other -records of the titled classes. Nothing can exceed the facility of its -arrangements, or the beauty of its typography and binding, and for its -authority, correctness and embellishments, the work is justly entitled -to the high place it occupies on the tables of Her Majesty and the -Nobility. - -[FOR THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK SEE NEXT PAGE.] - - * * * * * - - LODGE’S PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE - - LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL CONTENTS. - -Historical View of the Peerage. - -Parliamentary Roll of the House of Lords. - -English, Scotch, and Irish Peers, in their orders of Precedence. - -Alphabetical List of Peers of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, -holding superior rank in the Scotch or Irish Peerage. - -Alphabetical List of Scotch and Irish Peers, holding superior titles in -the Peerage of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. - -A Collective List of Peers, in their order of Precedence. - -Table of Precedency among Men. - -Table of Precedency among Women. - -The Queen and Royal Family. - -The House of Saxe Coburg-Gotha. - -Peers of the Blood Royal. - -The Peerage, alphabetically arranged. - -Families of such Extinct Peers as have left Widows or Issue. - -Alphabetical List of the Surnames of all the Peers. - -Account of the Archbishops and Bishops of England, Ireland, and the -Colonies. - -The Baronetage, alphabetically arranged. - -Alphabetical List of Surnames assumed by members of Noble Families. - -Alphabetical List of the Second Titles of Peers, usually borne by their -Eldest Sons. - -Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of Dukes, Marquises, and Earls, -who, having married Commoners, retain the title of Lady before their -own Christian and their Husbands’ Surnames. - -Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of Viscounts and Barons, who, -having married Commoners, are styled Honourable Mrs; and, in case of -the husband being a Baronet or Knight, Honourable Lady. - -Mottoes alphabetically arranged and translated. - - * * * * * - -“A work which corrects all errors of former works. It is the production -of a herald, we had almost said, by birth, but certainly, by profession -and studies, Mr. Lodge, the Norroy King of Arms. It is a most useful -publication.”--_Times._ - -“Lodge’s Peerage must supersede all other works of the kind, for two -reasons; first, it is on a better plan; and, secondly, it is better -executed. We can safely pronounce it to be the readiest, the most -useful, and exactest of modern works on the subject.”--_Spectator._ - -“This work derives great value from the high authority of Mr. Lodge. -The plan is excellent.”--_Literary Gazette._ - -“This work should form a portion of every gentleman’s library. At all -times, the information which it contains, derived from official sources -exclusively at the command of the author, is of importance to most -classes of the community; to the antiquary it must be invaluable, for -implicit reliance may be placed on its contents.”--_Globe._ - -“The production of Edmund Lodge, Esq., Norroy King of Arms, whose -splendid Biography of Illustrious Personages stands an unrivalled -specimen of historical literature, and magnificent illustration. Of Mr. -Lodge’s talent for the task he has undertaken, we need only appeal to -his former productions. It contains the exact state of the Peerage as -it now exists, with all the Collateral Branches, their Children, with -all the Marriages of the different individuals connected with each -family.”--_John Bull._ - - HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, - SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, - 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, LONDON. - - TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE KINGDOM. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oxonian in Thelemarken, volume 1 -(of 2), by Frederick Metcalfe - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN *** - -***** This file should be named 52195-0.txt or 52195-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/1/9/52195/ - -Produced by Charlene Taylor, Bryan Ness and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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