Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1871-07-06
dred Icelanders prisoners. One
of the peasants said Z: 81 hope the
Danes will not allow the Turks to
pass the sound of EIsinore, if

Danes Will not allow the Turks to
pass the sound of 2 Elsinore, if
they wish to pay us visit
Whereupon several other peasants
said "Do you not know your
geography better than that? The
Turks have not to pass the sound
of Elsinore if they wish to pay a
visit to Iceland" / may add
that these people had never seen o
map in their lives; their only
source Of knowledge in this res
pect was a manual Of general
geography published in 1celandic.
The love of historical. knowl-
edge, for which the ancient Ice
.landers were so famous, is still
preserved by the Icelandicpeasant,
and many an educated gentleman
might envy their knowledge in
this particular branch.
There is one way Of education
among my countrymen which /
believe is peculiar to Iceland. In
the long winter evenings, when
the male population have finished
their outdoor work for the day,
they assemble with the rest of
the family in one room, which is
at once a bed-chamber and sitting
room, the beds serving for chairs
and sofas. Now all set to work
to busy themselves with spinning,
carding, knitting, weaving. pre-
parng.hides for shoes and finishing
dresses, or twisting ropes of horse
hair. But one usually one of
the younger members of the fami-
ly) has to read aloud to all the
rest one of the old sagas, the pub
locations of the day, or any other
book, printed ormanuscript, which
they may have got hold of. The
reader has also to reply TO many
interruptions and. Questions during
the recital, as to the nature and
truth of the information he is con-
veying to them. In this manner
every member of. the household
has the opportunity Of becoming
acquainted with every book that
comes to the house, and further,
by asking questions, he may OBJ
tain all that information which
any other member OF the house
hold may be able to give; and he
who knows more than the rest is
very glad to be thus called upon to
show forth his abilities. When a
peasant has exhausted his stock
of books in this way, he exchan-
ges books and manuscripts with
his neighbor, it be has any work
not possessed by himself, and thus
there is not a book or manuscript
of any kind within fifty miles dis
tance that has not been read over
and over again by every, house
hold. In many parishes there
are what are called "reading So
cieties,' that is, circulating libra
ries, where they can get all books
which are published in Icelandic
every year. 7a
There are two newspapers
Thjodoyr and. Nordantari-pub-
lished in Iceland once a week or
once a fortnight, containing the
general news of the world brought
by the last mail, the news from
the several parts Of the island
itself, and several articles on
farming, fishing, and on the local
government. of the island. A
pamphlet is also published every
spring containing a summary ac-
count of what has been going on
in the world during the past year.
Works on geography, history, and
others of miscellaneous informa-
tion, are also published now and
then. These, with the ancient
songs and sagas, religious works,
OF which we have a great many,
-and the transactions Of our
Diet (Althing,) form the staple
reading of the population. j
The thirst for knowledge itself,
is universal. Many of our farm,
ers- or rather peasants, for they
correspond exactly to agricultural
laborers of this country England ]
learn Danish and German In fact,
they are fond of studying what
ever they can lay hold on.
For higher education we have
a college at Reykjavik, with sis
professors. The branches of study
are Latin, Greek, Icelandic, Dan
ish and German ). history, geogra
ply, natural history, mathemat
les, and the rudiments of theolo
gy. English and French are op
tional. For those who propos'
to enter the church (which j
Lutheran) there is a higher in
stitution, with three professors
The general physician of iceland