The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-07-31
The Icelander and His Home.

Nature has a good deal to answer for
in the wretchedness of an Icelander's
lodging and food. There is no timber,
the stone is bad foT building purposes,
and one must not complain of the alb
sence of luXuries where everything
comes over a thousand miles of sea.
Still the house need not be q mere rab-
blt-burrow, as 1t mostly is. 1t is built
of sOds, with a few blocks of basalt or
lava, (unmOTtared, of cOurse) forming
the lower part of some of the chief
walls, is rooted with sOds laid over the
rafters, and covered on the top with
grass and weeds, looking, when il stands
with hill behind it, itself so like
hillock that you are in some danger of
riding over it, and finding the horse's
fOre-feet half way down the smoke hole
before you know where you are. Inside
it is labyrinth of low, dark and mar
row passages, with tiny chambers open
ing oil them, one of which has, perhaps,
some little furniture, table or board
doing duty for table, couple of stools,
and one or two bedsteads (often in the
hollow of the walD. There is n small
window, but its frame is fixed, so that
it cannot be opened. The air, there
fore, is never changed, and as the room
is seldom or never cleaned, as the cham
bers are half full of dried stock fish, and
reek with q variety of other hideOus
smells, any one can fancy what the in
terror of an Icelandic farmhouse is like,
and can understand why the first thing
to be done on entering it is to light
pipe and smoke furiously till the room
is in a cloud. There is but one fire, and
that sorry one, consisting OF a few
smOuldering turfs, with twigs thrown
lat foz fsx ffafif
pot boil; it is in the'central chamber,
called the fire-hOuse (eldhus), and OF
course does not substantially warm the
rest of the house; but, although we
shivered incessantly, the natives did
not seem to find the cold disagreeable.
How they got on in winter, having no
furs, we could not make out; for when
we suggested that perhaps they spent
all winter under the eider-down cover
lets, which every house possesses, they
replied that at no time of the year were
they so little in bed. The furniture and
internal appointments generally are
what you might expect in such rooms;
/ but three things no Icelandic farm wants
/ books, u cOfIee-pOt and portrait OF Jon
! Sigurdsson, the illustriOus leader OF the
patriotic party.
After all, some one will say, this squal-
or is not worse than that of the poorest
cottagers in Ireland or the Scotch high
lands, not so bad as what you may see
any day in the lowest parts OF Liver
pool. True enough, but in Liverpool
the ignorance and spiritless abasemeut
of the people is in keeping with the
wretchedness of their. life, whereas in
Iceland the contrast between the man
and the house he lives in is the strong
est possible, and Oversets in delight
ful manner all ones English notions of
fitness. He is poor, to be sure, poor in
the sense of having very little ready
mOney-there is less money in all Ice
land than in many an English country
town. But he is a person of some sub
sistence and of eminent respectability.
He is in no danger Of want; is the owner
of horses, sheep, and oxen, very likely
of broad fields which his family has
held for centuries. His pedigree not
improbably goes back further than that
of all but three families in England.
He considers himself altogether your
equal, behaves as such Though he no
longer hesitates to receive remuneration
for his hospitality, and such, in fact,
i he is. Although with a certain want of
finish in some of his personal habits, he
Ihas q complete ease and independence
of manner, and simple courtesy which,
as it flows from this ease, is in no dam
ger of being mistaken for servility.
He is, moreover, an educated man, who,
/ if 4 priest speaks little Latin, anyhow
I perhaps little Danish, has learnt pretty
much all that the island has to teach
him, and is certain to be familiar with
the masterpieces of his own ancient lit
erature.
Manners are simple in Iceland, as in
deed in all the Scandinavian countries;
and all the simpler here because there
is really no distinction of ranks. No
body is rich, and hardly anybody alb
jectly poor; everybody has to work for
himself, and works Except, to be sure,
a few storekeepers in Reykjavik, and at
one or two spots on the COAST, with his
own hands. Wealth would not raise a
man much above his fellows, and there
are indeed no means of employing it ex-
cept in supplying a house with what
would be thought in England indispen-
sable comforts. Wealth, therefore, is
not greatly coveted, although the Ice
lander likes good bargain, especially
in horsefiesh, and an air of cheerful
contentment reigns. The farm servant
scarcely differs from the farmer, and
probably, if a steady fellow, ends by
marrying the farmers daughter and
getting a farm himself. There is no
title of respect, save Herra to the bishop
uhu solIt W q priest not even SUCH Title
as Mr.. or Mrs, or Esquire. If you go to
call for lady, you tap at the door and
ask if Injibjorg or Nalgefor is in. Her
name, moreover, is her own name, un-
changed from birth to death = for rs
there are no surnames nor family names
among the Ieelanders, but only Chris
tian names, there is no reason for wife
assuming her husbands name. When
such a concession is made to the rights
of women, it is a little surprising to find
that she is in any other respect treated
as an inferior, not usually sitting down
to the table with the men of the family,
but waiting on them, and dining sepa-
rately. Otherwise, however, women
seem sufficiently well of, having full
: rights of property, and riding valorousIy
about the country wherever they will.
The COT7lhiU.