Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-12-14

cheese for the winter store in the valley
homes, Otter scores Of miles away.
There is great connection throughout
Norway when the annual June exodus
of the saeter-girls and their herds begins.
Every farm is In utmost confusion. The
entire household is busted getting to-
| 5ether and packing up what will be
necessary for use in the temporary
mountain home. There arc churns and
milk pals, pots and moulds, frying pans
and odds and ends of cheap crockery
and scant cutlery. For food there is n
bit of sugar and coffee, much flour and
meal, crates of tladbrod, some bacon,
perhaps some dried or picked fish, and,
more IN weight than in all else, salt for
the cattle. The girls themselves find
room for odd bits of embroidery and IL
few Embellishments, while Bible and
some worn volumes of old Morse tales
are never forgotten. Besides these
| things, there are pounds of wool to be
spun, or other pounds Of yarn to be
knit. A few blankets or sheepskin for
bedding and but little more than the
clothing upon their backs completes the
meagre outfit.
When all is in readiness these strange
rocessions-sonethin like the annual
outgoing Of the ilocks and their herders
OF the Apulian plains in southern Italy
set forth from every gard or farm in
Norway. The belongings for the saeter
are slung in baskets upon the backs of
sure-foptCd ponies, or old horses that
have. known the same Journey for
decades. The farmer marches in advance
blowing unearthly blasts from the lur,
a not over musical horn made from birch
bark. Then come the cattle. No need to
drive these. Like the Gypses who can
not be Kept from the road and the tent
at the first bursting Of spring-timo buds,
they have tired of their reindeer. moss
fodder OF the winter, have scented the
Juicy blades that are springing to life in
the tiny far wales above them, and, with
genuine manifestations of joy, crowd
close upon the farmer and his blaring
lur. Then follow the saeter-girls, pic.
turesque in their bright bodices, white
caps and short skirts, but each bearing
upon her shoulders yoke, from which
depend baskets, kettles and all manner
OF paraphernalia, almost equaling in
bulk and weight the packs upon the
ponies backs.
Towards evening of the second day
we came to the saeter of Kron. From
distance nothing could be distinguished
but a low, wide hut at the side of a
gentle ravine, here and there between
the rocks splatched with bits of verdure.
The horizon line was close and serrated
with masses of lichened stone, here and
there interested by other gullies and
ravines. Through these, Lars said, the
herds wandered long distances in their
daily grazing iaunts. No human beings
were at first in sight about the saeter.
shortly flaxcn haired maiden, huge of
girth and limb, stood ut the nut door,
and, shading her eyes with her great
bare arm and not her hand, looked long
and earnestly at us. Lars gurgled at
this, and made wonderful gestures in
return. Suddenly the girl-Tillie, Lars
called her-rushed at us in a sort of
bounding gallop, and seizing my post.
boy guide Rugged him ecstatically,
wrestling with him, turning him round
and about, and again hugging him,
while tears of joy flowed down her
honest face, a perfect torrent of ques-
tons and Intersections meantime being
poured upon him.
The rascal Lars, who had previously
kept me in ignorance of the fact, then
told me that the saeter.girl, Tillie, was
his only sister. A cousin, Christine, as
little as Tillie was big, was her compan-
ion; for two women were required at the
kron saeter, there being altogether 80
cattle, three-fourths of which were
milch COWS, and as many more sheen
and goats to care for, aud SO in few
mnmnDtG n CT n
were best of friends. So glorious a treaS
to these lonely folk is the arrival of
friends or kin from the world below,
that all manner of hospitality is lavished
upon them. All they have is yours
without the asking. The cows might
come or stay in the mountain Businesses,
until We were given our drink of milk,
and drink and drink again we must;
water for washing; some curious old
halt-wooden shoes to replace our heavy
boots; and such an aftensmad or supper
as was never before piled up before me
partaken of; groed or stirabout enough
for the saeter's pigs cream by the gallon;
butter by the hundred weight; milk BY
the barrel; great wooden bowls of ierd-
baert or strawberries; coffee and black
bread and bacon; while We were piled
ceaselessly with importunate commands
to eat and never stop eating and beset
with mournful reproofs because we
could not eat it all.
The saeter house or cabin itself was
rudciy constructed of pine logs, though
comfortable enough for the purpose re-
quired. Its roof was of pine beams
Sheathed with birch bark in many
layers, and this overlaid by turf and
sod. In the latter several species of
mountain brambles and wild flowers
were growing luxuriously. There were
two large rooms, perhaps 20 feet in
length and nearly us wide, and against
the whole of one side of the structure
was huge low shed, where the herds
huddled in time of long continued
storm. One of the two rooms was
kitchen, living ana sleeping room com
bined. Two holes in the house wall and
the open door served for admitting light,
and there were no candles, lamps or
lanterns about the place, as bed time
always comes long before night time in
the almost nightless Norwegian sum-
mer.
The table was simply hugo high
bench. stools and short benches an
swered for chairs, few shelves resting
on pegs, and large rough cupboard for
holding food and provisions, with a
bunk bed built in one corner, comprised
all the furniture OF the living room,
aside from large skorsten or lire place
in another corner, opposite the door,
with its accompaniment of iron utensils, |
and little crockery ranged upon |
shelves at its side. The other room was |
thA dairy ~ a Hpa la,
pended above which was a huge caul- |
lrnn lrntAln. and mann Il, 10 mo, =. ILL.