Morning journal and courier., 1893-12-30
wAKEmAr,s wArpEn1ras.



wAKEMAN,s wAHBEnINGs.
IooNCLUDED from FIRST PAGE.l
sure-footed ponies, all laden with huge
panniers of butter and cheese, or TASKS Of
sour milk and whey. The butter and
cheese are constantly being conveyed to
the dord-side markets, or are stored against
the winters needs; while the sour milk IL
used for food and the whey aids materially
In fattening the swine. There are thus al
ways animals for killing, the flesh usually
being dried.
Many peasants are fishermen and cure
their own fish. If not, dried fish can be
secured in exchange for the peasants own
products, probably cheaper than In any
other country in the world. Each peasant
farmer raises his own barley, rye, oats,
potatoes, and often q little wheat. On
nearly every farm, and certainly in every
neighborhood, there is water-mill for
grinding the grain. I know of no other
country where strawberries and raspber-
ries grow wild in such vast quantities, or
where all small fruits respond to rude and
limited culture with such munificence of
reward. In many peasant homes dried
native fruit adds zest to the winters en-
forced sameness of fare. So 1t will be
Bo0A gAob buo ANOI W08toA Hoocohs Al AAA5
food supply is as Independent of the out
side world as in all other requirements of
life. There are but three articles in his
home, sugar, salt and coffee, which the
fiords, the streams, the mountain hollows
and forests and his own saeter and farm
do not bountifully provide.
The every day food of these sturdy Nor
wegisn folk consist largely of "gr0d," Q
sort of thick Cruel or stirabout of oat
meal or barley meal, or both, of milk,
fresh, sour or curdled and boiled, Of
cheese, Of which there are several varie-
ties powerful in resistance, odor and sus-
tanning qualities, and brown and black
bread. The great and universal staple,
however, Is ''hadbrod," or fatbread. It
is the very life and sustenance of these
folk az was the hammock once to the Scot
fish peasantry. Every peasants house has
not merely pile of 1t to draw upon, but
often whole casks filed with the hearty,
wholesome food. It is simply dough of
barley and oatmeal, unfermented and con-
tanning little salt, rolled to the thinness
of waters of great circumference and
baked upon an iron plate like large grid
die over "slow" fire.
If the ordinary housewife in other coun-
tries regards the family bread baking as
no little task, she would quail before the
stint of providing the required supply of
''Aadbrod" at Norwegian bonder's gard.
| It is about one strong woman's task, to
| Judge by the immense quantities con-
| sumed, and never entered a cottage OF
gard without discovering grandmother,
| mother or daughter, crouching before the
GOALS or lowering over some huge stove or
| namented with quaint Pompeian figures,
dexterously Tipping with her thin ladle-
like stick the dough upon the steamine
| iron plate, or as cunningly landing the "a.
worry dish, without breaking, upon the
| ever diminishing, ever increasing pile
| within the s'hadbrod" keg.
If the Norwegian peasant knows little
else than labor from childhood to old age
1t is still labor which brings the imme
diate and continuous reward of sufficiency
and ample content. The brief summer oil
but three and at the best of but foul
months, ia one of tremendous effort fo1
all the members of the household; for ir
that little time provision paust be made fol
An almost dsyless winter of eight to min,
months duration. The crops of grain
the vegetables, the butter and cheese tina
are being provided among the mountain
sasters, all require unceasing labor; ant
more important than all else is the suppl,
of hay and other fodder for the winte
needs of the then helpless herds. I neve
before realized how great value could b.
set by any people upon a few blades o
grass.
Haymaking furnishes both the mos
picturesque and the most suggestive scene
In Norway. The women are constantly IL
the fields, picturesque in their short skirts
bright bodices and white caps; and men
women and children are all in a sort O
mild frenzy in their efforts to save tn
precious crop. It is cut with short scythe
and siokles, and the priced tufts are eve
secured with the "tollkniv," which ever
eopse-edge or cleft among the savage rocks
The entire crop is cured upon racks o
hurdles, and never left upon the groun,
for drying; and from almost Inaccessible
places above the farms, the tiny bundle
which may be secured among the crags ar
conveyed TO the valleys below on wire run
ways or tightly stretched ropes. The eat
! ter girls, too, sre not idle meanwhile /
husbanding fodder for the herds. The
are gathering every possible blade of grass
breaking from the birch trees the tender
,. est buds and branches, and securing gret
stacks of reindeer moss. When the terri
BILE winter storms have packed the ice az
| snow into the cnasms and crevices iii
! stone, the peasants in their snow-shoes a.
cend the heights to the saeters and ad
. this excellent fodder to their store With
the sheds and barns.
The religious, social and homeside Ii
| of these simple and primitive psople cou]
. almost be revealed in three sentence
. They are hereditarily pious and reveren
all sacred things and traditions. Soci
intercourse hnds It's chief fruition in chri
Jennings, confirmstions, weddings and flu
erals. And the cslmness and sereni
: which seem to characterize the faces of 8
: Norwegian peasants you will meet
E homes, seem to almost tell the whole graz
!. national story of that blessed domestic /
= pose which broods where faithful lab
: thrives, where Independence has grow
y through the centuries into part of pc
. ple's religion, and where false ambition
are almost unknown.
). For eight years my wsnderings have l,
3 me into all civilized lands. The tendere
y days and ways have been among their To-
= ly folk. Whether beside the sea amol
!. the huts of hshermen, in the city's stiff
quarters, with the foresters of the mou
tains or the cotters of the valleys, If
vsgrant gypsy tent, or still If alone
dreary untrodden paths, there has sv
f been near me the kindly human voice, Il
helpful human hand and the tender b
a man heart of some one from among tho
n toiling unregarded millions on whose ell
, pie, earnest natures and steadfast 10y
lives our whole world rests. Among
; of these have nowhere found a folk vi
?; must 60 with nae in art-picture q,
memory, into that measureless land of I
: nance wherein my way now leads, wi
Q finer and nobler presence and tread tn
|, my lowly peasant friends of stern yet 81