Year: 1874

| tHySlcdt ana InteAectudE TRAITS Of The


People. =


From Murrat HaIstead's Notes of a long Journey


DWELLINGS AND CHURCHES IN ICE.


LAND.


The lack of lime in Iceland refers
house builders to lumber, for which
there is cheap transportation from
Norway. Hence wooden houses,
and as tar is abundant and a pre-
servative of wood, many of the
houses are tarred, and thereby are
black-like the crows-"as black
can be- which is dismal as any
thing.


The houses in the country are the
most characteristic habitations. l
do not risk much in saying that they
are all alike-that is to say, the
churches are all of one pattern and
the farm-houses of another pattern.
Each is of its kind not altogether
lovely, and the kind is perfectly de-
fined. The church is built wholly
of wood and tarred. 1t is as black
as the spot on the ace of clubs, and
right over the door there is little
black knob, varying from ten to
twenty feet in height, and passes
for the spire. Inside is an altar op-
posite the door, adorned with can
dies and pictures, representing some
of the snfferings of Christ, and on
the right hand side of the door, and
twO-thirds of the way to the altar,
is the pulpit. The room for the
people is carefully divided into pews
which are numbered boxes. The
church, as all the books of travellers
in Iceland state with elaboration,
are opened to the travelers-not as
houses of entertainment, but for
shelter. The sacred roof is made
hospitable, to the extent of keeping
off the wind and rain, but you must
find yourself. The Icelanders, who
have no seruples or thought of them
about public balls on Sunday, and
put their dancing and praying very
close together, do not see that the
church can be less holy and venera-
BILE because it is used as tavern
when not occupied for religious ex-
ercises.


The farmhouse seems the most
dreary institution in Iceland, and
the most hopeless. When the Ice
landic farmer can have a better
house-he will not. He builds his
walls of blocks of lava laid in turf.
Sometimes there is mud or lava
paste used instead of turf. When
the wall is FIVE or six feet high, the
architect puts up wooden frame
to support the roof, and is careful to
place the gable in front, and to
board that up, and put a window of
about four small panes of glass in
it. That is sDlendor. The roof
frame is covered with bark or grass,
or plank sometimes by all three),
and then heavily sodded. A row of
three of these tenements-stone
walls with sod roofs-and a long
passage between two of them, con-
stitute house. | believe there is
occasionally another pen, with a
square wooden box in the centre of
it, for kitchen, though usually one
of the three is used for that purpose;
and Immediately at hand a COW
house of similar construction. The
worst of these houses is that they
are damp, and therefore unhealthy,
and that cleanliness is not possible
within. You enter them through a
long and narrow passage, dark and
rainy in wet weather, stumbling
over an uneven place of rough stones
and STOPPING to avoid low and dingy
rafters. The entrance looks and
generally smells as though it might
be the disagreeable course necessary
to pursue to get into a cavern, the
occupants of which should be reserv-
ed for a menagerie.


SHOWING CIvILITY TO STRANGERS" :"


Speaking of beds and hospitali-
ties in Iceland, there is an old cere-
mony of showing civllity to stran-
gers that is said to be still prevalent
in the remote rural districts. 1t is
that the lady of the house shall pull
off the trowsers of the fatigued and
disconsolate travellers. The theory
is, that as the rain may be expected
to be always falling, the trowsers
must be wet at bedtime, and that
as the regular days ride is about
forty miles, the adventurer from
other lands should be exceedingly
weary and in need of gentle encour-
agement and assistance. 1t is
thought, therefore, that it is nothing
but an act of politeness and true con-
Germ for the welfare of the traveller,
and the most agreeable person in the
house should undress his legs. ]
may add that there is not among the
Icelanders who perform this solemn
rite the remotest suspicion that
there is any indelicaey in the per
formance. 1t is related of the most
pious and famous missionary who
ever visited the island, Henderson,
who distributed Bibles throughout
the Icelandic settlements fifty years
ago, that this business of pulling on
his trowsers was a sad embarrass-
ment to him, and somewhat prevent
ed the development of his vital Pl-
ETY.. He could not refuse to accept
the hospitality of the good people
among whom he distributed the good
booL For which they were grateful
n I'll t5a extreme, and he finally ar
ran%a 10 ~ n compromise and systemat-
;"a ;" Z He insisted upon first rolling
h;mself IG up in a blanket, and then
mon unharnessing himself, as to
sIspenders and waist-band, and then
not until then, he allowed the ladies
TO seize the offending garment by
the straps (which he uniformity
wore to keep his trowser's down
when riding) and pulled them Off
So while they took the trowsers in
triumph, he spared his modesty all
the rudeness of the terrible shocks
that would otherwise have been in
flicted. Tie philosophical and IN
genious Christian minister publish
ed a large volume about his trouble