But I must say of the priests that they were every
where obliging and ready to serve me, and satisfied with the
smallest gift; and their charges, when I required horses for my
excursions, were always moderate. I only found the peasant less
interested in districts where a traveller scarcely ever appeared;
but in such places as were more visited, their charges were often
exorbitant. For example, I had to pay 20 to 30 kr. (8d. to 1s.) for
being ferried over a river; and then my guide and I only were rowed
in the boat, and the horses had to swim. The guide who accompanied
me on the Hecla also overcharged me; but he knew that I was forced
to take him, as there is no choice of guides, and one does not give
up the ascent for the sake of a little money.
This conduct shows that the character of the Icelanders does not
belong to the best; and that they take advantage of travellers with
as much shrewdness as the landlords and guides on the continent.
A besetting sin of the Icelanders is their drunkenness. Their
poverty would probably not be so great if they were less devoted to
brandy, and worked more industriously. It is dreadful to see what
deep root this vice has taken. Not only on Sundays, but also on
week-days, I met peasants who were so intoxicated that I was
surprised how they could keep in their saddle. I am, however, happy
to say that I never saw a woman in this degrading condition.
Another of their passions is snuff. They chew and snuff tobacco
with the same infatuation as it is smoked in other countries. But
their mode of taking it is very peculiar. Most of the peasants, and
even many of the priests, have no proper snuff-box, but only a box
turned of bone, shaped like a powder-flask. When they take snuff,
they throw back their head, insert the point of the flask in their
nose, and shake a dose of tobacco into it. They then, with the
greatest amiability, offer it to their neighbour, he to his, and so
it goes round till it reaches the owner again.
I think, indeed, that the Icelanders are second to no nation in
uncleanliness; not even to the Greenlanders, Esquimaux, or
Laplanders. If I were to describe a portion only of what I
experienced, my readers would think me guilty of gross exaggeration;
I prefer, therefore, to leave it to their imagination; merely saying
that they cannot conceive any thing too dirty for Iceland delicacy.
Beside this very estimable quality, they are also insuperably lazy.
Not far from the coast are immense meadows, so marshy that it is
dangerous to cross them.
