They are
exceedingly mountainous, some of the mountains attaining an
elevation of about 2800 feet. The largest town or village does not
contain more than 1500 or 1600 inhabitants. The population live
chiefly on the produce of their large flocks of sheep, and on the
down procured, often at great risk to human life, from the eider-
duck and other birds by which the island is frequented. - ED.
{20} I should be truly sorry if, in this description of our "life
aboard ship," I had said any thing which could give offence to my
kind friend Herr Knudson. I have, however, presumed that every one
is aware that the mode of life at sea is different to life in
families. I have only to add, that Herr Knudson lived most
agreeably not only in Copenhagen, but what is far more remarkable,
in Iceland also, and was provided with every comfort procurable in
the largest European towns.
{21} It is not only at sea that ingenious excuses for drinking are
invented. The lovers of good or bad liquor on land find these
reasons as "plenty as blackberries," and apply them with a
marvellous want of stint or scruple. In warm climates the liquor is
drank to keep the drinker cool, in cold to keep him warm; in health
to prevent him from being sick, in sickness to bring him back to
health. Very seldom is the real reason, "because I like it," given;
and all these excuses and reasons must be regarded as implying some
lingering sense of shame at the act, and as forming part of "the
homage that vice always pays to virtue." - ED.
{22} The sailors call those waves "Spanish" which, coming from the
west, distinguish themselves by their size.
{23} These islands form a rocky group, only one of which is
inhabited, lying about fifteen miles from the coast. They are said
to derive their name from some natives of Ireland, called West-men,
who visited Iceland shortly after its discovery by the Norwegians.
In this there is nothing improbable, for we know that during the
ninth and tenth centuries the Danes and Normans, called Easterlings,
made many descents on the Irish coast; and one Norwegian chief is
reported to have assumed sovereign power in Ireland about the year
866, though he was afterwards deposed, and flung into a lough, where
he was drowned: rather an ignominious death for a "sea-king." - ED.
{24} This work, which Madame Pfeiffer does not praise too highly,
was first published in 1810. After passing through two editions, it
was reprinted in 1841, at a cheap price, in the valuable people's
editions of standard works, published by Messrs. Chambers of
Edinburgh. - ED.
{25} It is related of Ingold that he carried with him on his voyage
the door of his former house in Ireland, and that when he approached
the coast he cast it into the sea, watching the point of land which
it touched; and on that land he fixed his future home. This land is
the same on which the town of Reikjavik now stands. These old sea-
kings, like the men of Athens, were "in all things too
superstitious." - ED.
{26} These sea-rovers, that were to the nations of Europe during
the middle ages what the Danes, Norwegians, and other northmen were
at an earlier period, enjoyed at this time the full flow of their
lawless prosperity. Their insolence and power were so great that
many nations, our own included, were glad to purchase, by a yearly
payment, exemption from the attacks of these sea-rovers. The
Americans paid this tribute so late as 1815. The unfortunate
Icelanders who were carried off in the seventeenth century nearly
all died as captives in Algiers. At the end of ten years they were
liberated; but of the four hundred only thirty-seven were alive when
the joyful intelligence reached the place of their captivity; and of
these twenty-four died before rejoining their native land. - ED.
{27} This town, the capital of Iceland, and the seat of government,
is built on an arm of the sea called the Faxefiord, in the south-
west part of the island. The resident population does not exceed
500, but this is greatly increased during the annual fairs. It
consists mainly of two streets at right angles to each other. It
contains a large church built of stone, roofed with tiles; an
observatory; the residences of the governor and the bishop, and the
prison, which is perhaps the most conspicuous building in the town.-
-ED.
{28} As Madame Pfeiffer had thus no opportunity of attending a ball
in Iceland, the following description of one given by Sir George
Mackenzie may be interesting to the reader.
"We gave a ball to the ladies of Reikjavik and the neighbourhood.
The company began to assemble about nine o'clock. We were shewn
into a small low-roofed room, in which were a number of men, but to
my surprise I saw no females. We soon found them, however, in one
adjoining, where it is the custom for them to wait till their
partners go to hand them out. On entering this apartment, I felt
considerable disappointment at not observing a single woman dressed
in the Icelandic costume. The dresses had some resemblance to those
of English chambermaids, but were not so smart. An old lady, the
wife of the man who kept the tavern, was habited like the pictures
of our great-grandmothers. Some time after the dancing commenced,
the bishop's lady, and two others, appeared in the proper dress of
the country.
"We found ourselves extremely awkward in dancing what the ladies
were pleased to call English country dances. The music, which came
from a solitary ill-scraped fiddle, accompanied by the rumbling of
the same half-rotten drum that had summoned the high court of
justice, and by the jingling of a rusty triangle, was to me utterly
unintelligible.
