On one spot curious tents {44} are
erected, before which children play; on another drunken men stagger
along, or gallop on horseback, so that one is terrified, and fears
every moment to see them fall.
This unusual traffic unfortunately only lasts six or eight days.
The peasant hastens home to his hay-harvest; the merchant must
quickly regulate the produce and manufactures he has purchased, and
load his ships with them, so that they may sail and reach their
destination before the storms of the autumnal equinox.
Miles.
From Reikjavik to Thingvalla is 45
From Thingvalla to the Geyser 36
From the Geyser to Skalholt 28
From Skalholt to Salsun 36
From Salsun to Struvellir 9
From Struvellir to Hjalmholm 28
From Hjalmholm to Reikum 32
From Reikum to Reikjavik 45
259
CHAPTER VII
During my travels in Iceland I had of course the opportunity of
becoming acquainted with its inhabitants, their manners and customs.
I must confess that I had formed a higher estimate of the peasants.
When we read in the history of that country that the first
inhabitants had emigrated thither from civilised states; that they
had brought knowledge and religion with them; when we hear of the
simple good-hearted people, and their patriarchal mode of life in
the accounts of former travellers, and which we know that nearly
every peasant in Iceland can read and write, and that at least a
Bible, but generally other religions books also, are found in every
cot, - one feels inclined to consider this nation the best and most
civilised in Europe. I deemed their morality sufficiently secured
by the absence of foreign intercourse, by their isolated position,
and the poverty of the country. No large town there affords
opportunity for pomp or gaiety, or for the commission of smaller or
greater sins. Rarely does a foreigner enter the island, whose
remoteness, severe climate, inhospitality, and poverty, are
uninviting. The grandeur and peculiarity of its natural formation
alone makes it interesting, and that does not suffice for the
masses.
I therefore expected to find Iceland a real Arcadia in regard to its
inhabitants, and rejoiced at the anticipation of seeing such an
Idyllic life realised. I felt so happy when I set foot on the
island that I could have embraced humanity. But I was soon
undeceived.
I have often been impatient at my want of enthusiasm, which must be
great, as I see every thing in a more prosaic form than other
travellers. I do not maintain that my view is RIGHT, but I at least
possess the virtue of describing facts as I see them, and do not
repeat them from the accounts of others.
I have already described the impoliteness and heartlessness of the
so-called higher classes, and soon lost the good opinion I had
formed of them.
