Chapter 20

[142]Charges of national ignorance are favourites with the ignorant, and unhappily not only with them: the analphabetic state of Spain is pressed into active service by the English home littérateur, especially of the Evangelical or Low Church school. It sounds strange to one who has often met upon the outer bridle-paths men mounted on their mules, and diligently reading books and newspapers. And the superior civilisation of the Latin race is hardly to be measured by the three “R’s,” or by similar mechanical appliances.[143]The document is quotedin extensoby Henderson (ii. 164-166), and by Baring-Gould (Introduction, pp. xlv., xlvi.).[144]The Icelanders’ view of the connection between their country and Denmark is simply this: They declare the union, dating from 1264, and renewed in 1380, to be personal, not real, and limited to both countries being under the same king. The Rigsdag cannot therefore legislate for the Althing, and the constitutional law of Denmark has never become that of Iceland. They consequently demand that the Althing should have legislative and not mere counselling powers; that it should sanction in the island the laws proposed by the Danes; and that the minister who advises the Crown in Icelandic matters should be responsible to this Diet. On the other hand, Denmark denies the validity of mediæval treaties, the relations of the mother country and her dependency having been completely altered by historical events; consequently Iceland is now an integral and inseparable part of the Danish kingdom, and the laws of Denmark must be valid in Iceland as in the other colonies. Iceland, they say, cannot claim any self-rule as a right; still, it may be desirable, on account of their peculiar circumstances, to allow the Icelanders a voice in the management of their own affairs, subject, however, to the supervision and consent of the Rigsdag and the Home Government.[145]It is popularly asserted that the Danish Government contributes $30,000 per annum for the support of Iceland. Upon this subject, see note at end of the present section.[146]The author tried in vain to see the wording of the “little bill,” and was assured that it had not been printed. It appeared in theAllgemeine Zeitung, Nos. 66, 84, 85, 101, and 102, of the 7th, 25th, and 26th March, and 11th and 12th April 1870. The article is entitled “Island und Dänemark,” and is written by the historian Professor Konrad Maurer of Munich. See note at end.[147]Cela va sans dire; for many years the island has been too poor to pay for the expenses of governing it. But see note at end of section.[148]Hr Eirikr Magnússon in theStandardof December 1, 1872, et seq.[149]It can be proved that the different sums paid into the Danish treasury by the various companies who rented the trade with Iceland from time to time (from 1602 to 1722) amounted at least to $2,000,000, and the revenue of Iceland has never been credited with this sum.[150]The degree of longitude in N. lat. 63° measures 2770·1 feet.”””64°”2674·9 ””””65°”2578·9 ””””66°”2432·1 ””””67°”2384·6 ”instead of 6082 at the Equator.[151]Sir George S. Mackenzie makes the desert tracts of inner Iceland to number 40,000 square miles, a figure which still deforms Lyell’s admirable Principles of Geology, 11th edit., vol ii., p. 454. Mr Vice-Consul Crowe reduces the total area to 29,440 square miles (geog.), of which two-thirds are upwards of 1000 feet above sea-level, and only 4288 square geographical miles are covered with perpetual snow, whose line begins between 2000 and 3500 feet.[152]The proportion of “boe,” where barley can be cultivated in the Færoes, was, till very lately, 1:60 of outfield or pasture.[153]The day is past when the “determinate lines of fracture,” which resembled the empirical parallelism and the pentagonal networks of mountains, connected Hekla with Etna—yet it was an improvement upon the theory which made both of them mouths of the Inferno. Evidence to the latter purport has been given in our law-courts. The earthquake district of Iceland was popularly supposed to include Great Britain, Northern France, Denmark, Scandinavia, and Greenland—regions of the most diversified formation. The theory seemed to repose for base upon isolated cases of simultaneity, possibly coincidents. But, as Dr Lauder Lindsay remarks, contemporaneity would suggest a vast extension of these limits. The (Lisbon) earthquake of 1755, for instance, extended from Barbary to Iceland, from Persia to Santos in the Brazil. The earthquake of 1783 was equally damaging to Calabria and to Iceland. Even in 1872, there were, as has been shown, almost simultaneous movements in Syria, Naples, and Iceland.[154]Hooker tells us to pronounce Jökull “yuckull,” which involves three distinct errors, especially in the double liquid, which becomes everywhere, except before a vowel,dlortl, like Popocatapetl. Iaki is a lump of ice, a congener of the Pers.[Image of Farsi characters not available.], like our “ice,” although Adelung derives the Germ. Eis-jöcher from the Lat. Jugum, and translates “Excelsi Jökli” by “Montana Glacies.” Jökull in Icel. primarily means “icicle,” a sense now obsolete. The signification “glacier” was probably borrowed from the Norse country Hardanger, the only Norwegian county in which “Jökull” appears as a local name; and it was applied to the “Gletschers” of the Iceland colonies in Greenland. “The Jökull”par excellenceis Snæfellsjökull.[155]The Icel. Stipti (Dan. Stift, and old Low Germ. Stigt) means a bishopric or ecclesiastical bailiwick. Hence Uno Von Troil translates Stiftamtmand by “bailiff of episcopal diocese,” and it gradually came to mean a civil governor. Cleasby informs us (sub voce) that both name and office are quite modern in Iceland.[156]Further details concerning the governor-general will be found in the Journal.[157]The Sýsla (pl.Sýslur, and in compounds Sýslu) is derived from Sýsl, “business”—að sýsla, “to be busy.” As a law term, it signifies any stewardship held from the king or bishop; in a geographical sense, it means a district, bailiwick, or prefecture. At present it answers to the Thing of the Icelandic Commonwealth (Cleasby).[158]Not to be confounded with the Sókn, or parish proper. Cleasby is disposed to date the Rapes from the eleventh century, and he remarks that the district round the bishop’s seat at Skálholt is called “Hreppar,” showing that the house was the nucleus of the division.[159]From pp. 703-909, the Skýrslur um Landshagi á Íslandi, vol. 4, Möller, Copenhagen, 1870, a portly octavo of 934 pages. Mr Longman’s list of the Sýslas (p. 34, Suggestions for the Exploration of Iceland) was quite correct, except in point of orthography, but it is no longer so.[160]The Múla-Sýsla (“mull” county) was formerly divided into three parts, the northern, the central, and the southern, each with its Sýslumaðr. The present distribution dates from the year 1779.[161]Hèrað (or Hierat) is the Scotch “heriot,” a tax paid to feudal lord in lieu of military service. In Icelandic the Hèrað is a geographical district generally, and is specially applied to the river-basin of the Skagafjörð (Cleasby).[162]The sheriff doesnotattend parish meetings, he has no schools to inspect, for there are none, in fact he has nothing to do with education at all, that being the business of the parish priest under the superintendence of the prófastr (dean) of the district.[163]The name of this Icelandic code of laws, which must not be confounded with the Grágás of Norway, is variously explained from the grey binding or from being written with a grey goose-quill. It was adopted in Iceland inA.D.1118, and it contained a Lex de ejusmodi mendicis (sturdy vagrants) impune castrandis. Some writers suppose that the Icelandic Commonwealth had written laws but no code. After the union with Norway the island received its first written code, the Iron-side, Járn-Síða (A.D.1262-1272), and this was exchanged inA.D.1272 for the Jónsbók, so termed from John the Lawyer who brought it from Norway. Uno Von Troil (p. 73) removes the date of the latter toA.D.1272.[164]Mr Dasent, Introduction to Diet, (xlviii.), remarks that the jury was never developed in Norway, and only struck faint root in the Danish and Swedish laws. When asserting the jury to be purely Scandinavian, the author speaks of Europe, neglecting the admirable Panchayat system which arose in the village republics of Hindostan, and a multitude of other similar institutions.[165]Dillon notices forty-one women who had passed ninety: the number has now greatly fallen off. There is a further decline from the days of Olaus Magnus, who informs us that “the Icelanders, who, instead of bread, have fish bruised with a stone, live three hundred years.” The general longevity of Norway proves that the climates of the north, thevagina gentiumof Jornandes, have nothing adverse to human life. In Scotland the census of 1870 gave a total of twenty-six centagenarians—nine men and seventeen women.[166]Innuit (Eskimo), like Illinois (from Illeni), means simply “a man”—a frequent tribal designation amongst savages. So Teuton and Deutsch, with the numberless derivations, are derived from Goth. Thiud, a people; Alemanni from “All-men,” and “German perhaps from Guerre-man” (Farrar, Families of Speech).[167]The discovery of Uriconium and of Roman remains throughout England, and even in London, during the last few years, strongly suggests that the beauty of the English race is derived from a far greater intermixture of southern blood than was formerly suspected; and the racial baptism, repeated by the invasion of the Normans, must also have brought with it Gallo-Romans in considerable numbers. We can hardly doubt that the handsome peasantry of south-western Ireland is the produce of Spanish or Mediterranean innervation; and a comparison with the country people of Orotava in Tenerife, where the Irish have again mixed with the mingled Hispano-Guanche race, shows certain remarkable points of family likeness. On the other hand, except in certain parts of Great Britain, especially the Danelagh or Scandinavianised coasts and the counties occupied by the Angli and other Teutonic peoples, the English race remarkably differs from both its purer congeners, the homely Scandinavians and Germans. The general verdict of foreigners confirms its superior beauty, which, indeed, is evident to the most superficial observer.[168]It appears probable that the reverence paid to women by the ancient Germans and Gauls arose from what Tacitus calls “some divine and prophetic quality resident in their women;” from the superstitious belief that the weaker sex was more subject to inspiration, divination, second sight, and other abnormal favours of the gods. TheFrauen-cultusof the present age, which in the United States has become an absurdity, would be the relic and survival of this pagan fancy.[169]The author cannot say whether due care was taken when making these observations. Amongst Englishmen, when the thermometer held in the mouth exceeds 98°·5, there is suspicion of fever.[170]Marquis Massimo d’Azeglio observed this fact among the paviours and the wine-carters, who form almost a separate caste of the Trans-Tiber population.[171]Not always, as the common river-name Thvátt-á (wash or dip-water) proves.[172]These satirical songs are known to the Greenlanders, who thus satisfy their malice, “preferring to revenge even than to prevent an injury.” Yet, the Icelanders have a proverb, “Let him beware, lest his tongue wind round his head.”[173]Usually but erroneously translated “headlands,” instead of “head of men.”[174]The popular assertion, “nothing can be more natural than that female chastity should be more prevalent in a northern than in a southern climate,” is simply a false deduction from insufficient facts. It is a subject far too extensive for a footnote; we may simply observe that the Scandinavians have never been distinguished for continence, nor are the northern more moral than the southern Slavs. In fact, the principal factor of feminine “virtue” seems to be race not climate.[175]“To go by the way of the rock” was the old pagan euphuism for self-destruction; and the modern Hindú, as the Girnár Cliff shows, preserves the practice of “Altestupor” and “Odin’s Hall.” Suicide is now, like the duello, extinct, and the few cases recorded in late history are looked upon as phenomena. We remark the same rarity of self-destruction both in Scotland and Ireland, a wonderful contrast to England, which, again, despite its ill-fame, shows favourably in this matter by the side of France.[176]The reader has only to remember how much of Britain was Danish to understand the Snorra-Edda’s express statement about Icelanders and Englishmen speaking the same tongue, “Vèr erum einnar tungu;” and Bartolin (Antiquitates Danicæ), “Eademque lingua (Norwegica seu Septentrionalis) usurpabatur per Saxonicum, Daniam, Sueciam, Norvegiam, et partem Angliæ aliquam.”[177]Their extensive travels gave them peculiar names for peoples and places, which are often somewhat puzzling. “Thýskr,” a German, and Gerzkr, a Russian, are easy; but Samverskt (a Samaritan) is not so plain. Thus, also, we have “Enea” for Europe; “Hvítármannaland,” or white man’s land, and “Irland et mikla,” Ireland the Great (the Irlanda el Kabíreh of Edrisi in the twelfth century), for South America; “Suðurálfa” (i.e., southern half), for Africa; “Great Sweden” for Eastern Russia; “Svalbarði” (discovered 1194), for Scoresby’s Liverpool Coast (?); “Bjarmaland” for Permia, the land beyond the North Cape; “Sætt” for Sidon; “Njörfa-fjörð “for the Straits of “Gib;” Há-sterun for Hastings; and “Katanes” (boat naze), for Caithness. Some names are of ethnological value; for instance, “Bretland” for Wales; while Vendill or Vandill, the northern part of Jutland, preserves the name of the Vandals and the origin of Andalusia; and Garða-riki or Garða-veldi, the empire of the Garðar or Castella, tells us how the Russian empire was founded. So Suðr-menn (Germans) opposed to Northmen (Norðmenn), preserves the tradition of original consanguinity. Others are useless complications, as Engils-nes, the Morea, and Ægisif (Ἁγία Σοφία). The travestied names of persons are sometimes interesting,e.g., Elli-Sif (Scot. Elspeth) is Elizabeth, probably confounded like Ægisif, with Sif, the golden-haired wife of Thor, who lives in our gos-sip. Icelanders are not answerable for the mistake so general amongst foreigners which makes Níðar-óss (Oyce or ostium of the Nið River) analiasof Throndhjem, of old Thrándheimr, when it is the name of the ancient city occupying the position of the present town. The “Antiquités de l’Orient” (par C. C. Rafn, Copenhagen, 1856) well shows how Icelandic names were applied to the Byzantine empire,e.g., Ἐσσουπῆ (ei sofa, not to sleep), given to the first bar of the Dnieper; Οὐλξορσὶ (Hólm-fors or islet-force) to the second, and so forth.[178]“This assertion of travellers never had any foundation in fact,” says Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín, yet it is quoted by Henderson, the least imaginative, and, in such matters, the most trustworthy of men; and the Icelandic proverb says, “One’s own home is the best home.”[179]As every traveller, from Uno Von Troil downwards, has given a plan and sketch of the Bær, the reader need not be troubled with them. The group of buildings composing the actual homestead is invariably built in a row: the front (Hús-bust) faces south, towards the sea or the river, if in a valley, and the back is turned to the sheltering mountain. The strip of flagged pavement along the front is called “Stétt;” the open space before it, “Hlað;” the buildings are parted by a lane (Sund); the approach is termed “Geilar” or “Tröð,” and the whole is surrounded by the Húsa-garðr, a dry-stone dyke.The Norse Skáli, or Hall of classical days, whose rude and barbarous magnificence was the result of successful piracy tempered by traffic, has clean vanished—there is not a trace of one upon the island. A ground-plan, section, and elevation, are given in Mr Dasent’s “Burnt Njal,” but it is hard to say how much of it came from the fertile brain of the artist, Mr Sigurðr Guðmundsson. It was probably about as “desirable” a “residence” as the old Welsh manor-house, with its stagnant moat and its banks or walls of earth.[180]The author well remembers that at Hyderabad, in Sind, only one palace had the luxury of glass, when we first occupied the city.[181]Sótt is applied to physical, Sút to mental, sickness.[182]More will be said concerning the several varieties of oxalis, which the people now seem to despise. Both wood-sorrel and meadow-sweet (Spiræa) were used by the poor of Ireland to heal ulcers (Beddoes, p. 47, on the Medical Use and Production of Factitious Airs), Uno Von Troil (p. 108) gives a long list of the popular anti-scorbutics.[183]Of course the first sibilant, the sign of possession, is not used when the noun is otherwise declined. For instance, Jón Arason, often written by foreigners Aræson, is the son of Are, whose oblique case is Ara; yet there are popular exceptions,e.g., Bjarnarson (pron. Bjatnarsonj, son of Björn, is vulgarly pronounced, and even written, Björnsson.[184]Thus the islanders preserve the memory of a “beautiful fiend,” one amongst many, who, after a very human fashion, began life as a coquette, and ended it as adévote, being the first to learn psalm-singing, and to take the veil in the new convent. This hyperborean Ninon de L’Enclos deserves forgiveness for one of the cleverest sayings uttered by woman—a revelation of its kind. When asked which of her half-a-dozen lovers and husbands she preferred, her wise and witty answer was, “Theim var ek verst, er ek unnti mest”—“Whom I treated worst, him I loved most;” alluding to Kjartan Olafsson, murdered by her behest. In old days, Gudrún and John answered to the “M. or N.” of our Catechism, and to “those famous fictions of English law, John Doe and Richard Roe.”[185]This is probably a relic of early ages, when “Maria” was a name too much revered for general use.[186]Yet the Polygamia Triumphatrix (Liseri) of Lund,A.D.1682, was publicly burned at Stockholm.[187]We may add, Paris, 23; Berlin, 25; Panama, 26; Bombay, 27; New York, 28; Glasgow, 34; Madras, 35; Vienna, 36; and Rome the same, if not more.[188]Thus Skyr is a congener of the Persian “Shír” and of the Slav Sir (cheese). The first stage is the “run-milk,” the second is the “hung-milk” (because suspended in a bag) of the Shetland Islands. Everywhere it is differently turned; by sour whey in Iceland, by buttermilk in Scotland, and by rennet and various plants in Asia and Africa. No milk-drinking nation drinks, as a rule, fresh milk. The Icelanders want the manifold preparations known to the Scoto-Scandinavian islands.[189]Dr (afterwards Sir Henry) Holland introduced, or rather first brought, the vaccine virus.[190]From Lík, Germ. Leiche, Eng. Lych, as in lych-gate, and Thrá, a throe or pang. Hold is flesh.[191]This, like other forms of gout, certainly depends much upon the popular beverage. In England we find it amongst the beer-drinking poorer classes: Padua, the author was informed by the celebrated Dr Pinalli, does not produce a single case even to lecture upon.[192]Thýðverjaland, or Thjóðverjaland, is Teuton-land, Germany, the adjectival forms being Thýðverskr, Thýzkr, and Thýeskr. Icelandic here has evidently borrowed from the Gothic Thjuth, the German Diutisc (Diutisch or Tiusch), the low Latin Theotiscus, and the modern Teutsch or Deutsch, through traders in the eleventh or twelfth century (Cleasby). But Rafn (Antiquités de l’Orient, p. xlix.) quotes the Roman de Rou of Robert Wace:“Cosne sont en thioiz et en normant parler,”to show that the two terms were applied to a single tongue. From the old root come the Italian Tedesco and the English “Dutch,” which the vulgar in the United States still persistently apply to Germans. Schöning (p. 310, Copenhagen, 1777) and Laing (Heimskringla, iii. 349) confused Thýzkr with “Turkish!”[193]For a full account of the ancient dietary as prescribed by law in 1789, see Baring-Gould, p. 29. The items are meat and peas; sausages cold and warm; meat, broth, and soup; haddock and flounder; stock fish and butter (“the staff of life”); skyr (not curd) and cold milk; meal-grout, buckwheat-porridge, and barley-water grout with milk and butter.[194]Ölmusa or Almusa is the Greek Ἐλεημοσύνη, the German Almosen, and the English Alms (Cleasby).[195]He died November 2, 1872.[196]The author is aware that a student who reads Greek and Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, French, German, and English, will find almost all the Talmud, certainly all the valuable parts, in translation at the library of the British Museum. But, unhappily, British Museums do not exist everywhere. Till the constitutional days of Italy the five Jewish Synagogues at Rome were not allowed to own copies of this vast repertory of Hebrew lore.[197]If English, as appears likely, is to become the cosmopolitan language of commerce, it will have to borrow from Chinese as much monosyllable and as little inflection as possible. The Japanese have already commenced the systematic process of “pidgeoning,” which for centuries has been used on the West African Coast, in Jamaica, and, in fact, throughout tropical England, Hindostan alone excepted.[198]The dialects vary so much that we can hardly speak of modern Greek. The only approach to it is the bastard, half-classical jargon, almost confined to the professors and the λογιώτατοι of the capital and chief towns. Worse still, all the Romaic grammars and dictionaries are devoted to teaching a tongue which no illiterate person speaks, ever spoke, or ever, it is to be hoped, will speak. Except by actual travel it is hardly possible to learn the charminglynaïvedialects of the peasantry.[199]The two cathedrals of Catholic days were burnt: their successors were humble buildings; that of Skálholt was a wooden barn; the building at Hólar was, like the Viðey church, of stone, a rare thing outside Reykjavik.[200]Bishop Pètursson (299-305) supplies a “Specification” of all the priesthoods and their revenues in the island.[201]Gullbringu is the Sýsla which contains Reykjavik; but the cathedral town is, of course, under a separate jurisdiction.[202]Bóndi (of old, Búandi and Bóandi),plur.Buéndr or Bóendr (Germ. Bauer, Eng. Hus-band) included all the owners of landed property and householders (Bú), from the petty freeholder to the franklin, especially the class represented by our yeomen and the “statesmen” of Cumberland and Westmoreland. It is still opposed in Iceland to the “klerkar” (clergy), to the knights, to the barons (Hersir-or Lendir-menn), and to the royal officers (hirð). In more despotic Norway and Denmark, “bóndi” became a word of contempt for the lower classes; and in modern Danish, Bönder means plebs, a boor. Bú, from að búa, to build, to inhabit, is the household and stores, opposed to Bær, the house (Cleasby).[203]In 1873, no less than 4385 “livings” in the Church of England were under £200 per annum: of these, 1211 were under £100; 1596 ranged between £100 and £150; and 1578 from £150 to £200. Measures have lately been taken to abate this scandal, which pays less for the “cure of souls” than for the care of stables.[204]The traveller cannot but think that our scientific political economists are apt, in outlying countries, to neglect the first rule of taxation, namely, to avoid imposing novelties, and to levy imposts with which the people are accustomed. Thus India willingly contributes salt and capitation taxes, and especially Nazaránah, or legacy duties, whilst she hates the name of income-tax. No one will deny that the two former are objectionable for a host of reasons, but the question is, whether they are less injurious than those which lead to the many evils engendered by chronic discontent.[205]The system of hundreds will be discussed when treating of taxation. Suffice it here to say that in modern Iceland, as in England of former times, the value of land tenure was estimated not by extent, but by produce. Indeed, superficial land-measures, such as the “mark” of the Færoes (=32,500 square English feet), are unknown to the island.[206]It should be remembered that “Heimili” (households, families) are quite different from “Jarðir” (farms); and the two must not be confounded. The number of the former is 9306, of the latter 4357.[207]In 1872 contested elections were almost unknown; at least only one was quoted, and the candidate had learned the practice in England. The position of Al-thíngis-maðr was also an object of scanty ambition except to those who required the small salary, or who had a political theory to work out. The assertion in the text is denied by Icelanders; but the author repeatedly heard it made by Danes and other foreigners settled in the island—at any rate, we may expect to see it realised by the new constitution. Knowledge is power in Iceland as elsewhere, and the numbers of the priesthood secure their influence, whilst the physicians and lawyers are too few to be of much account.[208]The English Midwife means “with-wife,” from the Icel. “Með,” the German Mit.[209]So Styria and Istria boast of a “Kohl-fuchs,” so termed from his coal-black waistcoat.[210]May not the idea have arisen from a confusion of “Tó,” a grass-tuft, with “Tóa,” or “Tófa,” a tod? The older name, Mel-rakki, is derived from burrowing in the sand.[211]Uno Von Troil (p. 140) also mentions wild cats (Urðar-kettir, cats-o’-stone-heap) and rats.[212]The Irish “town-land,”i.e., yard and meadow; Scotch “toun;” Cornish “town;” Dutch. “tuyn,” a garden; and Germ. “tzaun.”[213]This bird (Charadrius pluvialis, Icel. Hey-ló and Hey-lóa, the fem. Hey-láa commonly used, the hay-sandpiper), “quite the commonest in Iceland” (Baring-Gould, p. 411)—the snow-bunting being perhaps the commonest of the small birds—is black breasted in the breeding season, and afterwards becomes “golden.”[214]Gaukr (mod. gickr) is a congener of the A. Sax. Gaec; the Irish Cuach (hence Mo-chuachin, “my little cuckoo!”); the Scotch Gowk; the German Gauch; the Danish Gick, and the Slav. Keuk or Kukavitsa: the Serbian legend makes it a sister calling upon a lost brother. The Index Vocum, etc. (Landnámabók, p. 486), explains it Cuculus.[215]This is a lineal descendant from the ancient and venerable root which named the Aryan race, Ἄριοι,i.e., ploughers not pastors, and which produced Ar-atron, Ar-atrum; Bohemian, Or-adlo; Lithuanian, Ar-klas; Cornish, Ar-adar, and Welsh, Ar-ad, and which survives in our word to “ear.” The Arðr of the Sagas was probably heavier and bulkier than the Plógr, a late word of foreign stamp, which “our American cousins” will degrade to “plow.”[216]This word, Melr (plur.Melar), wild oats or bent, also Mel-gras (whence Mel-rakki, the fox), must be distinguished from what the Dictionary, erroneously I think, makes its secondary sense, a sand-hill, dune, dene or link, overgrown with such grass, and a sandbank generally, even when bare. The question is, was the oat called from its sand-bed orvice versâ? For a description of this feature, see Chapter IX.[217]Etymologically, Reynir is applied to a cousin, the rowan tree, or mountain ash (Pyrus aucuparia), especially sacred to Thor. Hence the Vikings were called ash-men, because they sat under the sacred ash, which defended them from the evil eye.[218]Hooker (ii. 325) found a true rose, theRosa hibernica, growing in the Seljaland, but only there. Thus it is not wholly wanting, as in the southern hemisphere.[219]Further notices will occur in the Journal (Chap. V.) about this Surtar-brand (not “Surtur-brand”). Etymologically, it is from Surtr (a congener of “swarthy”) “the Black,” a fire-giant, who, coming from the south, will destroy the Odin-world, and Brandr, a firebrand. After the change of faith, this northern Ahriman or Set (Typhon) was ready to hand, and at once became the Semitico-Scandinavian “Devil.” Upon the same principle, the latter is known in Scotland as “Auld Sootie,” since the classical gamins gave horns and tail to Pluto, and the face of the great god Pan was blackened by the monks. The Surtshellir tunnel in western Iceland, famed for the atrocious “Cave-men” (outlaws), is also derived from the Surtr of Scandinavian mythology. The author did not visit it, but the descriptions and illustrations suggested the Umm Nírán in the lava formations of the Safá, near Damascus, noticed in “Unexplored Syria.”[220]In Switzerland, also, the minimum of snow coincides with the last of July and early August.[221]The indigenous Poas number twelve, and the Festucæ three[222]Óðal is a congener of the German Edel and Adel, noble, as the “chiefs” of Scandinavian and Teutonic communities were the land-holders. Hence the mid. Lat. Allodium; and (Cleasby) “feudal” is fee-odal, odal held as a fee (Germ.vieh; Dutch,vee; pecunia, capitale) from the king: Dr Sullivan prefersFeodum, from Fuidhir, fugitives. Popularly, Udal, Allodium, prædium hereditarium, is opposed to feudal.[223]The Icelandic Umboð are our Umboth-lands, formerly belonging to the bishop, and afterwards transferred to the Crown. Etymologically, the word means a charge or stewardship.

[143]The document is quotedin extensoby Henderson (ii. 164-166), and by Baring-Gould (Introduction, pp. xlv., xlvi.).

[144]The Icelanders’ view of the connection between their country and Denmark is simply this: They declare the union, dating from 1264, and renewed in 1380, to be personal, not real, and limited to both countries being under the same king. The Rigsdag cannot therefore legislate for the Althing, and the constitutional law of Denmark has never become that of Iceland. They consequently demand that the Althing should have legislative and not mere counselling powers; that it should sanction in the island the laws proposed by the Danes; and that the minister who advises the Crown in Icelandic matters should be responsible to this Diet. On the other hand, Denmark denies the validity of mediæval treaties, the relations of the mother country and her dependency having been completely altered by historical events; consequently Iceland is now an integral and inseparable part of the Danish kingdom, and the laws of Denmark must be valid in Iceland as in the other colonies. Iceland, they say, cannot claim any self-rule as a right; still, it may be desirable, on account of their peculiar circumstances, to allow the Icelanders a voice in the management of their own affairs, subject, however, to the supervision and consent of the Rigsdag and the Home Government.

[145]It is popularly asserted that the Danish Government contributes $30,000 per annum for the support of Iceland. Upon this subject, see note at end of the present section.

[146]The author tried in vain to see the wording of the “little bill,” and was assured that it had not been printed. It appeared in theAllgemeine Zeitung, Nos. 66, 84, 85, 101, and 102, of the 7th, 25th, and 26th March, and 11th and 12th April 1870. The article is entitled “Island und Dänemark,” and is written by the historian Professor Konrad Maurer of Munich. See note at end.

[147]Cela va sans dire; for many years the island has been too poor to pay for the expenses of governing it. But see note at end of section.

[148]Hr Eirikr Magnússon in theStandardof December 1, 1872, et seq.

[149]It can be proved that the different sums paid into the Danish treasury by the various companies who rented the trade with Iceland from time to time (from 1602 to 1722) amounted at least to $2,000,000, and the revenue of Iceland has never been credited with this sum.

[150]The degree of longitude in N. lat. 63° measures 2770·1 feet.”””64°”2674·9 ””””65°”2578·9 ””””66°”2432·1 ””””67°”2384·6 ”instead of 6082 at the Equator.

[150]

[151]Sir George S. Mackenzie makes the desert tracts of inner Iceland to number 40,000 square miles, a figure which still deforms Lyell’s admirable Principles of Geology, 11th edit., vol ii., p. 454. Mr Vice-Consul Crowe reduces the total area to 29,440 square miles (geog.), of which two-thirds are upwards of 1000 feet above sea-level, and only 4288 square geographical miles are covered with perpetual snow, whose line begins between 2000 and 3500 feet.

[152]The proportion of “boe,” where barley can be cultivated in the Færoes, was, till very lately, 1:60 of outfield or pasture.

[153]The day is past when the “determinate lines of fracture,” which resembled the empirical parallelism and the pentagonal networks of mountains, connected Hekla with Etna—yet it was an improvement upon the theory which made both of them mouths of the Inferno. Evidence to the latter purport has been given in our law-courts. The earthquake district of Iceland was popularly supposed to include Great Britain, Northern France, Denmark, Scandinavia, and Greenland—regions of the most diversified formation. The theory seemed to repose for base upon isolated cases of simultaneity, possibly coincidents. But, as Dr Lauder Lindsay remarks, contemporaneity would suggest a vast extension of these limits. The (Lisbon) earthquake of 1755, for instance, extended from Barbary to Iceland, from Persia to Santos in the Brazil. The earthquake of 1783 was equally damaging to Calabria and to Iceland. Even in 1872, there were, as has been shown, almost simultaneous movements in Syria, Naples, and Iceland.

[154]Hooker tells us to pronounce Jökull “yuckull,” which involves three distinct errors, especially in the double liquid, which becomes everywhere, except before a vowel,dlortl, like Popocatapetl. Iaki is a lump of ice, a congener of the Pers.[Image of Farsi characters not available.], like our “ice,” although Adelung derives the Germ. Eis-jöcher from the Lat. Jugum, and translates “Excelsi Jökli” by “Montana Glacies.” Jökull in Icel. primarily means “icicle,” a sense now obsolete. The signification “glacier” was probably borrowed from the Norse country Hardanger, the only Norwegian county in which “Jökull” appears as a local name; and it was applied to the “Gletschers” of the Iceland colonies in Greenland. “The Jökull”par excellenceis Snæfellsjökull.

[155]The Icel. Stipti (Dan. Stift, and old Low Germ. Stigt) means a bishopric or ecclesiastical bailiwick. Hence Uno Von Troil translates Stiftamtmand by “bailiff of episcopal diocese,” and it gradually came to mean a civil governor. Cleasby informs us (sub voce) that both name and office are quite modern in Iceland.

[156]Further details concerning the governor-general will be found in the Journal.

[157]The Sýsla (pl.Sýslur, and in compounds Sýslu) is derived from Sýsl, “business”—að sýsla, “to be busy.” As a law term, it signifies any stewardship held from the king or bishop; in a geographical sense, it means a district, bailiwick, or prefecture. At present it answers to the Thing of the Icelandic Commonwealth (Cleasby).

[158]Not to be confounded with the Sókn, or parish proper. Cleasby is disposed to date the Rapes from the eleventh century, and he remarks that the district round the bishop’s seat at Skálholt is called “Hreppar,” showing that the house was the nucleus of the division.

[159]From pp. 703-909, the Skýrslur um Landshagi á Íslandi, vol. 4, Möller, Copenhagen, 1870, a portly octavo of 934 pages. Mr Longman’s list of the Sýslas (p. 34, Suggestions for the Exploration of Iceland) was quite correct, except in point of orthography, but it is no longer so.

[160]The Múla-Sýsla (“mull” county) was formerly divided into three parts, the northern, the central, and the southern, each with its Sýslumaðr. The present distribution dates from the year 1779.

[161]Hèrað (or Hierat) is the Scotch “heriot,” a tax paid to feudal lord in lieu of military service. In Icelandic the Hèrað is a geographical district generally, and is specially applied to the river-basin of the Skagafjörð (Cleasby).

[162]The sheriff doesnotattend parish meetings, he has no schools to inspect, for there are none, in fact he has nothing to do with education at all, that being the business of the parish priest under the superintendence of the prófastr (dean) of the district.

[163]The name of this Icelandic code of laws, which must not be confounded with the Grágás of Norway, is variously explained from the grey binding or from being written with a grey goose-quill. It was adopted in Iceland inA.D.1118, and it contained a Lex de ejusmodi mendicis (sturdy vagrants) impune castrandis. Some writers suppose that the Icelandic Commonwealth had written laws but no code. After the union with Norway the island received its first written code, the Iron-side, Járn-Síða (A.D.1262-1272), and this was exchanged inA.D.1272 for the Jónsbók, so termed from John the Lawyer who brought it from Norway. Uno Von Troil (p. 73) removes the date of the latter toA.D.1272.

[164]Mr Dasent, Introduction to Diet, (xlviii.), remarks that the jury was never developed in Norway, and only struck faint root in the Danish and Swedish laws. When asserting the jury to be purely Scandinavian, the author speaks of Europe, neglecting the admirable Panchayat system which arose in the village republics of Hindostan, and a multitude of other similar institutions.

[165]Dillon notices forty-one women who had passed ninety: the number has now greatly fallen off. There is a further decline from the days of Olaus Magnus, who informs us that “the Icelanders, who, instead of bread, have fish bruised with a stone, live three hundred years.” The general longevity of Norway proves that the climates of the north, thevagina gentiumof Jornandes, have nothing adverse to human life. In Scotland the census of 1870 gave a total of twenty-six centagenarians—nine men and seventeen women.

[166]Innuit (Eskimo), like Illinois (from Illeni), means simply “a man”—a frequent tribal designation amongst savages. So Teuton and Deutsch, with the numberless derivations, are derived from Goth. Thiud, a people; Alemanni from “All-men,” and “German perhaps from Guerre-man” (Farrar, Families of Speech).

[167]The discovery of Uriconium and of Roman remains throughout England, and even in London, during the last few years, strongly suggests that the beauty of the English race is derived from a far greater intermixture of southern blood than was formerly suspected; and the racial baptism, repeated by the invasion of the Normans, must also have brought with it Gallo-Romans in considerable numbers. We can hardly doubt that the handsome peasantry of south-western Ireland is the produce of Spanish or Mediterranean innervation; and a comparison with the country people of Orotava in Tenerife, where the Irish have again mixed with the mingled Hispano-Guanche race, shows certain remarkable points of family likeness. On the other hand, except in certain parts of Great Britain, especially the Danelagh or Scandinavianised coasts and the counties occupied by the Angli and other Teutonic peoples, the English race remarkably differs from both its purer congeners, the homely Scandinavians and Germans. The general verdict of foreigners confirms its superior beauty, which, indeed, is evident to the most superficial observer.

[168]It appears probable that the reverence paid to women by the ancient Germans and Gauls arose from what Tacitus calls “some divine and prophetic quality resident in their women;” from the superstitious belief that the weaker sex was more subject to inspiration, divination, second sight, and other abnormal favours of the gods. TheFrauen-cultusof the present age, which in the United States has become an absurdity, would be the relic and survival of this pagan fancy.

[169]The author cannot say whether due care was taken when making these observations. Amongst Englishmen, when the thermometer held in the mouth exceeds 98°·5, there is suspicion of fever.

[170]Marquis Massimo d’Azeglio observed this fact among the paviours and the wine-carters, who form almost a separate caste of the Trans-Tiber population.

[171]Not always, as the common river-name Thvátt-á (wash or dip-water) proves.

[172]These satirical songs are known to the Greenlanders, who thus satisfy their malice, “preferring to revenge even than to prevent an injury.” Yet, the Icelanders have a proverb, “Let him beware, lest his tongue wind round his head.”

[173]Usually but erroneously translated “headlands,” instead of “head of men.”

[174]The popular assertion, “nothing can be more natural than that female chastity should be more prevalent in a northern than in a southern climate,” is simply a false deduction from insufficient facts. It is a subject far too extensive for a footnote; we may simply observe that the Scandinavians have never been distinguished for continence, nor are the northern more moral than the southern Slavs. In fact, the principal factor of feminine “virtue” seems to be race not climate.

[175]“To go by the way of the rock” was the old pagan euphuism for self-destruction; and the modern Hindú, as the Girnár Cliff shows, preserves the practice of “Altestupor” and “Odin’s Hall.” Suicide is now, like the duello, extinct, and the few cases recorded in late history are looked upon as phenomena. We remark the same rarity of self-destruction both in Scotland and Ireland, a wonderful contrast to England, which, again, despite its ill-fame, shows favourably in this matter by the side of France.

[176]The reader has only to remember how much of Britain was Danish to understand the Snorra-Edda’s express statement about Icelanders and Englishmen speaking the same tongue, “Vèr erum einnar tungu;” and Bartolin (Antiquitates Danicæ), “Eademque lingua (Norwegica seu Septentrionalis) usurpabatur per Saxonicum, Daniam, Sueciam, Norvegiam, et partem Angliæ aliquam.”

[177]Their extensive travels gave them peculiar names for peoples and places, which are often somewhat puzzling. “Thýskr,” a German, and Gerzkr, a Russian, are easy; but Samverskt (a Samaritan) is not so plain. Thus, also, we have “Enea” for Europe; “Hvítármannaland,” or white man’s land, and “Irland et mikla,” Ireland the Great (the Irlanda el Kabíreh of Edrisi in the twelfth century), for South America; “Suðurálfa” (i.e., southern half), for Africa; “Great Sweden” for Eastern Russia; “Svalbarði” (discovered 1194), for Scoresby’s Liverpool Coast (?); “Bjarmaland” for Permia, the land beyond the North Cape; “Sætt” for Sidon; “Njörfa-fjörð “for the Straits of “Gib;” Há-sterun for Hastings; and “Katanes” (boat naze), for Caithness. Some names are of ethnological value; for instance, “Bretland” for Wales; while Vendill or Vandill, the northern part of Jutland, preserves the name of the Vandals and the origin of Andalusia; and Garða-riki or Garða-veldi, the empire of the Garðar or Castella, tells us how the Russian empire was founded. So Suðr-menn (Germans) opposed to Northmen (Norðmenn), preserves the tradition of original consanguinity. Others are useless complications, as Engils-nes, the Morea, and Ægisif (Ἁγία Σοφία). The travestied names of persons are sometimes interesting,e.g., Elli-Sif (Scot. Elspeth) is Elizabeth, probably confounded like Ægisif, with Sif, the golden-haired wife of Thor, who lives in our gos-sip. Icelanders are not answerable for the mistake so general amongst foreigners which makes Níðar-óss (Oyce or ostium of the Nið River) analiasof Throndhjem, of old Thrándheimr, when it is the name of the ancient city occupying the position of the present town. The “Antiquités de l’Orient” (par C. C. Rafn, Copenhagen, 1856) well shows how Icelandic names were applied to the Byzantine empire,e.g., Ἐσσουπῆ (ei sofa, not to sleep), given to the first bar of the Dnieper; Οὐλξορσὶ (Hólm-fors or islet-force) to the second, and so forth.

[178]“This assertion of travellers never had any foundation in fact,” says Mr Jón A. Hjaltalín, yet it is quoted by Henderson, the least imaginative, and, in such matters, the most trustworthy of men; and the Icelandic proverb says, “One’s own home is the best home.”

[179]As every traveller, from Uno Von Troil downwards, has given a plan and sketch of the Bær, the reader need not be troubled with them. The group of buildings composing the actual homestead is invariably built in a row: the front (Hús-bust) faces south, towards the sea or the river, if in a valley, and the back is turned to the sheltering mountain. The strip of flagged pavement along the front is called “Stétt;” the open space before it, “Hlað;” the buildings are parted by a lane (Sund); the approach is termed “Geilar” or “Tröð,” and the whole is surrounded by the Húsa-garðr, a dry-stone dyke.The Norse Skáli, or Hall of classical days, whose rude and barbarous magnificence was the result of successful piracy tempered by traffic, has clean vanished—there is not a trace of one upon the island. A ground-plan, section, and elevation, are given in Mr Dasent’s “Burnt Njal,” but it is hard to say how much of it came from the fertile brain of the artist, Mr Sigurðr Guðmundsson. It was probably about as “desirable” a “residence” as the old Welsh manor-house, with its stagnant moat and its banks or walls of earth.

The Norse Skáli, or Hall of classical days, whose rude and barbarous magnificence was the result of successful piracy tempered by traffic, has clean vanished—there is not a trace of one upon the island. A ground-plan, section, and elevation, are given in Mr Dasent’s “Burnt Njal,” but it is hard to say how much of it came from the fertile brain of the artist, Mr Sigurðr Guðmundsson. It was probably about as “desirable” a “residence” as the old Welsh manor-house, with its stagnant moat and its banks or walls of earth.

[180]The author well remembers that at Hyderabad, in Sind, only one palace had the luxury of glass, when we first occupied the city.

[181]Sótt is applied to physical, Sút to mental, sickness.

[182]More will be said concerning the several varieties of oxalis, which the people now seem to despise. Both wood-sorrel and meadow-sweet (Spiræa) were used by the poor of Ireland to heal ulcers (Beddoes, p. 47, on the Medical Use and Production of Factitious Airs), Uno Von Troil (p. 108) gives a long list of the popular anti-scorbutics.

[183]Of course the first sibilant, the sign of possession, is not used when the noun is otherwise declined. For instance, Jón Arason, often written by foreigners Aræson, is the son of Are, whose oblique case is Ara; yet there are popular exceptions,e.g., Bjarnarson (pron. Bjatnarsonj, son of Björn, is vulgarly pronounced, and even written, Björnsson.

[184]Thus the islanders preserve the memory of a “beautiful fiend,” one amongst many, who, after a very human fashion, began life as a coquette, and ended it as adévote, being the first to learn psalm-singing, and to take the veil in the new convent. This hyperborean Ninon de L’Enclos deserves forgiveness for one of the cleverest sayings uttered by woman—a revelation of its kind. When asked which of her half-a-dozen lovers and husbands she preferred, her wise and witty answer was, “Theim var ek verst, er ek unnti mest”—“Whom I treated worst, him I loved most;” alluding to Kjartan Olafsson, murdered by her behest. In old days, Gudrún and John answered to the “M. or N.” of our Catechism, and to “those famous fictions of English law, John Doe and Richard Roe.”

[185]This is probably a relic of early ages, when “Maria” was a name too much revered for general use.

[186]Yet the Polygamia Triumphatrix (Liseri) of Lund,A.D.1682, was publicly burned at Stockholm.

[187]We may add, Paris, 23; Berlin, 25; Panama, 26; Bombay, 27; New York, 28; Glasgow, 34; Madras, 35; Vienna, 36; and Rome the same, if not more.

[188]Thus Skyr is a congener of the Persian “Shír” and of the Slav Sir (cheese). The first stage is the “run-milk,” the second is the “hung-milk” (because suspended in a bag) of the Shetland Islands. Everywhere it is differently turned; by sour whey in Iceland, by buttermilk in Scotland, and by rennet and various plants in Asia and Africa. No milk-drinking nation drinks, as a rule, fresh milk. The Icelanders want the manifold preparations known to the Scoto-Scandinavian islands.

[189]Dr (afterwards Sir Henry) Holland introduced, or rather first brought, the vaccine virus.

[190]From Lík, Germ. Leiche, Eng. Lych, as in lych-gate, and Thrá, a throe or pang. Hold is flesh.

[191]This, like other forms of gout, certainly depends much upon the popular beverage. In England we find it amongst the beer-drinking poorer classes: Padua, the author was informed by the celebrated Dr Pinalli, does not produce a single case even to lecture upon.

[192]Thýðverjaland, or Thjóðverjaland, is Teuton-land, Germany, the adjectival forms being Thýðverskr, Thýzkr, and Thýeskr. Icelandic here has evidently borrowed from the Gothic Thjuth, the German Diutisc (Diutisch or Tiusch), the low Latin Theotiscus, and the modern Teutsch or Deutsch, through traders in the eleventh or twelfth century (Cleasby). But Rafn (Antiquités de l’Orient, p. xlix.) quotes the Roman de Rou of Robert Wace:“Cosne sont en thioiz et en normant parler,”to show that the two terms were applied to a single tongue. From the old root come the Italian Tedesco and the English “Dutch,” which the vulgar in the United States still persistently apply to Germans. Schöning (p. 310, Copenhagen, 1777) and Laing (Heimskringla, iii. 349) confused Thýzkr with “Turkish!”

“Cosne sont en thioiz et en normant parler,”

to show that the two terms were applied to a single tongue. From the old root come the Italian Tedesco and the English “Dutch,” which the vulgar in the United States still persistently apply to Germans. Schöning (p. 310, Copenhagen, 1777) and Laing (Heimskringla, iii. 349) confused Thýzkr with “Turkish!”

[193]For a full account of the ancient dietary as prescribed by law in 1789, see Baring-Gould, p. 29. The items are meat and peas; sausages cold and warm; meat, broth, and soup; haddock and flounder; stock fish and butter (“the staff of life”); skyr (not curd) and cold milk; meal-grout, buckwheat-porridge, and barley-water grout with milk and butter.

[194]Ölmusa or Almusa is the Greek Ἐλεημοσύνη, the German Almosen, and the English Alms (Cleasby).

[195]He died November 2, 1872.

[196]The author is aware that a student who reads Greek and Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, French, German, and English, will find almost all the Talmud, certainly all the valuable parts, in translation at the library of the British Museum. But, unhappily, British Museums do not exist everywhere. Till the constitutional days of Italy the five Jewish Synagogues at Rome were not allowed to own copies of this vast repertory of Hebrew lore.

[197]If English, as appears likely, is to become the cosmopolitan language of commerce, it will have to borrow from Chinese as much monosyllable and as little inflection as possible. The Japanese have already commenced the systematic process of “pidgeoning,” which for centuries has been used on the West African Coast, in Jamaica, and, in fact, throughout tropical England, Hindostan alone excepted.

[198]The dialects vary so much that we can hardly speak of modern Greek. The only approach to it is the bastard, half-classical jargon, almost confined to the professors and the λογιώτατοι of the capital and chief towns. Worse still, all the Romaic grammars and dictionaries are devoted to teaching a tongue which no illiterate person speaks, ever spoke, or ever, it is to be hoped, will speak. Except by actual travel it is hardly possible to learn the charminglynaïvedialects of the peasantry.

[199]The two cathedrals of Catholic days were burnt: their successors were humble buildings; that of Skálholt was a wooden barn; the building at Hólar was, like the Viðey church, of stone, a rare thing outside Reykjavik.

[200]Bishop Pètursson (299-305) supplies a “Specification” of all the priesthoods and their revenues in the island.

[201]Gullbringu is the Sýsla which contains Reykjavik; but the cathedral town is, of course, under a separate jurisdiction.

[202]Bóndi (of old, Búandi and Bóandi),plur.Buéndr or Bóendr (Germ. Bauer, Eng. Hus-band) included all the owners of landed property and householders (Bú), from the petty freeholder to the franklin, especially the class represented by our yeomen and the “statesmen” of Cumberland and Westmoreland. It is still opposed in Iceland to the “klerkar” (clergy), to the knights, to the barons (Hersir-or Lendir-menn), and to the royal officers (hirð). In more despotic Norway and Denmark, “bóndi” became a word of contempt for the lower classes; and in modern Danish, Bönder means plebs, a boor. Bú, from að búa, to build, to inhabit, is the household and stores, opposed to Bær, the house (Cleasby).

[203]In 1873, no less than 4385 “livings” in the Church of England were under £200 per annum: of these, 1211 were under £100; 1596 ranged between £100 and £150; and 1578 from £150 to £200. Measures have lately been taken to abate this scandal, which pays less for the “cure of souls” than for the care of stables.

[204]The traveller cannot but think that our scientific political economists are apt, in outlying countries, to neglect the first rule of taxation, namely, to avoid imposing novelties, and to levy imposts with which the people are accustomed. Thus India willingly contributes salt and capitation taxes, and especially Nazaránah, or legacy duties, whilst she hates the name of income-tax. No one will deny that the two former are objectionable for a host of reasons, but the question is, whether they are less injurious than those which lead to the many evils engendered by chronic discontent.

[205]The system of hundreds will be discussed when treating of taxation. Suffice it here to say that in modern Iceland, as in England of former times, the value of land tenure was estimated not by extent, but by produce. Indeed, superficial land-measures, such as the “mark” of the Færoes (=32,500 square English feet), are unknown to the island.

[206]It should be remembered that “Heimili” (households, families) are quite different from “Jarðir” (farms); and the two must not be confounded. The number of the former is 9306, of the latter 4357.

[207]In 1872 contested elections were almost unknown; at least only one was quoted, and the candidate had learned the practice in England. The position of Al-thíngis-maðr was also an object of scanty ambition except to those who required the small salary, or who had a political theory to work out. The assertion in the text is denied by Icelanders; but the author repeatedly heard it made by Danes and other foreigners settled in the island—at any rate, we may expect to see it realised by the new constitution. Knowledge is power in Iceland as elsewhere, and the numbers of the priesthood secure their influence, whilst the physicians and lawyers are too few to be of much account.

[208]The English Midwife means “with-wife,” from the Icel. “Með,” the German Mit.

[209]So Styria and Istria boast of a “Kohl-fuchs,” so termed from his coal-black waistcoat.

[210]May not the idea have arisen from a confusion of “Tó,” a grass-tuft, with “Tóa,” or “Tófa,” a tod? The older name, Mel-rakki, is derived from burrowing in the sand.

[211]Uno Von Troil (p. 140) also mentions wild cats (Urðar-kettir, cats-o’-stone-heap) and rats.

[212]The Irish “town-land,”i.e., yard and meadow; Scotch “toun;” Cornish “town;” Dutch. “tuyn,” a garden; and Germ. “tzaun.”

[213]This bird (Charadrius pluvialis, Icel. Hey-ló and Hey-lóa, the fem. Hey-láa commonly used, the hay-sandpiper), “quite the commonest in Iceland” (Baring-Gould, p. 411)—the snow-bunting being perhaps the commonest of the small birds—is black breasted in the breeding season, and afterwards becomes “golden.”

[214]Gaukr (mod. gickr) is a congener of the A. Sax. Gaec; the Irish Cuach (hence Mo-chuachin, “my little cuckoo!”); the Scotch Gowk; the German Gauch; the Danish Gick, and the Slav. Keuk or Kukavitsa: the Serbian legend makes it a sister calling upon a lost brother. The Index Vocum, etc. (Landnámabók, p. 486), explains it Cuculus.

[215]This is a lineal descendant from the ancient and venerable root which named the Aryan race, Ἄριοι,i.e., ploughers not pastors, and which produced Ar-atron, Ar-atrum; Bohemian, Or-adlo; Lithuanian, Ar-klas; Cornish, Ar-adar, and Welsh, Ar-ad, and which survives in our word to “ear.” The Arðr of the Sagas was probably heavier and bulkier than the Plógr, a late word of foreign stamp, which “our American cousins” will degrade to “plow.”

[216]This word, Melr (plur.Melar), wild oats or bent, also Mel-gras (whence Mel-rakki, the fox), must be distinguished from what the Dictionary, erroneously I think, makes its secondary sense, a sand-hill, dune, dene or link, overgrown with such grass, and a sandbank generally, even when bare. The question is, was the oat called from its sand-bed orvice versâ? For a description of this feature, see Chapter IX.

[217]Etymologically, Reynir is applied to a cousin, the rowan tree, or mountain ash (Pyrus aucuparia), especially sacred to Thor. Hence the Vikings were called ash-men, because they sat under the sacred ash, which defended them from the evil eye.

[218]Hooker (ii. 325) found a true rose, theRosa hibernica, growing in the Seljaland, but only there. Thus it is not wholly wanting, as in the southern hemisphere.

[219]Further notices will occur in the Journal (Chap. V.) about this Surtar-brand (not “Surtur-brand”). Etymologically, it is from Surtr (a congener of “swarthy”) “the Black,” a fire-giant, who, coming from the south, will destroy the Odin-world, and Brandr, a firebrand. After the change of faith, this northern Ahriman or Set (Typhon) was ready to hand, and at once became the Semitico-Scandinavian “Devil.” Upon the same principle, the latter is known in Scotland as “Auld Sootie,” since the classical gamins gave horns and tail to Pluto, and the face of the great god Pan was blackened by the monks. The Surtshellir tunnel in western Iceland, famed for the atrocious “Cave-men” (outlaws), is also derived from the Surtr of Scandinavian mythology. The author did not visit it, but the descriptions and illustrations suggested the Umm Nírán in the lava formations of the Safá, near Damascus, noticed in “Unexplored Syria.”

[220]In Switzerland, also, the minimum of snow coincides with the last of July and early August.

[221]The indigenous Poas number twelve, and the Festucæ three

[222]Óðal is a congener of the German Edel and Adel, noble, as the “chiefs” of Scandinavian and Teutonic communities were the land-holders. Hence the mid. Lat. Allodium; and (Cleasby) “feudal” is fee-odal, odal held as a fee (Germ.vieh; Dutch,vee; pecunia, capitale) from the king: Dr Sullivan prefersFeodum, from Fuidhir, fugitives. Popularly, Udal, Allodium, prædium hereditarium, is opposed to feudal.

[223]The Icelandic Umboð are our Umboth-lands, formerly belonging to the bishop, and afterwards transferred to the Crown. Etymologically, the word means a charge or stewardship.

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