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of most disgusting objects; each endeavouring CHAP. to extort money, as in France and Italy, and as it used to be in Ireland, especially in the streets of Dublin, by exposing to view distorted limbs, and deformity, and open sores; thrusting these revolting sights in the very faces of every stranger they meet. We were glad to get away from them; and set out again for Christiania; returning by the same road that we came, and sleeping the first night at Drammen.

In the church-yard at Drammen we observed that almost every grave was covered with a bed of flowers. Dr. Müller told us, that, in the summer season, these flower-beds upon the tombs have a very pleasing appearance; and that it is also customary, during the summer months, to scatter flowers upon the tombs. There is every reason to believe that the same Customs, customs prevailed among all the antient families of the Goths and Gete, and their descendants; because they are so strictly Grecian. Offerings of flowers were among the honours paid to the dead in Greece; and we have before noticed a similarity of customs between the Antient Greeks and the present Norwegians, in describing the

shewing the comof the

mon origin

and Greeks.

Teutons

(2) This nuisance in Dublin has been lately put a stop to.

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CHAP. marriage-ceremonies of the latter'. So, with regard to this practice of strewing the places of sepulture, we find that it was customary to strew the Grecian tombs with herbs and flowers; with amaranths; with roses'; with myrtle'; and most profusely with parsley'. Future travellers, pursuing this subject of the common origin of the Teutons and Greeks, will, in all probability, have to notice other more remarkable points of coincidence.

of the

There are many good houses in Drammen. The whole valley from Hogsund to this place is beautiful, and the soil seems very good. The Superiority mountains are covered with firs. We met a Norwegian great number of fine-looking country-girls upon Women. the road; most of them above the ordinary stature, and very handsome. In Sweden, we had remarked that the men were much superior to the women; but here we should make the contrary observation, and particularly among the higher classes. At Christiania we had met with many elegant-looking women; but scarcely any among the men, excepting the Ankers, who,

(1) See p. 235 of this Volume.

(2) Philostrat. Heroïc. cap. 19. p. 741.

(3) Anacreon. Od. liii. 25. Aristænet. I. Ep. 36. p. 162.

(4) Euripides, Electr. v. 323.

(5) Polyan. Stratag. v. 12. sect. 1. Suidas, in voc. xivov oríqaves.

being natives, had the air of gentlemen. The custom of smoking, so universally prevalent, greatly contributes to their slovenly and dirty appearance. As we proceeded in our journey, we observed that most of the houses have little porches, which are generally ornamented with boughs of birch or of fir. The country-women, when engaged in their labours,--and they work harder than the generality of the men in our country,-wear nothing upwards but their shifts, which however are made higher than in England. Sometimes a coloured handkerchief is thrown loosely over their shoulders; but they have no stays, nor any other covering for the waist. The women, in many parts of Sweden, work in the same time attire, and look exactly like men toiling in their shirts.

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properties

Borealis

Near Drammen, that elegant plant, the Linnea Medical Borealis, may be found in great plenty at an of the earlier season of the year. Its flowers, at this Linnæa time, were all gone, but we found the remains of its seed-vessels in sufficient abundance to testify its situation here. It flowers in Norway in the months of June and July. Its medical properties are mentioned by Linnæus; but according to Gunner, whose Flora Norvegica was printed at Trönijem in 1766, the inhabitants of that city make use of an infusion of the Linnæa

CHAP.
VIII.

Condition of the Peasants.

Borealis as an antidote in fevers. The same author also speaks of it as affording a remedy in other disorders'. The Norwegians call it Norisle; Noretle; and Narisle-grass.

The food of the labourers who work for gentlemen, or large farmers, in this country, consists of black rye-bread and salted butter or cheese, for breakfast; and boiled barley and a herring, or some other fish, with beer, for dinner. Once in a week, and sometimes twice, they have fresh meat. The common people in general live nearly in the same way, only not quite so well. Instead of beer, they have sour milk. Some, who have large families, are often in great distress. The men who work for gentlemen, or farmers, have generally a house found for them, rent free; for which they are always obliged to work for the master from whom they receive it, in preference to any other. These receive tenpence a day in summer, and eight-pence in winter; and, in harvest, a shilling, or fourteen

(1) "Nidrosienses infuso contra febrem scarlatinara, vernacula Narisle (Norisle, Noretle, vel Narild) non sine salutari effectu utuntur. In Norvegia Australiori decoctum in usu est contra scabiem. Externe etiam vel fotu vel fumo febrem scarlatinam tollunt. Svecis foliorum infusum cum lacte specificum est in doloribus ischiadicis et rheumaticis, et fotu dolores pedum in ovibus tollunt." Flora Norvegica Gunneri, lxvii. p. 37. Nidrosiæ, 1766.

pence. Those who have no houses, are paid a shilling in summer, and ten-pence in winter. The state of the labouring poor is improving in Norway: they are not so dirty as they used to be; and, consequently, there are not so many children who die young.

There is not a pound of fresh butter to be bought in Christiania. All persons, use what they make themselves, or they salt it for keeping. The farmers who live higher up the country, go for two months, from June to August, up the mountains, to pasture their cattle. They then live in little temporary wooden sheds; and it is during these two months that they make the greatest part of their butter, which is salted, and brought to the fair at Christiania, in the winter, upon sledges. This butter is bought by the families in the neighbourhood, for the use of their servants; but the better sort of people eat the butter imported from Holstein. So little has the custom of selling fresh butter prevailed, that if a person wished to dispose of any, he would hardly find purchasers. The cattle, during winter, besides hay and straw, where these may be had, are chiefly foddered with the leaves and small branches of a species of poplar, gathered at the end of the summer, and stored for winter-provision. We were assured by

CHAP.

VIII.