24 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [VI. 



call as the making a bow or shaking hands, and to refuse to 

 take off your glass would be as great an incivility as to de- 

 cline taking off your hat. From earliest times, as the 

 grand old ballad of the King of Thule tells us, a beaker was 

 considered the fittest token a lady could present to her true- 

 love — 



£>em ftevbenb feme SSuftfe 

 Grmen gcltnen 33ccf;er: gab. 



And in one of the most ancient Eddaic songs it is written, 

 " Drink, Runes, must thou know, if thou wilt maintain thy 

 power over the maiden thou lovest. Thou shalt score them 

 on the drinking-horn, on the back of thy hand, and the word 

 naud " (need — necessity) " on thy nail/' Moreover, when it 

 is remembered that the ladies of the house themselves 

 minister on these occasions, it will be easily understood that 

 all flinching is out of the question. What is a man to do, 

 when a wicked little golden-haired maiden insists on pouring 

 him out a bumper, and dumb show is his only means of 

 remonstrance ? Why, of course, if death were in the cup, he 

 must make her a leg, and drain it to the bottom, as I did. 

 In conclusion, I am bound to add that, notwithstanding the 

 bacchanalian character prevailing in these visits, I derived 

 from them much interesting and useful information ; and I 

 have invariably found the gentlemen to whom I have been 

 presented persons of education and refinement, combined 

 with a happy, healthy, jovial temperament, that invests their 

 conversation with a peculiar charm. 



At this moment people are in a great state of excitement 

 at the expected arrival of H.I.H. Prince Napoleon, and two 

 days ago a large full-rigged ship came in laden with coal for 

 his use. The day after we left Stornaway, we had seen her 

 scudding away before the gale on a due west course, and 

 guessed she was bound for Iceland, and running down the 

 longitude ; but as we arrived here four days before her, our 

 course seems to have been a better one. The only other 

 ship here is the French frigate " Artemise" Commodore 



