36 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [VI. 



recur to me in as great disarray as reappear the vestiges of 

 a country that has been disfigured by some deluge. If I 

 give you anything like a connected account of what passed, 

 you must thank Sigurdr's more solid temperament ; for the 

 Doctor looked quite foolish when I asked him — tried to feel 

 my pulse — could not find it — and then wrote the following 

 prescription, which I believe to be nothing more than an 

 invoice of the number of bottles he himself disposed of. 1 



I gather, then, from evidence — internal and otherwise — 

 that the dinner was excellent, and that we were helped in Ben- 

 jamite proportions ; but as before the soup was finished I was 

 already hard at work hob-nobbing with my two neighbours, 

 it is not to be expected I should remember the bill of fare. 



With the peculiar manners used in Scandinavian skoal- 

 drinking I was already well acquainted. In the nice con- 

 duct of a wine-glass I knew that I excelled, and having an 

 hereditary horror of heel-taps, I prepared with a firm heart 

 to respond to the friendly provocations of my host. I only 

 wash you could have seen how his kind face beamed with 

 approval when I chinked my first bumper against his, and 

 having emptied it at a draught, turned it towards him bottom 

 upwards, with the orthodox twist. Soon, however, things 

 began to look more serious even than I had expected. I 

 knew well that to refuse a toast, or to half empty your glass, 

 was considered churlish. I had come determined to accept 

 my host's hospitality as cordially as it was offered. I was 

 willing, at a pinch, to payer de ma personne; should he not 

 be content with seeing me at his table, I was ready, if need 

 were, to remain wider it ! but at the rate we were then going 



1 Copy of Dr. F.'s prescription : — 



C. E. F. 



Reik : die Martis, Junii 27. 



