THE TRUE STATE OF ICELAND a.d. 



1592. 

 strained to use straw for the dressing of their meat. 

 But when the sharpe rigor of snowy Winter commeth 

 on, these poore people betake them to their oxe stalles, 

 & there setting up sheds, & doing their necessary busi- 

 nesse in the day time, when they are not able to make 

 fires, they borrow heat from their oxen, as it hath beene 

 reported to mee by others : And so they onely, being 

 verie fewe in number, doe not willingly enjoy e, but are 

 constrayned to use the same common house with their 

 oxen. But for their livelihoode and state it is farre 

 otherwise with them then with their oxen, of which thing 

 I have entreated before. This is the lot, & povertie 

 of certaine men in those pettie parishes, the condition [I. 580.] 

 whereof is therefore made a common by-worde of the 

 people amongst us, though somewhat injuriously. 

 Where I would willingly demaund with what honestie 

 men can impute that unto the whole nation, which is 

 hard and skantly true of these fewe poore men ? I am 

 wearie to stay any longer in this matter : onely, because I 

 have to doe with Divines, let that of Salomon suffice, 

 Proverbs 17. verse 5. Hee that mocketh the poore, 

 reprocheth him that made him. 



And in very deede, because this our nation is nowe, 

 and heretofore hath beene poore and needie, and as it 

 were a begger amongest many rich men, it hath susteined 

 so many taunts and scoffes of strangers. But let them 

 take heede whom they upbraide. Verely if there were 

 nothing else common unto us with them, yet we both 

 consist of the same elements, and have all one father 

 and God. 



[The fourth 

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