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CHAPTER VI. 
SKETCHES FROM SA TERSDAL.* 
SCENERY.—TIHE MANNERS AND COSTUMES OF THE IN- 
HABITANTS.—TRAITS OF CHARACTER.—ABDUCTIONS.— 
ANECDOTES ABOUT BEARS. 
STERSDAL is certainly one of the most sequestered of 
the retired mountain valleys of Norway. Of all the 
crowd of tourists from Christiania who stream out over 
fjeld and valley, and traverse the far-famed Thele- 
marken, there is scarce one who ventures over the 
mountains into Setersdal. To the English traveller it 
is a terra incognita, and indeed is but little known to 
Norwegians themselves ; for the attractions it offers are 
few, unless the love of exploring unknown tracts makes 
up for other deficiencies. Moreover, it lies very much 
out of the way of our regular tourists. Still it is easy 
of access, for already, on coming from Thelemarken 
* By the permission of the Editor of Cassell’s ‘ Illustrated Family 
Paper’ I am enabled to lay before my readers an account of these 
strange people. My information is principally gathered from a 
series of letters which appeared in a periodical published in 
Christiania. 
