292 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
between thew children, but between their farms ; in- 
deed, it prevails to a great extent amongst all the 
peasantry of Norway. In some of the valleys, the in- 
habitants would on no account marry out of their dis- 
trict. Hence, as may be supposed, in a thinly-inhabited 
neighbourhood, where the choice is not great, frequent 
intermarriages occur; and the effects resulting there- 
from are extremely injurious. This, combined with 
other causes, such as the solitary and sedentary life 
they lead, the poor and insufficient food they have to 
put up with, is in all probability the reason why there 
are, Im proportion to its population, more lunatics, 
idiots, deaf and dumb, &c., to be found in Norway 
than in any other Huropean country, Switzerland, I 
believe, alone excepted. It is a constant occurrence 
for uncles to marry their nieces—a practice not con- 
fined to the uneducated and ‘‘ quasi-barbarous ” peasant, 
but adopted also by the higher and educated classes 
of towns, the metropolis not excepted. 
As regards family connections, a stiff-necked, aristo- 
cratic tendency prevails among them, not surpassed by 
any nobility; and the peasant in .Setersdal, as else- 
where, is in this point decidedly an aristocrat; and one 
often, therefore, hears speak of unhappy alliances, but 
still oftener that the will of the parents has been set at 
nought, and that the affair has been decided by the 
heart, and not by the understanding. There is fre- 
