286 ICELAND: ITS HISTORY AND INHABITANTS. 



more has been expended on the ways and roads of the island since 

 1874 than in all the centuries down to that date. The Icelanders are 

 keen politicians. Women have been in possession of the municipal 

 vote earlier in Iceland than in an}' other country, and they do not 

 change their names Avhen they marr3\ The Parliament (Althing) is 

 composed of an upper house of 12 members and a lower house of 24. 

 A minister for Iceland is to reside at Rej'kjavik in place of the gov- 

 ernor, who at present is the highest official in the island and forms the 

 link between the Crown at Copenhagen and Parliament at Reykjavik. 

 The Icelanders are a religious and God-fearing people, but very 

 averse to parsons' rule. It is a habit to criticise the sermon when you 

 shake hands with the clergyman after the service. There is little 

 crime. It is lawful for a farmer to steal his neighbor's luiy when 

 his cattle refuse to eat his own hay, and for this stolen food the 

 cattle are said invariably to find an excellent appetite. 



11. 



The earliest inhabitants of Iceland in historical times were Celts, 

 who called the island Thule (Thyle, Thile). The Greek traveler, 

 Pytheas of Massilia, made voyages of discovery in the northwest 

 of Europe in 330-320 B. C. He relates that he had found the north- 

 most countr}' of the world, " Ultima Thule," of which he gave a 

 somewhat fantastic description. We only know of this discovery 

 of Pytheas through the quotations of the Greek geographer, Strabo, 

 and other ancient writers. Strabo himself seems to have got his 

 knowledge of it not from Pytheas, l)ut indirectly' through the his- 

 torian Polybius. Yet it is possible that Strabo may have seen 

 P3'theas's oAvn account, which, however, has been lost. All descrip- 

 tions and accounts of Ultima Thule found in writers before A. D. 

 825 are indirectly derived from Pytheas as a primary source. It is 

 true that Bede (died A. D. 735) mentions Thide three times in his 

 writings, and his description of its site is suitable to Iceland, but he 

 may have taken his accoimt from Plinius, who, again, derived his 

 from Pytheas. It is more probable that Bede heard of Iceland from 

 monks in the British Isles who had been there. 



The first undoubted account of the discovery of Iceland is found 

 in Chapter YII of De Mensura Orbis Terrae, by the Irish monk 

 Dicuil, written in A. D. 825. He stated that thirty years ago — i. e., 

 795 — some monks told him of their stay in Iceland. There is noth- 

 ing in the passage to show that the island had not been discovered 

 long before 795 or that it was only visited by monks; on the con- 

 trary, for Dicuil says it is untrue what others say that the sea 

 around Iceland is frozen, etc. 



