34 A RIVER OF NORWAY 



and sprigs of fir, was driven on one of the long 

 carts of the country, and the relations and 

 friends followed, some on foot, others in stol- 

 kjaere. I expected to find the priest waiting 

 at the church ; but it was not so. Lars died 

 without the assistance of a doctor, and was 

 buried without benefit of clergy. 1 At the head 

 of the procession drove two men, known to me 

 by sight as ordinary peasants, who at intervals 

 raised a lugubrious chant. Arrived at the 

 churchyard our horses were tied to the railings 

 and we followed the coffin, borne by our two 

 fishermen and two other neighbours, into the 

 church. This is a bare wooden shed, with no 

 decoration save a highly painted wooden altar, 

 on which were laid the priest's vestments. The 

 men sat on one side of the aisle, the women 

 on the other. The latter were all clad in dark 

 clothes, on their heads the decent shawl which 

 is so seemly, and is unhappily giving place to 

 a travesty of the fashionable hat; the men in 

 their dark blue homespun suits, which give 



1 I have since learnt that the priest on his next visit to the 

 church says prayers over the graves of those who have been in- 

 terred since he was last there. Considering the enormous extent 

 of his parish, which contains four churches, of which the furthest 

 is twenty-eight miles from this, it would be impossible for him to 

 attend all funerals. Service is held in each church once a month. 



