SKETCHES FROM S^TERSDAL. 215 



owing to his national peculiarities and independence of 

 bearing. 



He wears his hair cropped close, stiff, like the bristles 

 of a pig ;' but in front, bordering on the forehead, he 

 allows it to grow into a pigtail (or spor), which he 

 takes a pride in plaiting and twisting behind the ear. 

 He is as proud of his pigtail as the Oriental of his 

 beard, and would not part with this ornament at any 

 price ; and the principal cause of his dislike to soldier- 

 ing is a fear of the brutal military scissors, which would 

 clip off his pride, his joy, his darling pigtail, the moment 

 he is enrolled. He differs from the Indian only in this, 

 that the one wears his pigtail in front the other farther 

 back. With both people it has a sort of challenging 

 air about it ; but in the one case it refers to a scalp, in 

 the other to an eye. In a fight, for instance, the 

 Saetersdal peasant, with that precision and certainty 

 winch only long habit can give, seizes with his fore- 

 finger the pigtail of his enemy, and with his thumb 

 endeavours, and often succeeds, in gouging out his eye. 

 Many a living testimony now wanders about with one 

 eye, as Odin, a victim to the conservative predilections 

 of his opponent for eye-squeezing. Not unfrequently, 

 too, the nose and ear bear marks of the contest. To 

 bite off and swallow his opponent's nose or ear is 

 thought just as little of as squeezing out his eye, and is 

 not considered as any disgrace in a Saetersdal fight. 



