220 SPORT IN NORWAY. 



a few hours' ostentatious parading for the boundless 

 filth of the ensuing "week. 



But how can it be otherwise ? For where hard and 

 heavy labour bows down the delicate and effeminate, 

 these at least must give way. 



It will strike the traveller painfully, not only in 

 Saetersdal Proper, but in the more southern districts, 

 and the whole western coast, on seeing the hardest and 

 severest work imposed on the weaker sex. Whilst the 

 husband, with a clay pipe in the corner of his mouth, 

 is stretching himself at full length in true Oriental in- 

 dolence, you may see the former weighed down under 

 the roughest field work. 



The women hoe, thrash, plough, cut wood, and cany 

 water ; whilst the men, just for once in a way, drive a 

 load into the town. The laziness of the Saetersdal 

 peasant is so great, that he almost looks on it as some- 

 thing derogatory to put his hand to any farm work. 

 He often lets out his whole property on lease to one 

 less opulent, who farms it for him, assuring him a cer- 

 tain rent, on which he lives ; whilst he shamefully 

 wastes his time in slothful indolence. There are pea- 

 sants who, as far as regards the softness and fineness of 

 their hands, can compete with any " Forening "* 

 habitue, or lion of the metropolis. Ask such a Saeters- 

 dal gentleman why he does not manage his own farm 

 * Forening The Almack's of Christiania. 



