52 Norzvay and the Noi'wegians 



derived from the locality, as with families ' of that ilk ' 

 in Scotland or England. 



Thus, in Scandinavia, we may still find specimens, 

 both of which appear to be as primitive as any we are 

 likely to meet with in any country, of the village whose 

 history dates back to the days of the village community, 

 and of settlements, farms, or gaards, which belong to a 

 system of landholding in which the village community 

 has scarcely played any part The former belong to 

 Sweden and to some parts of the interior of Norway. 

 It is not a little interesting to see these Swedish 

 villages with their red houses (for in Sweden the 

 majority of the wooden houses are painted red) scattered 

 wide apart over a considerable plain. It is a village 

 very different from our English idea of one, where the 

 houses stand for the most part close together or touch- 

 ing each other, and ' dressed ' like two lines of soldiers, 

 facing inwards on either side the long village street. 

 We may see much more irregular villages than this 

 English type in Germany ; but none where the houses 

 stand so scattered as they do in most of the Swedish, 

 and in a certain number of Norwegian villages. In 

 looking at these we are at once brought back to the 

 words of Tacitus in describing the way the Germans 

 lived in his day : ' It is well known,' says the author (in 

 a passage with which the reader no doubt is familiar 

 enough), ' that the Germans do not dwell in towns. 

 They do not even suffer their habitations to stand close 

 together ; but live apart and scattered, each one choosing 

 his own home by stream, or grove, or plot of open ground.' 



In large districts of Norway (I have already said) no 



