4 SWEDISH SUPERSTITIONS 



but baptized you must be ; there is no getting away from 

 that. At fifteen you must join the church and be con- 

 firmed, and at that age you have ceased to be rebellious 

 and fall in to the traces with proper grace. Then you ought 

 to go to the sacrament at least once a year, and you may 

 forfeit certain citizens' rights should you not have been to 

 such holy communion for a period of five successive years. 

 Thus you see that religion and business are, as it were, 

 closely linked together, and by degrees you begin to per- 

 form your religious duties in a sort of automatical manner, 

 very reposing both to body and mind. Any undue excite- 

 ment in religious matters, such as noisy revivals, etc., is 

 not enjoyed by the better classes of Swedes, although for- 

 eign missionaries, particularly Swedish-Americans, oc- 

 casionally do a little missionary work among the country 

 people in this line, and it would be a great deal better for 

 the peace of the country if they Avould confine their labors 

 to fields more ripe for the harvest. 



The Swedish barber is a man of no little importance, as 

 in addition to the usual duties of hairdresser, wig-maker, 

 and barber, he has to pull teeth, set leeches, attend to 

 bleecUng and cupping, and occasionally, practises a little 

 surgery if he has passed examination in that line. Never 

 shall I forget my first experience in having a tooth pulled 

 by a Swedish barber. I went up the stairs to his rooms, 

 but in taking hold of the door-knob, the tooth-ache disap- 

 peared, and I went down to the street again, when the ache 

 commenced worse than ever. I returned, although the 

 same miracle was repeated when I got to the door again. 

 I made bold to enter. He was alone, that man of torture, 

 and, after looking me over, he asked me to sit down on the 

 floor near the window, and took out from a drawer a myste- 

 rious tool, looking very much like a large corkscrew ; with 

 this he took hold of the tooth, standing over me with one 

 hand resting on the top of my head, and with the other 



