42 ISLANDS OF THE NOETH ATLANTIC. 



fourteenth century Englisli rovers had settled in the Vestmann Isles, thence 

 making sudden plundering excursions along the seaboard, sacking churches, 

 capturing and ransoming the peasantry, or selling them into bondage. Earbary 

 corsairs appeared in 1627, carrying off many, and slaughtering those who resisted. 

 A rio-id commercial monoply also cut Iceland off from the rest of the world, 

 reducing it to the last extremity towards the close of the eighteenth century, 

 the population numbering no more than 38,142 in the year 1786. In 1808 

 local independence was proclaimed at Reykjavik, but the Danish authority was 

 soon restored ; nor did the island receive a constitution till 1874, the millennium 

 of the first Norwegian settlement. Free trade had, however, been proclaimed 

 in 1854. 



The natives are generally of tall stature, with round features, liigh forehead, 

 thick hair, grey or blue eyes, coarse-set limbs, and heavy gait. The women, if 

 not handsome, have at least a pleasant expression, with their light and soft hair 

 falling in long tresses over their shoulders, and their heads covered with pretty 

 little black caps decked with grey silken ribbons. The bodice, open above, but 

 fastened with ornamental clasps below, is adorned with velvet and silver galloons, 

 often of considerable value. 



Although marriages amono^st kindred are the rule, natural infirmities are rare. 

 But the mortality is very high, owing to the practice of weaning the children on 

 the third day after birth, and henceforth bringing them up exclusively on cow's 

 milk, fish, and coarse meats. In Heimaey ( " Home Isle " ), one of the Vestmann 

 group, most of the newly born die of convulsions, as in St. Kilda, though the 

 frightful mortality has diminished since the erection of a lying-in hospital, where 

 mother and child can enjoy a few weeks of pure air, denied them in their own 

 wretched hovels. 



Strange to say, consumption is almost unknown — an immunity attributed to 

 the diet, consisting of dairy produce, rye bread, and dried fish, with occasionally 

 a little mutton. On the other hand, influenza, or epidemic bronchitis, is common, 

 and the most fatal of all local disorders, though it never attacks strangers. Its 

 ravages are greatest in svimmer, which is otherwise also the most unhealthy 

 season of the year. Scorbutic aifections, leprosy, and elephantiasis have not yet 

 disappeared from the island. 



The people are in general characterized by a certain dignity, reserve, and 

 personal courage ; but they are accused of being very suspicious, and, like their 

 kindred in Norwciy and Normandy, much addicted to litigation. Happily the 

 former sanguinary quarrels, duels, and ordeals are now replaced by actions at 

 law. In natural capacity, depth of thought, and love of letters they yield the 

 palm to none. The custom formerly prevailed of meeting together to listen to 

 the reading of their Gamha Sa gar, or national chronicles, and in many houses 

 artless paintings and sculptures recalled the leading events of their history. 

 Heading and the game of chess occupied the long winter nights, and the art of 

 printing had already been introduced in 1531, before the conversion of the 

 natives to Lutheranism. Even now scientific work finds encouragement in the 



