272 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



quantity to every common man.; and there is ftill feveral calks 

 of the muff that was left lying in the magazine at Aggerhuus. 



SECT. II. 



Th«r ancient The Norvegians who live in towns have nothing remarkable 

 or particular in their drefs; but the peafants differ pretty much 

 from thefe, as to the fafhion of their garments, and the manner 

 of wearing them. The ancient drefs ufed in Norway, w r as with- 

 out doubt, the fame as the Fin-laplanders ftill ufe, confifting of 

 ordinary furrs made of the rain-deer's fkin. The Afers, or the 

 followers of Othin, that poffeffed themfelves of the north, and 

 obliged the old Celto-Scythians either to retire to the mountains, 

 or to conform to their manner of living, introduced another fort 

 of drefs, which is defcribed in Otto Sperling's Commentat. de ve- 

 teri Danorum veftitu % I think their firft change did not make 

 fo great an alteration, nor was it fo fplendid or fuperfluous, as 

 that which was introduced in the middle of the eleventh century, 

 in the reign of king Oluf Haraldfen. That monarch founded the 

 city of Bergen, and drew a great concourfe of merchants thither 

 from foreign parts, who brought new famions with them; of 

 which, Snoro Sturlefen writes thus in his Norvegian Chronicles, 

 P a g- 3^3' " Then the Norvegians took up many foreign cuftoms 

 and drefies, fuch as fine laced hofe, golden plates buckled round 

 their leggs, high-heeled fhoes flitched with filk, and covered with 

 tiffue of gold, jackets that buttoned on the fide, with ileeves ten 



* Concerning the Norvegians ancient mantle, called joop, Otto Sperling treats at 

 large, in his learned obfervations on archbifllop Abfolon's teftament, p. 119, 123. 

 from which I will quote a paffage, to ihew, that formerly others took their fafhions 

 from us, as we have fmce done from them. " Quis vero crederet, Danicam vocem 

 joop tot terras peragraffe, et tantam gloriam fui excitare potuhTe. Bene concludit 

 Menagius, poftquam in lexico fuo omnia recenfuit: les Allemans difent Giupp, pour 

 dire tin Juppon, et je crois que c'eft de ce mot Allemand que 1' Italien Giubba a ete 

 forme. Unde Germani traxerint ac habuerint hoc nomen et alia plura, nemo haftenus 

 folicitus fuit. Ex Dania enim, Norvegia et Suecia nemo credit quicquam profkifci 

 pofTe quod juvet, cum tamen ad antiquitatem omnem illuftrandam, hinc fere petenda 

 fmt omnia, fi quis recle fapere vult. Ufus eft ilia voce chronici Norvegici fcriptor in 

 manufcr. de magno Barfod, rege Norveg. dum ejus armaturam et veftitum defcribit, 

 p. 299- (Hann hafdi oc filki Hiup rautan y firfkyrto, oc fkorit fyrer oc a bak 

 med guli filki leo. h. e.) Tunicam rubram fericeam anterius et pofterius leone flavi 

 fefici fignatam, iiiper indufio geftavit. Quod fatis docet, vocem Joob et Hiup an- 

 tiquam Danicam et Iflandicam efTe. Ita quoque pau'16 poft eadem hiiloria memorat: 

 (Eivindr. hafdi oc filki Hiup, med fama hoetti fern Konnungr. h. e.) Evindus etiam 

 tunica ferica, eodem modo quo rex indutus erat." In the tranflation of the laft words, 

 I think it is likely, that the good O. Sperling has been miftaken, da med fama hsetti, 

 may probably be rendered with the fame hat, eodem pileo, non eodem modo. 



1 - feet 



