8 NATURAL H I S T O RY of NORWAY. 



before they can get him down. After this, they don't find them- 

 felves well for feveral days ; but I don't hear they ever die. 



The peafants dry the goats blood, and diflfolve it by boiling it 

 in oil, which they hold to be a good remedy for the Lumbago. 



SECT. IV. 



There are hogs in Norway, both of the long and fhort-bodied 

 kind, but few, fince they cannot, like the reft of the peafant's 

 ftock, be drove to a diftance to fasters, but niuft be kept near the 

 houfe, where their food comes too dear * particularly in thofe 

 grounds where there are no oak or fir- woods for them to feed on 

 the fruits; for which reafon a great deal of bacon is brought 

 hither from Denmark. 



Leaves and boughs of elm-trees are ufed for winter food here 

 for many beafts, but the hogs thrive upon them better than any. 

 There are no wild hogs here. 



Of dogs we have here, as in other places, both large and ftnall, 

 brought up to be houfe-dogs, to watch and to drive the cattle, and 

 to protect them againft the wild beafts. Some are railed for the 

 chafe, and particularly for bear-hunting : for this purpofe they 

 ufe fmall dogs, for the creature can't fo eaflly lay hold on them \ 

 and they are alfo moft afraid of fuch, for reafons I fhall give when 

 I come to treat of the bear. 



In Nordland they chiefly train up their dogs to catch birds, and 

 to go where a man would not be able to follow them, on the fteep 

 Hopes on the fides of the fields *. They are like wife ufed to watch, 

 in the night, the Bergen merchants counting and warehoufes, as 

 they do in Dantzig and St. Malo's. The large and furly kind 

 are kept for this Purpofe ; in the day-time they are peaceable 

 enough, but when on the watch as furious as wolves. We have 

 cats both tame and wild ; the latter are very large, and their 

 flrins bear a good price; they live by catching birds upon the 

 trees ; they fteal upon them, and then feize them by a fudden 

 leap f . 



* At Roft Vserven, and other places in Nordland, where they have very advan- 

 tageous birding, each farmer keeps twelve, fourteen, or fixteen fuch bird-dogs •, they 

 are fmall, long and lank, with fhort legs. This kind of hunting is fometimes the bell 

 part of the maintenance of many of thefe farmers -, and they quarrel very often about 

 the number of their dogs. See farther relating here to cap. iv. §. 2. in the Defcription 

 of the Landfugle. . . 



t Lakatt fera maculofa folis Norvegis nota hoc nomine, tot enim Catti regionis Nor- 

 vegicas obfiderit tarn varii generis ut vix nominibus inveniendis fuflicere pofiimus. 

 O Sperling in Notis ad Teftament. Abfalonis, p. 147, 



SECT. 



