NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 2 4 J 



who daily go in the woods, have their beards often full of 

 ificles, and their bofom filled with fnow : and when their naked 

 breafts are occaftonally expofed, they feem to be as hairy as their 

 chins. On my travels over the higheft mountains of Norway, 

 which are covered with fnow, where horfes are of no fervice, I 

 have {cqii the peafants, in great numbers, do the work of horfes, 

 and indeed they feem almoft to equal thofe animals in frrength. 

 I have obferved, that when they have been in a profufe fweat, 

 they have thrown themfelves every half hour upon the fnow, to 

 cool and refrefn themfelves, and have even fucked it to quench 

 their thirft. All this they undergo without the leaft apprehen- 

 sions of a cold or fever, and without murmuring, or betraying 

 any difcontent. On the contrary, they go on ringing merrily all 

 the while, and hold out for nine hours together at the hardeft 

 labour imaginable, with incredible cheerfulnefs and alacrity. What 

 ftrong conftitutions are the fifhermen and fea-faring people in this 

 country endowed with, by that wife and gracious being who giveth 

 to every one what their refpe&ive wants require ! A remarkable 

 inftance of this may be feen on the iilands near our coaft, and 

 thofe we call the out-iflands ; where the peafants of both fexes 

 aflemble together by hundreds, I may fay thoufands, about the 

 middle of January, to make their winter-harveft of the rich pro- 

 duce of the ocean. At thefe times every family takes with them 

 five or fix weeks provision, chiefly dried fifh, and keep out at fea 

 all day, and a great part of the night by moonfliine, in open 

 boats i and after that crowd together by fcores into little huts, 

 where they can hardly have room to lay themfelves down in their 

 wet-cloaths. Here they repofe themfelves the remainder of the 

 night, and the next morning they return to the fame laborious em- 

 ployment, with as much pleafure and cheerfulnefs as if they were 

 going to a merry-making. Even the weaker fex is not exempt 

 from thefe hardmips any more than the men ; but the women 

 have not beards in common with them, as Adam Bremen pre- 

 tends to fay, in his book de fitu Dani?e & reliquarum, &c. page 

 29. This feems of a piece with what he fays of the Norwegian 

 men in the fame page, namely, that they live in woods, and are 

 hardly ever ken. His words are, " Audivi mulieres effe barba- 

 tas, viros autem filvicolas, raro fe pnebere videndos." The hair 

 and eyes of the Norwegians are lighter than that of moft other 



nations ; 



