248 NATURAL HISTORY of N RTVAT. 



in foleis ligneis currere novi, jaculor et remigo, convenienter utrunr 

 que teneo fidibus canere et carmen componere. Vide Ol. Wormii 

 Litterat. Rimicaj Cap. xxm. p. 129. 



There were other exercifes formerly pra&ifed in Norway, which 

 are thus defcribed in Snorro Sturlefen's Norvegian Chronicles 

 pag. 166, et feq. « King Olaf Tryggefen, was ftronger, more 

 alert, and nimbler than any man of his time. He could climb 

 the rock Smalferhorn, and fix his fhield on the top of it, &c. H^ 

 would walk without the boat on the oars while the men were 

 rowing. He would play with three darts at once, toiling them 

 up in the air, and would always keep two up, and one down in 

 his hand. He was ambi-dexter, and could ufe his weapon with 

 both hands, and throw two darts at once; he excelled all his 

 men in mooting with the bow, and in fwimming he had no 

 equal. In a word, he was cheerful, jocofe, and affable; he was 

 humble, obliging and good-natured, and was expeditious in all 

 his undertakings, &c. Sigmund Breftefen, ufed to pradife thefe 

 exercifes with the king, namely, fwimming, mooting, climbino- 

 the rocks, and all other manly exercifes which heroes and warri- 

 ors praclifed in thofe times; and none coujd come fo near the 

 king in all thefe, as Sigmund." 



SECT. VI. 



The capacity of the Norwegians for literature, is not inferior 

 to their Ikill in mechanics and bodily exercifes. Had they had 

 the fame opportunities for improvement as their neighbours have 

 in Denmark, they would make an amazing progreii. We may 

 judge of this by the children in Norway, who take their learning 

 extremely faft, and are capable in a very fhort time to get a book 

 by heart, and to comprehend the meaning of it ; efpeciallv fince 

 fchools are upon fuch a good footing, God be praifed, as I have 

 every where found them on my annual vifitations, with equal joy 

 and furprife. This advantage the peafants here enjoy preferable to 

 their equals in moft other countries, namely, a lively and pene- 

 trating genius, fit for great and noble enterprizes. This I afcribe, 

 next to the fine clear air they breathe, to the agreeable relifh and 

 pleafing fenfation the mind feels in a flate of liberty; which they 

 enjoy without interruption, free from flavery, vaffalage, and all 

 obligations to foreign fervices. Every Norvegian peafant, efpecially 

 3 the 



