TRAVELS IN ICELAND. 



13 



mit that the houses of these people do not appear to strangers 

 so singular as they have been described : they are built upon a line 

 of ground covered with verdure, which every where gives them 

 the appearance of their being situated in the country ; their 

 fronts are whitened, or sometimes painted red. The part 

 of the street that runs in front of the houses is paved with 

 flags or flat stones, on which you can w 7 alk with dry feet, how- 

 ever dirty may be the road beyond them. The Icelanders have 

 adopted a manner of building very suitable to their country ; 

 they are more secure from cold than in apartments surrounded 

 by brick-walls. The houses, at the same time that they better 

 resist the intemperance of the seasons, are more secure than 

 other kinds against earthquakes ; for there have been numerous 

 instances, in which very violent shocks have not damaged any one 

 of them, while every person walking in the open country has 

 been thrown down. The present manner of building, however, 

 in Iceland, is not so solid as that which prevailed about two cen- 

 turies ago ; the ancient art of building is forgotten, while the 

 timber of the present day is too bad and scarce. It would 

 be an improvement to their houses if they were not to ap- 

 ply their covering of turf in a moist state immediately upon the 

 wood-work, but to place between them a thick layer of dry 

 moss or hay ; besides this, their present wails are too thin, 

 though there are some houses that have existed upwards of a cen- 

 tury, as may be ascertained by the difference in their structure, 

 and it would be well, if the art of building adopted by their 

 ancestors were restored. 



MANNER OF LIVING AMONG THE ICELANDERS. 



It is remarkable, that even the people of Iceland are emulous 

 to imitate strangers in the luxuries of life, and splendour of the 

 table ; but it must not be supposed, that the peasant of the pre- 

 sent day follows, in every respect, the same kind of life as his 

 ancestors. He has adopted many foreign articles ; but the ma- 

 jority have retained the custom of eating liquid food at the end 

 of their meals. 



The Iceland peasant takes three meals a day ; he breakfasts 

 at seven in the morning, dmes at two in the afternoon, and sups 

 at nine in the evening. His breakfast consists in summer of 

 coagulated milk, the whey of which is expressed, and the curd 

 diluted with skim or fresh milk. In winter the common dinner 

 is dry fish, and afterwards the same kind of milk-soup as has 

 been just described, with the addition of cheese and bread, or 

 cake. They give the name of cake to a kind of biscuits, 

 ^nade of flour, about three lines in thickness^ and a foot hi 



