TRAVELS IN ICELAND. 



93 



lying down in winter; as well as their feeding on scarcely any 

 thing but fresh fish in summer, and dried fish in the winter sea- 

 son: all of which circumstances injure their health. It will 

 therefore be readily supposed, that these people cannot arrive at 

 a great age : the fishermen never attain more than from fifty to 

 sixty years. It is however remarkable, that the women live much 

 longer, particularly those who have had many children; which 

 probably arises from their never going out to sea, and their tak- 

 ing more exercise in the country. 



The houses of these people are much better than those in the 

 southern fisheries and near the Westerjoekkel. In this part long 

 fragments of whalebone are much employed in building not only 

 houses but boats, though these bones are much dearer than tim- 

 ber ; but, on the other hand, they will last a century without 

 decaying. 



The cabins and drying-houses of these fishermen are much 

 cleaner than in other parts; and they do not exhale so bad a 

 smell, because the entrails and waste parts of the fish are thrown 

 into ditches aud covered with sand. 



One kind of fuel employed here is, marine w r eeds mixed with 

 turf and the remains of fish : it however produces but little 

 heat, and is too expensive for general use ; their common sub- 

 stitute is therefore the dried dung of cattle. 



OF WITCHCRAFT AND OTHER SUPERSTITIONS IN ANCIENT 

 AND MODERN TIMES. 



Every person who has read and studied history, is aware 

 of the influence of superstition on the manner of thinking, in the 

 different people who inhabit our globe. The reader, however ? 

 w ill doubtless be amused with some details on the spirit of su- 

 perstition which still exists among the Icelanders. — These insular 

 people have, from the earliest times, entertained the most ridi- 

 culous ideas relative to sorcerers and ghosts; but even more 

 enlightened persons in every part of the world have been sub- 

 ject to this charge. There are two sorts of magic in Iceland, 

 w hich are denominated the black and the white. Under the latter 

 name is in general comprised natural magic, which does not de- 

 pend upon witchcraft, and w 7 hich the Icelanders rarely adopt ; 

 but they understand by white magic, an operation which 

 partly consists of natural means, and in which they seek to dis- 

 cover wonderful and supernatural events by acts of devotion and 

 superstition, accompanied with exorcisms and invocations. This 

 kind of magic may therefore, when not applied for evil pur- 

 poses, simply excite the weak and credulous man to the fear of 

 God, and to consequent acts of piety. This was indeed a sort 

 of religious magic used in pagan times, as well as since the esta- 



