THE ICELANDERS. 



101 



his hard cash. The dollars thus acquired are either melted down, and worked 

 into silver massive girdles, which in point of execution as well as design are said, 

 on good authority,* to be equal to any thing of the kind fashioned by English 

 jewellers, or else deposited in a strong-box, as taxes and wages are all paid in 

 produce, and no Icelander ever thinks of investing his money in stocks, shares, 

 or debentures. 



He is, however, by no means so ignorant of mercantile affairs as to strike at 

 once a bargain with the Danish traders. Pitching his tent before the town, he 

 first pays a visit to all the merchants of the place. After carefully noting their 

 several offers (for as each of them invariably treats him to a dram', he with 

 some justice mistrusts his memory), he returns to his caravan and makes his 

 calculations as well as his somewhat confused brain allows him. If he is ac- 

 companied by his wife, her opinion of course is decisive, and the following 

 morning he repairs with all his goods to the merchant who has succeeded in 

 gaining his confidence. 



After the business has been concluded, the peasant empties one glass to the 

 merchant's health, another to a happy meeting next year, a third to the king, a 

 fourth because three have been drunk already. At length, after many embraces 

 and protestations of eternal friendship, he takes his leave of the merchant. For- 

 tunately there is no thief to be found in all Iceland ; but in consequence of these 

 repeated libations, one parcel has not been well packed, another negligently at- 

 tached to the horse, and thus it happens that the poor peasant's track is not un- 

 frequently marked with sugar, coffee-beans, salt, or flour, and that when he 

 reaches home, he finds some valuable article or other missing. 



It would, however, be doing the Icelanders an injustice to regard them as 

 generally intemperate ; for though within the last twelve years the population 

 has increased only ten per cent., and the importation of brandy thirty, yet the 

 whole quantity of spirits consumed in the island amounts to less than three bot- 

 tles per annum for each individual, and, of this allowance, the people of Reykja- 

 vik and of the other small sea-ports have more than their share, while many of 

 the clergy and peasantry in the remoter districts hardly ever taste spirituous 

 liquors. Dr. Hooker mentions the extraordinary effect which a small portion 

 of rum produced on the good old incumbent of Middalr, whose stomach had 

 been accustomed only to a milk-diet and a little coffee. " He begged me," 

 says the doctor,f " to give him some rum to bathe his wife's breast ; but hav- 

 ing applied a portion of it to that purpose, he drank the rest without being at 

 all aware of its strength, which, however, had no other effect than in causing 

 this clerical blacksmith,^ with his lame hip, to dance in the most ridiculous man- 

 ner in front of the house. The scene afforded a great source of merriment to 

 all his family except his old wife, who was very desirous of getting him to bed, 

 while he was no less anxious that she should join him in the dance." 



Dr. Hooker justly remarks that this very circumstance is a convincing proof 

 how unaccustomed this priest was to spirituous liquors, as the quantity taken 

 could not have exceeded a wine-fflass full. 



* Barrow, "Visit to Iceland," 1834. f " Journal of a Tour in Iceland," p. 110. 



f All the clergymen are blacksmiths, for a reason that will bs stated hereafter. 



