104 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



The farm-houses are frequently isolated, and, on account of their grass-cover- 

 ed roofs and their low construction, are not easily distinguished from the neigh- 

 boring pasture-grounds ; where four or five of them are congregated in a grassy 

 plain, they are dignified with the name of a village, and become the residence 

 of a Hrepstior, or parish constable. 



Then also a church is seldom wanting, which however is distinguished from 

 the low huts around merely by the cross planted on its roof. An Icelandic 

 house of prayer is generally from eight to ten feet wide, and from eighteen to 

 twenty-four long ; but of this about eight feet are devoted to the altar, which is 

 divided off by a partition stretching across the church, and against which stands 

 the pulpit. A small wooden chest or cupboard, placed at the end of the build- 

 ing, between two very small square windows not larger than a common-sized 

 pane of glass, constitutes the communion-table, over which is generally a miser- 

 able representation of the Lord's Supper painted on wood. The height of the 

 walls, which are wainscoted, is about six feet, and from them large wooden 

 beams stretch across from side to side. On these beams are placed in great 

 disorder a quantity of old Bibles, psalters, and fragments of dirty manuscripts. 

 The interior of the roof, the rafters of which rest on the walls, is also Hned with 

 wood. On the right of the door, under which one is obliged to stoop consider- 

 ably on entering, is suspended a bell, large enough to make an intolerable noise 

 in so small a space. A few benches on each side the aisle, so crowded together 

 as almost to touch one another, and affording accommodation to thirty or forty 

 persons when squeezed very tight, leave room for a narrow passage. 



These churches, besides their proper use, are also made to answer the pur- 

 pose of the caravanseras of the East, by affording a night's lodging to foreign 

 tourists. They are indeed neither free from dirt, nor from bad smells ; but 

 the stranger is still far better off than in the intolerable atmosphere of a peas- 

 ant's hut. 



Mr. Ross Browne thus describes the church and parsonage at Thingvalla ; 

 " The church is of modern construction, and, like all I saw in the interior, is 

 made of wood, painted a dark color, and roofed with boards covered with sheets 

 of tarred canvas. It is a very primitive little affair, only one story high, and 

 not more than fifteen by twenty feet in dimensions. From the date on the 

 weather-cock it appears to have been built in 1858. The congregation is sup- 

 plied by the tew sheep-ranches in the neighborhood, consisting at most of half 

 a dozen families. These unpretending little churches are to be seen in the 

 vicinity of every settlement throughout the whole island. Simple and homely 

 as they are, they speak well, for the pious character of the people. 



" The pastor of Thingvalla and his family reside in a group of sod-covered 

 huts close by the church. These cheerless little hovels are really a curiosity, 

 none of them being over ten or fifteen feet high, and all huddled together with- 

 out the slightest regard to latitude or longitude, like a parcel of sheep in a 

 storm. Some have windows in the roof, and some have chimneys ; grass and 

 weeds grow all over them, and crooked by-ways and dark alleys run among 

 them and through them. At the base they are walled up with big lumps of 

 lava, and two of them have board fronts, painted black, while the remainder are 



