303 
a Scene in Bergen Stiff , in Norway . 
down by the motion of the bridge, is all the way putting you in 
mind. You are now in the Giel. Traveller, God be with you ! 
The path here is not broadei than that a person can just stand 
on it with both feet beside each other. Sometimes you have 
only room for one foot ; nay, at times, from the quantity of loose 
earth and small stones which you may well suppose are frequent- 
ly tumbling down here, and covering the whole path, you find 
no place at all to stand on, but must, with your foot, in a 
manner scrape out such a place in these loose materials, which 
here lie over the surface of the whole precipice, the upper part 
of which forms a very sharp angle with your body, while the 
part below approaches frightfully near to a perpendicular line. 
About half a quarter of a mile on in the Giel, on the north 
side of the river, high up towards the summit of the mountain, 
there opens on you, a cross valley, the remarkable Afdal. The 
houses on a farm which is here, stand on so steep a slope, that, 
while the under-beams rest with one end on the ground, to have 
a horizontal position, they must be supported on the opposite 
side, by a wall of 4 ells in height (8 feet English.) The fields, 
too, lie so steep, and so near the fearful precipice, that no per- 
son unaccustomed to it, would venture to set a foot on them. 
And when, from the Giel, you see their grass fields, which hang 
rather than lie over the deep below, and which are every year 
mowed with a kind of scythe, wrought by one hand, you can 
scarcely conceive the desperate courage which coolly plies its task 
where an abyss seems open to swallow the fool-hardy man. 
A little above the dwelling-house, is a piece of ground, tolera- 
bly flat ; and, when you inquire why they did not rather build 
there, you are told that it is impossible to build there, from the 
quantity of snow that tumbles down on it. Through this dale, 
runs the river Afdal, which rises from the summits of the moun- 
tains called the Young Harlots*. It runs past the house, at a 
distance of about 30 ells ; and, at about 150 ells from it, with a 
• These are reckoned among the highest mountains in Bergen Stift, higher than 
Galetind, the height of which is given at 5514 feet above the sea. They take their 
name from a singular tradition in the country. A marriage party, who were all 
very wicked persons, on their way to church, tvere changed, by the wrath of Hea- 
ven, into these rocky summits. There are seven of them, of which the bride and 
bridegroom are the highest. 
