44 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
been murdered), turned liis back to the congregation, 
and chanted some Latin sentences, in good round 
Roman style. Though still retaining in their cere¬ 
monies a few vestiges of the old religion, though 
altars, candles, pictures, and crucifixes yet remain 
in many of their churches, the Icelanders are staunch 
Protestants, and, by all accounts, the most devout, 
innocent, pure-hearted people in the world. Crime, 
theft, debauchery, cruelty, are unknown amongst them; 
they have neither prison, gallows, soldiers, nor police ; 
and in the manner of the lives they lead among 
their secluded valleys, there is something of a patri¬ 
archal simplicity, that reminds one of the Old World 
princes, of whom it has been said, that they were 
“ upright and perfect, eschewing evil, and in their 
hearts no guile.” 
The law with regard to marriage, however, is suffi¬ 
ciently peculiar. When, from some unhappy incompa¬ 
tibility of temper, a married couple live so miserably 
together as to render life insupportable, it is competent 
for them to apply to the Danish Governor of the island 
for a divorce. If, after the lapse of three years from 
the date of the application, both are still of the same 
