INTRODUCTION. 
xli 
The employments of each individual Icelander 
are necessarily various, since artists, mechanics, and 
people of different professions are almost unknown 
among them. # In the winter the care of the cattle 
is of the highest importance : the stoutest and 
most healthy of the men are then occupied in the 
preservation of those to which shelter and dry 
food cannot be afforded at this inclement season, 
and it is necessary to remove the snow as much 
as possible from the grass, that the beasts may 
be able to procure a subsistence, however scanty. 
Other men are employed in picking the coarse 
wool from the fine, and manufacturing it into 
ropes, bridles, stirrup-straps, and cushions, which 
are often used instead of saddles. They also 
prepare skins for their fishing-dresses, and tan 
others to make into saddles, as well as thongs to 
foundland j this was again visited by some of the inhabitants 
of Greenland, who gave it the name of Vinland, and esta¬ 
blished a small colony, whither many persons both Green¬ 
landers and Icelanders resorted. Rut as a more detailed 
account of the discovery and settlements in these two places, 
although connected with Icelandic history, would carry me 
beyond the intended limits of this Introduction, I will beg 
leave to refer my readers to the first volume of Percy's 
'Northern Antiquities for much more interesting information 
on this subject. 
* Voyage en Islande. 
