INTRODUCTION. 
In the autumnal months the necessary repairs 
are done to the dwellings, the grass-land is ma¬ 
nured, and the sheep are killed and cured either 
for winter store or for exportation. 
The more industrious exercise their ingenuity 
during their leisure hours in the manufactory of 
various articles in brass, silver, and wood, such 
as girdles, buttons, clasps, ornaments for their 
saddles and dresses, snuff-boxes, &c.; in all of 
which they display an extraordinary neatness and 
elegance of workmanship. Some of them, too, 
are excellent boat-builders. The women em¬ 
broider their garments with figures of flowers and 
animals of various forms and colors. 
The principal articles of food among the Ice¬ 
landers are fish and butter; the former mostly 
eaten in a dry state and uncooked; the latter 
made without salt, with all the whey and super¬ 
fluous moisture pressed out, in which state it 
will keep for fifteen or twenty years, acquiring 
in the interim a degree of rancidity which is not 
unpleasant to an Icelandic palate. During the 
time of the prevalency of the Popish religion 
a large building was appropriated, at each of the 
episcopal sees, for the purpose of laying by a 
* Voyage en Islande, 
