80 
VIDOE. 
and I afterwards understood that my conjectures 
were right, and that it was always the custom for 
the ladies of the house to wait at table when 
any strangers are present. Accordingly the two 
thing I am the better able to do, since I had the good fortune 
to bring one of the richest in the island safe to England 
with me. I have preserved, also, an Icelandic account of 
the different articles it is composed of; from an English 
translation of which, that the governor has been so good as 
to procure me, I have borrowed a great part of what follows. 
To begin then with the Faldur, or head-dress: this is the 
most singular and unbecoming part, and I feel such a dif¬ 
ficulty in making my description of it intelligible, that I 
think it right to annex an engraving of 
it. The inside is composed of a number 
of pieces of paper, folded into an ob¬ 
long shape, and neatly covered with two 
white linen handkerchiefs, in such a 
way that, below the bottom of the pa¬ 
per, they are formed into a sort of cap, 
that fits the head, and goes on nearly 
as far as the ears, which are, however, 
always exposed, whilst the hair is care¬ 
fully twisted into a knot on the crown 
of the head, and entirely concealed. 
From the top of the head to the ex¬ 
tremity, the Faldur measures eighteen 
inches, and, from a cylindrical shape below, becomes gra¬ 
dually compressed, till the upper part is quite flat, and 
bends over in the front in a manner that somewhat re¬ 
sembles an ostrich feather, though sadly inferior to it in 
elegance. Its width at the top is five inches and a half 
lower down, near the head, four inches and a half. The part 
