MIDDALR. 
105 
Icelandic girl, who had won Jacob’s regards so 
much that he every now and then, with his 
knife, turned out a slice of the fish for her; while 
she, in return for every piece thus offered, rose 
from the ground, hugged him about the neck 
and kissed him. This innocent custom, in use 
both among the male and female Icelanders, upon 
the most trivial occasions, was here exemplified 
in a very strong and ludicrous manner, and so 
occupied the attention of Jacob, (who, proba¬ 
bly, mistook for a mark of affection, what was in 
reality nothing more than an expression of gra¬ 
titude,) that I was obliged to tap the honest 
fellow on the shoulder, and remind him that I 
had not yet had my dinner, and that I wished 
to have some of the fish saved for me. Before 
going out of the house I was anxious to make 
some trifling present to the mistress of it, a little, 
dirty, ugly, old woman, by no means free from 
cutaneous diseases. I presented to her a snuff¬ 
box; but her modesty would at first only allow 
her to suppose that I meant the contents of it 
for her. As soon, however, as she was made 
to understand that the box, also, was to be in¬ 
cluded in the gift, I had the mortification to find 
myself, before I was aware of it, in the embraces 
of this grateful old lady, from which I extricated 
myself with all possible haste, and performed a 
most copious ablution at the nearest stream. Of 
the poverty of the clergy, as well as of the com- 
