110 
MIDDALR. 
his wife’s diseases were enumerated, and I was 
entreated to examine her sores. On my decline 
ing this, he -resolved to turn physician himself, 
and begged me to give him some rum to bathe 
his wife’s breast: to this I consented; but, after 
having applied a pordon of it to that purpose, 
he drank the rest, without being at all aware of 
its strength, which, however, had no other effect 
than in causing this clerical blacksmith with 
his lame hip to dance, in the most ridiculous 
manner, in front of the house. The scene af¬ 
forded a great source of merriment to all his 
family, except his old wife, who was very de¬ 
sirous of getting him to bed, while he was no 
less anxious that she should join him in the 
dance. The wife, however, at length gained the 
victory, and he retired in great good humor # . 
* I should be extremely sorry, if, by this little anecdote, 
I am supposed to intimate that drinking is a common vice 
among the Icelanders. I have every reason to think very 
much the contrary. Indeed, this very circumstance is a con¬ 
vincing proof how unaccustomed the priest of Middalr was 
to spirituous liquors: otherwise, the small quantity he 
drank, which could not at any rate have exceeded a wine¬ 
glass full, would not have elated his spirits so much. At 
Reikevig, it is true, drunkenness, and almost every other 
vice, have been introduced by the Danes, but they are con¬ 
fined solely to the town, and principally to the Danes them¬ 
selves. I do not recollect, during the whole of my stay in 
the island, that I saw half a dozen natives much in liquor. 
