160 
SKALHOLT. 
class of people regard with the greatest horror. 
Although I had been informed by Icelanders of 
respectability, who had visited this mountain, 
that I should see nothing remarkable upon it, 
but what I . had seen elsewhere, still I felt a 
great mortification at the refusal of the guides to 
accompany me; because, next to visiting the 
hot springs, the opportunity of climbing Hecla 
was my grand object in Iceland. At first, I 
thought of waiting a few days for better weather, 
but the continuance of the rain, and the little 
“ immanis barathri, vel inferni potius profunditate terribilis 
“ ejulantium miserabili et lamentabili ploratu personal:, ut 
“ voces plorantium circumquaque ad intervallum magni mi- 
“ liaris audiantur. Circumvolitant hunc corvorum et vul- 
turum nigarrima agmina, quae nidulari ibidem ab incolis 
<e existimantur. Vulgus incolarum descensum esse per vora- 
“ ginem illam ad inferos persuasum habet. Inde cum praelia 
t( committuntur alibi in quacunque parte orbis tertarum, 
<e aut caedes fiunt cruentae, commoveri horrendos circumcirca 
“ tumultus, et excitari clamores atque ejuiatus ingentes 
“ longa experiential didicerunt.” Hackluyt's Collection of 
“ Voyages, edit. 1810, vol. ii. p. 590.—Not very dissimilar 
is the vulgar belief among the Japanese, except that they, in¬ 
stead of imprisoning their damned in the volcanoes, consign 
them to the boiling fountains; upon which subject Kaemp- 
fer has the following curious remarks:—‘ f the monks of this 
“ place (Simabara) have given peculiar names to each of the 
“ hot springs arising in the neighbourhood, borrowed from 
“ their quality, from the nature of the froth at top, or the 
sediment at bottom, and from the noise they make as 
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