JOURNEY TO BORGAFIORD. 
221 
the manner of the ancient Germans # , to fix their 
solitary dwelling. The singular custom which 
prevails throughout Iceland of giving a name, as 
of a parish to a solitary hut, or at most to the 
residence of a more wealthy farmer and the cot- 
tages of his dependants, will easily account for 
the crowded names of places which we see in 
the best maps of the island, and which might 
lead to a most erroneous idea of its present or 
former population, unless accompanied by the 
* It is impossible to avoid being struck with the simi¬ 
larity of part of Tacitus’ description of the manners of 
the Germans, to the present rude and simple state of the 
inhabitants of Iceland, who are compelled from the scanti¬ 
ness of vegetation thus to imitate the people of former days 
in the distant situation of their dwellings from each other. 
“ Nullas Germanorum populis urbes habitari, satis notum 
“ est; ne pati quidem inter se junctas sedes. Colunt dis- 
creti ac diversi, ut fons, ut campus, ut nemus placuit. 
(< Vicos locant, non in nostrum morem, connexis et cohse- 
“ rentibus sedificiis: suam quisque domum spatio circumdat, 
“ sive adversus casus ignis remedium, sive inscitia aedificandi.” 
f The land in Iceland, at least by far the greater part of 
it, belongs to the King of Denmark, and a native is at li¬ 
berty to pitch upon any waste that may suit his convenience, 
and fix his abode there: his farm or habitation he calls by 
some name, either taken from the peculiarity of situation, 
from some neighboring mountain or river, or after himself; 
“ Ut hac ratione,” as the learned Arngrim Jonas observes, 
primos incolas iTreovv^ov; ipsa loca vel solis nominibus 
“ apud omnem posteritatem loquerentur.” 
