234 
NOR 
a thoufand different inftances. The country was always 
diftrafted by inteftine quarrels, which raged from genera¬ 
tion to generation. Even the farmers ftand upon their 
punctilio, and challenge one another to fingle combat 
with their knives. On fuch occafions they hook them- 
felves together by their belts, and fight until one of them 
is killed or mortally wounded. At weddings and public 
feafts they drink to intoxication ; quarrel, fight, and mur¬ 
der generally enfues. The very common people are like- 
wife paffionate, ambitious of glory and independence, and 
vain of their pedigree. The nobility and merchants of 
Norway fare fumptuoufly; but the peafant lives with the 
utmoft temperance and frugality, except at feftivals ; his 
common bread is made of oatmeal, rolled into broad thin 
cakes, like thofe ui'ed in Scotland. In thofe parts where 
a fifhery is carried on, they knead the roes of cod with 
their oatmeal : of thefe laft, mixed with barley-meal, they 
make hafty-pudding and foup, enriched with a pickled 
herring or falted mackarel. Frefii fifh they have in plenty 
on the fea-coaft. They hunt and eat groufe, partridge, 
hare, red deer, and rein-deer. They kill cows, fheep, and 
goats, for their winter-ftock ; thefe they pickle, or fmoke, 
or dry for ufe. They make cheefe of their milk, and a 
liquor called/i/j-e of their lour whey ; this they commonly 
drink mixed with water; but they provide a (tore of ftrong 
ale for Chriftmas, weddings, chriftenings, and other en¬ 
tertainments. It has been noticed, that fome diftridls 
produce corn enough to enable the inhabitants to aflift 
their neighbours; but in others they are obliged fometimes 
to have recourfe to barli-bread. Von Bufch thus defcribes 
the laborious procefs of preparing that wretched food ; 
which, to ufe his language, “ an evil daemon mull have 
invented in order to infult our race.” After the young 
and found pines have been cut down, to the great injury of 
the woods, they are ftripped of the bark. From this bark 
both the outer part and the green fubftance lying beneath 
it are peeled oft', and nothing remains but the foft and 
white rind; which, after having been carefully dried in 
the air and in the oven, is pounded, and then ground in 
a mill like barley or oats. The meal thus produced is 
mixed with chaff, or the feed of fome kinds of tnofs; 
and then cakes of it are baked, which are about as thick 
as the human finger. Nature refills this bitter aftringent 
food, and the peafants are obliged to wafh it down with 
a large quantity of water. If they have lived on it dur¬ 
ing a great part of the winter, they become feeble and 
languid, and are affefted with an acute pain and burning 
in the cheft. “ Thole places in which it is impofiible to 
obtain any other kind of fubfiftence, are furely not in¬ 
tended to be inhabited by men.” The ufe of potatoes has 
been lately introduced, though they do not grow to any 
fize in a country where the fummer is fo fhort: Fabricius 
ftrongly recommends, in times of fcarcity, the mofi'esand 
lichens, and particularly the Lichen iilandicus, which 
yields a nourifhing fuftenance, and is commonly ufed for 
food in Iceland. 
To Drontheim, M. Von Bufch aftigns a decided fupe- 
riority over every other town of Norway ; and he extols 
the high public fpirit of its inhabitants. The general 
profperity is derived from home-trade rather than from 
intercourfe with ftrangers; and from the copper-mines, 
which furnifh employment for a conliderable part of the 
population of the town. In mentioning the great num¬ 
ber of horfes ufed for conveying the produce of thefe 
mines, the author relates the lingular mode in which the 
dung of thofe animals is made ferviceable in that coun¬ 
try : “ I do not know whether the fcarcity of food, or 
any other caufe, has induced the people of Roras to make 
ufe of the horfes for the fupport of the reft of their live- 
flock; but Roras and a few valleys near Drontheim are, 
as far as I know, the only places in which the lingular 
cuftom prevails of carefully collefting the dung of the 
horfes in order to give it to the cows, who eagerly devour 
it. It is alfo frequently boiled in large coppers, and, mixed 
with fome meal, is ufed for fattening not only cows, but 
fwine, fheep, geefe, ducks, and fowls.” 
W A Y. 
The people of this country, from their temperance and 
exercife, joined to the purity and elaftieity of their air, 
enjoy good health, and often attain to a furprifing degree 
of longevity. Nothing is more common than to lee a 
hearty Norwegian turned of ioo. In the year 1733, four 
couples danced before his Danilh majefty at Frederickf- 
hall ; their ages, when joined, exceeded 800 years. Ne- 
verthelefs, the Norwegians are fubject to various difeafes; 
fuch as the fcab, the leprofy, the lcttrvy, the catarrh, the 
rheumatifm, gout, and epilepfy. The drels of the Nor¬ 
way peafant confifts of a wide loofe jacket made of coarfe 
cloth, with waiftcoat and breeches of the fame. Their 
heads are covered with flapped hats, or caps ornamented 
with ribbons. They wear Ihoes without outer foies, and 
in the winter leathern bulkins. They have like wife fnow- 
Ihoes and long Ikates, with which they travel at a great 
pace, either on the land or ice. The Norwegian peafant 
never wears a neckcloth, except on extraordinary occa¬ 
fions : he opens his neck and breaft to the weather, and 
lets the fnow beat into his bofom. His body is girt round 
with a broad leathern belt, adorned with bral's plates, 
from which depends a brals chain that fuftains a large 
knife, gimlet, and other tackle. The women are drelTed 
in clofe-laced jackets, having leathern girdles decorated 
with ornaments of lilver. They likewife wear filver chains 
round their necks, to the ends of which are fixed gilt 
medals. Their caps and handkerchiefs are almoft co¬ 
vered with fmall plates of lilver, brafs, and tin, large rings, 
and buttons. A maiden bride appears with her hair 
plaited, and, together with her clothes, hung full of fuch 
jingling trinkets. 
The mountaineers acquire furprifing ftrength and dex¬ 
terity by hard living, cold, laborious exercife, climbing 
rocks, Ikating on the fnow, and handling arms, which 
they carry from their youth to defend themfelves againft 
the wild beafts of the forell. The Ikaters of Norway 
eclipfe all other Heaters, in their formidable equipments, 
as well as their extraordinary feats of hardihood. M. La- 
motte, a recent traveller in Norway, gives us the follow¬ 
ing lingular defeription : In a vifit ro the Military In- 
ftitution his attention was particularly excited by an ar¬ 
ticle not found in the ordinary apparatus of war, a kind 
of wooden Ikates, of which the one for the left foot is 
from eight to ten feet long and three or four inches broad; 
the one for the right foot is only about three (another 
account fays fix) feet long. M. Lamotte fays, tnere is a 
regiment of chafleurs, numbering nearly a thoufand men, 
trained to the ufe of thefe Ikates or pattens; and that, in 
certain circumftances, they would be almoft irrefiftible. 
“ Cavalry,” he fays, “ could neither purfue them nor 
efcape their purfuit; and, as they are lharp-lhooters, they 
might in the long-run deftroy the whole of an invading 
force, however numerous it might be. It was chiefly 
owing to them that the Swedilh army, fent, in 1718, by 
Charles XII. againft Drontheim, in the month of Decem¬ 
ber, was fo obllrudled in its march, as to be reduced to 
perifli in the fnow.” 
He gives in the Appendix, as an extract from a northern 
periodical paper, a more particular account of the equip¬ 
ment, and mode of individual operations of the Skielober- 
Corpj'et, or Corps of Skaters; operations, however, which 
feldom have any objedt more martial than the purfuit 
of game. “ Figure to yourlelves a pair of boards, each 
of the breadth of the hand, and hardly the thicknefs of 
the little finger; a little hollowed along the middle on the 
fide toward the ground, to prevent wavering, and to cut 
a ftraight line. Both are bent upward at the ends, a little 
higher before than behind. They are bound on the feet 
with two ftraps, palled through them at the middle, where 
the wood is left a little higher and thicker for this pur- 
pofe. The board for the right foot has often a facing of 
rein-deer or fea-dog Ikin ; the advantage of which is, that, 
in bringing forward the feet alternately and in parallel 
lines, the lkater can give himfelf a ftrong impetus on the 
right foot, by means of the hold which the hair of this 
lkin has on the fnow, as, though perfedlly flippery in 
going 
