NOR 
going the right way, it is roughened, and refills any 
inclination of the fkate to an oppofite movement. It is 
affirmed, that a praftifed (kater can go, as foon as the 
fnow is a little hardened, fader and for a longer time, even 
on level ground, than the bed horfe trotting on the bed 
road. But, in descending a mountain, he darts with fuclt a 
velocity, that he would abfolutely lofe his breath if he did 
not endeavour to moderate his flight. He afcends w r ith 
comparative flownefs and fome difficulty, as he is obliged 
to go zig-zag ; but neverthelefs he reaches the top as foon 
as the bed footman. He has the advantage, befides, that 
however little firmnefs the fnow may have acquired, he 
cannot fink. The arms (of this regular corps) are, a car¬ 
bine, held by a thong which pafl’es over the flioulder, a 
large hunting-knife, and a flaff three ells and a half long, 
and an inch and a quarter in diameter, pointed with iron, 
and fet in iron to fome fmall didance upward from the 
point. This lad ferves chiefly to check the rapidity of a 
defcent; the {kater then puts it between his feet, and fo 
drags it, or he drags it by his fide; he ufes it alfo to pufli 
himfelf forward when he has to go up hill. It may ferve, 
befides, as a red for his firelock, when he has a mind to let 
fly. But indeed the Norwegian peafants hold their guns 
free when they fire, and fcarcely ever mils their mark. It 
might be fuppofed the Ikaters would find a great difficulty, 
from the length of their wooden equipment, in turning 
themfelves ; but this is not the cafe. They draw back¬ 
ward the right foot with its lhorter board, and place it at 
right-angles with the long one wielded by the left; then 
they raile this latter, and bring it parallel with the right; 
they have thus turned half round : they have only to re¬ 
peat the movement, if they wilh completely to reverfe 
their direction.” 
The churches, public edifices, and many private houfes, 
in Norway, are built of done; but the people in general 
live in wooden houfes, made of the trunks of fir and pine 
trees laid upon each other, and joined by mortifes at the 
corners. Thefe are counted more dry, warm, and healthy, 
than done or brick buildings. In the whole diocefe of 
Bergen, you hardly lee a farm-houfe with a chimney or 
window; they are generally lighted by a fquare hole in 
the top of the houfe, which lets in the light, and lets out 
the ftnoke. In luramer this hole is left quite open : in 
the winter, it is covered with what they call a J'um ; that 
is, the membrane of fome animal, dretched upon a wooden 
frame that fits the hole, and tranfmits the rays of light. 
It is fixed or removed with a long pole occafionally. Every 
perfon that enters the houfe, upon bufinefs or courtfhip, 
takes hold of this pole, according to ancient cufltom. The 
ceiling is about eight feet high in the middle ; and, being 
arched like a cupola, the fmoke of the fire underneath rolls 
about, until it finds a vent at the hole, which is called liur. 
Under this opening flands a thick table with benches, 
and a high feat at the upper end for the mailer of the fa¬ 
mily ; he has likewife a fmall cupboard for his own ufe, 
in which he locks-up his mod valuable e fie fits. The boards 
of the roof are coated with the bark of the birch-tree, 
which is counted incorruptible; this again is covered 
with turf, which yields a good crop of grabs for goats and 
fheep, and is often mowed as hay by the farmer. 
From the lated accounts it appears, that the people of 
Norway have been fubjefted by Sweden to a taxation, the 
double of what they paid to Denmark; and this circum- 
ftance alone, in a poor country like Norway, mull add 
greatly to the dilcontent occafioned by the reparation. 
The people of Norway cannot foon forget the mild go¬ 
vernment of Denmark, and the advantages they derived 
from their coitne&ion with that country. M. Von Bufch, 
in his Travels, mentions that he was prefent at fome of 
the great colle£lion-days, when the people of Norway paid 
their annual taxes to the officers of the Danifli govern¬ 
ment; and he was adonilhed at the Angular attachment 
which the people bore to thefe officers. But now, it feems 
the rigour of taxation is their great complaint. They 
have been torn from a country of confiderable fertility, in 
NOR 235 
which agriculture is in a flourilhing date, and from which, 
when their own crops turned out unfavourably, acircum- 
fiance of but too-frequent occurrence with them, they 
could obtain a fupply; and they have been united to a 
country unequal to the fupply of its own wants. Thus 
an unoft’ending people, of whom all travellers fpoke in 
the warmed terms, as equally didinguifhed for their in- 
dultry, their independence, and their honelly, have been 
doomed to a date of dilcontent and wretchednefs. But 
Ruffia wiflied to retain Finland, the granary of Sweden ; 
and, to indemnify Sweden for her dore-houfe, (lie gave her 
a country unable to feed its own inhabitants. Gibjon't 
Geography, vol. iii. Pinkerton, vol. i. Von BuJ’ch's Tra¬ 
vels. Time's Telefcope, 1816. 
NOR'WAY, a townlhip of New York, in Herkemer- 
county ; incorporated in 1792, aftd containing 1911 in¬ 
habitants.— Alfo, a poll-town in Cumberland-county, 
Maine; incorporated in 1797, having 609 inhabitants. 
NORWAY RAT'. See Mus decumanus, vol. xvi. p. 
2 35 - 
NORWE'GIAN, f. A native of Norway.— Harold 
king of Denmark, who alfo commanded over Norway, 
departed with his troops, confiding of Norwegians and 
Danes. Verfiegan. 
NORWE GIAN, or Norweyan, adj. Belonging to 
Norway.— Norweyan banners flout the Iky. SriakcJ'peare. 
The tailed pine 
Hewn on Norwegian hills. Milton. 
NOR'WELL, a village in Nottinghamfhife, about ten 
miles to the north of Southwell, and which furniffies pro- 
vilion for three of the lixteen prebendaries in that church. 
The following memorandum, from the entries made in 
the reign of Henry IV. will Ihow the nature of the ler- 
vice required from tenants by their lords at that time, 
and how they were remunerated. “ Memorandum : That 
all the tenants of the lord, in bondage, as well free as na¬ 
tives, in Norwell, Woodhoule, and Willoughby, whereof 
three only are natives, being charged to declare the truth, 
concerning the cudoms and fervices of their tenements, 
fay, that everyone holding a bovate of land, or any mef- 
fuage in the place of a bovate, ought to plough one day 
in fowing-time in the winter, receiving from the lord, for 
that work, wheaten bread and peafe to the value of three¬ 
pence; and to harrow with one horfe, receiving, for the 
fame, bread to the value of two pence ; likewife he is 
bound to do the fame fervices, at lent-fowing, at the fame 
price; alfo to weed with an hoe, for which he is to re¬ 
ceive bread to the value of an halfpenny. He ought 
alfo, together with his companions, to mow the lord’s 
meadows in Northying, containing thirteen acres, for 
which he and the red of the mowers of the fame meadow, 
whole number is twenty-four, fltall eat in the prebendal 
houfe as follows : fird, they (hall have bread and beer, 
potage, beef, pork, and lamb, for the fird courfe; and 
for the fecond, broth, pigs, ducks, veal or lamb roaded ; 
and, after dinner, they are to fit and drink, and then go 
in aud out of the hall three times, drinking each time 
they return ; winch being done, they ffiall have a bucket 
of beer, containing eight flagons and a half, which bucket 
ought to be carried on the (boulders of two men through 
the midll of the town, from the prebendal houfe unto the 
aforefaid meadow, where they are to divert themfelves 
with plays the remainder of the day, at which plays the 
lord ffiall give two pair of white gloves. On the day fol¬ 
lowing, the mowing ffiall be made into heaps, for which 
work they ffiall have from the lord four-pence only, to 
drink; and, when the hay (hall have become dry, all the 
twenty-four tenants ffiall carry the fame unto the rrianfe 
of the prebend, and there houfe it, for which they fltall 
have, in bread, to the value of a penny per cart-load, and 
each perfon affiding thereat (called treaders) fltall have, 
for his w'ork, bread in value an halfpenny; and the afore¬ 
faid twenty-four tenants fltall mow three acres of the 
lord’s meadow in the moor, and they, with the toilers, 
carrying 
