128 
WILD NORWAY. 
covered the ground), we sought the shelter of a saeter, 
which Ivar stated was in the neighbourhood, though 
the search for it occupied well-nigh an hour. On a bare 
grassy ridge stood Eriksgaard saeter, a long, low, log- 
hut, slightly raised on rough stone pillars. Though 
tenantless, the door was merely latched, so we took 
possession—the first occupants of Eriksgaard for ten 
months. The saeter comprised one tiny living-room, 
a quarter of which was occupied by the stone-built 
hearth, and a longer room adjoining, evidently used 
for dairy-purposes, for various churns, wooden bowls, 
etc., stood ranged on a pine plank. There was, however, 
a plentiful supply of firewood—cut birch-logs—with 
which we soon made a grand blaze on the broad hearth, 
and enjoyed hot cocoa, followed by hotter grog, 
before turning in. The sleeping accommodation con¬ 
sisted of two wooden shelves about four feet square, one 
above the other, strewn with hay. Imagining that, as 
the saeter had been deserted so long, this hay would be 
“ uninhabited,” I coiled myself up on the lower shelf, 
Ivar above me, and slept till the fire had burned itself 
out, when the cold awoke us both. 
They are curious places these saeters, or summer 
sheilings, of the Norwegian peasantry, only occupied 
for six or eight weeks—between July and September. 
The chief essentials of life appear to be a grindstone 
and a scythe of peculiarly crooked form. These two 
things are never wanting, though everything else is. 
No ; there is sure to be a cooking-pot and a jisker-stang , 
or rude fishing-rod of unbarked sapling; otherwise the 
only useful thing to be found is the stock of cut firewood 
aforesaid. 
