offices of kindness performed, they all go together into the house of prayer. RURAL AFFAIRS OF THE ICE LANDERS; by Sir George Mac. kenzie. From the same Work. The terms on which a tenant holds a farm in Iceland, are similar to what is called steelbow in Scotland. The rent is paid in two parts. First, there is a land rent, or Land-skuld as it is called, which is a fixed sum rated according to an old valuation; secondly, there is a certain rent paid for a permanent stock of cattle and sheep, which is transferred from tenant to tenant, every succeeding one being obliged to take it on certain conditions, and to leave the same number on his quitting the farm. The tenant, however, is at liberty to keep as much stock as he can support, without paying any additional rent. The Landskuld is paid in various ways; in money, wool, tallow, &c. &c. That for the permanent stock chiefly in butter. Leases for a term of years are not common in any part of the island. The same tenant continues to possess the land, unless the proprietor can prove that the farm has been neglected, or that the farmer has misconducted himself. The law is effectual in preventing abuses in the dismissal of tenants; for if a farmer can prove by a survey of the Hrepstiorè, or two respectable persons of his own profession, that his farm has not been neglected, he cannot be removed; but he may quit his farm whenever he pleases. The practice of letting farms from year to year is not uncommon; six months notice being necessary for the tenant to quit. A farm, the disposeable value of which is about 200 rix-dollars, pays a Land-skuld of from four to six. The nominal price of land has, in many instances, doubled within the last forty years; not, however, in consequence of any improvement, but of the depreciation of the government paper. The rix-dollar, which is paper, is worth four shillings English, when at par. A guinea in Iceland, at the time we left the island, was worth fifteen paper dollars; and since my arrival in Scotland, I have been offered twenty for a guinea. The increase of rent has taken place chiefly on the permanent stock of the farm. Besides the rent payable to the proprietor, a farmer is obliged to pay a proportion to the parish priest, according to the rent of his farm; and to keep a lamb for him during the winter season, taking it in October, and returning it in good condition about the middle of May. The servants are generally or phans, or the children of very poor farmers. As they are considered nearly on a level with their master's children, it is not uncommon for marriages to take place between them; and a poor farmer sends his son or daughter to serve in the house of one in more affluent circumstances, in hopes of such a connexion being formed. The wages given to servants, male and female, amount to from four to six dollars a-year, sometimes more, besides food and clothes. By these, and the other members of the family, every thing that is necessary for subsistence and clothing is prepared, and all business performed. During the winter season, the family rises about six or seven o'clock in the morning. One is sent out to look after the sheep; another attends the cattle; some are employed in making ropes of wool or horsehair; one is in the smithy making horse-shoes and other articles. Spinning is performed with a spindle and distaff, and sometimes with a wheel; some, both men and women, knit and weave, and others prepare sheep-skins for fishing dresses. While so many are thus occupied, one generally reads aloud, in a singing tone, different tales and histories. Most farmhouses are supplied with books containing such tales; and the people exchange books with each other for the sake of variety. The only opportunity they have of making this exchange is when they meet at church, where, even during the most inclement part of the season, a few always contrive to be present. The people sometimes amuse themselves with a game somewhat like drafts; with cards; and many play chess extremely well. The Icelanders divide the day and night into nine periods. From midnight to three o'clock in the morning they call Otta; from three to six, Midurmorgun; from six to nine, Dagmal; from nine to twelve, Hactei: the first hour and a half after noon, Midmunda; from half-past one to three o'clock, Noon; from three to six, Miduraftur; from six to nine, Nattnial; from nine to twelve, Midnat. There are but few clocks in the island, and they are not very good. We saw in different places, particularly at Huaneyre, pieces of very good cloth which had been manufactured in the country. The sort called wadmal differs from cloth, it being what is called in this country, tweeled. Blue and black are the most common colours. One piece of cloth which we saw was a mixed black and white. Different shades of yellow are used, and not unfrequently for stockings. The processes of dyeing are very simple. The leaves of the arbutus uva ursi, the lycopodium alpinum, the lichen Islandicus, and some others, are employed. Stockings are filled with the lichen Islandicus, and boiled. When cloth is to be dyed, the vegetable substances are chopped small, and spread over the cloth, which is then rolled up and boiled. Black is obtained by strewing a rich black earth, found in some of the bogs, over the cloth, after it has been boiled with the arbutus uva ursi, when it is again rolled up and boiled. We saw none of this earth, but probably it contains a considerable proportion of iron, which, with the astringent matter of the plant, affords the black colour. Indigo is used for dyeing blue. The skins of horses and cows, after having been steeped for some time in urine, are frequently put into the liquor which has been used for dyeing black; by which means they undergo a slight degree of tanning. Sheep-skins are prepared by being soaked in water till the wool loosens, which is removed; and then the skins are drawn over a ram's horn fastened to the roof by its ends. Farm-houses are for the most part built on dry knolls, and the ground immediately around them is allotted for hay. The extent is greater or less according to circumstances; and though hay is by far the most important article to a farmer in Iceland, I do not recollect to have seen any signs of exertion to improve a hay field by draining, or otherwise. All the manure is bestowed upon the little hillocks, which surround the houses like graves, into which the hay ground is generally partition ed. The people believe that a greater quantity of grass can grow upon an extended surface of this sort; and this erroneous notion is entertained even by the higher classes. That a greater surface is procured, is true; but as every plant grows perpendicularly, or as nearly so as circumstances will admit, a greater produce cannot be obtained. The speedy evaporation of moisture, occasioned by the smallness of the hillocks, and the air circulating between them, must render the grass that does grow, less luxuriant than it would be otherwise. About the time of our arrival in Iceland, the people were busy spreading the dung; and about the end of July, the hay harvest had begun in many places. The grass is neither close, nor long, at the time it is reckoned fit for cutting. We did not observe any field in which the useless or less nutritious plants did not exceed, or at least equal in number, those that were really valuable. Every thing that grows is cut down by means of a short narrow scythe, with which the Icelanders work expeditiously and neatly, making all the little knolls perfectly bare. When cut, the grass is commonly gathered to gether on some even place, where it can be turned and tossed conveniently. I observed in many places that no more was cut at a time than what would employ the people on the farm to dry; and before any more was cut, the first portion was carried home. When bog-grasses are accessible, they are carefully cut and made into hay. The process of drying is the same as with us; and when carried home, the hay is made up into long and narrow stacks, often before it is perfectly dry, and consequently much of it is spoiled by heating. The hay is kept chiefly for the cows, on which the people depend for much of their subsistence. In severe weather, a little is given to the sheep and horses; but they often struggle through a hard winter without any sustenance but what they can procure for themselves. As soon as the hay around the house is secured, the farmers give a feast, or harvest-home. This is a supper of which the chief delicacy is porridge, made of meal of some sort, and milk. When the whole hay-harvest is finished, another feast takes place, when a fat sheep is killed. Though neither dancing nor singing are called in aid, these feasts are cheerful and merry. The immense extent of the bogs and swamps of Iceland renders it obvious to any one who has attended to the subject, that the climate must be greatly deteriorated by the evaporation from them. Were the people to set about draining the bogs, they would find not only the climate improve, but the quantity of grass fit for hay to increase largely. There seems to be some prejudice against draining, which a little intercourse with I Britain may probably remove. do not know any place where draining could be more easily or more advantageously practised than in Indreholm, and in the country lying between Akkrefell and the Skardsheidè. The cattle, in point of size and appearance, are very like the largest of our highland sorts, except in one respect, that those of Iceland are seldom seen with horns. As in other countries, we meet with finer cattle on some farms than on others; but, from every observation I could make, and information I could obtain, the Iceland farmers know nothing of the art of breeding stock. The bulls are in general ugly, and no use is made of them till after they are five years old. In rearing a bullcalf no more attention is paid to him than to others. Taking all the circumstances of management together, I had some reason to be surprised to find the cattle upon the whole so handsome. The cows in general yield a considerable quantity of milk, many of them ten or twelve quarts per day, and some a good deal more. Milk is usually made into what is called skier, which has been already mentioned. Sour whey, mixed with water, is a favourite beverage of the Icelanders, and they seldom travel without a supply of it. Butter, however, is the chief article among the products of the farm, and of this the Icelanders eat a surprising quantity. They value it most after it has been barrelled, without salt, and kept several years. It is wonderful how well butter keeps in this manner; it arrives at a certain degree of rancidity, be yond which it does not pass. The smell and taste of the sour butter are very disagreeable to English palates, though Icelanders delight in it. When there is a scarcity of butter, the people eat tallow. The former was not very plentiful last summer, and consequently little tallow was brought to market; and I have seen children eating lumps of it with as much pleasure as our little ones express when sucking a piece of sugar-candy. When people go to the northern districts for the purpose of cutting hay, they are paid for their work in butter, at the rate of 30 lbs. per week. It is made in churns of the form most common in this country, in which the cream is agitated by the perpendicular motion of a plunger. Sometimes two are worked by one handle fastened to a cross-piece of wood, to which the plungers are connected by projecting arms, the cross-piece forming the angle between them and the handle, and turning on two pivots. There is not much cheese made in Iceland, and they do not begin to manufacture it till late in the season. It is of very inferior quality. The manufacture of butter and sour whey employs the farmer's wife during his absence, while he is engaged in fishing. In some parts of the country the servants or children are employed in gathering lichen and angelica root. The former is carefully dried and packedfor use; and the latter is buried, and used more as an article of luxury than of subsistence. The sheep of Iceland appear to be the same with the old Scotch highland sort, which is now nearly extinct. They are larger, however, and the wool is long and soft, but not fine. Many of them are entirely black, and a great proportion are black and white. The wool is never shorn, but pulled off. Much of it is lost before it is taken off; and what remains, after hanging for a time on the animal's back, becomes spoiled and felted by the rain. The sheep are very much infested by vermin, known in England by the name of ticks and keds. The lambs are early restrained from sucking; and the ewes are milked, and butter is made from the produce. It is part of the employment of the women, during winter, to pick and clean the wool, and to spin it. A considerable quantity is exported; and it is so valuable an article in Denmark, that it sells in Iceland for as much as coarse wool in the north of Scotland. About the year 1756, an attempt was made to improve the wool in Iceland, by the introduction of Spanish rams; but, owing to negligence, it was unsuccessful. With that zeal for bettering the condition of his country which distinguishes him, Mr. Stephenson of Indreholm brought a few Merino rams and ewes from Norway in the year 1808. Their wool is tolerably fine, but by no means so good as that of the Merinos in England. I saw the lambs of the first cross between them and the Iceland ewes, and they promised very well. If Mr. Stephenson perseveres in his laudable exertions, and if the people can be made sensible of the advantages to be derived from improving the wool, he will have the satisfaction of having begun a most beneficial improve ment. The gathering of the sheep from the mountains before the commencement of winter, is a very important part of the business of an Iceland farmer. As soon as the hay harvest is over, and when the Hreppstiorè, or parish officer, thinks that the farmers are ready, he informs the Sysselman of the district, who causes a notice to be given in the churches, that on a certain day the gathering of the sheep shall commence, and, at the same time, appoints a place of rendezvous. Every farmer who has a considerable part of his stock feeding on the mountains, must send one man; or, if the number of his sheep be very small, he may join with another whose case is similar, and together they send one. When the men destined for this service assemble, they choose one who has had much experience, whom they agree to obey, and they give him the title of king, and the power of selecting two associates as counsellors. On the ap. pointed day they meet at the place fixed upon, perhaps to the number of 200, on horseback. Having pitched their tents, and committed their horses to the care of children who have accompanied them, the king, on horseback, gives his orders, and sends the men off two and two, strictly enjoining them not to lose sight of their comrades. Having collected as many sheep as they can find; they drive them towards the tents, and then shift their quarters. Thus they go on during a week, when they take all the sheep to one of the large pens constructed for the purpose, which consist of one large enclosure, surrounded by a number of smaller ones, for the purpose of separating the sheep be |