Chairs And Benches Are A Kind Of Terra Incognita In The
Dwellings Of The Icelandic Peasantry; Besides, I Do Not Know Where
Such Articles Could Be Stowed In A Room Of Such Dimensions As That
Which I Occupied.
My hostess, the widow of a wealthy peasant, introduced to me her
four children, who were very handsome, and very neatly dressed.
I
begged the good mother to tell me the names of the young ones, so
that I might at least know a few Icelandic names. She appeared much
flattered at my request, and gave me the names as follows:
Sigrudur, Gudrun, Ingebor, and Lars.
I should have felt tolerably comfortable in my present quarters,
accustomed as I am to bear privations of all kinds with
indifference, if they would but have left me in peace. But the
reader may fancy my horror when the whole population, not only of
the cottage itself, but also of the neighbouring dwellings, made
their appearance, and, planting themselves partly in my chamber and
partly at the door, held me in a far closer state of siege than even
at Krisuvik. I was, it appeared, quite a novel phenomenon in the
eyes of these good people, and so they came one and all and stared
at me; the women and children were, in particular, most unpleasantly
familiar; they felt my dress, and the little ones laid their dirty
little countenances in my lap. Added to this, the confined
atmosphere from the number of persons present, their lamentable want
of cleanliness, and their filthy habit of spitting, &c., all
combined to form a most dreadful whole.
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