Thus, Most Of Their Traffic Being Carried On By Means Of Barter, They Have
Little Money Among Them, Nor Is It Very Necessary.
When these exchanges
have been made at Bergen, the vessel returns to Rostoe, landing in one
other place only, whence they carry wood sufficient for a whole year's
fuel, and for other necessary purposes.
The inhabitants of these rocks are a well-looking people, and of pure
morals. Not being in the least afraid of robbery, they never lock up any
thing, and their doors are always open. Their women also are not watched in
the smallest degree; for the guests sleep in the same room with the
husbands and their wives and daughters; who even stripped themselves quite
naked in presence of the strangers before going to bed; and the beds
allotted for the foreigners stood close to those in which their sons and
daughters slept. Every other day the fathers and sons went out a fishing by
day-break, and were absent for eight hours together, without being under
the least anxiety for the honour and chastity of their wives and
daughters[4]. In the beginning of May, the women usually begin to bathe;
and custom and purity of morals has made it a law among them, that they
should first strip themselves quite naked at home, and they then go to the
bath at the distance of a bow-shot from the house. In their right hands
they carry a bundle of herbs to wipe the moisture from their backs, and
extend their left hands before them, as if to cover the parts of shame,
though they do not seem to take much pains about the matter. In the bath
they are seen promiscuously with the men[5]. They have no notion of
fornication or adultery; neither do they marry from sensual motives, but
merely to conform to the divine command. They also abstain from cursing and
swearing. At the death of relations, they shew the greatest resignation to
the will of God, and even give thanks in the churches for having spared
their friends so long, and in now calling them to be partakers of the
bounty of heaven. They shew so little extravagance of grief and lamentation
on these occasions, that it appeared as if the deceased had only fallen
into a sweet sleep. If the deceased was married, the widow prepares a
sumptuous banquet for the neighbours on the day of burial; when she and her
guests appear in their best attire, and she entreats her guests to eat
heartily, and to drink to the memory of the deceased, and to his eternal
repose and happiness. They went regularly to church, where they prayed very
devoutly on their knees, and they kept the fast days with great strictness.
Their houses are built of wood, in a round form, having a hole in the
middle of the roof for the admission of light; and which hole they cover
over in winter with a transparent fish skin, on account of the severity of
the cold.
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