entury. Many of the dwellings are quaint with sharp-peaked
roofs and gable-ends toward the streets. The boats which ply in the
harbor and throng the wharves differ but little from the style of
those used by the Norse pirates a thousand years ago, and who
congregated in force about these very shores. The oldest part of the
city lies on the eastern side of the harbor where the fortress of
Bergenhuus and the double-towered Maria Kirke are situated. The
inhabitants are not amphibious, but they certainly ought to be, since
it rains here five days out of every seven. Some one has aptly called
it the fatherland of drizzle, "where the hooded clouds, like friars,
tell their beads in drops of rain." The first and foremost business
of the place, therefore, is dealing in umbrellas and water-proof
clothing. We did not observe any special crest as indicating the
corporate arms of the city, but if such a design exists, it should be
surmounted by a full-length figure of Jupiter Pluvius. We were
assured that the rain-fall here averages six feet annually. There is
a tradition of sunny days having occurred in Bergen, but much
patience and long waiting are necessary to verify it. Still there is
plenty of life and business activity in the broad clean streets, and
more especially in and about the wharves and shipping.

One sees here more of the traditional Norwegian costumes than are to
be met with either at Gottenburg or Christiania. Some of the old men
who came from the inland villages were particularly noticeable,
forming vivid and artistic groups, with their long snowy hair flowing
freely about face and neck in the most patriarchal fashion. They wore
red-worsted caps, open shirt-collars, knee-breeches, and jackets and
vests decked with a profusion of silver buttons, like a Basque
postilion. The women wear black jackets, bright-red bodices and
scarlet petticoats, with white linen aprons. On the street called the
Strandgade many Norse costumes mingle together like colors in a
kaleidoscope. Our guide pointed out one group, which was perhaps more
strongly individualized than the rest, as coming from the Tellemark
district. Various nationalities were also represented, not forgetting
the despised and much persecuted Jews, who are nearly as unpopular in
Scandinavia as they are in Germany and Russia. The Strandgade is the
longest thoroughfare in the city, and runs parallel with the harbor.
By turning to the left after reaching the custom-house a