hay, carry
the heavy burdens, and perform the manual labor generally. This I
found to be the case at all the farm-houses. Sometimes the men assist,
but they prefer riding about the country or lying idle about the doors
of their cabins. At Reykjavik, it is true, there is a population of
Danish sailors and fishermen, and it would be scarcely fair to form an
opinion from the lazy and thriftless habits of the people there. But I
think the civilization of Iceland is very much like that of Germany in
respect to women. They are not rated very high in the scale of
humanity. Still, overworked and degraded as they are, the natural
proclivities of the sex are not altogether obliterated. In former
times their costume was picturesque and becoming, and some traces of
the old style are yet to be seen throughout the pastoral districts; a
close body, a jaunty little cap on the head, with a heavy tassel,
ornamented with gold or silver bands, silver clasps to their belts,
and filigree buttons down the front, give them a very pleasing
appearance. Of late years, however, fashion has begun to assert her
sway, even in this isolated part of the world, and the native costume
is gradually becoming modernized.

The pastor having joined the more congenial circle of which Zoega was
the admired centre, I was left alone in the chilly little room
allotted to travelers to meditate upon the comforts of Icelandic life.
It was rather a gloomy condition of affairs to be wet to the skin,
shivering with cold, and not a soul at hand to sympathize with me in
my misery. Then the everlasting day--when would it end? Already I had
been awake and traveling some fourteen hours, and it was as broad
daylight as ever. Nothing could be more wearying than the everlasting
daylight that surrounded me--not bright and sunshiny, but dreary and
lead-colored, showing scarcely any perceptible difference between
morning, noon, and night.

The coffee soon came to my relief, and the pastor followed it to wish
me a good appetite and ask if I wanted any thing else. I again renewed
the attempt at conversation, but it was too much for his nervous
temperament and shrinking modesty. He always managed, after a few
words, to slip stealthily away up into the loft or out among the rocks
to avoid the appearance of intrusion, or the labor of understanding
what I said, or communicating his ideas--I could not tell which.

[Illustration: SKELETON VIEW OF THE LOGBERG.]

After a slight repa