and began to remove the last article of my daily apparel.
Doubtless she had long foreseen that it would eventually come to that.
In a very accommodating manner, she took a position directly in front,
and beckoned to me to elevate one of my legs, an order which I
naturally obeyed. Then she seized hold of the pendent casimere and
dragged away with a hearty good-will. I was quickly reduced to my
natural state with the exception of a pair of drawers, which, to my
horror, I discovered were in a very ragged condition, owing to the
roughness of my travels in this wild region. However, by an adroit
movement I whirled into bed, and the young woman covered me up and
wished me a good night's sleep. I thanked her very cordially, and so
ended this strange and rather awkward adventure.

[Illustration: AN AWKWARD PREDICAMENT.]

Such primitive scenes are to be found only in the interior. In the
towns the women are in dress and manners very like their sisters
elsewhere. Hoops and crinoline are frequently to be seen not only
among the Danes, who, as a matter of course, import them from
Copenhagen, but among the native women, who can see no good reason why
they should not be as much like pyramids or Jokuls as others of their
sex. Bonnets and inverted pudding-bowls are common on the heads of the
Reykjavik ladies, though as yet they have not found their way into the
interior. All who can afford it indulge in a profusion of
jewelry--silver clasps, breast-pins, tassel-bands, etc., and various
articles of filigree made by native artists. These feminine traits I
had not expected to find so fully developed in so out-of-the-way a
country. But where is it that lovely woman will not make herself still
more captivating? I once saw in Madagascar a belle of the first rank,
as black as the ace of spades, and greased all over cocoa-nut oil,
commit great havoc among her admirers by a necklace of shark's teeth
and a pair of brass anklets, and nothing else. The rest of her
costume, with a trifling exception, was purely imaginary; yet she was
as vain of her superior style, and put on as many fine airs, as the
most fashionable lady in any civilized country. After all, what is the
difference between a finely-dressed savage and a finely-dressed
Parisian? None at all that I can see, save in the color of the skin
and the amount of labor performed by the manufacturer, the milliner,
the tailor, or the schoolmaster. Intrinsically the constitution of the
mind is