s of Dalecarlia,
where the people are so unlike the rest of the Swedes in their dress,
their customs and habits, and in many other respects as to almost seem
another race.

The Dalecarlians are great dancers, and the social gatherings at
their homes during the winter are always accompanied by that form of
amusement. During the summer they dance in the open air. On St. John's
Day the entire population, old and young, dance around a May-pole
erected at some convenient place, and at harvest time, whenever the
last sheaf in a field is pitched upon the cart or the stack, it is
customary for somebody to produce a musical instrument, a violin,
a nyckleharpa, a harmonicum, or perhaps only a mouth organ, and
everybody--for the boys and girls of the family all work together in
the hay and harvest fields--join in a dance before returning home.

The dances are original and often interesting. One of the most ancient
and popular is the _daefva vadmal_ (weaving homespun), whose figures
are supposed to imitate the action of the shuttle, the beating in of
the woof, and other motions used in weaving at an old-fashioned loom.
Some of the dances resemble those of Scotland, and one is almost
exactly like the Virginia reel as danced by old-fashioned people in
the United States. In another, called the "garland," the dancers wind
in and out under their clasped hands in imitation of the weaving of a
wreath of flowers. All the dances require violent physical exercise,
but the Swedish men and women are famous for muscular development.
Some of the dances are accompanied by pretty melodies sung in unison
by both sexes.

The songs of the Dalecarlian peasant are not lively, but rather slow
in movement, and are usually sung in unison, the music being rarely
arranged for parts.

Dalecarlia has a certain preeminence among the districts of Sweden
because of the part its people have played in the history of the
country, and however the other provinces may dispute among themselves
about their claims for distinction, each will admit that Dalecarlia is
entitled to special consideration. Its people represent the highest
patriotism and the noblest characteristics of the Swedish race, and
when any one is spoken of as a Dalecarlian, it means that he is a free
and intelligent citizen of independent thought and action and lives a
life of manly simplicity.[o]

CHAPTER XVI

HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUSEMENTS

Perhaps in no other country in the world