eople,
and their patriarchal mode of life in the accounts of former travellers,
and which we know that nearly every peasant in Iceland can read and
write, and that at least a Bible, but generally other religions books
also, are found in every cot,--one feels inclined to consider this nation
the best and most civilised in Europe. I deemed their morality
sufficiently secured by the absence of foreign intercourse, by their
isolated position, and the poverty of the country. No large town there
affords opportunity for pomp or gaiety, or for the commission of smaller
or greater sins. Rarely does a foreigner enter the island, whose
remoteness, severe climate, inhospitality, and poverty, are uninviting.
The grandeur and peculiarity of its natural formation alone makes it
interesting, and that does not suffice for the masses.

I therefore expected to find Iceland a real Arcadia in regard to its
inhabitants, and rejoiced at the anticipation of seeing such an Idyllic
life realised. I felt so happy when I set foot on the island that I
could have embraced humanity. But I was soon undeceived.

I have often been impatient at my want of enthusiasm, which must be
great, as I see every thing in a more prosaic form than other travellers.
I do not maintain that my view is _right_, but I at least possess the
virtue of describing facts as I see them, and do not repeat them from the
accounts of others.

I have already described the impoliteness and heartlessness of the
so-called higher classes, and soon lost the good opinion I had formed of
them. I now came to the working classes in the vicinity of Reikjavik.
The saying often applied to the Swiss people, "No money, no Swiss," one
may also apply to the Icelanders. And of this fact I can cite several
examples.

Scarcely had they heard that I, a foreigner, had arrived, than they
frequently came to me, and brought quite common objects, such as can be
found any where in Iceland, and expected me to pay dearly for them. At
first I purchased from charity, or to be rid of their importunities, and
threw the things away again; but I was soon obliged to give this up, as I
should else have been besieged from morning to night. Their anxiety to
gain money without labour annoyed me less than the extortionate prices
with which they tried to impose on a stranger. For a beetle, such as
could be found under every stone, they asked 5 kr. (about 2d.); as much
for a caterpillar, of which thousands wer