rejoining their
native land.--ED.

{27} This town, the capital of Iceland, and the seat of government, is
built on an arm of the sea called the Faxefiord, in the south-west part
of the island. The resident population does not exceed 500, but this is
greatly increased during the annual fairs. It consists mainly of two
streets at right angles to each other. It contains a large church built
of stone, roofed with tiles; an observatory; the residences of the
governor and the bishop, and the prison, which is perhaps the most
conspicuous building in the town.--ED.

{28} As Madame Pfeiffer had thus no opportunity of attending a ball in
Iceland, the following description of one given by Sir George Mackenzie
may be interesting to the reader.

"We gave a ball to the ladies of Reikjavik and the neighbourhood. The
company began to assemble about nine o'clock. We were shewn into a small
low-roofed room, in which were a number of men, but to my surprise I saw
no females. We soon found them, however, in one adjoining, where it is
the custom for them to wait till their partners go to hand them out. On
entering this apartment, I felt considerable disappointment at not
observing a single woman dressed in the Icelandic costume. The dresses
had some resemblance to those of English chambermaids, but were not so
smart. An old lady, the wife of the man who kept the tavern, was habited
like the pictures of our great-grandmothers. Some time after the dancing
commenced, the bishop's lady, and two others, appeared in the proper
dress of the country.

"We found ourselves extremely awkward in dancing what the ladies were
pleased to call English country dances. The music, which came from a
solitary ill-scraped fiddle, accompanied by the rumbling of the same
half-rotten drum that had summoned the high court of justice, and by the
jingling of a rusty triangle, was to me utterly unintelligible. The
extreme rapidity with which it was necessary to go through many
complicated evolutions in proper time, completely bewildered us; and our
mistakes, and frequent collisions with our neighbours, afforded much
amusement to our fair partners, who found it for a long time
impracticable to keep us in the right track. When allowed to breathe a
little, we had an opportunity of remarking some singularities in the
state of society and manners among the Danes of Reikjavik. While
unengaged in the dance, the men drink punch, and walk about with
tobacc