was one of the best Icelandic houses I had
ever entered, and was, moreover, in every
part remarkable for its extreme cleanliness,
in which respect our hostess herself was
no less conspicuous. The rooms were wain-
scotted and painted with blue and red, and
there was a good library, belonging, however,
to the school of Bessestedr, the lector
of which place, who was brother to Madame
Joneson, frequently consulted it. The collection
contained many of the classics, but
consisted chiefly of Icelandic books and
manuscripts, relating to the political and
ecclesiastical history of the country, mixed
with extracts from such works as are most
scarce in the island; among which I noticed
several pages copied from the Linniean
Am&nitates Academicce. The farm, belong-
mg to this house, was reckoned a considerable
one, and had several buildings appropriated
to the use of cattle; but of these, the
floors are never covered with any sort of litter,
so that the poor animals must have but
a sorry bed on the bare rock. From the exceeding
filthiness of the place, it seemed as
if a dung-hill, near the outside of the build-
ing, \yas but seldom replenished. At Skal-
4
holt, for the first time, I saw people cutting
hay; which they do by means of a scythe *
with a straight stem, about six feet long,
from which project, at right angles, two
handles, and, as the ground producing their
crop of hay is broken into innumerable hillocks,
they find it advantageous to use a
blade of not more than two feet in length,
with which they perform the operation more
in the manner of chopping up the grass than
mowing it. In the evening, I met with a truly
wretched object, a woman who was afflicted
with the malady called among the Icelanders
Likthrau; a species of leprosy, or more properly,
according to Von Troil, elephantiasis.
Her face was so corroded by the disease,
that it presented the most disgusting spectacle
I ever saw in my life, and her legs
and hands were swollen to an enormous
* A scythe, in every respect resembling this, is used
by the natives of East Bothland. A description and
very accurate figure of one are given in the second
volume of the Lachesis Lapponica, where the author
remarks, that this instrument possesses the advantage
of enabling the mower to move forward in nearly an
upright posture.