of the weather. As soon as we had recovered
the use of our eyes, which the almost total
darkness of the place for a time deprived us
of, Mr, Phelps expressed his astonishment
at seeing, upon a sort of table, two large candles,
articles of extremely rare occurrence
in this country, and these, also, placed in8
brazen candlesticks: he began, therefore, to
suspect that we must be in the house of
some man of property, in spite of the quantity
of dirty apparel that, hanging from the
beams, seemed to persuade to the contrary:
nor could he for some time be induced to
credit my assurance that the place where we
were was no other than the church of
Kreisevig; that the table we leaned on was
the altar, and the two candlesticks its constant
appendages. It is a frequent custom with
Icelanders, whose dwellings are in the vicinity
of a church, to receive their guests in it,
as affording a more spacious and convenient
apartment than any of their own; and such
was the case even here; though in this edifice,
except the light admitted by a small
door, a little aperture in the wall above the
altar, about six or eight inches square, was
all that answered the purpose of a window.
Here, however, we were regaled with some
excellent sheep’s milk, and, having urged
our request to our host that he would accompany
us to the sulphur-springs, we,
after a short rest, again mounted our horses.
Although in t the vicinity of a remedy so
noted for the cure of a certain disagreeable
cutaneous complaint, we observed, by the
swellings on the hands of our Kreisevig
guide, and by his incessant scratching, that
he had not, any more than some other people
whom we saw living near the sulphur-
springs, made such use of it as would be
done in other countries; but, on the contrary,
it rather appeared that the disorder
was here more than usually prevalent. The
first place to which he led us was a spot
about two miles from the village, where a
thick and muddy water was boiling up from
a number of small orifices, occupying a hillock,
of some yards in extent, but composed
entirely of Bolus * of various colors; among
* It may be well to observe that Bolus is described by
mineralogical writers as a viscid earth, less coherent
and more friable than clay, more readily uniting with
water, and more freely subsiding from it. It is soft and
unctuous to the touch, adheres to the tongue, and by
degrees melts in the mouth, impressing a slight sense
of astringency.