kettle and some milk■*. In the owner of
this house, for the first and only time in
* For the convenience of having the milk brought
down to me, I always sent bottles to the cottagers; but
it never came into my mind to inquire what means
were employed to convey the fluid into such a vessel
from the large and shallow dishes in which it is kept by
the natives; in a country, too, where funnels cannot be
supposed to be in use among the poorer class of people.
I should, probably, to this'day, have remained in ignorance
of the method, had I not, a little previous to my
leaving the country, been informed, as well by the
Danes at Reikevig, as by some natives (persons worthy
of credit, and whose names if necessary I could now
mention), that the milk is first taken into the mouths
of the women, and then spirted into the bottle.—Let it
be remembered, that I do not mention this circumstance
as one to which either Jacob or myself was a witness,
neither could this well have been the case, for the bottles
were always carried into the house by the women, and
returned to us filled; but, from the respectability of my
informers, and the simplicity of the mode, it really appears
deserving of credit.—Linnaeus, on the Lapland Alps,
partook of Misseen, a kind of whey, under circumstances
equally filthy. “ Its flavor was good,” he observes, “ but
the washing of the spoon (which was done by spirting
water upon it from the mouth) took away my appetite,
as the master of the house wiped it dry with his fingers,
whilst his wife cleaned the bowl, in which milk had
been, in a similar mannei’, licking her finger after every
stroke.” hack. Lapp. vol. 1. p. 293.
thé island; I met with a deviation from that
genuine hospitality which so strongly characterises
the inhabitants of Iceland. In
all my other excursions I was furnished with
milk, fuel, or whatever the house afforded,
with the greatest cheerfulness, and with the
strongest marks of welcome 5 and, even if I
remained for some days in one spot; I never
thought of making a return, except it was
in the trifling articles of snuff and tobacco;
until I was about to take my departure from
the neighborhood. It is* therefore as a
single instance of avarice and mistrust that
I mention the owner of Skykeaster, who, on
coming down to my tent with a few birchen
twigs that were not sufficient to boil the
kettle, and about a pint of milk, demanded
two marks and eight skillings *: This I paid
him immediately, letting him know at the
same time that, had his conduct been different,
he would have been better recompensed;
at which he was so much vexed that
he offered to return the money, and furnish
me unconditionally with as much more of
the milk and fuel as I wanted. A strong
* About one shilling and eight-pence of our money.
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