of this journal. Music, also, claimed a considerable
share of the attention, not only of
himself, but of all the family at Inderholme,
and a large Danish organ occupied a portion
of one side of the room. On my expressing
a wish to hear some Icelandic music, the
whole family came into the library, and, with
their voices, accompanied his performance
of several sacred airs. I was next entertained
with Danish and Icelandic songs, by the
Etatsroed’s daughter, which she accompanied
with tunes upon the Lang-spel. This instrument
has long been growing into disuse,
so that it is now become of extremely rare
occurrence, and very few of the natives indeed,
excepting the Etatsroed and his family,
are capable of performing upon it with
any degree of skill. It consists of a narrow
deal box, about three feet long, with a wider
semi-circular extremity, in which are the
sound holes. Three brass wires, or sometimes
five, are extended the whole length of
this box, and tightened or slackened by
means of small wooden pegs, as in our common
violin. It is usually played upon with
a bow of horse-hair, the instrument itself
lying in the mean while upon the table, but
the Etatsroed’s daughter frequently made use
only of her fingers, as with a guitar, in
doing which she pressed the end of her
thumb alone upon the wires,
moving it up and down to
produce the different modifications
of sound. The annexed
representation of the
Lang-spel, sketched since
my return, from memory,
will give a tolerable idea of
its form. Yon Troil notices
another musical instrument,
called Fidla, which has two
strings of horse-hair, and is
played in a similar manna*
with a bow. This, I was
never fortunate enough to
see; nor did I ever meet
with the Symphon, mentioned
by the same author,
and I have every reason to
believe that neither the one
nor the other has any longer
existence; the increasing
poverty of the country