and securing the hay, and another migration
takes place of the poorer inhabitants from
various parts to assist the farmers. The
salmon-fishery and the cutting and preserving
of turf for winter fuel are at the same
time attended to.
In the autumnal months the necessary
repairs are done to the dwellings* the grassland
is manured, and the sheep are killed
and cured either for winter store or for exportation.
The more industrious exercise their ingenuity
during their leisure hours in the
manufactory of various articles in brass,
silver, and wood, such as girdles, buttons,
clasps, ornaments for their saddles and
dresses, snuff-boxes, &c. ; in all of which
they display an extraordinary neatness and
elegance of workmanship. Somë of them, too,
are excellent boat-builders. The women embroider
their garments with figures of flowers
and animals of various forms and colors.
The principal articles of food among the
Icelanders are fish and butter ; the former
mostly eaten in a dry state and uncooked;
the latter made without salt, with all the
whey and superfluous moisture pressed out,
in which state it will keep for fifteen or
twenty years, acquiring in the interim a
degree of rancidity which is not unpleasant
to an Icelandic palate. During the time of
the prevalency of the Popish religion *, a
large building was appropriated, at each of
the episcopal sees, for the purpose of laying
by a store of this butter, which was packed
down in chests, each thirty or forty feet
long-, by four or five feet deep, and was
thence distributed among the most necessitous
of the natives in seasons of famine
or scarcity. Milk is converted into Syra,
or sour whey, which is preserved in casks,
till it has undergone the process of fermentation
before it is used as a beverage. The
same mixed with water is called Blanda.
Stringer is whey boiled to the consistency
of curd; and Skiur the same from which
the liquid has been expressed. The flesh of
either sheep or bullocks and rye-bread are
only brought to the table of the superior
class of people. Birds of various kinds,