pilots on board, approach us. We were delighted
at seeing some new faces, in spite of
their nastiness and stench ; and their Ogrotesque
appearance afforded us much amusement.
I cannot say that I observed any thing
strikingly peculiar in their features : their
faces were mostly broad, and, as to color, none
of the fairest. Their stature was in general
small, but one or two of them were rather
tall, and, I think, not much less than six
feet high. Some had pretty long beards,
while others had as much only, as would
remain after the operation of shaving had
been performed with a blunt knife, or a pair
of scissars : as to their hair, it was altogether
in a state of nature, untouched by a comb,
and hung over their backs and shoulders;
matted together, and visibly swarming with
those little vermin, and their eggs*, which are
* Much, and universally as the common people of
Iceland are infested with these troublesome creatures,
and greatly as they are sometimes distressed for food,
I never saw or heard of their applying them to that
use, which Kracheninnikow observes is common among
the Kamtchadals, of whom he says, “ Ces peuples sont
remplis d’une si grande quantité de vermine, qu’ en
soulevant leurs tresses, ils ramassent la vermine avec la
main, la mettent en ijn tas, et la mangent.” Vol. i. p.21.
the constant attendants of that part of the
human body, when cleanliness is neglected.
Their dress was simple enough, and warm f i t
consisted of a woollen shirt, a short waistcoat,
and a jacket of coarse blue cloth or wadmal,
and still coarser trowsers of the same materials,
but undyed: the buttons were mostly
of horn, and were, probably, from Denmark.
Their stockings were of coarse worsted, and
their shoes made of seal or sheep skin. Their
gloves, too, were of the same materials as the
stockings, that is to say, knitted worsted,
made without divisions for the fingers, but having
two appendages on each of them for the
thumb: by this contrivance, when a boatman,
in rowing, feels his hands galled, from the
inside of his glove being wet and dirty, he
turns the glove on the same hand, and has a
dry and clean side against the palm. An
Iceland ha£ is well contrived to keep the rain
from the neck and shoulders; for it is furnished
with an immense brim, which hang-s
down behind, in a manner not much unlike
that which our London porters to the coal
vessels make use of, but is equally large before.
This, and the buttons, appeared to be the only
articles of their dress which were of foreign