stood by means of a slate and pencil, as our pronunciation
of many of the words did not quite
accord; he appeared to be a good kind of man,
and when we parted it was with many professions
of friendship on both sides.
On my return to the parsonage I found our
guides still busily employed in getting the horses
packed, having already expended a couple of hours
about it, and having still an hour’s work before
them. In order to pass away the time, I asked my
friend the priest if he thought that his good lady
would have any objection to my making a pencil
sketch of the dress she wore, as I wished to take
home a sample of the female costume of the
F u ll head and lo d y dress o f th e Farmers' TFives and Daughters.
country ; he immediately made the proposal to his
wife, who seemed amused and flattered. I had
hardly commenced when, like the Lapland lady,
she asked me not to draw the cap she wore, which
was one of the common ones with a tassel, but
begged to be allowed to change i t ; she accordingly
ran into the house, and in about a quarter of
an hour or twenty minutes returned dressed out
from head to foot in her best apparel, and certainly
looked very neat, and the cap particularly smart
and becoming. I was much struck with the w'ork-
manship of the silver massive girdle or belt, with
an ornament above it, which the lady wore round
her waist; in point of execution as well as design it
appeared to me to be equal to anything of the kind
which a jeweller in England could have fabricated,
and yet these kind of articles are the work of the
peasantry, but, as may be supposed, only of a few,
the demand for them being very lim ited : those
few however who have learnt the art may find employment,
as the ladies of rank—that is to say, the
clergymen’s wives, and the families of public functionaries
and merchants—are in the common habit
of wearing these girdles. The silver is obtained by
melting down the old Danish dollars, without the
addition of any alloy; most of the ladies wear them
fastened in front on a belt of richly-worked velvet.
Our good pastor the next morning was equally
attentive, in furnishing out our breakfast-table before
our departure, as he had been the preceding
evening. We had then pressed him to take some
grog ivith us, which he declined; but on offering
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