Health, and
long- life.' -
a^s .they, are infNorway. ' A travdler is feldom ftrffëre^.to; pay-fot
fes?‘lodging,^whiielf may partly probed'. front:. the ; imall number
tnat yiiit thefe parts;, therefore?,they ,think at a dujty,,-to,* treat
the ftranger as well-asiit,.is'in their power; sand loqk.upon it as
an honour. dope., them; if he accepts of jhe^^hdlities.,, ■ 2|pii|^Jtrs.
ftanding all this, the peafant -never [gives the/aipper. end.of-the
table to the greateft guc{f that ever,conses .under his ro.of,..for h e
thinks that .place belongs to himfelf only. They keep open hpufe
for three, weeks at Chriftmas, and fet out^he. heft, things their
hpufcs) afford, - the table -. being fpread and loaded with victuals
during,, the whole tune *. .
: S E . C : t ; v i n . • i
As the-Norvegian contributes- to th e gc^d -andi feppiSffsr
others,,- fe h e alfb endeavours to make hittifeff, ehearfulj and always,
to appear good-natured. Envy and daftmitenti^pajediere - bap
nifhed to the rich and great, whole temporal advantages,are .ra^
tfter a plague than a comfort and • hapginefs. to. therm-rf *But the
middling and common people who are the greateft ^numbers in
every country, and conftitute the nation itfelf, Tar£ feen herechear-
ful, and as happy as I believe in any country, excepting Ffantep;
The little .they, have to indulge themfeh'es with, wlfigh fea}l-;be
fhown hereafter, relifhes; and agrees with them, and they eftiriteit
thpugh .it be plain and homely; except in public Corppanies and
entertainments, where they are rather too much inclined to drink.
But in their daily courfe-they have no; fuperfluity,;; and; therefore
moft oft them arriveto a great age, ..Many to eighty or ninety,
fome to a hundred ofcan hundred and twenty years--f-*
, * -Ifaac Pontanus praiies the Norvegians in, : this and other refpetts, in chbrograph.
defeript. Dan. p. 697.
'if;;“ Iiicokefunt probi, fine fuco ac fallaciaexterorum amantes, et fi qui alii hofpitales.
Be, fane olirp qure celebrata eft Julio praefertim Caefare Gerrnanorum h,ofpitalitas4 ea
velilt hihe reiegatahfc adhuc locuin tenet. Gratis enim peregrinantem excipiunt
aluntque, is viciflim, fi quid forte refundat, non ut debitum,' fed.bt benevolehtiae ac.
animi grati .teemerion accipiunt.”
The Norvegian peafant’s hofpitalitqr extends itfelf fo far on Chrffarias-eve; as to invite
the birds to be his guefts, and-therefore,rhe hangs-out at thefbarn door on a pole,
an unthrelh’d fheaf o f corn which"draws, the fparrows and- other fmall birds thither,
where they feaft and make' merry.
■ -f In. the year; ,1751, in the diocefe o f Aggerhuus only, a hundred and thirty-fix
perfons then had reached eighty years o f age; there were befides forty-one of ninety,
and four o f a hundred, and upwards, 1
1 JI
lhall juft mention feme extraordinary inftatices of* longevity
recorded in hiffory, which, however, I will not vouch for as urn
queftionable truth, but let them reft on the credit of my authors.
J. 'Ramus, in p. 126, gives-an account of ,Auden Evindfen,
bdfhop of Havanger, who about the year 144.0, died in the two
hundred and tenth: yfeai'©f hisâge ;, which; fuppoftng the calcula*
tion to be true, is almoft an unparallel’d example.
Another inftanee is more; certain, namely, that of Adrian
Rotker, who was feventy years alderman of Tronhiem, and died
about the beginning of the laft cehfttp being a hundred and;
twenty years old, according to Gerh. Mittzovii. Pfefbyterolog,
p. 34* Ramus teQs Us again, p. 194,. of a minifter'at Holtaafen-
in the diocefe of Tronhiem, whofe namè wasMiehel; this gentleman
before the reformation in the year 1^3 5, was employed by
the archbiftiop to collect fobfidies for king Chriftian II. and lived
to be a hundred and fifty years did, being thirty years-blind. His
fucceffer, the Reverend Mr. Andrew Bernhoft, who vyas his curate
four years, and died in the year 1666, lived alfe to an uncommon
old age. Perhaps the air of Holtaalen côii tributes much to longevity,
as feme people fây of Guldbrandal, efefpiahy Leffee-Gield
through which there is a continual draught ôf fete frefh air;"fo
thattfeofeaged people whoaretirgd c^Jife, retire, to feme other
place where the air is lets Mutâry, in order to get rid of the life
of whiçh they are weary,;..
. Hans Aafen, who firft ere&edcopper-wôrkg at Rorâas, where
his' pi$uf§ is fo be feen in the church,îdijSkib 1*6183, aged a hun*
dred and fixteen,' according to the Rev. Mr. Abildgâard’s jubilee-*
fermon, p. 37. In.M. Wiefend’s monthly intelligence, for the
year 1722, p. 55, it is faid, that a peafant’s wife’near Stavanger,
whofe name was Lifbet Walevand, died in the hundred and thirty
feventh year of her age, and left behind a hufoand aged a hunched
and ten. The fame author lays, that in the year 1725, a peafant’s
wife at Narfen, in the diocefe of Tronhiem, died ^ a hundred
and twelve, and had her fenfes and memory perfcd jtti, the laft.
He likéwife adds, that in the year 1728, p. 88. a woman aged
a hundred and twentyTeven, died in the parilh of Rofdal, but
daçs not mention her name, ftie;was married, in the fixty-feth year
of her age, and lived in wedlock fifty-five years, and after thaf
was fix years a widow. Chriftian Drakenberg a Norvegian, fa*
P a & t II. U u u mous