Chapter XI

Off again--Shakspeare and Scandinavian literature--A
fat peasant’s better half--A story about Michaelmas
geese--Explanation of an old Norwegian almanack--A quest after
the Fremmad man--A glimpse of death--Gunvar’s snuff-box--More
nursery rhymes--A riddle of a silver ring--New discoveries
of old parsimony--The Spirit of the Woods--Falcons at
home--The etiquette of tobacco-chewing--Lullabies--A frank
invitation--The outlaw pretty near the mark--Bjaräen--A
valuable hint to travellers--Domestic etcetera--Early
morning--Social magpies--An augury--An eagle’s eyrie--Meg
Merrilies--Wanted an hydraulic press--A grumble at
paving commissioners--A disappointment--An unpropitious
station-master--Author keeps house in the wilderness--Practical
theology--Story of a fox and a bear--Bridal-stones--The
Vatnedal lake--Waiting for the ferry--An unmistakeable hint--A
dilemma--New illustration of the wooden nutmeg truth--“Polly
put the kettle on”--A friendly remark to Mr. Caxton--The real
fountain of youth--Insectivora--The maiden’s lament pp. 200-237

CHAPTER XII.

Ketil--A few sheep in the wilderness--Brown Ryper--The
Norwegian peasants bad naturalists--More bridal-stones--The
effect of glacial action on rocks--“Catch hold of her
tail”--Author makes himself at home in a deserted châlet--A
dangerous playfellow--Suledal lake--Character of the
inhabitants of Sætersdal--The landlord’s daughter--Wooden
spoons--Mountain paths--A mournful cavalcade--Simple
remedies--Landscape painting--The post-road from Gugaard to
Bustetun--The clergyman of Roldal parish--Poor little Knut at
home--A set of bores--The pencil as a weapon of defence--Still,
still they come--A short cut, with the usual result--Author
falls into a cavern--The vast white Folgefond--Mountain
characteristics--Author arrives at Seligenstad--A milkmaid’s
lullaby--Sweethearts--The author sees visions--The Hardanger
Fjord--Something like scenery pp. 238-259

CHAPTER XIII.

Author visits a glacier--Meets with two compatriots--A good
year for bears--The judgment of snow--Effects of parsley fern
on horses--The advantage of having a shadow--Old friends of
the hill tribe--Skeggedals foss--Fairy strings--The ugliest
dale in Norway--A photograph of omnipotence--The great Bondehus
glacier--Record of the mysterious ice period--Guide stories--A
rock on its travels pp. 260-272

CHAPTER XIV.

Three generations--Dangers of the Folgo--Murray at
fault--Author takes boat for the entrance of the Bondehus
Valley--The king of the waterfall--More glacier paths--An
extensive ice-house--These glorious palaces--How is the
harvest?--Laxe-stie--Struggle-stone--To Vikör--Östudfoss,
the most picturesque waterfall in Norway--An eternal crystal
palace--How to earn a pot of gold--Information for the
_Morning Post_--A parsonage on the Hardanger--Steamers for
the Fjords--Why living is becoming dearer in Norway--A
rebuke for the travelling English--Sunday morning--Peasants
at church--Female head-dresses--A Norwegian church
service--Christening--Its adumbration in heathen Norway--A
sketch for Washington Irving pp. 273-292

CHAPTER XV.

Up Steindalen--Thorsten Thormundson--Very near--Author’s
guide gives him a piece of agreeable information--Crooked
paths--Raune bottom--A great ant-hill--Author turns rainbow
manufacturer--No one at home--The mill goblin helps author out
of a dilemma--A tiny Husman--The dangers attending confirmation
in Norway--The leper hospital at Bergen--A melancholy
walk--Different forms of leprosy--The disease found to be
hereditary--Terrible instances of its effects--Ethnological
particulars respecting--The Bergen Museum--Delicate little
monsters--Fairy pots--The best bookseller in Bergen--Character
of the Danish language--Instance of Norwegian good-nature--New
flames and old fiddles pp. 293-315

CHAPTER XVI.

The safest day in the year for travelling--A
collision--Lighthouses on the Norwegian coast--Olaf the Holy
and the necromancers--The cathedral at Stavanger--A Norwegian
M.P.--Broad sheets--The great man unbends--Jaederen’s Rev--Old
friends at Christiansand--Too fast--The Lammer’s schism--Its
beneficial effects--Roman Catholic Propagandism--A thievish
archbishop--Historical memoranda at Frederickshal--The Falls
of the Glommen--A Department of Woods and Forests established
in Norway--Conflagrations--A problem, and how it was
solved--Author sees a mirage--Homewards pp. 316-327

THE OXONIAN IN THELEMARKEN.