COXE’s TRAVELS IN NORWAY.

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Many of the peafants derive their lineage from the ancient nobles, and fome evenfrom the royal line : they greatly pride themfelves on this fuppofed defcent, and arecareful not to give their children in marriage but to their equals in birth and blood.

A curious cuftom prevails in Norway , called odels rights or right of inheritance, bywhich the proprietor of freeholds may re-purchafe an eftate, which either he or any ofhis anceftors have fold, provided he can prove the title of his family. In order to en-force this right, his anceftors and he mull have declared every tenth year, at the fef-fions, that they lay claim to the eftate, but are unable to redeem it; and whenever heor his heirs, acquire a fufficient fum, then the poffeffor mud, on receiving the money,relinquilh the eftate to the odels-man. For this reafon, the peafants who are freeholderskeep a ftrift account of their pedigree. This cuftom is attended with advantages anddifad vantages. It fixes the affections of the peafant on his native place, and he improveswith pleafure thofe poffeffions which are fo ftrongly fecured to him, while it increafesthe confequence and excites the induftry of his family. On the contrary, the eftatelofes its value when fold to another perfon, becaufe, as the purchafer poffeffes only aprecarious tenure, he is not difpofed to improve the lands, as if he poffeffed the free-ho!d.

The Norwegian peafants poffefs much fpirit and fire in their manner, are frank andundaunted, yet not infolent j never fawning on their fuperiors, yet paying a proper re-fpedt to thofe above them. Their principal mode of falute is by offering their hand ;and when we gave or paid them a trifle, inftead of returning thanks by word or by abow, they fhook our hands with great franknefs and cordiality.

The peafants are well clothed and well lodged, and appear to poffefs more comfortsand conveniences than any which I have feen in the courfe of my travels, excepting infome parts of Switzerland . They weave their ordinary cloth and linen, and they makealfo a kind of ftuff like a Scotch plaid. The coats of the men are principally made of aftone-coloured cloth, and ornamented with red button-holes, and white metal buttons.The women, while employed in their houfehold affairs, frequently, as in Sweden , ap-pear only in a petticoat and fhift, with a collar reaching to the throat, and a black falhtied round the waift. Their linen is remarkably fine, and, as they are ufually well made,this mode of drefs difplays their figure to the higheft advantage.

The common food of the peafant is milk, cheefe, dried or falted filh, and fome-times, but rarely, flefli or dried meat, oatbread called fladbrod, baked in fmall cakesabout the fize and thicknefs of a pancake, which is ufually made twice a year. I obferveda woman employed in preparing it: having placed over the fire a round iron plate,(he took a handful of dough, and rolled it out with a rolling-pin to the fize of theplate; fhe then placed it on the plate, and baked it on one fide, then turned it with aftnall ftick. In this manner Ihe prepared a great number in lefs than a quarter of anhour, and I was informed that a woman, in a fingle day, can bake fufficient for the fa-mily during a whole year. In times of fcarcity, they alfo ufe the bark of trees, gene-rally of the fir ; this bark is dried before the fire, ground to powder, mixed with oat-meal, baked, and eat like bread ; it is bitterifh, and affords but little nourifhment. Asa luxury, the peafants eat Jharke or thin Jlices of meat, fprinkled with fait, and dried inthe wind, like hung beef; alfo a foup made like a hafty-pudding of oatmeal or barley-meal, which is rendered palatable, by adding a pickled herring or falted mackarel. Theufe of potatoes has been lately introduced ; but thofe roots do not grow to any fize in acountry where the fummer is fo fhort.

Fabricius strongly recommends, in times of fcarcity, the moffes and lichens, and par-ticularly the lichen ijlandicus , which yields a nourifhing fuftenance, and is commonlyufed for food in Iceland . Accord-