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286 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
riders’ skulls at every step; but they did neither while I
was looking on.
The relation of these housemen, or farm-labourers, in
Norway, to the bonder, or freehold peasant farmer, is
peculiar and interesting. They hold cottages and
patches of land, generally sufficient to support two
cows and some sheep, and to grow sufficient rye, barley,
or oats for the consumption of the family. These
sub-farms, as they may be called, are usually situated on
the skirts of the bonder’s farm, and are held under him
at a fixed rent for a term of two lives—that of the
houseman and his widow. The houseman is under an
obligation of furnishing a certain number of days’
work 011 the bonder’s farm, at a fixed rate of wages:
usually about threepence or fourpence per day, with
victuals. The houseman can give up his land and
remove, on giving six months’ notice, and in such case
is entitled to the value of house, buildings, &c., he has
erected at his own expense; but the landlord cannot
remove him, or his widow, so long as the stipulated
services are rendered and the rent paid. The unmarried
sons and daughters of the housemen are usually
employed as day labourers, 011 the main farm or that of
their parents. The eldest son of a houseman commonly
succeeds his father by a sort of customary inheritance,
which in some districts is so usual as to amount to a
sort of tenant-right. A labourer is not considered in a
condition to marry respectably until he has obtained
a houseman’s situation and allotment; and the pastor of
the parish commonly refuses to marry a couple that is
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