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624 VON TROIL.’S LETTERS ON ICELAND.
duced among the mountains ; and what can be more calculated to form a poet, than
wild romantic and enchanting fcenes of nature, which are here fo pleafingly blended.
It would be tedious to enumerate all the ifles we have vifited. The moft remarkable
are Oranfay and Columfkill, on account of their antiquities; Scarba, for its known
water-drain, (Vatta-drag) ; and Staffa, on account of its natural pillars, which hitherto
have been little known, and furpafs whatever has been obferved before of the kind.
You know, Sir; that the-inhabitants of thefe ifles, as well as in the Highlands of
Scotland, havea language of their own, which they call Erfe, and which is a remnant
of the Celtic. In this language Oflian wrote his admirable poems; and though the in-
habitants cannot at prefent produce any thing comparable to them, yet I hope, on my
return home, to give you proofs of their being able to write both with elegance and
fentimental feelings. As it is very extraordinary that this language fhould have pre-
ferved itfelf here fo long*, it will perhaps not be difagreeable to you to be more parti-
cularly acquainted of the limits within which it is confined. I will readily fketch them
out to you, being able to do it with fo much the more certainty, having received my in-
formation from Mr. Macpherfon, the only man in England who has particularly ftudied
this language.
It begins to be fpoken on the eaftern fide at Nairn, and extends from thence through
the whole country, and all the weftern ifles. In the north its limits are at Caithnefs,
where Erfe is only fpoken in four parifhes out of ten; in the other fix, better Englifh
is fpoken than in any other part of Scotland. ‘There isin Ireland another diale& of it,
as well as in Wales and Britany ; however, they are not fo different, but a man born in
either of thefe provinces, may make himfelf underftood in the others. Had I been ac-
quainted with the language of the Dalikarlians, I fhould have had an opportunity of
examining how far that fimilarity is founded which, as it appeared to my ear, fubfifts
between thefe two languages. -
The country abounds with northern antiquities, fuch as caftles, ftrong-holds, bury-
ing-places, and monuments, (Bautafteinar); and the people, who are obliging and
extremely hofpitable, have a number of cuftoms refembling thofe obferved by our
country-people, fuch as the celebration of the firft of May +, and many others.
We now left thefe iflands, and continuing our voyage arrived at laft, on the twenty-
eighth of Augult, at Iceland, where we caft anchor at Befleftedr, formerly the dwelling-
* The very little conneGtion which the antient inhabitants of the Scots Highlands and of the Hebrides
had with other nations /elpecially ‘before the Union, which has in every refpeét been beneficial to them) is
the true caufe that the Erfe language has fo long been preferved among them. Befides thefe reafons there
is another, which accounts almoft forthem all; the poverty of the foil and inclemency of climate admit of
very little cultivation, fo that thefe parts have very few natural productions which might tempt foreigners
tovifit them: fome few gifts of nature are, no doubt, lodged in the bofom of the Scots hills ; but hitherto
indolence and want of induftry in the natives have neglected thefe riches : within a few years only it is that
commerce has begun to raife its head, which alone induces other nations to frequent this or any country.
It is therefore not fo very extraordinary, that in a mountainous country the remains of ancient nations
fhould be found, who long preferve their language. In the Caucafus are flill exifting the pofterity of
feveral nations who ecroffed thefe mountains in theira’tempt to conquer Afia and Europe, and within a
{mall compafs, more than five or fix different languages are fpoken.
} Itis called in Sweden war Fruday ; le jour de notre Dame, our Lady’s Day. The witches are fup-
poled to take, in the night preceding that day, their flight to Blakulla, a famous mountain ; but it was
formerly believed in Germany, thet the witches travelled to the Bloxberg or Brocken, a high mountain
contiguous to the Hartz foreft. In Sweden the {pring comes on about this time, and of confequence the
hard labour of ploughing, mowing, and reaping follow one another from that time, and require the beft
exertion of the flrength of the hufbandmen, to which they prepare themfelves on this day by frequent
libations of their trong ale, and they wfually fay, Mafe man dricka marg i benen ; You mutt drink marrow
in your bones.
place
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