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VON TROIL’S LETTERS ON ICELAND. 655
(a) is the door or entrance of the long lobby ; (bbb) is about fix feet broad, and ad-
wits the light through fome holes in the roof, upon which a hoop, with a fkin ftretched
over it, is laid. At the end of the lobby isa room (c) where the women do their
work, and where the mafter of the houfe generally fleeps with his wife. ‘The walls of
this room are wainfcoted ; it has a ceiling and floor, fometimes even fmall glafs win-
dows, but no fire-place. On both fides of this long lobby are four rooms, two on
each fide, of which (d) is the kitchen, (e) the room made ufe of to eat in, (f) the
dairy, and (g) the-fervant’s room: thefe rooms have neither ceilings nor floors, and
the walls are feldom or never lined. The windows are made of the chorion (likiar-
belgur) andmnios of fheep (vatzbelgur), or the membranes which furround the womb
of theewe. ‘Ihefe are ftretched over a hoop, and laid over an opening in the roof,
upon which a wooden fhutter is let down, if the weather be ftormy. hey have not
even a chimney in the kitchens, and only lay their fuel between three ftones, and the
{moke ifues froma fquare hole in the roof. Befides this houfe, they have a booth or
fhed to keep their fith in (emma), fometimes another for their clothes, &c. &c. and
not far off the {table for their cattle. In the poorer fort of houfes, they employ for
the windows the inner membrane of the ftomach of animals, and which they call
Jeena ; this is not fo tranfparent as the beforementioned membrane.
LETTER IX.—tTo mrs. CARLSON.
Of the Food of the Icelanders.
Gothenburg, March 20.
TuoucH it cannot afford any great pleafure to examine the manner in which the
Icelanders prepare their food, particularly after having fo lately tafted at your table all
the dainties of the four parts of the globe; I will, neverthelels, perform my promiie
in communicating to you a defcription of it. Methinks I fee you fometimes difdaining
their difhes; but, I affure you, an Icelander is not lefs happy for being unable to feafon
his food with the produétions of a diftant climate; he is content with what nature af-
fords him, fatisfies the cravings of his ftomach, and enjoys his health, whilft we fre-
quently furfeit ourfelves by feafting on delicacies, and loathe the moit wholefome food.
The larders and pantries of the Icelanders are feldom fo well ftored as to contain
every one of the articles at one time, which I am going to mention; fome of them,
however, they muft be abfolutely provided with, as their food entirely confiits of the
following articles.
Bread of feveral forts, chiefly four bifcuit * from Copenhagen ; but they have not
much of this, as it is too dear for them; they content themfelves therefore with pro-
viding it for weddings, and other entertainments, | Some, in{tead of it bake themfelves
bread of flour of rye, though they likewife get fome from Copenhagen. The manner
* In molt northern countries the inhabitants live on rye-bread ; the flour taken to prepare it is feldom
bolted, and it is commonly prepared with four ferment or leven, which gives the bread an acidulated taite,
difagreeable, and refilling the ftomachs of wea perfons, but palatable and wholefome to thofe of a ftrong
conititution, The four palte communicates an agreeable acidity to this bread; and as the northern cli-
mates, on account of their long winters, and the confinement of people in heated rooms fall of noxious eflu-
via, as well on account of the chiefly falt-meat diet of the inhabitants, make the people inclined to the
feurvy; this acidulated bread, the four-crout, and in Ruffia their four drink called Guafs, afford fuch
powerful antifeptics, that with the diet here defcribed, the feurvy feldom or ever gains ground among the
people. Thefe {cur bifcuits, no doubt, are likewife made of rye-flour, or of rye and wheat mixed together,
ground without bolting, and acidulated by fermentation with four leven, :
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