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192 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
ranean, and there on a Lye-way, late at night, fell upon
a solitary osteria chiefly resorted to by charcoal carriers.
The people of Surrendal seem all of the same family,
they resemble each other so closely in feature. They
are evidently poor, and the farms are small and
indifferently cultivated. I am beginning to find that Mr.
Laing’s description of the comforts and well-being of
the Norwegian peasantry is rather rose-coloured.
Smoked salmon is one of the commonest articles of
food in all the valleys through which large rivers flow;
it is invariably eaten raw, and the difficulty of breaking
through this custom and getting it cooked is immense.
At Ilonstadt, where I dined on the day following, raw
smoked salmon was brought to me, and I very
diffidently suggested to the hostess that I should prefer it
fried a little. She would listen to nothing of the kind,
and told me many times over that it was rökd* (smoked),
that she liked it rükd without frying, and her husband
liked it the same; and she intimated that if I did not
like what she and her husband and other people did, I
must be a disreputable character. This sort of despotism
is common to women of all nations, and its universal
existence is my main argument against strong-minded
women who advocate a female House of Commons.
The persecutions I have had to endure because 1
usually drink cold water at breakfast, are too incredible
to narrate. I have heard a lady, otherwise gentle and
kind-hearted, assert to my face that a man who does not
love tea and coffee and drink it like other people is an
* Pronounced reeked: hence the Scottish word r:ek.
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