og öðrum útbunaði, allt meira enn efni hans leyfa, safna fyrir þá sök skuldum og lenda loks í díflissu; œ, segi eg þá, hann hefur drýkeypt, mjög drýkeypt hljóðpípu sína.

þegar eg sje fagra, blíðlynda meyju, gefna illum og hroðalegum svola; mikil hörmung er það, segi eg þá, að hún skuli hafa gefið svona mikið fyrir eina hljóðpípu.

I stuttu máli, eg komst að raun um að mikill hluti af eydum manna kemur af því að þeir meta ranglega gildi hluta, og gefa of mikið fyrir hljóðpípur sínar.

For "Story of a Whistle," the Iceland translator gives as the heading of this article, " Hljóthpipan "-" The Lay of the Pipe." These extracts from Icelandic literature are undoubtedly very interesting! If not so readily perused as our English, they at least show the literary taste of the Icelanders, and something of the variety and style of their composition. Here is an extract from a newspaper published in Reykjavik a few days after I left; a copy of which I received by mail after arriving in New York,

From the þjoðolfur* of Aug. 20, 1852.

Eptirfylgjandi GREIN bað ferðamaðurinn herra PLINY MILES rektor herra BJARNA JÓNSSON að láta prenta í þjóðólfi, og senda honum svo til Vesturheims.

Herra Pliny Miles, Vesturheimsmaður og meðlimur Sagnafjelagsins Nýju Jórvik, hefur um hríð dvalið á Islandi og farið víða um hjeröð landsins. Hann hefur skoðað Geisir, litla Geisir, brennisteinnámurnar í Krisivik, og han kom up á tindinn á Heklu. Herra Miles hefur skoðað og aðætt nokkrar bækur landsins, og hefur hann haft heim með sjer til Vesturheims nokkrar islenzkar bækur. Stiptsbókasafnið hefur sent böggul af bókum þjóðbókasafni Vesturheims, er Smithson er höfundur að, til endurgjalds fyrir dýrar bækur, er stiptsbókasafnið hafði nýlega fengið frá bókasafni Smithsons. Herra Miles siglir á póstskipinu til meginlands Norðurálfunnar, og tjáir hann sig mikillega ánægðan me ðallt, sem hann hefur sjeð út á Islandi.

A translation of this is scarcely required, as its purport can be readily seen. It is a short article written by Mr. Bjarni Johnson, for the THIOTHOLFUR, and giving an account of the author's visit to Iceland.

In the Icelandic, whole sentences from other languages are

"The Statesman."

thrown into one word. The word Vesturheimsmathur, fully translated, is a man who has his home on the western continent. It goes on to speak of this native of the West, as a member of the New York Historical Society-" Sagnafjelagsins"-and that, during a somewhat rainy period, he visited Iceland, travelled through the interior of the country, went to the Geyser, the little Geyser, the Sulphur Mountains-" brennisteinnàmurnar" of Krisuvik, and climbed to the top of Hekla. It speaks of the visit as a pleasant one, and that on the return of the traveller to America-" Vesturheims"-he took some books from the Iceland public library-"stiptsbókasafnith"-as a present to the American Smithsonian library, in return for a similar present formerly received from Smithson's. Then he journeyed on the mail packet-"póstskipinu"-to the continent of Europe, after a long tour and an agreeable stay in Iceland.

This shall close our extracts. Lest some may think that the writer of this volume is an enthusiast, and overrates the value of Icelandic literature, the following statement is quoted from the preface to the English translation of Rask's Icelandic Grammar, by Hon. George P. Marsh, and shows the high estimate formed of the language and literature of the Northmen, by this eminent linguist :—

"The translator cannot here enter upon so copious a subject as the character and value of the literature of Iceland; and it must suffice to remark, that in the opinion of those most competent to judge, it has never been surpassed, if equalled, in all that gives value to that portion of history which consists of spirited delineations of character, and faithful and lively pictures of events among nations in a rude stato of society.

"That the study of the Old-Northern tongue may have an important bearing on English grammar and etymology, will be obvious, when it is known that the Icelandic is most closely allied to the Anglo-Saxon, of which so few monuments are extant; and a slight examination of its structure, and remarkable syntactical character, will satisfy the reader, that it may well deserve the attention of the phi-. lologist."

CHAPTER XXVII.

MATTERS PERSONAL, LITERARY, AND GENERAL.

THE Icelanders, as I have pictured them, are intellectual in their tastes; and in domestic life they are highly social. Their amusements are few, their enjoyments being principally in the family, at their labour, and attending public worship. Throughout the country, they gather from a circuit of many miles, to hear their ministers proclaim "glad tidings," and tell them of the reward that awaits a well-spent life. In the long winter evenings, one member of the family reads aloud, while the others are engaged in domestic duties, spinning, weaving, knitting, and making clothing and domestic utensils, in which the males as well as the females all engage. In their personal demeanour, the Icelanders are generally quiet, sober, and somewhat taciturn; though some of them that I have seen, have had a great deal of vivacity, and large conversational powers. A love of amusement, and fondness for sport, is not common. Some that have visited foreign countries, have returned home so impressed with their experience of the great and busy world, that they have infused a spirit of activity and inquiry into the whole circle where they move. They tell of one man, an Icelander, who got off to the continent, and went through all the wars of Napoleon, and after many years returned to his native land. He was so glad to see his own good island, that he fell down and embraced the soil, and declared, in the words of the national proverb, "Iceland is the best country the sun shines upon.”* *« Island er hinn besta land, sem solinn skinnar uppá.”

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MATTERS PERSONAL, LITERARY, AND GENERAL.

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With all that the poor soldier had seen of the luxury and variety of foreign countries, there was, to him, "no place like home." When the Icelander is fond of conversation, in the presence of strangers he rather listens than talks. They come well up to Dr. Johnson's favourite character, a good listener. When a foreigner calls at the house of an Icelander, he attends first to the personal wants of his guest; then he is desirous of learning all the stranger has to communicate. He is shrewd and inquisitive, and asks the most pertinent and ingenious questions, and never rests satisfied till he has learned with great minuteness all that the stranger has to tell him respecting the great world, and the foreign countries he has seen. He is always most respectful and obliging, and ready to communicate information, and answer questions about every thing relating to his country or pursuits. He seems to appreciate the greater amount of wealth and luxury abroad, and the superior magnificence andsplendour of cities like Copenhagen, Paris, London, or New York, as compared to his own small towns; yet his amor patriæ and contentment make him superior to all temptations to emigrate. His industry, fondness for reading and conversing, his great integrity of character, a devotional spirit, and ardent love for the precepts and practices of Christianity-these, with his contentment and love of liberty, are the most prominent characteristics of the Icelander. They do not show much fondness for exact science, though they pay some attention to the studies of geography and natural history. Having no fuel but turf— except what is imported-none of the precious or useful metals, no material, except wool, for the manufacture of textile fabrics, raising no fruits or grain, and having little use for water or steam-power, they have few incentives to exert themselves in acquiring a knowledge of chemistry, mineralogy, geology, electricity, magnetism, hydraulics, pneumatics, or many of the mechanic and useful arts. "Circumstances make men," or bring out certain traits of character; and the Icelandic forms no ex

ception to the general rule. We see how he is placed. Obtaining his subsistence from the products of the earth and the sea, engaged little in traffic, he does not experience much of the fraud and wrong that is found in the busy haunts of men; and in him we see little but the gentle and better characteristics of our nature. The Icelander is poor, and books are to him a luxury; yet he possesses more, in proportion to his means, than the natives of any other country. We shall see by comparison, and looking at facts, what their intellectual resources are. The number of books, of all sizes, published in Iceland in each of the years 1847 and 1848, was seventeen-thirty-four volumes in two years; and these for a community of 60,000 people. Were there as many in proportion printed for our population of twenty-five millions, the number of books-distinct works independent of periodicals-published annually in the United States, would be over seven thousand. Most of the Iceland books are duodecimos and octavos; the largest volume for the year 1847 contained 928 pages. This was a sort of "Congressional Globe," though not issued in numbers—a record of the proceedings of their Althing or Congress.* This seems like a pretty lengthy journal of a session that lasted but little over a month. They passed a number of acts of much importance to the people; and very likely the session was enlivened with as many "speeches to Buncombe," as we hear in the same length of time on Capitol Hill.

Some of the works published in Icelandic, are issued from the press in Copenhagen; but the majority of them are printed and bound in Iceland. They have several printing-presses constantly at work, and three newspapers-one issued once a week, and two once a fortnight. In mechanical execution, their books and newspapers are turned out in better style than the average of those issued from the American press. They are, however, always without illustrations.

*“Tiðindi frà Alþingi. Annað þing, 1 Juli til 7 Agust 1847.”