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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
uninterestingly monotonous, for the subject is not' made up of many items of variety. The country is very poor, and poverty is the great source of the simplicity of the manners and of the monotonousness of the life of the people. Want of communication also leads to repetition day after day of the same domestic occupations, only varied in detail, according to the rotating change of the seasons.
As spring comes round the sedentary life of winter dissolves itself into agricultural activity, in which women and men take almost an equal share. At this most changeful season great care is bestowed on the lambs and ewes, of which the former fall victims in hundreds almost every spring, to the inclemency of the temperature. Sheep-shearing at this time is also attended to by almost everybody. It is not correct, however, to call it shearing, as no shears are used, the fleece being secured by taking it off the sheep while they are shedding their coat, and the new wool is growing underneath thick enough to give the animal sufficient cover against the cold winds and chilling rains. This mode of securing the wool is not only less cruel but it yields infinitely superior wool.
A more romantic occupation at spring-time is the ingathering of the eggs and down of the eider-down from the many islands thatsurround the coast of Iceland. Merry expeditions by men and women and children are undertaken, in boats, to the islands, and the lovely ducks are deprived of a certain number of their eggs, and a small part of the down, which, from the motherly breast, they pluck for the protection of the forthcoming brood, while it is becoming accustomed to the hard life in store for it. It is a most beautiful sight to see the eider-duck, sitting by the thousands on these islands, and so tame are they, that one can go among them, stroking their backs, without their showing any fear; the reason is that they are never molested, or shot at any time. A very heavy punishment is imposed on any one killing an eider-duck, so few would run the risk, even if so disposed. The reason that the Icelandic eider-down is so infinitely superior to any other down is, that it is the down which the duck herself plucks from her breast to line the nest with, so it is living down, not plucked cruelly by human hands, or rather inhuman, but by herself when “ ripe.” When the duck leaves the nest ältogether, with her young ones, the down is gathered from the nests, and after going through a slow and difficult process of cleaning, it is an item of export, which adds a considerable income to the owners of the islands.
The last out-of-door occupation of spring is the journey to the trading stations, called lestir, when the country-folks bring on the back of their small ponies, in long cavalcades, the proceeds of their farms, such as wool, tallow, down, skins, butter, etc., to be exchanged for bread-stuff, and other necessaries of life. Returning home from this expedition, active preparations for the hay-making begin. During the time of hay-making, I think very few people in the world enjoy less sleep than the Icelandic mowers. They go at it before sunrise, or about I o’clock in the morning, continuing until about 12 »at night, with only a break of about one or two hours in the middle of the day. This is the main business of the summer, going on without interruption day after day, until about the middle of September. While the mowers only busy themselves with cutting the grass, women of the household divide their activity between the buverk, or household work; that is, house cleaning, cooking, milking and other dairy work, and the raking up of the thinly spread hay as it falls before the mowers’ scythe, into what is called flecks, or patches, spread about to a certain thickness to dry. When the fine grass of the “ tun,” or home-fields, has been secured, especially if the season is fine, a treat is given to the household, called todngjold and the day is observed as a holiday, the only one allowed (weekday) through the summer.
Toward the end of September, autumn or fall begins to make its appearance. The birds of passage, which are mostly treated as long-looked-for friends, and allowed to enjoy their summer visit in peace, now take their departure. The wildernesses of the country are cleared, and the sheep, which have roamed about them at. large during the summer, are driven down by systematically arranged gangs of men, com-