Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/370

 3 1 6 Collectanea.

Most of the peasants have never journeyed outside the valley, and they make at home nearly all that they require. In nearly every house there is a loom, and every woman has a spinning wheel. They live almost entirely on oatmeal, coffee, dried fish, and salt meat (generally pork, but sometimes mutton and reindeer). Very few even grow potatoes. They still keep up many of the old customs, even with strangers, and particularly the shaking of hands on receiving a present and after meals. They behave with much ceremony at table, and, whenever one visits them, they say, " Takforsidsf' ("Thanks for your last visit"), the correct reply being ''^ Jeg skal takke " (" It is for me to thank "). They lead a newcomer indoors, and generally offer coffee and milk. He is addressed at once by his Christian name, as the " surname " is not understood, the only second name of a peasant being that of the farm at which, if a man, he was born, or into which, if a woman, she has been married.

The simple religious faith of the country has probably destroyed many of the old fears and superstitions, but it has also often become mixed up with them. One of the peasants told me that he had once seen the " Evil One " and hidden himself in great terror, and that it is wise to learn to say the Lord's Prayer backwards as a spell against evil.^ However, he also told m^e that our party would be safe from all evil and ill luck, as we were living on the lands of a good man who read the Bible to his household and " talks to the Man above." He said that his father was present at the ringing of the church bells mentioned in the story of TAe Stolen Daughter of the Pastor. Most of the old folk refuse to say whether they have seen huldre or not, but nearly always say that their grandmothers saw them. One of the old women said that her grandmother had seen a little girl with a big white cap sitting on a stone, who suddenly disappeared, and that a mysterious horse had galloped round her house at night.

I have to thank Dr. Feilberg for his kindness in reading the proof and assisting me in difficult passages. The notes initialled F. were made by him.

^ Compare No. 5 of the stories below.