A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden Part 23

The same dull, faint, long cry, fell on our ears; but we took no heed of it, for our native companion said it was the signal shout of huntsmen in the mountains.

"Did you ever find the old woman's body?" I asked.

"Ja," the Norwegian answered, twisting his quid from the left to the right cheek, "she vas foundtz; and vat is droltz de bags of flour she have in de praam, dough dey been long timetz in de vater, vere quite drytz--de middle quite drytz."

"And what did you do with them?" I asked.

"I eatz dem," said my friend.

Again the long, low cry stole mournfully through the still air, and it moaned like a melancholy spirit of the night that had been left behind by its fellow spirits, as they hurried from earth at dawn of day, and which, concealing itself in some mountain cavern, was wailing their absence, and telling the torture it suffered from the glaring light.

"I say, old c.o.c.k, have you any goblins in this place?" asked R----, walking close up to the Norwegian, and blowing the smoke from his pipe so voluminously in the little man's face, that he coughed till he nearly spat his quid out of the window.

"Nej, nej," replied the Norwegian, as soon as he could breathe to speak, in a tone of surprise that R---- should suppose such a thing. The Norwegians are superst.i.tious, and believe as confidently in ghosts, as I do in the heat of fire.

"What the devil then," continued R----, "is that confounded groaning about? Some fellow has committed murder. You had better go and see."

"Nej, nej," remonstrated the Norwegian, scratching his head, and moving nervously in his chair at the suggestion. The Norwegian was stable as his mountains; and R----, laughing at the man's apparent terror, resumed his seat, and increased the generation of his genuine Latakia tobacco-smoke.

It was now mid-day; and the hollow sounding tread of human feet clad thickly, made R---- and me turn our eyes towards the threshold of the cottage. Cased, like a shrimp-catcher, up to his hips in water-proof boots, his landing-net, gaff, and fishing-rod, borne on his left shoulder, P----, the very picture of impersonated anger, stood before us. Dashing landing-net, gaff, fly-book, and his only fly-rod on the table, regardless of crockery,

"A pretty trick you have played me!" he thundered out. We had never given P---- a thought until the moment we saw him, nor did we, for one instant, remember that, like Robinson Crusoe, he had been left on a desert rock, and that the doleful cry might be his.

"It's now twelve," P---- continued angrily, "and you have quietly eaten your breakfast, and allowed me to remain on that rock since six o'clock."

"But my dear fellow," said R----, "could you not call for the boat?"

"And what have I been doing these four hours?" P---- exclaimed. "No; it's just like you both; if you can satisfy your confounded selfishness, the devil may take any one else's comfort."

"A boat would have put off to you," persisted R----, "if you had hailed some of the workmen about."

"What nonsense that is," said P----, with wrath. "Do you think I stood there like a fool, and held my tongue? Of course I hailed every one I saw; but I should like to know who could hear me, stuck, as I was, close under that Fall."

"Well, my dear fellow," answered R----, in a pacifying tone, "I tell you the truth, I never thought of you until I saw your face at that door."

"That's just what I say; so long as you are comfortable, every one else may go to the deuce;" and P---- snapped his finger, and walked to the window. "Besides that," he added, "I am your guest, and ent.i.tled to look for a little more respect."

"Oh! hang the respect," replied R----, quickly.

"Then you may fish alone," said P----; "for I'll be hanged if I will stand being treated in this kind of way. Suppose, for one moment, you had been in my place, and I had forgotten you, what would you have said and felt? the case is the same."

"Why didn't you come ash.o.r.e with me?" R---- asked, getting rather testy himself; "am I your nurse? Am I to wait and watch for you?"

"Yes, you ought," said P----; "I would have done it for you. I can't fish and have my eyes about me, in all quarters, at the same time. I think it cursed unmannerly of you both."

R---- looked at me with one of his comic faces, and I looked at him.

"As to my manners," R---- answered aloud, "whether they be vulgar, or whether they be genteel, I take no credit to myself; for an extra allowance was made for my education, that I should be polished brightly like a gentleman, and if you perceive a failure on that score, the fault is not mine, but the preparatory school's. Moreover, if a man has any mental, or personal defect, it is hardly fair to make allusion to it, and by wounding his feelings to seek the gratification of anger."

R---- gave me a wink, as much as to say, "I have the weather-gage of him." P---- spoke not in reply; but continued standing at the window, and, with his back to us, looking out upon the fatal rock and cataract.

"We have left you a couple of eggs," observed R---- pacifically.

"You had better send them back to the hen to be hatched," P---- replied.

"Come, my dear fellow," continued R----, "don't let such a little thing part us. Your being left on the rock was quite an oversight. Exercise a christian spirit, and drink this delicious coffee."

Pouring out a cup of coffee, R---- held up the Norwegian wine-bottle of milk by its long neck, and said to P----, "do you like a little, or a good deal, of milk?"

"Oh! middling;" and moving from the window, P---- walked towards the table.

"There," said R----, pushing the cup across to P----, "there's some real Mocha for you."

P---- raised the cup to his lips.

"Capital!" he exclaimed, taking breath after a long pull.

"So it is!" reiterated R----, expelling a tremendous and satisfactory cloud of smoke that took the shape of a balloon, and ascending towards the cottage beams, puzzled me, by its great dilatation, to think, how such a gigantic volume of sooty exhalation, as Dr. Johnson would say, could be compressed into a small compa.s.s, like R----'s mouth.

When pacification took place, and conciliatory explanations were made over and over again, R---- and P----, tumbling out their flies, commenced to repair those that had been damaged by the fish, and manufactured others, more suitable to the transparent water, and the timidity of the salmon. While they were thus engaged, I loitered about in the open air.

The day was hot to oppression; and it required no flight of the imagination to forget that the country was Norway, and fancy myself in the interior of Congo. Numerous insects, that flew with a droning noise about me, and a mult.i.tude of adders basking in the sun, or hurrying through the gra.s.s as I approached, gave new force to the illusion.

In the afternoon R---- and P---- caught thirty or forty salmon between them. Such success made them determine to remain for some days longer at Boom; but being desirous of a change of scene, as well as recreation, I returned to the yacht, and sleeping on board that night, went the next morning to Christiansand.

It was the 24th of June, known as St. John's Day; and on my arrival at Christiansand, I learned that the festival was commemorated with great ceremony by the Norwegians. Along the tops of the mountains, ever where the eye wandered, piles of f.a.ggots, and old boats were collected together, like funeral pyres. Men and women, children and dogs, congregated in mult.i.tudes around them, watching for the set of sun; and when the weary G.o.d sank down to rest, and with closing lids gave darkness to the earth, a hundred bonfires simultaneously blazing forth on the summits of the mountains, strove to reach his throne in the meridian, and imitate the day. The sight was certainly fine, but could not be compared with an ancient warlike and similar custom among the Scottish Highlanders.

I called on some ladies and gentlemen whom I knew at Christiansand, and learned a usage prevalent among the Norwegians, that should still more endear their simplicity of heart, and the truthfulness of their character, since it is void of all the artfulness and social fiction of England. Approaching the house of a family, from the different members of which we had received much kindness and hospitality, a servant met me at the door, and while she was endeavouring to explain how much her mistress was engaged, the eldest daughter of my fair hostess made her appearance, and extending her hand to me, said, shaking her head,

"Herr, kan icca ta imod;" which meant, that I could not be received.

This is the usual phrase; and it tells you the simple fact, that the lady of the house is at home, but her domestic occupations press upon her so much at the moment, that she is unable to receive you.

CHAPTER XV.

SAILING UP THE GRON FIORD--DANGEROUS SWELL--EXCURSION ASh.o.r.e--TROUT-FISHING--MOUNTAIN SCENERY--ANT-HILLS-- HAZARDOUS DRIVE--THE SCOTTISH EMIGRANT--MISERABLE LODGING--CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY--A VILLAGE PATRIARCH--COSTUME OF THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE--ARRIVAL AT FaeDDE.

On Wednesday, the 30th, we left Boom, having, during the ten days R---- and P---- had remained there, caught two hundred and sixty-four salmon.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, we landed at Christiansand for an hour, to arrange a few accounts, and then sailed for the Gron Fiord.

The night was calm, and the sea smooth as a mirror. At noon the following day, we were once more in sight of the Naze, and, signalling for a pilot, elicited an instant answer from a solitary cottage standing on the barren promontory. The swell was terrific; and as soon as the pilot could contrive to scramble on board, we ran the vessel up the lesser channel of the Gron Fiord to escape the sea. The violence of the waves was more dangerous, as scarcely a breath of wind filled the sails; and we were apprehensive that a huge spar like the boom swinging to and fro, would carry away the mast by the board.

Leaving directions with D---- that the yacht should meet us in the Faedde Fiord, R---- suggested that we should take an excursion inland. The proposal was no sooner given than it was taken up gladly; and hiring a mountaineer for our guide, who had jostled himself on board to see all that he could, we started in the gig for a small village, the name of which I forget, about sixteen miles further up the Fiord. What with rowing, and sailing, under the favour of sudden puffs of wind which nearly capsized us a dozen times, we came in sight of the village at five o'clock in the afternoon. The sail thither was very beautiful; the lofty mountains on all sides giving the Fiord the romantic calmness and changing shadows of a beautiful lake. The water, too, so clear and shallow, left our minds at ease when the frequent gusts of warm air breathed heavily on our sail, and made us regard their sallies down the different ravines rather as the cause of sport, than the effect of mischief.

Being without a forbud, or courier, we waited for horses, as a consequence, several hours at a post-house on the bank of the Fiord.