CHAP. V.

Journey through Mulè Syssels-Icelandic Psalmbook-Bridge and Basket-Punishment for neglect of Education-Eskifiord-Holmar-Bewildered on Stapsheide-Mountains of Breiddal-Visit Eydal-Berufiord-Factory of Diupavog-Circulating Libraries-Rich Minerals -Hammarsfiord-Starmyra-LonsheidiStafafell Yökulsá i Lon.

On the 23d of August, about noon, I bade adieu to the kind and interesting family at Hof, and set off on the road to Eskifiord, accompanied by the Dean, who conducted me across the Hofsá and Sunnudalsá, two considerable rivers, which are, for the most part, supplied from the snow-mountains, and join a little below this place. Having skirted the south bank of the Sunnudalsá for some time, and passed a magnificent cataract, the path turned off to the left, and, leading us across a soft swampy tract, brought us to a very steep and winding ascent, on the east side of the Fossá, or Cataract River. We were here obliged to dismount, and lead our horses up the

mountain. As we ascended, I was every moment charmed with the finest cascades, down which a great quantity of water was poured, with resistless fury; and, what tended to heighten their grandeur, was the immense depth at which they lay; the pools by which the most of them were received being upwards of a hundred feet below the brink of the gully along which we passed. In many places the road approached so close to the margin, that there was great danger of the horses missing a foot, and sliding into the abyss.

In the course of two hours we gained the summit of the ascent, and entered on a long dreary mountain-tract, called Smörvatsheide, which presented nothing worthy of notice, except, now and then, a collection of water, and large masses of snow, and a stream of lava, which, lying so high, and being surrounded by so many irregu lar hills, must have issued from some volcano in the immediate vicinity of the heide. As the mist was pretty close, and it rained heavily, the ride proved very uncomfortable. About seven o'clock, we reached the south end of the heide, from which we had to descend along the side of a precipice, still more steep than that at the north end; and, on reaching the foot, we soon found ourselves surrounded by bogs, which stretched a considerable way south. Continuing still to descend through alternate tracts of stones and morass, we arrived, a little before twilight, at a rich farm, called Fossvöllum, or the Cataract Plains, from the noble cataract close behind the

houses. Independent of the contrast formed by the dreariness of the heide, the landscape, at this place, presented one of the most beautiful rural scenes I had met with on my journey. The troubled waters, dashing over a precipice of rugged rocks, both sides of which are lined with verdant meads; the gentle elevations which encircle the plains; the stately appearance of the farm; the extent and verdure of the tún, and the number of sheep, cows, and horses, that were feeding in every direction, produced altogether an effect the most lively and pleasing. I pitched my tent at the margin of the river, about half a stone-cast from the cataract, and was soon lulled asleep by the sounds of the struggling

stream.

It being late ere the mowers quitted the scythe, I did not see the proprietor (Rusticus Biörnson,) till early the following morning, when he paid me a visit in my tent, and told me he was quite angry with me for not having slept in the house. He possesses a copy of Gudbrand's Bible, together with two copies of the New Testament, published 1807; yet he gave me a commission for a Bible and four New Testaments, which he intended giving as presents to some poor people in his service. Of the new Psalm-book he complained sadly, but the principal argument he used against it was, that "he was an old man, and was fond of old things." For upwards of two hundred years, the only Psalm-book used in the Icelandic church was that known by the name of Grallarann, which first appeared in 4to, in the

year 1594, and which, besides a number of antiquated and vulgar expressions, contained passages that were unintelligibly mystical, and others, containing sentiments which must necessarily have offended the ears of such as were accustomed to reflection, and the habitual study of the Scriptures. With a view to the removal of this evil, orders were given, in the year 1784, to the two Bishops, to prepare a better collection; and, about ten years afterwards, on the institution of the Royal Icelandic Society for the advancement of knowledge in the country, the completion of the work was committed to that Society under the direction of the learned Bishop of Skalholt. This prelate not only desired such as had attained to some degree of celebrity for poetical talent, but also all who felt so disposed, to send to the Society such psalms, either originals or translations, as they might deem worthy of insertion; and after the Bishop's death, the revision and selection of the psalms came into the hands of Bishop Vidalin, and Chief Justice Stephensen, and a new Psalm-book was published at Leirár, gördum, 1801, and introduced into the church service, agreeably to an order of the Danish Chancery. On its first appearance, it met with considerable opposition, not only from the peasants, but also from several of the clergy; and there are many parishes in which it has not been received to this day. *

* See preface, and Chief Justice Stephensen's "Iceland in the eighteenth century," p. 253.

Indeed, when it is considered, that in modernising the old psalms, they have not merely been purged from obsolete and offensive words, but that the passages celebrating the divinity of the Son of God; the value and all-sufficiency of his atonement; the influences of the Holy Spirit, &c. have either been omitted, or altered so as to give a very cold and partial view of these doctrines, it cannot be matter of surprise with those, who adhere to," the faith once delivered to the saints," to find, that such of the Icelanders as are in the habit of bringing all things in religion to the test of Scripture, prefer the old psalm, book, with all its faults, to one in a high degree favourable to the tenets of Socinianism. An instance is mentioned by Mr. Hooker*, but I believe it is a solitary one, of Pope's Universal Prayer being introduced into the psalmody of an Icelandic church; from which he argues the liberality of sentiment entertained by the party concerned in its introduction. It must be allowed, the combination of "Jehovah, Jupiter, and Drottinn,” in an act of professedly Christian worship, was liberality with a witness! Its counterpart is only to be found in the annals of atheism, during the awful period of the Revolution at Paris; and gives us occasion to repeat the apos, tolic inquiry: What concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols ?" 2 Corinth. vi. 15, 16.

Journal of a Tour in Iceland, vol. I. p. 279.