Excerpt from Travels in Iceland: Performed by Order of His Danish Majesty; Containing Observation on the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, a Description of the Lakes, Rivers, Glaciers, Hot-Springs, and Volcanoes; Of the Various Kinds of Earths, Stones, Fossils, and Petrifactions

On Sundays they have a few dishes extraordinary; such as gruel made from barley or buck-wheat boiled 111 milk, or porrige, composed of milk and flour. Fat soup, meat stewed in skim milk, and eaten with different sauces to which may be added a variety of other ragouts, customary in the coun try. On the grand festivals of Christmas and Easter, they would think themselves lost, if they did not all have smoked meat, which they dress on the preceding evenmg. The peasant is not much in the habit of salting his meat, but prefers pressing it, to expel the superfluous Juice he then leaves it for a couple of days, that the 1emainder of the Juice may dry up, and afterwards haiigs it in the chimney, eight or ten feet above the hearth. Some travellers have asserted, that meat prepared in this way is liable to spoil, but they are mistaken it 011 the contrary keeps better than that which is smoked in other northern countries, and which is known by the name of Hamburgh beef. At Christmas each family kills a fat sheep, which is eaten with a sauce com posed of milk gruel. The peasant never roasts his meat, but always eats it with this kind of broth, when inclined to regale himself. Besides the above-mentioned festivals, there are other days d�voted to feasting. After the harvest they consume in each family what is called the fat lamb, 01 a sheep, if they have no lamb. On Sh1ove Tuesday they are obliged to give their work men and servants as much smoked meat as they choose to take on the next day meat is forbidden till Easte1 and during this time they even avoid pronouncing its name. Ou Shrove-tide evening they make a joke of tampering and inciting each other to pronounce the word meat, because any person who says it loses his portion on the following day. This abstinence appears to be 011i? Of the 1emains of Catholicism. On the first summei's day, which commonly falls on a Thursday, between the 18th and 25th of Apr 11 they are obliged to 1egale all their people with fresh, and, to them, delicate food, such as sausages, smoked mutton, fish, and fresh butter.

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