Others resort to the mountains in search of Iceland moss,
which they mix with milk, and use as an article of food; or grind it into
meal, and make cakes with it, as a substitute for bread. The labours of
the women consist in preparing the fish for drying, smoking, or salting;
in tending the cattle, in knitting, and gathering moss. During the
winter season both men and women knit uninterruptedly.
Madame Pfeiffer thinks their hospitality has been overrated, and gives
them credit for the ability to make a good bargain. In fact, she saw
nothing of that disinterestedness which Dr. Henderson and other
travellers have ascribed to them. They are intolerably addicted to
brandy-drinking,--indeed, their circumstances would greatly improve if
they drank less and worked more. They are scarcely less passionately
addicted to snuff-taking, as well as to tobacco-chewing. Their mode of
taking snuff is peculiar, and certainly not one to be imitated. Most of
the peasants, and even many of the priests, have no snuff-boxes, but make
use instead of a piece of bone, turned in the shape of a little powder-
horn. When desirous of indulging in a little titillation, they throw
back their heads, and putting the point of the horn to their nostril,
empty in the snuff. So little fastidious are these devotees, that they
frequently pass on a horn from nose to nose, without the needless
formality of cleaning it.
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