CARIOLE TRAVELLING--MISERABLE LODGING AND POOR FARE--NATIVE
PECULIARITIES--A NIGHT BATTLE.
As I am now about to drag my reader through the wild interior of Norway,
let me try to describe it. Don't be alarmed, dear reader, I do not mean
to be tedious on this point, but I candidly confess that I am puzzled as
to how I should begin! Norway is _such_ a jumble of Nature's elements.
Perhaps a jumbled description may answer the purpose better than any
other. Here it is, then.
Mountains, and crags, and gorges, and rocks, and serried ridges;
towering peaks and dark ravines; lakes, and fords, and glens, and
valleys; pine-woods, and glaciers, [For a full description of glaciers,
see "Fast in the Ice," page 86, volume 3 of this _Miscellany_]
streamlets, rivulets, rivers, cascades, waterfalls, and cataracts. Add
to this--in summer--sweltering heat in the valleys and everlasting snow
and ice on the mountain-tops, with sunlight all night as well as all
day--and the description of Norway is complete. No arrangement of these
materials is necessary. Conceive them arranged as you will, and no
matter how wild your fancy, your conception will be a pretty fair idea
of Norway. Toes these elements into some chamber of your brain; shake
them well up,--don't be timid about it,--then look at the result, and
you will behold Norway!
Having said thus much, it is unnecessary to say more. Rugged grandeur
is the main feature of Norway.
On a lovely summer's evening, not long after the departure of the
_Snowflake_ from Bergen, our three travellers found themselves trotting
through a wild glen on each side of which rose a range of rugged
mountains, and down the centre of which roared a small river. The glen
was so steep, and the bed of the torrent so broken, that there was not a
spot of clear water in its whole course. From the end of the lake out
of which it flowed, to the head of the fiord or firth into which it ran,
the river was one boiling, roaring mass of milk-white foam.
Fred Temple and his friends travelled in the ordinary vehicle of the
country, which is called a _cariole_. The Norwegian cariole holds only
one person, and the driver or attendant sits on a narrow board above the
axle-tree.
Of course it follows that each traveller in Norway must have a cariole
and a pony to himself. These are hired very cheaply, however. You can
travel post there at the rate of about twopence a mile! Our friends had
three carioles among them, three ponies, and three drivers or
"shooscarles," [This word is spelt as it should be pronounced] besides a
small native cart to carry the luggage.
Their drive that day, and indeed every day since starting, had been
emphatically up hill and down dale. It was, therefore, impossible to
cross such a country in the ordinary jog-trot manner. When not
ascending a steep hill, they were necessarily descending one; for the
level parts of the land are few and far between. In order, therefore,
to get on at all, it was needful to descend the hills at a slapping
pace, so as to make up for time lost in ascending them.
There was something delightfully wild in this mode of progressing, which
gladdened the hearts of our travellers, each of whom had a strong dash
of recklessness in his composition. There was a little danger, too,
connected with it, which made it all the more attractive. Frequently
the roads were narrow, and they wound along the top of precipices over
which a false step might easily have hurled them. At the foot of many
of the roads, too, there were sharp turns, and it was a matter of
intense delight to Sam Sorrel to try how fast he could gallop down and
take the turn without upsetting.
The Norwegian ponies are usually small and cream-coloured, with black
manes and tails or white manes and tails; always, from some
incomprehensible reason, with manes and tails different in colour from
their bodies. They are hardy, active animals, and they seem to take
positive pleasure in the rattling, neck-or-nothing scamper that succeeds
each toilsome ascent.
The shooscarle is usually the owner of the pony. He may be a man or a
boy, but whether man or boy he almost invariably wears a red worsted
nightcap. He also wears coarse homespun trousers, immensely too long in
the body, and a waistcoat monstrously too short. He will hold the reins
and drive if you choose, but most travellers prefer to drive themselves.
During the journey Fred Temple usually led the way. Norman Grant, being
a careless, easy-going, drowsy fellow, not to be trusted, was placed in
the middle, and Sam Sorrel brought up the rear. Sam's duty was to
prevent straggling, and pick up stray articles or baggage.
On the day of which I write the three friends had travelled far, and
were very sleepy. It was near midnight when they came to a steep and
broken part of the road, which ran alongside of the foaming river
already mentioned, and, turning at a sharp angle, crossed it by means of
a rude wooden bridge.
Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, the sky was almost as bright
as at noon.
"Mind yourself here," shouted Fred, looking back at Grant, who was
almost asleep.
"Hallo! oh, all right!" cried Grant, gathering up the reins and
attempting to drive. Fortunately for him Norwegian ponies need no
driving. They are trained to look after themselves. Fred went down the
hill at a canter. Grant followed at a spanking trot, and both of them
reached the bridge, and made the turn in safety.
Sam Sorrel was some distance behind. Both he and his shooscarle were
sitting bolt-upright, more than half-asleep, with the reins hanging
loose on the pony's back. The first thing that awakened Sam was the
feeling of going down hill like a locomotive engine. Rousing himself,
he seized the reins, and tried to check the pony. This only confused
it, and made it run the cariole so near to the edge of the river, that
they were almost upset into it.
When Sam became fully aware of his position, he opened his eyes, pursed
his lips, and prepared for "squalls." Not being a practised driver, he
did not make sufficient allowance for a large stone which had fallen
from the cliffs, and lay on the road. He saw what was coming, and
gathered himself up for a smash; but the tough little cariole took it as
an Irish hunter takes a stone wall. There was a tremendous crash.
Sam's teeth came together with a snap, and the shooscarle uttered a
roar; no wonder, poor fellow, for his seat being over the axle, and
having no spring to it, the shock which he received must have been
_absolutely_ shocking! However, they got over that without damage, and
the river was crossed by all three in safety.
The next hill they came to was a still worse one. When they were
half-way down the leader came to a sudden halt; Grant's cariole almost
ran over it; Sam and the luggage-cart pulled up just in time, and so,
from front to rear, they were jammed up into the smallest space they
could occupy.
"Hallo! what's wrong?" shouted Grant.
"Oh! nothing, only a trace or something broken," replied Fred. "Mend it
in a minute."
It was mended in a minute, and away they went again on their reckless
course over hill and dale.
The mending of the trace was a simple affair. The harness of each pony
consisted of nothing more than the reins, a wooden collar, and a wooden
saddle. The shafts were fastened to the collar by means of an iron pin,
and this pin was secured in its place by a green withe or birch-bough
twisted in a peculiar manner, so as to resemble a piece of rope. This
was the only part of the harness that could break, so that when an
accident of the kind occurred the driver had only to step into the woods
and cut a new one. It is a rough-and-ready style of thing, but well
suited to the rough country and the simple people of Norway.
Fred, being anxious to see as much as possible, had compelled his guide
to turn out of the usual high-road, the consequence of which was that he
soon got into difficulties; for although each shooscarle knew the
district through which they were passing, they could not quite
understand to what part of the country this peculiar Englishman was
going. This is not surprising, for the peculiar Englishman was not
quite sure of that point himself!
On this particular night they seemed to have got quite lost among the
hills. At every stage of ten or twelve English miles they changed
horses and drivers. The drivers on this particular stage were more
stupid than usual, or Fred Temple was not so bright. Be that as it may,
about midnight they arrived at a gloomy, savage place, lying deep among
the hills, with two or three wooden huts, so poor-looking and so dirty
that a well-bred dog would have objected to go into them. Fred pulled
up when he came to this place, and Grant's pony pulled up when his nose
touched the back of Fred's cart. Grant himself and his man were sound
asleep. In a few seconds Sam joined them.
There was a brilliant, rosy light on the mountain-tops, but this came
down in a subdued form to the travellers in the valley. The place
scarcely deserved the name of a valley. It was more of a gorge. The
mountains rose up like broken walls on each side, until they seemed to
pierce the sky. If you could fancy that a thunderbolt had split the
mountain from top to bottom, and scattered great masses of rock all over
the gorge thus formed, you would have an idea of the soft of place in
which our belated travellers found themselves. Yet even here there were
little patches of cultivated ground, behind rocks and in out-of-the-way
corners, where the poor inhabitants cultivated a little barley and grass
for their cattle.
It was a lovely calm night. Had you been there, reader, you would have
said it was day, not night. There was no sound to break the deep
stillness of all around except the murmur of many cataracts of melted
snow-water, that poured down the mountainsides like threads of silver or
streams of milk. But the rush of these was so mellowed by distance that
the noise was soft and agreeable.
"I say, Grant, this will never do," said Fred gravely.
"I suppose not," returned Grant, with a yawn.
"What say you, Sam,--shall we go on?"
"I think so. They can have nothing to give us in such miserable huts as
these except grod [barley-meal porridge], and sour milk, and dirty
beds."
"Perhaps not even so much as that," said Fred, turning to his driver.
"How far is it, my man, to the next station?"
"Ten miles, sir."
"Hum; shall we go on, comrades?"
"Go on; forward!" cried Grant and Sorrel.
So on they went as before, over hill and dale for ten miles, which poor
Sam (who was very sleepy, but could not sleep in the cariole) declared
were much more like twenty miles than ten.
The sun was up, and the birds were twittering, when they reached the
next station. But what was their dismay when they found that it was
poorer and more miserable than the last! It lay in a wilder gorge, and
seemed a much more suitable residence for wolves and bears than for
human beings. Indeed, it was evident that the savage creatures referred
to did favour that region with their presence, for the skin of a wolf
and the skull of a bear were found hanging on the walls of the first hut
the travellers entered.
The people in this hamlet were extremely poor and uncommonly stupid.
Living as they did in an unfrequented district, they seldom or never saw
travellers, and when Fred asked for something to eat, the reply he got
at first was a stare of astonishment.
"We must hunt up things for ourselves, I see," cried Sam Sorrel,
beginning to search through the hut for victuals. Seeing this, the
people assisted him; but all that they could produce was a box of barley
meat and two large flat dishes of sour milk.
This sour milk is a favourite dish with the Norwegians. During summer
the cattle are sent to the pastures high up in the mountains, in order
to spare the small quantity of grass grown in the valleys, which is made
into hay and stored for winter use. These mountain pastures are called
saeters, and the milk required by each family for daily use is carried
down from the saeter by the girls. The milk is put into round flat
tubs, varying from one to two feet in diameter and four or five inches
deep. It is then allowed to stand, not only until it is sour, but until
it is thick throughout like curd, with a thick coat of cream on the top.
In this form it is eaten with a spoon, and a very pleasant sight it is
to behold three or four sturdy herdsmen, and, perchance, one or two
boys, squatting round one of these large dishes, and supping away to
their hearts' content.
Grant seized the first dish of milk he discovered, and at once sat down
on a stool and began to devour it.
"Hold on, let us start fair!" cried Sam Sorrel, catching up a spoon, and
sitting down opposite his comrade on another stool.
The hut was built of rough logs, and the only furniture in it was of the
rudest description; a couple of box-beds, two or three stools, and a
bench, a gaily-painted chest in one corner, and a misshapen table was
all that it contained. There was a very small door at one side, a
particularly small window at the other, and a raised stone fireplace at
one end.
"Well, while you two are stuffing yourselves with sour milk, I'll go and
search for better fare," said Fred, with a laugh as he left the hut.
"Good luck go with you," cried Grant; "a bird in the hand is worth two
in the bush. Now, then, old boy," he continued, turning to the owner of
the hut, "could your goodwife make us a little porridge; I say, Sam,
what's the Norse for porridge?"
"Grod, [Grod is pronounced _groot_] I believe," said Sam, who was still
busy with the sour milk.
"Ah yes! grod, that's it," said Grant, turning again to the old man;
"grod, grod, get us some grod, grod, grod,--d'ye understand?"
"Ya, ya," answered the man. It would have been very strange if he had
_not_ understood, for though Grant addressed him in English the word
_grod_ bawled so frequently into his ear was sufficiently
comprehensible.
A fire was quickly kindled by the goodwife, a pleasant-looking elderly
woman; and the black family-pot was soon smoking. The old man was
smoking too, in less than five minutes, for Grant, in the fulness of his
heart, gave him a pipe and a lump of tobacco.
This man was a fine specimen of a hale old Norseman. He wore a complete
suit of brown homespun--excepting the jacket, which hung on a rusty nail
in the wall. Knee-breeches and worsted stockings showed that even in
declining years he had a good pair of legs. His grey hair hung in long
straight locks over his shoulders, and on his head was the invariable
red nightcap. The only weakness for finery displayed by this old hero
was in the matter of buttons and braces. The buttons were polished
brass of enormous size, and the braces were red. These were displayed
to great advantage in consequence of a space of full four inches
intervening between the bottom of his vest and the waist-band of his
breeches.
While the grod was being made, Fred Temple put up his fishing-rod and
rambled away in search of a stream. He had not to go far. In about
five minutes he found one that looked tempting. At the very first cast
a large fish rose so greedily that it leaped quite out of the water and
missed the fly. The next cast the fish caught the fly and Fred caught
the fish. It was a splendid yellow trout of about a pound weight. In
quarter of an hour Fred had three such trout in the pockets of his
shooting-coat; in half an hour more the three fish were consigned by the
three friends to the region of digestion!
And now the question of bed had to be considered. Grant settled it as
far as he was concerned by throwing himself down on a pile of brushwood
that lay in a corner, pillowing his head on a three-legged stool, and
going off to sleep at once. Fred and Sam looked at the two beds. They
were extremely dirty, and it was evident that straw was the bedding.
"Come, travellers must not be particular," cried Fred, as he tumbled
into his box.
"I couldn't hold my eyes open five minutes longer to save my life,"
muttered Sam, as he rolled over into the other.
In a minute the three friends began to breathe heavily. Two minutes
more and they were snoring, a trio in happy forgetfulness of all their
toils.
Now, it must be told that this pleasant state of things did not last
long. Fred Temple and Sam Sorrel were not the only occupants of these
beds. Truth, however disagreeable, must be revealed. There were living
creatures which not only slept in those beds, but which dwelt there when
perfectly wide awake; and these creatures waged unceasing war with every
human being that lay down beside them. In a very short time the
sleepers found this out. Fred began to grow restless and to groan. So
did Sam. In the course of an hour or so Fred uttered a fierce
exclamation, and rose on his hands and knees. So did Sam. Then Fred
and Sam began to fight--not with each other, but--with the common enemy.
The battle raged for more than an hour, during which the foe, although
frequently routed, returned again and again to the charge. Their
courage and determination were tremendous. It cannot be said that Fred
and Sam were actually put to flight, but a regard for truth compels me
to state that they continued _fleaing_ the greater part of that morning,
and it was not until the sun was high in the heavens--pouring down a
flood of light into that wild glen--that they gained the victory, and
lay down to repose on their laurels and straw--not to mention the bodies
of the dead and dying!
They hoped now to be rewarded for their exertions with a few hours'
repose. Vain hope! Scarcely had they closed their eyes when the door
opened, and an old woman, with nose and chin of the nutcracker type,
entered the room. This was the grandmother of the family; she had come
to look at the strangers.
Grant's face, with the eyes shut and the mouth wide-open, was the first
object that met her view. She bent over him and looked into his mouth,
as if anxious to examine his teeth. Having looked him over, and felt
the quality of his clothes with her shrivelled fingers, she turned to
the beds and stared at the other strangers.
Fred had gone off into a sort of doze, so he bore the inspection well,
but Sam was only pretending to sleep, and when he peeped up at the old
face that looked down on his with kindly interest and curiosity, he
found it difficult to check a smile.
Having looked at them well, and touched everything belonging to them, to
see what it could be made of, the old woman moved quietly towards the
door. She shut it with a bang, however, and roused them up with a
start--excepting Grant, who slept through everything, and in spite of
everything.
They were just dropping off again when the old woman returned. She had
forgotten something, and was moving across the floor, when she
accidentally knocked over a bench, which upset a heavy stool. The crash
was followed by a scream of alarm, and once more the sleepers were
awakened--always excepting Grant. Scarcely had this happened when a
strange sound was heard outside. It gradually became louder and more
alarming.
"What _can_ it be?" cried Fred, leaping out of bed, and rushing to the
door. As he threw it open, there was a roar like the sudden discharge
of artillery, and at the same moment a huge mass of rock, many tons in
weight, bounded close past the door, went crashing through a wooden shed
as if it had been a sheet of paper, and, carrying shrubs and small trees
along with it, finally found a resting-place at the bottom of the glen.
The huge mass had fallen from the cliffs above, and fortunately swept
through the hamlet without doing further damage. It was followed by a
shower of smaller stones, some of which struck and shook the house, and
produced a commotion that caused even Grant to wake up and run out in
alarm.
The whole valley was covered with rocks of every shape and size, which
had at various times fallen from the cliffs on either side; and one
could not look at them without wondering that the little cluster of huts
had not long ago been destroyed. There are many such scenes in Norway,
and accidents do sometimes occur, but not so frequently as one might
expect.
It is needless to say that our travellers did not again court sleep in
that wild spot. Before another hour had passed they were over the
mountains and far away on their journey to the far north.