Ole said the reindeer had been killed some time, and when we seemed to doubt whether it was killed in season, he remarked it occasionally happened that they were killed by accident. The reindeer hunter came to our camp when we were having our fried reindeer and tea. He was the son of the widow of the owner of the farm, and she was then at a sœter. The reindeer hunter was a tall, spare, active young fellow, fair, with his hair cut short. He wore a Norwegian cloth cap, a coarse shirt, without necktie, secured at the neck by a large silver button. His loose trousers were faced with dark leather, and also the seat; large Wellington boots of pliable rough leather came up to nearly his knee, with red leather let into their tops. He had something of the bearing of Slim-slam, our friend at Laurgaard, and his tout ensemble was decidedly picturesque. Ole told us he had once been out with some artists upon the mountains with a tent.
Our gipsies packed up and we left about half-past four o’clock, which afforded us sufficient time to enter up our notes. Our way is now through forest scenes, up a rough mountain road. At no very great distance on our right we had “Raudals Vand,” a large lake, and the “Blaahö,” and “Hest-bræ-piggene” mountains. Sometimes we were close to the Lera Elv; at other times our route took us more into the forest. Often we lingered to make a hasty sketch, and then Esmeralda would wait on the side of the route lest we should miss the track in the forest. No hobbenengree could be more careful of the Shorengro of the expedition. Later in the evening a mizzling rain fell, and at last we crossed the river through a shallow ford. Near the river, below a lofty mountain, we reached the Ytterdal Sœter.
The Ytterdal Sœter consisted of a collection of log huts, with a loose stone-wall paddock behind. Cows, goats, and bristly pigs were scattered about the trampled ground among the rocks close to the sœter. Down the steep mountain above we could see a picturesque vand fos. When we came to the sœter a shepherd’s dog kept up a constant barking which Mephistopheles did his best to perpetuate until sharply rebuked.
Ole and Noah then went round the house to select a camp ground in the inclosure. All was damp with drizzling rain, as our gipsies drove the donkeys through a broken gap in the wall, and pitched our tents in the corner of the inclosure, near the sœter. Being rather damp we changed our things, and then decided to have gröd for our aftens-mad. Ole went to prepare the gröd at the sœter; the rest went to learn the method of making it. First, he filled the large iron pot of the sœter with water, to which he added a small quantity of salt, and a little barley-meal; the water boiled in twelve minutes; then the woman placed the large end of the short gröd-stick in the boiling water, and kept rapidly swirling it backwards and forwards between the palms of her hands, whilst Ole added from time to time barley-meal from the bag, till the proper consistency was obtained; the pot was taken off the fire in about three minutes after the water commenced boiling; the gröd was then ready to be eaten. This, with a large can of milk, was carried to our tents for the evening’s meal.
It is usual when the gröd is eaten for each person to have two small bowls, one containing milk and the other the gröd, and then a spoonful of gröd is taken and dipped in the milk and so eaten. Our party afterwards dispensed with two bowls, the gröd and milk being put into one bowl, which saved trouble, with the same result.
The wooden bowl, and the wooden spoon, and the gröd-stick, which is made of a small fir sapling taken up by the roots and peeled, and the roots and stump cut to the length required, we purchased for twelve skillings next morning from the woman of the Ytterdals Sœter, and they are represented in the following engraving.
Some of the gröd we reserved for breakfast, and it is considered all the better after it has been kept for a short time.
Noah informed us at tea that he should let into the pobengree (gip., cider) when he reached England, and have a good soak. Gently, Noah, or there will be none left for anyone else.
The women of the sœter were all lightly dressed, a chemise and a petticoat being nearly all they had on; They keep about twenty cows, and make from thirty to forty cheeses in the summer season, which sell for four marks each. We counted forty-five goats near the sœter. The woman’s husband was engaged at the harvest in the lower valley.
