"His house was trimmed with green boughs and festooned with ropes of flowers and ground pine. The word farvel, "farewell," was worked in green over the front door. The coffin, which was carried on a bier by the neighbors to the little cemetery not far away, was covered with flowers, and following it were a number of women clad in somber black with little white shawls tied under their chins, each carrying a wreath in her hands. The minister led the procession. He was dressed in a long black gown reaching to his heels, like the cassock of a Catholic priest; his hat was of felt, with a low crown and a broad brim, similar to those worn by the curates of the Church of England, while around his neck was a linen ruff that looked as if it might have been worn in the time of Queen Elizabeth.
"A grave had been dug in the churchyard. The neighbors who had borne the body, lowered it tenderly to the bottom, and when they had lifted the cover of the coffin in place, each man, the oldest first, threw in a shovelful of earth. All the women did not use the shovel, some of them took up handsful of soil and let it gently filter through their fingers into the open vault; and finally three children, somewhere about ten or eleven years of age, followed the example of their elders and added their little share to the brown coverlid of the dead. The pastor removed his hat, extended his arms and pronounced a benediction. Then the women laid their wreaths on the newly covered grave and sorrowfully turned homeward."
Independence and frankness characterize all classes of society. Norway has no hereditary aristocracy. In 1821 it was provided that those holding titles might be allowed to retain them during their lives, but they could not transmit them to their children. The Norse character has never been marred by the yoke of slavery. The feudal system, with its serfdom, never got a footing in the north. The people have always been small landholders, which has developed among them an independence of character not found in countries where the mass of the inhabitants have no direct property interests. There is no class in Norway corresponding to the country gentleman of England or to the grand seigneurs and provincial noblemen of the Continent. The wealthiest landlord is only a peasant.
Honesty is one of the valuable assets of the Norwegian people. Attempts at extortion are so rare that tourists, accustomed to the proverbial dishonesty of the Latin races, find travel in Norway and Sweden a joy. An English traveler relates this typical incident: He had lost his purse shortly after leaving Vossevangen for Stalheim. Altogether unconscious of his loss, he walked on placidly. Suddenly hearing hurried footsteps following him, he turned about and faced a lad who thrust the pocketbook into the owner's hand and disappeared before the Englishman could get a coin from his pocket to reward the boy for his honesty. The Norwegian boy very properly did not expect a reward for doing the only thing open to his mind upon finding the purse.
Kindness to animals is another virtue of the Norwegian people.
Illustrating this trait we again quote William Eleroy Curtis:
"There seems to be a close relation between the human kind and their animals. The men and women talk to the horses and cattle as if they were understood. We had a skydsgut, or driver, one day, who held continuous conversation with his horses. Every time he would come to a hill he would walk beside them and talk to them all the way up in a gentle, caressing sort of way, like a child talking to a doll, and once when he stopped for water and the near horse wanted to drink more than the driver thought was good for him, he scolded like an old woman. The horse shook his head and rattled his harness impatiently, as much as to say, 'You get back onto your box and attend to your business and I'll attend to mine.'"
That intellectuality is one of the traits of the Swedes and Norwegians alike is evidenced in the long list of names that have become famous in the world's literature. In spite of the high intellectual attainments of these people, they are fond of the quiet, simple life, with friends and kinsfolk and home employments and home enjoyments. And they are very superstitious, too, and, in spite of their Lutheran faith, they have never discarded the customs that grew from belief in gods many, and fairies, trolls, gnomes and norns without number. The forests, the mountains and gorges, are inhabited by these people still. Nissen is the good fairy of the farmers. He looks after the cattle particularly, and if he is well treated they are healthy, and the cows give lots of milk. To propitiate him it is necessary to put a dish of porridge on the threshold of the cow stable on Christmas morning. Whenever the family move, this invisible being goes along with them and sits on the top of the loads. In haying time he always rides on the load of hay, and the bedstemoder, best mother or grandmother, in every farmhouse can tell the children dozens of interesting stories about the mischief or the kindness of Nissen.
He is invariably represented in pictures of farm life; he appears on the illustrated advertisements of farm machinery; his figure carved in wood is sold at all the curiosity stores, and he appears as a prominent character in most of the fairy stories that deal with farm life. He is represented as a short, fat, bow-legged man, with big whiskers and long white hair, wearing a red hat like those worn by clowns in circuses. He usually appears in his shirt sleeves, with an open collar, a blue vest, and knickerbockers upon his legs, which are as slim as those of a brownie. His circumference is greater than his height, and his head is almost as large as his body.
Noek is the fairy of the waterfalls and is a sort of merman. You never see more than half his body. He is very, very old, his hair and beard are long and white, and his face is always pale and pensive. He carries a harp and plays to amuse the spirits in the waterfall. A statue of Ole Bull has recently been erected in his native city of Bergen. He stands upon a pedestal which rises from a fountain, and the water flows over the head and shoulders of a Noek at the base.
Norway offers a fine field for reformers to study the effects of regulation upon the vice of drunkenness. Within the limits of the kingdom are all grades of restriction, from prohibition to liberal license. There are no pretensions about the Norwegians; there is no affectation about their morals and no leniency in the administration of their laws. The police and the magistrates are merciless and inexorable, and crime is punished more severely perhaps than in any other country. At the same time the people distinguish an important difference between temperance and total abstinence. They give their children beer in unlimited quantities, but absolutely prohibit the sale of whisky, and send drunken men to prison with burglars and assassins. Norwegian reformers hold that beer is the great promoter of temperance, and encourage its use as a beverage, although every saloon in the kingdom is closed on Sundays, on all holidays, and Saturday afternoon, which is the regular pay day for the working classes. These are practical regulations, devised for the purpose of restraining those who are not capable of controlling their own appetites and encouraging thrift and economy. While the saloons are closed on pay day, the savings banks are open until midnight.