The dances are original and often interesting. One of the most ancient and popular is the däfva vadmal (weaving homespun), whose figures are supposed to imitate the action of the shuttle, the beating in of the woof, and other motions used in weaving at an old-fashioned loom. Some of the dances resemble those of Scotland, and one is almost exactly like the Virginia reel as danced by old-fashioned people in the United States. In another, called the "garland," the dancers wind in and out under their clasped hands in imitation of the weaving of a wreath of flowers. All the dances require violent physical exercise, but the Swedish men and women are famous for muscular development. Some of the dances are accompanied by pretty melodies sung in unison by both sexes.
The songs of the Dalecarlian peasant are not lively, but rather slow in movement, and are usually sung in unison, the music being rarely arranged for parts.
Dalecarlia has a certain preeminence among the districts of Sweden because of the part its people have played in the history of the country, and however the other provinces may dispute among themselves about their claims for distinction, each will admit that Dalecarlia is entitled to special consideration. Its people represent the highest patriotism and the noblest characteristics of the Swedish race, and when any one is spoken of as a Dalecarlian, it means that he is a free and intelligent citizen of independent thought and action and lives a life of manly simplicity.[o]
CHAPTER XVI
HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUSEMENTS
Perhaps in no other country in the world have health and exercise been united and formed into a national institution, as they have been in Sweden. The true Swede believes that exercise will cure everything, and that as a preventive of disease there is nothing like it. If you go to a Swedish physician for advice, he will invariably prescribe the movement cure, and send you to a gymnasium or a massage establishment instead of to a drug store. Physical exercise is therefore the national remedy, particularly for complaints due to sedentary employment, neglect of nature's laws, and high living. The movement cure for invalids, which is practically the same as that we have in the United States, is used in all the hospitals as well as in private practice. It was invented about a century ago by Dr. Ling, a patriot, a gymnast and a poet, who was inspired to revive the ancestral national spirit in the Swedish people by the aid of sports and songs, and to develop once more the great qualities of strength, courage, and endurance which in old times distinguished the Scandinavian race. After a hard struggle he succeeded, in 1814, in securing the recognition of the government and founded the Royal Gymnastic Central Institute, where all persons desiring to teach gymnastics in the public schools or in private institutions must take a course of training and take a degree. The Swedes are quite as particular about this as they are about the study of medicine. No medical practitioner can hang out a sign without a diploma from one of the universities, and no person can teach gymnastics in that country without a similar certificate of competency from the Royal Institute. Every officer of the army is required to undergo a course of instruction, not only to develop his physical constitution, but to qualify him to teach gymnastics to his soldiers. The teachers of physical culture in the public schools, both men and women, are obliged to take a similar course in order to drill their pupils properly, for in every schoolroom in the country, down to the kindergartens, daily physical exercise upon Ling's plan is required to promote the development of the body and improve the health. This is required in private as well as public schools, and the methods of instruction are subject to the inspection and approval of the Central Institute. In every town of any size there are gymnastic clubs and associations, which are generally guided by instructors educated at the Central Institute. They include women as well as men in their membership, and in many of them fencing and other sword exercises are also taught. In common with all the gymnasiums are bath-houses. You will find them in every part of the city of Stockholm and in other large towns. Some of them occupy entire buildings. It is the habit of business men to go to their stores or offices at nine o'clock in the morning and remain there until two or three in the afternoon, when they go to their club or gymnasium and take an hour's exercise and afterward a bath. These establishments in the business quarter of Stockholm and other cities are considered just as important as clubs, restaurants, or other places of resort, and usually have connected with them reading and smoking rooms where patrons can read the daily newspapers and current magazines and sip coffee and smoke while they are cooling off. It would surprise a visitor in New York or Chicago to be informed that his broker or his lawyer or his banker or a contractor with whom he has business, had gone to a bathhouse or gymnasium at three o'clock in the afternoon, but in Stockholm it is a common reply to an inquiry. During winter afternoons you can usually find anybody you want by going to his favorite gymnasium or bathhouse, just as you would look for him at his club in Chicago.
There is a distinctive dress for the exercise. The patrons take off their street clothing and put on light woolen shirts and trousers, and canvas shoes on their bare feet, and, standing in rows, go through a series of motions under the command of their instructor to exercise the arms, legs, neck, and every other part of the body, gently, not violently. The idea is movement, not exertion, and the muscles are restrained. The arm is raised slowly with self-resistance. No clubs or dumb-bells are used, only a gentle motion like the exercise of the children in the schools. After twenty minutes or half an hour of this the class marches in a column, still going through the same movements; then they run, following their leader, doing everything that he does, until at the end of an hour the body is in a glow, the blood is pulsating in every vein, the perspiration is oozing from every pore, every muscle is limbered up and strengthened, and every nerve tingles. There is regular gymnasium apparatus for those who like more violent exercise. Then a bath is taken, followed by a cold plunge and violent rubbing with massage, after which a man is in shape to go home to his dinner with a good appetite.
In October every year the Scandinavian Gymnastic Instructors' Association meets in Stockholm for several weeks, at which lectures are delivered, papers are read, and discussions are held upon all branches of their work. These meetings are quite as important as annual conventions of the bar or medical associations, and are not only attended by gymnastic instructors, but by physicians generally, for every Swedish physician must be well versed in medical gymnastics, particularly in what is known as kinesitherapym or movement cure, which embraces active, passive, and resisting movements, as well as massage, for the latter is the basis of medical gymnastics.
The Swedes have accepted this treatment as a specific for nearly all diseases, deformities, and weaknesses of the body; for internal complaints, for the lungs, the heart, and the digestive organs. It removes superfluous tissue, and this is the reason you see so few fat men in Sweden, notwithstanding their beer-drinking propensities, and why the women keep their youthful shape until old age.
It is a spectacle to witness in some of the gymnastic institutes venerable and dignified gentlemen going through comical motions and assuming ridiculous postures with great activity and zeal, keeping time to the music of a band in the adjoining café.