FRIENDS IN NORWAY.

HAVING lately returned from accompanying our friend Eliza Watson, of Iowa, in her visit to some parts of Norway and Denmark, I have thought that a few particulars relative to those connected with our Society in these parts, together with a little sketch of the localities where they reside, might interest the readers of the Friends' Examiner. The family feeling which unites, as with a strong tie, the scattered members belonging to the same household of faith, wherever they dwell or whatever their position in life, is one of the brightest distinguishing features of our little Church.

Friends in Great Britain and Ireland belong chiefly to the middle class, and we cannot be said to have any who are in extreme poverty amongst us. Very different is the case with the Norwegian Friends. With the exception of Stavanger, which is the head-quarters of the Society of Friends in Norway, and where there are several families in comfortable circumstances, those who are connected with us belong almost entirely to the class which we should designate as very humble cottagers, living in houses resembling those of the Irish peasantry. With the utmost economy, and working literally from early morning till late in the evening, they can barely provide the necessaries of life from the scanty produce of their tiny farms, rescued with indefatigable labour, wherever there are a few sods of level surface, from their walls of rock.

It is of our visits to these outdwellers that I wish particularly to speak.

I need not remind your readers that Norway is, in

many parts, as inaccessible to road-travelling as Venice itself; the fiords are the highway; the steamers and boats the mode of transit. Here and there, to be sure, you take a rough road in a rough vehicle-I wish we had any superlative for the word "rough" strong enough to convey to the minds of people who have never visited Norway the true idea of what is meant by a rough road there! Well is it for the traveller if he or she escapes an upset, or, having an upset, preserves bones intact.

With these preliminaries settled in the mind, I will try and give an outline of the different centres or stations of Friends.

Our first "trip," to use the convenient appellation of our American sister, was to Erfiord and Sövde, at both of which places (if a few scattered cottages may be designated a place) small companies of Friends reside; and at the latter of which there is a comfortable Meeting-house, in primitive style, where strangers, travelling on Gospel service, are lodged. We left Stavanger at ten a.m. on the 3rd of Seventh Month in a steamer, which took us in and out of the ever-varying fiords, disclosing fresh dissolving views of scenery at every turn. Islet behind islet, mountain ranges sprinkled with snow, bare rocky walls descending abruptly into the water, alternating with woody heights where firs and dwarf birch made a shade of blended tints of green. Here and there, half way up, was a little spot of emerald verdure, where the optic glass revealed a tiny farm where corn was growing. Quiet valleys, with beautifully clean white frame houses and a simple chapel, nestled, at intervals, under their guardian hills. At one of these-Holandsonwe left the steamer, and had a lovely walk beside a rushing stream, near which beautiful wild flowers were growing abundantly, the pinguicula vulgaris luxuriating in the rich marshy ground. After a cup of

coffee, a fine lass of fifteen, a sort of Grace Darling in her fearless manner, rowed us deftly across the fiord, and we were hospitably welcomed for the night by a kind-hearted country hostess.

Invitations having been previously sent to our evening Bible reading, the eager people were seen rowing over in their little boats, and the room was soon filled with serious looking men, women, and children, who listened attentively to words of exhortation and encouragement.

After breakfast the next day, the people again rowed over to our morning reading, which was concluded with prayer and ministry in Norse and English.

Again we started for our pilgrim journey, first walking about a mile, and then boating it over a fiord, which reminded me, by its marvellously reflective power, of the Mirror Lake in Colorado, so familiar to us in photographs. It might truly be said that

Every leaf that o'er it bowed,

And the crimson streak, and the purple cloud,
And all that was bright, and all that was fair,
And all that was gay, had its image there."

The words of Revelation seemed to have a deeper meaning than before—" He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal." The forms of the lofty mountains bounding the fiord on either side were given back with true fidelity, and as we gazed down into the depths the long pendant rocks which lay below it were as clearly visible as if no medium intervened. Lunched at a primitive cottage, with inhabitants still more primitive, and a perfectly flat bed which none but a Goliath could easily have climbed up to; but I suppose, if needed for use, it would have been taken down and altered in form.

Another lake and fiord had to be crossed, and then we reached the little village of Sand, which, having

been lately burnt down, was in the most modern condition of rebuilding. Here a river of that peculiar green hue which indicated its birthplace among snows, rushed down from heights above with a majestic, foaming flow. Again our rowers pushed off, but wind and heavy rain came on, and an open boat not water-tight was uninviting for a long evening row of four or five hours. So, after proceeding a few miles, our men rowed the boat into a recess, and, jumping on the rocks, held a consultation in Norse, the result of which was, that we were taken back to Sand for the night.

Next day all was cheery, and words would fail me to describe the effect of the scenery, in which loveliness, grandeur, and sublimity were mingled; rich woods clothed the mountains; sheep and goats browsed on the heights above us; threads of water trickled in tiny falls, or broader currents rushed down amain, while graceful ferneries, chiefly composed of the beautiful phegopteris, hiding in clefts of the rock, are still a joy to think of. Sövde, at last, with its neat little white houses, appeared at the rounded end of the fiord. We landed, stopped a few minutes in the course of our walk to gaze on a grand torrent, which recalled the exclamation of a celebrated artist, whose name I forget-"Well done, waterfall!" The ample supply of provisions which one of our kind friends from Stavanger who accompanied us had brought with him was quickly displayed on the table, and the usual country luxury, which seems always at hand, was added-large round tubs of sour milk and cream, with sugar on the top, called melkekolle. It is customary for those who wish to partake to sit round, and with large spoons to help themselves from these tubs. It reminded me of the expression, "He that dippeth with me into the dish," &c. In the evening, Friends and others, a simple company of working people (the

women and girls with cotton handkerchiefs round their heads), came in for our evening reading, which partook of the character of a devotional meeting. They were very cordial, and pressed around afterwards to shake hands. We slept well on our straw beds, the only detriment being that they are favourable to fleas, and are not so easy to shake up as feathers.

The following day was the Sabbath, and truly a Sabbath calm and beauty pervaded earth, water, and sky. As we sat at breakfast the fiord lay below us like the calmest lake, and mountains (some of which were snow-capped) rose in majestic attitude above it. The gathering of the people to the meeting-house, from far and near, was a beautiful sight; they came crowding in, till perhaps 150 were present inside the two small rooms, and several stood all the time. Prayer and exhortation followed each other, some in Norse and some in English, the latter being of course translated. They seem to have peculiarly susceptible minds, and it might have been called "Bochim, the place of weeping.' After the meeting was over, older and younger pressed forward for the universal handshake, even the children coming eagerly forward to put their little palms into those of the strangers. A few tracts were distributed, and the "tak," or thanks, was always expressed by this pretty and simple act.

The meeting in the afternoon was even larger than that of the morning, some standing outside at the window to listen. The next day was occupied partly by calls at the cottages. It is wonderful to see the contentment of the people with so very few of what we should consider the necessaries of life; they seem practically to exemplify that "Man wants but little here below," but their gratitude for every trifling help is touching. Flowers of all hues, large pansies, bright red clover, and a kind of gnaphalium of various colours, made the meadows round Sövde like an