CHAPTER XII.

The lonely châlet--The Spirit of the hills--Bauta-stones--Battlefields older than history--Sand-falls--Thorsten Fretum’s hospitality--Norwegian roads--The good wife--Author executes strict justice--Urland--Crown Prince buys a red nightcap--A melancholy spectacle--The trick of royalty--Author receives a visit from the Lehnsman--Skiff voyage to Leirdalsören--Limestone cliffs--Becalmed--A peasant lord of the forest--Inexplicable natural phenomena--National education--A real postboy--A disciple for Braham--The Hemsedal’s fjeld--The land of desolation--A passing belle--The change-house of Bjöberg--“With twenty ballads stuck upon the wall”--A story about hill folk--Sivardson’s joke--Little trolls--The way to cast out wicked fairies--The people in the valley--Pastor Engelstrup--Economy of a Norwegian change-house--The Halling dance--Tame reindeer--A region of horrors pp. 188-214