Sheaves from Sagaland
PART II.-THE NATIVES
The Icelanders are human
`They are not so robust and hardy that nothing can hurt them; for they are human beings and experience the sensations common to mankind.'-Horrebow.
Concerning their hair
`The hair which belongs to the class Lissotriches, subdivision Euplokamo, seldom shows the darker shades of brown. The colour ranges from carroty red to turnip yellow, from barley-sugar to the blond-cendre so expensive in the civilised markets. We find all the gradations of Parisian art here natural; the corn golden, the blonde fulvide, the incandescent (carroty), the florescent or sulphurhued, the beurre frais, the fulvastre or lion's mane, and the rubide or mahogany, Raphael's favourite tint.' -Burton.
Concerning their eyes
`A very characteristic feature of the race is the eye, dure and cold as a pebble - the mesmerist would despair at the first sight.'-Ibid.
Concerning their mouths
`The oral region is often coarse and unpleasant.' -Ibid.
Concerning their temperament
`The Icelander's temperament is nervoso-lymphatic and at best nervoso-sanguineous.' -Ibid.
Concerning their appearance
`The Icelanders are of a good, honest disposition, but they are at the same time so serious and sullen that I hardly remember to have seen any of them laugh.' -Van Troll.
Concerning their character
`This poor but highly respectable people.' -McKenzie.
Letters from Iceland - W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice (1937)
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