one. The way the people work together in the fields, in the forests,
and in their large rooms has given them a characteristic stamp of
confidence in each other." It is perhaps this isolation that has
perpetuated so many of the old customs and superstitions for which the
Norwegians are noted.

William Eleroy Curtis tells of seeing the funeral of one of these
Norway farmers:

"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.