NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. CCXLVIII-JANUARY, 1871.-VOL. XLII.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by Harper and Brothers, in the Office of the Libra

VOL. XLII.-No. 248.-11

THE

easy terms, that they are practically equivalent to a freehold. Others are cotters who rent a little plot of ground, and keep a cow or two, a few pigs, sheep, and goats, and perhaps a horse. They work during harvest for their richer neighbors, and their wages, added to the products of their little plots of ground, maintain them in tolerable comfort. Mere day-laborers are almost entirely unknown in the rural districts. Mechanics and artisans are rare except in the towns. Every Bonde can perform the work required for building and furnishing his house, and carrying on his farm, even to shoeing his horse. There are, however, itinerant tailors and shoemakers, who go about from farm to farm, and rarely have settled homes of their own.

HE kingdom of Sweden, exclusive of Lap- | leases are for such long periods, and upon such land, has a population about equal to that of the State of New York, and an area nearly four times greater. The distribution of population is quite different. In New York, a third of the population is concentrated in the two great contiguous cities of New York and Brooklyn, and fully an eighth in cities and towns of from 10,000 to 125,000 inhabitants. Nearly half the population are, therefore, residents of towns. The population of Sweden is almost entirely rural. By the census of 1865, out of a population of 4, 100,000, there were 3,500,000 living in the country, 600,000 in towns. Stockholm, the capital, has 125,000 inhabitants, about equal to Buffalo. Next comes Gottenburg, with 42,000, about equal to Troy. There are four towns having from 10,000 to 20,000, and five having from 8000 to 10,000 inhabitants. Sometimes the dwellings of the Bonder stand The whole number of people residing in towns alone; but quite as often a few are grouped of 8000 and upward is less than 400,000. together into little hamlets. The dwellings of Of the entire population fully four-fifths are the better class are built much afike. Someagricultural. Foreign writers usually denom- times the barns and cattle-houses are detached; inate this class as 66 'peasants;" but this word oftener they form three sides of a quadrangle, conveys an erroneous idea of their condition. the dwelling-house constituting the fourth side. Their designation in Swedish, Bonde (plural They are universally built of squared logs, the Bonder), is derived from the verb bo, "to re-ends notched into each other, the interstices side," and means simply "dwellers." Sometimes the Bonde is the owner of the farm which he cultivates; oftener he holds it on lease from the crown or from other proprietors. These

being filled in with moss. The roofs are usually of boards, covered over with layers of birch bark or turf. Roofs of tiles or thatch are rare. Glass windows of good size are universal. The

pean countries; but it is usually salted; the common people, indeed, have an aversion to fresh meat of any kind.

dwelling-house consists mainly of one large is usual among the peasantry of other Euroroom, used by the whole family for sitting, working, eating, and sleeping. Upon one side is a huge fire-place, and around the walls are wooden settees, which, on opening, form beds Several circumstances combine to produce for the family. In a recess, usually provided the peculiar form of the social life of the Swedwith curtains, is the bed of the master and mis-ish Bonder. Until within a few years they tress of the family. The floor is strewn with twigs of spruce, pine, or juniper. It often happens that the beds are insufficient for the accommodation of the family and guests or chance travelers; in that case bundles of straw are laid on the floor, upon which the occupants sleep, dressed in their ordinary clothing. On Christmas-night all the family must sleep in one room; the children upon the straw-covered floor, to commemorate the fact that the child Jesus made his advent into the world upon a bed of straw. This bed on the floor is hence denominated Sykson-säng or "brother-and-sister-bed." In the chimney is a slide which is closed when the wood has been burned to coals so that no smoke is produced; combustion then goes on slowly, and all the heat of the fire is thrown into the room. Opening into the main apartment is a smaller one, nominally a spare bedchamber; but it is seldom used for that purpose, and serves mainly as a wardrobe for the Sunday finery of the family. Another small room is used as a kitchen.

The food of the people is abundant and nutritive, though, according to our ideas, rather coarse. The staple dish is a "brose" of rye or oat meal and milk. The meal is also made into thin loaves, with a hole in the middle. These, strung upon horizontal poles, are suspended from the rafters. Potatoes are the usual vegetable. Milk, butter, and cheese are abundant. Meat is much more common than

constituted one of the four estates of the realm: Nobles, Clergy, Burghers, and Bonder. The representatives of the Bonder used to sit in Parliament and appear at royal entertainments dressed in the homespun garments of their order. Now, however, there is no political distinction between the orders. There are about 3000 "noble" families, who own about an eighth of the land of the kingdom; but their nobility of itself gives them no special prerogatives, although, as a matter of fact, most of the civil and military offices are filled by them. The burghers have now only this advantage over the Bonder, that 10,000 inhabitants of a town are entitled to a representative in the Lower House of Parliament, while 40,000 are required in the country. The clergy have no separate political representation. The Parliament consists of two Houses. The members of the Upper House, 119 in number, are chosen by the provincial assemblies and municipal corporations. They must be thirty-five years of age, have landed property of the value of $22,500, or an income of $1100; they are elected for nine years, and receive no pay. Practically the members of the Upper House must mainly belong to the nobility. The Lower House consists of 185 members, chosen for three years. Every Swede of the age of twenty-one, having real estate of the value of $280 or an income of $225, is eligible. The delegates receive their traveling expenses and

a salary of $335 for each session of four months. The cultivators of the soil have to pay sevenninths of the taxes, keep the roads in repair, and maintain the Indelta or national militia, numbering 35,000 men. Besides his pay each soldier has a cottage and a piece of ground. In time of peace the Indelta are called out for practice only one month during the year.

Education is compulsory upon all classes. Every child must attend school until he has acquired a specified proficiency; the minimum is reading, writing, elements of arithmetic, the catechism, Bible history, and singing. In sparsely settled districts the children often have to walk long distances to school. The statistical reports show that 20,000 have to go three or four miles, and 70,000 two miles. They set out in the morning, carrying their dinners with them, and return in the evening. It is almost impossible to meet with a Swede of either sex who is not able to read and write, or to find a cottage, even in the depths of the forest, without a Bible and a few books, mainly of a religious character.

servances. This is clearly seen in the manner of celebrating Christmas, or, as it is called in Sweden, Jul.*

Jul is the great Swedish festival, but it was a festival among the Scandinavians long before the birth of our Saviour. The origin of the name Jul is lost in the night of ages. One explanation, which appears the most plausible of all, is that it is simply a corruption of the word Hjul, "wheel," and means the annual circuit performed by the sun; the days shortening during one half and lengthening during the other; the point where the longest night and the shortest day met being called Jul-mat," wheelmeeting." They commenced their year with the longest night, for, according to them, night, darkness, and cold, preceded daylight and warmth. This longest night comes on the 21st of December. Odin, who lived about a hundred years before Christ, ordered that at this season a great sacrificial feast should be observed, lasting during the period when the lengthening of the days was hardly perceptible. This festival, called Jul-blot, continued, according to some, until the 13th of January, according to others, until the close of the month. As there was only four days' difference between Jul-mat and Christmas, when Christianity supplanted paganism, there was little difficulty in making the change of time, and the heathen Jul, retaining its own name and some of its old observances, was transformed into Christmas.

The state religion is Lutheran in doctrine and Episcopalian in form. According to the census of 1860 there were-heads of families, we infer, only being enumerated-1000 Jews, 900 Roman Catholics, and 500 Mormons; all the others were entered as Protestants. By the strict letter of the law no one who has not partaken of the communion can marry or hold office under the crown. The revenue of the clergy is derived partly from the crown, but principally from tithes and voluntary contributions, usually paid in kind. The Archbishop of Upsala has an income of $6000 a year; three bishops have $5000 each, the remaining eight bishops from $2500 to $3000. There are about 150 deans who average $1500; and 1200 rectors who have, including the products of their glebe lands, from $500 to $1200. The incomes of the remaining clergy, curates and the like, about 3000 in number, will not exceed $200 or $300 a year. As a class the around their dwellings. Swedish clergy compare favorably in attain-pines, stripped of their bark and lower branches, ments and character with those of any other country. They belong almost entirely to the Bonde class, it being very seldom that one of a noble or burgher family enters upon holy orders.

The Swedish rural population is practically divided into small communities, having little intercourse with each other. Few of the Bonder have ever visited a town of 10,000 inhabitants, or gone a score of miles from their homes. Thus it has come to pass that their habits, manners, and customs have remained unchanged from generation to generation. Not a few of their customs and superstitions date back to a period before the introduction of Christianity. These were often so deeply rooted in the popular mind that the early missionaries found it impossible to eradicate them, and they not unfrequently adopted the wise course of giving a Christian turn to old heathen ob

Preparations for the coming Jul are made long beforehand. While the grain is unthreshed the choicest sheaves are selected from which to brew the Jul-ale and bake the Jul-bread. On Jul-afton, the day before Christmas, the cattle must be let out from the cow-house and driven to water at an earlier hour than common, and returned before noon; otherwise the next harvest will be late. The Swedish peasantry have the same antipathy to forests which characterizes our pioneers; all trees are carefully cut down But at Jul young

are set out before the house; and as the sun goes down a sheaf of unthreshed grain is hoisted on a pole from the house-top for the benefit of the small birds, for all creatures must have reason to rejoice on the day when Christ came into the world. Meanwhile, within doors the women have been busy scouring and brightening the room and household utensils. The best garments of the fan:ily are got out and hung upon the walls, for they think that the Jul-fire shining upon them will preserve them from moths. The servants then proceed to the cattle-house. A mess has been prepared, composed of the same materials as the dinner of the family; a portion of this and a bundle of the choicest forage are given to each cow, with the words, "This is Jul-afton, my little one."

* Pronounced "Yule." The Swedish j has always the sound of our consonantal y.