In foreign kitchens

You rise, for etiquette demands this, and face the second tray, in the midst of which stand two glasses, one filled with spoons, the other with clean hot water. From the first tray you take a cake, from the second a spoon, which you insert in the nearest plate of jam, carrying the result to your mouth. The same spoon you then insert in the plate next in order; and so you go through the list, etiquette demanding that each shall be tasted. Every one watches the operation, which must be gone through with calmly, deliberately, and yet with as fully apparent enjoyment, else the hostess is hurt. The ceremony ended, the spoon is placed in the glass of water, the next guest takes his turn, the third tray approaches, and from it you ' take a glass of mead, — such mead as the Vikings drank, — and fall back in your chair to enjoy your cake and its accompaniment. Presently, as bret progresses through the room, the spoons are all in the water, which has grown murkier with every additional one ; and now the process is reversed, the partakers of bret selecting their spoon from the glass of water, and replacing it, when used, in the empty one. Is this the supper? By no means. At ii this meal is announced, the chief feature of which appears to be fried fish. There are innumerable dishes that pass from hand to hand, all of which must be tasted. On my plate, at one time, the attendant had accumulated for me fish, cold ptarmigan, cabbage stewed in cream with sugar and nutmeg, hard-boiled egg, cold ham, preserved cherries, and boiled potatoes. Milk, tea, wine, and beer were all handed me, but I was allowed to select. Then came rice porridge eaten with cream and jam, and a series of toasts. This might have been thought the end, but at i P. M. bret again appeared ; and the party broke up at 3 A. M., after games and dancing, apparently ready for more brety coffee, or anything that might appear. At the next dinner-party but eighteen or twenty were present, and here the company were seated together. Soup, which is always excellent, was served ; then ham cut in bits NORWAY, SWEDEN, AND THE NORTH. 105 was passed, and tongue with kraut. Then came a course of boiled lobsters ; then asparagus; then salmon; then chickens and mutton cut up and handed by the servants ; and last, custards, fruit, and cake, the courses having each a wine served with it. The cooking here, as elsewhere, seemed that of a nice German family, and had the same general arrangement. Delicious pudding came between the other courses; sour preserves were served with game, and the dessert was fruit and nuts as with us. The favorite preserve for, eating with meats is mulberry — moltibeer — jam, made from a small, acid berry growing close to the ground. A pudding of reindeer's milk was served, this being made richer with cow's milk, and with a peculiar flavor to which a stranger is not accustomed. These were all state affairs, with so much drinking that one wondered how keeping sober could be possible. Later came a quiet family dinner, in the house of a small landedproprietor, known as a Bonder. The Bonder is a farmer, and is somewhat after the order of the English yeoman. In this case there had been more education than usual, and the mode of life was modelled on that of all proprietors.