gentleman had asked me to dine with him, and as R---- and
P---- would not return much before midnight, I did not decline an
invitation that was not only hospitable, but would give me an
opportunity of seeing more of the habits and character of his
countrymen. The dinner was prepared at an early hour, one, or two,
o'clock. The style of cookery was the same as in England; except the
manner in which the salmon is dressed, for it is cut up into small junks
and fried; but the most ordinary, and esteemed way of eating the salmon
is to smoke it, which is nothing more or less than an excuse for
swallowing the fish raw.

After dinner, the host filled two glasses of wine, one for himself, and
one for me; and sidling close up to my chair, placed himself arm and arm
with me. I could not understand his meaning, and watched with no little
anxiety the next act of familiarity he would commit. My eyes glanced
round the table; but the gravity of every man's face was ecclesiastical
in the extreme. Without unlocking his arm from mine, the Norwegian
raised his glass in the air, and motioned with his hand to me to do the
same. I did so. He then drank off the wine, and bade me drink in like
manner. I did that likewise. I had thus followed my friend's
injunctions, and had scarcely, with a smile, replaced on the table the
glass I had drained, when I received a box on the ear. Starting from my
chair at the unprovoked assault, I was about to break the decanter over
the Norwegian's head, when a gentleman seized hold of my right hand, and
begged me to be pacified, for that it was merely the usage of the
country in pledging to the health of a friend. He said my host would be
highly gratified by my retaliation.

"We have simply then been drinking each other's health?" I asked.

"No more, sir," my mediator replied.

Ashamed of my hasty and most unmannerly conduct, I gave the amicable
cuff, and all was merriment again.

When we rose from table, the whole company commenced shaking hands with
each other, and coming up to me, one after the other, each guest took
my hand, and

"Tak for maden," he said.

This was another mysterious usage I could not unravel. A few days
afterwards, amid the general din of the same ceremony, I asked a young
lady, who spoke French, what it all meant; and she then told me it was
an ancient habit of returning thanks for a good dinner.

"But I have given them no dinner," I said.

"That is true," replied my fair informa