Have I not belonged for forty years to the
multitude who have had caviare thrown in
their faces? If a preparation of the roe of
sturgeons has furnished an occasion for three
centuries of sneers, why not permit a little
self-glory over a preparation of ray-fish?
Roast beef and mutton formed the solid
strata of the gastronomical creation. A cake
made of flour, raisins, and currants, was
placed in the middle of the table, and
attracted the happy eyes of the children. The
table equipage was less ample, it must be
confessed, than was desirable. There was a
deficiency of earthenware plates. Only
the carvers had knives, with which they
hewed down the meat, which was eaten by
the company with old-fashioned five-pronged
forks. Indeed, some of the young lads would
take out their sailors' clasp knives from
their pockets, and cut their meat upon ships'
biscuit.

Beer, brandy, hollands, rum, and whiskey,
were the drinks of the feasts. The spirit
was drunk out of turned cups or coopered
coggies. A foreign gold coin was sometimes
sunk into the bottom of the cup or coggie as
an ornament to it. The coggies were pretty
little things, holding about as much as a
couple of wine-glasses, and built of alternate
pieces of red and white woods. They were
sometimes hooped with silver. The coggie
was handed round repeatedly. Every child
had a mouthful. Everybody was very merry,
and the children laughed the loudest,
although they did not understand all the
jokes. Those who could sing, sung; and
those who could tell a story, told one. When
the party broke up, the remnants of the
feast were divided among the women and
children; and all went home sober, if with
a drappie in their ee, and pleased and happy.

But I must conclude what I have to say of
the true Normans. Just because I have had
better opportunities of observing the coast
folk in Scotland, I have written most about
them, while well aware that colonies equally
worthy of study are to be found upon other
coasts. Unlike the Frenchified Normans of
the court of the French Duke of Normandy,
the Normans planted on the shores of the
Arctic and Atlantic oceans from Iceland to
the Bay of Biscay, have always been
distinguished by their excellence in the seafaring
arts. They have everywhere been marked by
certain great characteristics. They are seamen
and fishermen whose mission it has been
to chase salmon, herrings, cods, seals, bears
and whales. They have an hereditary knowledge
of ship and boat-building, and ship and
boat-sailing. If not prior to any other race
of men, better than any other race of men
have they known how to brave and baffle the
perfidies of winds and waves. Whatever they
may be called—Finns, Pights, Swedes, Danes,
or Basques—their chief physiological and
social characteristics are identical. Everywhere
they are rather broad than tall, with
large round heads, broad brows, straight
noses, deep-set eyes, and finely-chiselled lips
and chins. As for the colour of the skin,
hair, and eyes, it would be a mistake to look
for the signs of race in the effects of climate.
The simplicity, liberty, and equality of the
manners of the Basques of Castile astonish
equally French democrats and Spanish
hidalgos. Fundamentally, the institutions of
this race are identical on the shores of the
Bay of Biscay and upon the coasts of the
fiords of Norway. Unlike Mohammedans and
Latins of every shade, who dream of conquest
by the sword on the land, they pursue greatness
in ships upon the sea. Everywhere they
refuse to be taxed without being represented.
Everywhere they claim for every head of a
family a share in the legislation and
administration of his country. Everywhere they
insist upon the publicity of public affairs.
Liberty of speech is maintained among them
by frank discussions, independent opinions,
and satiric verses. Nowhere have they
permitted the feudal hierarchy to establish itself
among them. Despising the insolence of
distinctions of rank and the puerilities of vanity,
their only title of superiority is simply the
head of a home: the "etcheco yuana" of the
Basques being the "goodman" of the Scotch.
Nowhere do they deem any honest trade
degrading. The nations of the world are
powerful upon the sea in proportion to the
numbers of the Scandinavian population
upon their coasts, a circumstance which shows
the importance of the characteristics of this
race in the history of the human species.

The explanation of this great destiny is
easily found. It all comes from the whale
fishing. Heraldry proves that the first
renown bestowed among men and
transmitted to families came from slaying wild
beasts, many of them probably the monsters
of paleontology; but, of all the animals likely
to task the courage of men and train them
for victory in sea-fights, there is none
comparable to the whale. The man who first
harpooned a whale must have raised the
standard of human courage and address. I
have seen whales in the free sea measuring a
hundred feet long from snout to tail, and
blowing spouts thirty feet high. Why, the
victory of men over whales is the conquest
of Brobdingnagians by Lilliputians! The
race brought up to harpoon whales, were
unconsciously trained for success in naval
battles against men. The harpooner was the
apprentice sea-king. Of Otho, a Norman, it
was said in the ninth century that he had
harpooned sixty whales in two days. Hence
the tremendous prestige for courage of the
race—a prestige which explains why the
Franks preferred to buy the friendship of the
Normans with money, rather than brave
their hostility in battle. After a thousand
years of braving the battle and the breeze,
the consequences of the superiority of the
sea-kings have become apparent, and to see