patting our shoulders, said, 'Good pastor and dear pastoress ! It is
very kind of you to be willing to be our pastor and pastoress !' And
then they gathered up our boxes and bundles, each one taking a par-
cel, and led us to our house, which they had nicely swept and aired.
The old men whispered to me that I need not fear for my salary, for
they had collected it, and were ready to pay the whole sixty thalers*
in advance. Then they showed me my garden-plot, and the church,
which had also been swept. 'Had they dressed it with green branches ?'
'Oh, no, they have neither branches nor trees, but they had hoisted a
flag, which was waving in the wind, as they do on all festive occasions.'
Many of them were affected to tears, and my wife and I could not
control our emotion." Kohl, I. 349.
The usual period of leaving the islands (to engage in foreign mari-
time service) is St. Peter's day, which falls on the 29th of June. Many
small vessels are freighted with mariners bound for the ports of Hol-
land, and the wives, mothers, sisters, and sweethearts of the departing
sailors assemble to bid them adieu. They gather upon an old heathen
funeral mound in the island of Föhr, in their antiquated and picturesque
costumes, accompanied by children and superannuated mariners, and
make farewell signals from shore to ship, and from ship to shore, as
long as they remain in sight of each other. St. Peter's day is also the
general business day of the island. Old debts are paid, new ones in-
curred, and especially matrimonial engagements contracted, so that it
is at once the most important epoch of the year, and an anniversary
around which many of the most painful as well as tender and hopeful
associations clng. Kohl, Vol. I. p. 155.
Amber is found in considerable quantities on the coasts of Schleswig-
Holstein, the neighboring islands, and Jutland, as well as on the south-
ern shores of the Baltic. It is thrown up on the beach by tempestuous
* Sixty thalers, or about forty-five dollars, is the annual salary of a Hallig pastor
