Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-04-01

a storm. Some have windows in the roof
and some have chimneys; grass and weeds
grow all over them; and crooked by-ways
and dark alleys run among them and through
them. At the base they are walled up with
big Jumps of lava, and two of them have
board fronts painted black, while the remain.
der are patched up with turf and rubbish of
all sorts, very much in the style of a stork's
nest. A low stone wall encirces the premis-
cs, but seems to be of little use as barrier
against the encroachmeuts of live stock, be-
ing broken up in gaps every few yards. In
front of the group some attempt has been
made at a pavement, which, however, must
have been abandoned soon after the work
was commenced. 1t is now Uttered all over
with old tubs, pots, dish-clothes, and other ar
ticles of domestic use.
The interior of this strange abode is even
more complicated than one would be led to
expect from the exterior. Passing through a
dilapidated doorway in one Of the smaller
cabins, which you would hardly suppose to
be the main entrance, you find yourself in n
long dark pasSage-way, built of rough stone,
and rooted with wooden ratters and brush
wood covered with sod. The sides are orna-
mented with pegs stuck in the creyices be-
tween the stones, upon which hang saddles,
brides, horse-shoes, punches of herbs, dried
fish, and various articles of cast-oif clothing
including old shoes and sheepskins Wide
or narrow, straight or crooked, to suit the
sinuoSities OF the different cabins into which
it forms the entrance, it seems to have been
originally located upon the track of boa
constructor, though Bishop Hatton denies the
existence of snakes In Iceland. The best
room or rather house-for every room is
house--is set apart for the accommodation
of travellers. Another part is occupied by
some members Of the pastors family, who
bundle about like a lot of rabbits. The
kitchen is also the dog kennel and occa-
sionally the sheep-house. The pile of stones
in one corner of it, upon which few twigs
or scraps Of sheep-manure serve to make the
fire, constitute the cooking department. The
beams overhead are decorated with pots and
kettles, dried fish, stockings, petticoats, and
the remains of pair of boots that probably
belonged TO the pastor in his younger days.
The dark turf walls are pleasantly diversified
with bags of oil hung on pegs, scraps of meat,
old bottles and jars, and divers rusty looking
instruments for shearing sheep and cleaning
their hoots. The floor consists of the origin
al lava bed and artificial puddles composed
of Stops and oflal Of divers unctuous kinds
Smoke fills all the cavities in the air not al
ready occupied by the foul odors, and the
/ beams and posts and rickety old bits Of fur.
niture are dyed to the core with the dense
and variegatcd atmosphere around them.
| This is a fair specimen of the whole estab-
lishment, with the exception of the travellers
room. The beds in these cabins are the chief
articles of luxury. Feathers being abundant,
they are sowed up in prodigous ticks, which
| are tumb!ed topsy -turvy into big boxes on
| legs, that serve for bedSteads and covered
over with piles of all the loose blankets, petit
coats and cast-otf rags possible to be gathered
| up about the premises. Into these comforta-
| BILE nests the sleepers dive every night, and
whether in summer or winter, cover them
selves up under the odorous mountain of
rags, and snooZe away till morning. During
the long winter nights they spend on an aver
| age about sixteen hours out of the twenty
four i'll this agreeable manner. When it is
borne in mind that every creviee in the house
is carefully stopped up in order to keep Out
the cold air, and that whole families frequent
ly occupy single apartment not over ten by
twelve, the idea of cutting through the at
mosphere with cleaver seems perfectly pre-
posterous. A nights respiration in such ;
hole is quite sufficient to saturate the whole
family with the substance of all the fish anC
sheep skins in the vicinity and the marvel OF
| it is that they don't come out next day wag.
| ging their fins or bleating like sheep. won
der they ever have any occasion to eat. Abb
sorption must supply them with a large
amount Of nutriment; but | suppose what is
gained in that way is lost in the fattening of
certain other members of the household.
Warmth seems to be the principal object, and
certainly it is no small consideration in a
country where fuel is so scarce.
| cannot conceive of more wretched abodes
for human beings. They are indeed very lit
tie better than fox holes-certainly not much
sweeter. Yet in such rude habitations as
these, priests of Iceland study the classical
languages, and perfect themselves in the ear
ly literature of their country. Many of them
become learned, and devote much of their
lives to the pursuit of science. In the north
ern part of the country the houses are said to
be better and more capacious; but the sam
pie l have given is fair average of what |
saw.-Harpe,'s Magazine.