Smyrna times., 1876-04-26
All About Beds.

lay our heads on a soft pillow some cold
nothing but luxurious couch of this
sort could be worth calling bed. Yet
a large part of the world enjoy no such
arrangement for sleeping, and could not
enjoy it if they had it. Our own ances-
tors reposed in much less luxurious fashion.
In eastern countries people commonly
spread net on the fiat roof of their house,
and make that their bed. In Russia the |
top of the stove is the bedstead. In both |
cases the sleepers do not undress them
selves.
In ancient Egypt-as still in China and |
Japan-wooden pillows were in vogue,
followed out to fit the shape of the head. !
But the ancient Egyptians, whileon account
of the heat and vermin they preferred hard
pillows, are said to have considered their
comfort at night in the invention of spring
mattresses. They were made of slips Of
bamboo crossed over each other, and must
have been as cool, if not quite as soft and
yielding, as the webbing of twine stretched
over frame, on which the natives of India
rest.
The Israelites used sheep and goat skins
stuffed for pillows, and in early times the
same bedding, but their bedsteads, at a
later period, at least. must have been very
costly. The prophet Amos speaks of
couches of ivory.
| Among the Assyrians, and afterwards
| among the Romans, couches of gold and
silver were possessed by the rich. The
reason for this splendor was partly that the
, beds were not kept in separate rooms, but
in the same room occupied by day, and
t were used for sitting on and reclining on at
+ meals. At Roman feasts the guests all
e reclined, and sometimes each person occu-
S pied a separate couch.
l Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors were not at
all refined in their sleeping arrangements.
1 Their beds consisted of wooden boxes,
# filled with bag of straw. In an old illus,
d trated manuscript there is picture of a
e king going to bed. He has crown on his
IS head Ia very uncomfortable night-cap,) but
y has no night,dress.
st King Henry Will, Of England, is said
is to have slept upon straw bed, while hi:
t. servants lay upon rushes strewn on the foo
a of the royal kitchen. The kings bed wa
h not what we should call luxurious but 81
ID much ceremony was used in going to it tina
s, seven chamberlains were employed in un
It, dressing the royal parsonage, turning dow
ut the bedclOthes, etc, etc. One indispensa
RI BILE practice was to thrust a sword into tn
re straw to see that no person was concealed
in it.
When fcatherbeds came into use il
;" England they were regarded as articles @
:" great value, and it seems comical to us t
nj find them so often mentioned in wills
The person to whom featherbed wa
MT bequeathed did not usually receive anythin
er else; his comfort by night was provide
for, if not his welfare by day.
1t may be mentioned in conclusion wit
es- beds, that a strange superstition was ono
nm common in the south of England, in
RS belief that a person cannot die while lyin
We on pigeon feathers. A dying person hG
ce often been removed from feather bed I
ch the bare floor, under the notion that tn
IS death struggle was prolonged, owing to th
rs: presence in the bed of pigeon feathe
hs In England it is still customary to surroun
ay the bed with curtains. Americans hay
of adopted the more sensible French fashio
l.. of allowing a free circulation of air abol
ne the sleeper.-Bah. Sunday Telegram.