Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-01-14
The Icelandic House.

The modern Icelanders have not much
improved on the old type, as a house now
consists ola conglomeration Of small build
ings, in all some fifty feet long and twenty
five or thirty deep. The dwelling house
proper is in the centre nanked on each
side by cow-shels, smithy, and the various
outhouses the turf and lava walls two TO
three feet thick the gable roof is board
ed, covered with thick layer of grassy
turf, and surmounted by a wealth er-cock.
The entrance of such farm-houses as we
saw in the interior (the city houses being
modern in style aud conveniences) was by
a long, dark, narrow, ill-ventilated pas
sage, with stor e floor, uneven, muddy, and
wet, rough SIDE and so low that you
bump your head at every step until you
learn TO bend your body almost double;
this leads through the house to the kitch-
en-, where the fire of peat or dung or bones
or wood is kept up; this is the only fire in
the house, no matter how cold the weather
may be, and you can imagine that the at
mosphere from fuel and occupants is not
ofthe purest; and, in fact, 10 our senses
quite uncomfortable. Fortunately, their
sense of smell is deadened by the national
habit of snuff-taking; whether the women
indulge in this cannot say, but it is prob
able that with age femininity loses its char
acteristic love of good looks with them, as
with us, and that certain masculine habits,
in the direction of tobacco, are allowed TO
distigure the female countenance, which
then assumes that of man. The irregular
dwelling. rooms open on each side, in
which scythes and saddles, Gods beads and
cradles, nets and spinning wheels, wet
clothes and musty meat, and the innumer-
able articles of housekeeping, husbandry,
and clothing are mingled on floor and wall
in dire confusion; in fact, tidy house
keeper would go clszy here in half an
hour. Down stairs and iu the lofts arc
ranges Of boxes or hunks, separated only
by head-board, filled with feathers, sea-
weed, or hay, and covered with old clothes,
worn blankets and musty skins. A whole
family usually sleep in ono room, for
warmth, and two or three in a bunk is the
common order of things in large family.
No air can get in unless through cracks in
walls, doors, and windows, and the idea of
tue Necessity, OF even the ueSlraDlllty, OF
fresh air never enters their heads. One
may well believe the assurances of travel
ors that their poorer houses and their per-
sons are infested with vcrmin as we slept
on the ground, away from all houses, uu-
der our tent, we were entirely free from
these annoyances we did not even enjoy
the hospitality of church, whose sacred
precincts these degraded dipterious insects
do not scruple to enter and occupy. Some
times openings are found in these close
rooms carefully closed by corks, which, at
the earnest solicitation of a suffocating
traveller, are removed for minute or two
and closed as soon as the cold air Is felt.
Though their houses were rudely furnish
cd, and not over.clean, they were totally
unlike the uncomfortable cabins and shan
ties of our poorer classes in and near large
cities. There were no signs of restitution,
and, though homely, they were sufficient
for their simple wants.-AR american ia
Iceland.