Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-05-02
NELAND'S HOSPITALITY.
A PRIMITIVE MANNER OF GOING TO
BED THAT SHOCKS A TRAVELLER.
4 Sleeping-Room Smoky and Dimly
Lighted by Seal Oil-Carbonic Acid
Gas by the Cubic Yard-ScArcity Of Fur
Naturalization and Turnips.

All members Of an Iceland family sleep 1,
one room, and this, indeed, often serves a
purposes save that Of kitchen Very narrow
and from six to twenty feet long, according
to the size of the family, with a row Of Low
hunks on either side, leaving space three o.
four feet wide down the centre
these rooms are lighted by on,
small window at the end, ventilated By
the door or the trap through which they an
entered from below and warmed by the heal
of the bodies collected in them The steeply
pitched roof, constructed of rafters and over.
tapping boards and covered on the outside
with thick layer Of growing turf, rests on
low walls, and makes it impossible to stand
upright, except under the ridge. The priests
houses and q few others have guest chambers,
with sometimes stove, which is only used On
extraordinary occasions, owing to the diff
Guilty of transporting fuel from the seaporta
Parties Of tourists stop where there is q
church and shiver out the night on the eight
inch wide benches, the vestment chests or the
floor, but If there are only one or two of you
and no guest room or that is already filed,
you generally share, for experiences sake, in
the somewhat promiscuous nightly packing
of the family-for experiences sake, mind
you, and you always get it, as well as the
only good idea of the home life of the people
A CROWDED sLEEPING-RooM.
Upon this evening found myself in q room
s1nokily and dimly lighted by seal oil, burned
with wick of cottongrass in a lamp Of brass,
much like the ancient lamps Of the Greeks,
but furnished with an overhanging arm and
aswivel and boathook arrangement, which
permits of its being stuck or hung wherever
the user wishes Two hunks on one side and
one on the other were literally full In one
man and two boys, in another two women
and children, and in the third three men, all
sleeping Ike sardines in box, the head of
one on the same pillow as the feet Of his bed
fellows, and the space that was not occupied
by human beings probably was by beings in
human
After shaking up the many boxes and bun
dies under the rude mattress, and giving an
extra poke or two to the feather or down bed
which is the only form Of covering known In
Iceland, one of the girls motioned US to the
bed where we were to sleep ian Iceland gen.
tleInan was to share my bed, and then, as if
1t were an every day occurrence to shock the
senses of a modest traveller, while we were
still undressing she, with two others, pro-
ceeded to disrobe and take possession Of the
piAh oppo>itS oulS, unlll the last IN DeQ put
out the light" My companion somewhat sur
prised me by warning to secrete my valua-
bleS might have, but as he was an Ice
lander l thought it better follow his advice
than to trust to the proverbial honesty of bis
countrymen, and l was soon unconscious,
breathing carbonic acid gas by the cubic
yard, but i'll sweet oblivion until awakened
during the general turnout next morning.
NEED OF LITE CLEAN AIR
Thedaylight revealed nothing new, except,
perhaps, the many little articles stuffed into
every nook and crovice. Furniture is scarce
and a chest Of drawers luxury in an Ice
landic habtation, and odds and ends are hung
on nails in the roof, stuffed into the cracks or
in boxes hidden away under the mattresses in
the hunks. Horn spoons, knives and forks,
bits Of cloth, needles, books and fshhooks
were tucked promiscuously away, and old
clothes and fish hung over lines stretched
lengthwise of the ridgepole. 1t was interest |
ing to see the men, after slipping into the few |
clothes they had removed upon retiring, sit on |
the edge OF the beds chatting and slipping the |
coffee brought by the women.
Several times was reused from my mus
ings by the rustling of the disarranged covering
in a bed which / had supposed empty, and |
presently half-naked child would start up 1
from the depths and stare in open-eyed won
der at the stranger, who retured tho gaze 4
with a sense OF the ludicrous rising within |
him From beds where had counted three /
the night before four had already risen, and |
how many more were TO followi At the other /
end Of the aisle mattrass spread upon the /
floor had served for the resting place Of three
more girls, whose accustomed bunk myself 4
and companion had probably occupied By /