The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-02-06
IcELANp.s HOSPITALITY.
The Primitive Manner of Retiring Which
Shocks Traveller.


Shocks a Traveller.
All'members of an Iceland family
sleep in one room, and this, indeed,
often serves all 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 a space
three or four feet wide down the center,
these rooms are lighted by one small
window at the end. ventilated by the
door or the trap through which they
are entered from below and warmed by
the heat of the bodies collected in them
The steeply pitched roof, constructed
Of rafters and overlapping 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 few others have
guest chambers, with sometimes a stove,
which is only used on extraordinary
occasions, owing to the difficulty of
Transporting fuel from the seaports.
Parties of tourists stop where there is
church and SILVER out the night on
the eight-inch wide benches, the vest
ment chests or the floor, but if there
are only one or two of you and no
guest room, or that is already filled, 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 we'll as the only good idea of the
home life of the people.
Ii I'M I
room smokily and dimly lighted by
seal oil, burned with wick of cotton
grass in a lamp of brass, much like the
ancient lamps of the Greeks, but
furnished with an overhanging arm and
a swivel and boat-hook 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 like sardines in a box, the
head of one on the same pillow as the
| feet of his next bed-fellows, and the
space that was not occupied by human
beings probably was by beings inhuman.
After shaking up the many boxes and
| bundles 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 Gan Iceland
gentleman was to share my bed) and
then, as if it were an everyday &C.
currence to shock the senses of a modest
traveller, while we were still undressing
she, with two others, proceeded to take
possession of the bunk opposite ours,
until "tho last in bed put out the light"
My companion somewhat surprised me
by warning to secrete any valuables
might have, but as he was an Icelander
| thought it better to follow his advice
than to trust to the proverbial honesty
of his countrymen, and after an appli.
cation from a box of rough on rats-no,
well never mind-I was soon uncon.
scious, breathing carbonic acid gas by
the cubic yard, but in sweet oblivion
until awakened during the general turn.
out next morning.
The daylight revealed nothing new,
except, perhaps, the many little articles
stuffed into every nook and crevice.
Furniture is scarce and chest of
drawers a luxury in an Icelandic habi.
ldilOU. anu OulS anu CllNlS NIS lutlS OI
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 fishhooks were tucked pro-
miscuously away, and old clothes and
| fish hung over lines stretched length
wise 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
musings by the rustling of the disar-
ranged covering in bed which | had
supposed empty, and presently a half
naked child would start up from the
depths and stare in open-eyed wonder
at the stranger, who returned the gaze
with q sense of the ludicrous rising
within him. From bed where had
counted three the night before, four
had already risen, and how many more
were to follow? AT the further end OF
the isle a mattress spread upon the
floor had served for the resting place
of three more girls, whose accustomed
bunk myself and companion had proba-
bly, occupied. By this time | had be-
gun to feel the need of q little clean
air, and, getting into my clothes, /
descended to the guest-room where L
breakfasted on more mutton and tur-
nips, but lightened this time with cup
of chocolate and some English crackers.
Lang IceI0'ld) Cor. Philadelphia Press.