FURTHER STAY IN FRIEDRICHSTHAL. 203 



was soon won over. We sliould stay in Liclitenau for 

 the answer. 



After dinner, while Mr. Rosing was writing the letter, 

 we took a walk round the neighbourhood. 



Nennortalik belongs to the superior class of settlements 

 in Greenland. The dwelling-houses of the merchants, 

 painted black, with white window-frames and peaceful- 

 looking gardens, make a pleasing impression ; but the 

 houses of the natives are built of stone and turf, some 

 having a roof made of planks nailed together. The fit- 

 tings of the interior were thoroughly Greenlandish. A 

 narrow low passage leads to a room of very modest dimen- 

 sions, with a wainscoting all round. The greater part of 

 this room is taken up with the wooden benches, which 

 form the sleeping-place of all the inhabitants. The walls 

 are decorated with gaudy lithographs, sometimes even 

 gilt-framed looking-glasses. Next to the window, as a 

 luxury, stands a small table ; and instead of chairs, one 

 or two chests. 



To a European, a stay in such a house is a difficult 

 matter. The evaporation from its occupants, the train-oil 

 lamps, the half-putrid food, the state of corruption of 

 the skin-clothing, poison the atmosphere to such a 

 degree that it is almost impossible to breathe. There 

 are means of airing the dwellings, in the large window 

 which takes up the whole south side of the wall, 

 but it is so besmeared, that the daylight only comes 

 in thick and gloomy ; still it never enters the heads of 

 'the people to open it. The island itseK is wild and 

 rather flat, strewn with erratic boulders ; and on the 

 west side it rises to a high mountain ridge, the 

 outer promontory of which forms the well-known Cape 



