THE ICELANDERS. 



103 



ICELANDIC HOUSES. 



oured rests upon these walls, and is covered with turf and sods. On one side 

 (generally facing the south) are several gable ends and doors, each surmounted 

 with a weather-cock. These are the entrances to the dwelling-house proper, to 

 the smithy, store-room, cow-shed, etc. A long narrow passage, -dark as pitch, 

 and redolent of unsavory odors, leads to the several apartments, which are sep- 

 arated from each other by thick walls of turf, each having also its own roof, so 

 that the peasant's dwelling is in fact a conglomeration of low huts, which some- 

 times receive their light through small windows in the front, but more frequent- 

 ly through holes in the roof, covered with a piece of glass or skin. The floors 

 are of stamped earth ; the hearth is made of a few stones clumsily piled togeth- 

 er ; a cask or barrel, with the two ends knocked out, answers the purpose of a 

 chimney, or else the smoke is allowed to escape through a mere hole in the roof. 



The thick turf walls, the dirty floor, the personal uncleanliness of the inhab- 

 itants, all contribute to the pollution of the atmosphere. No piece of furniture 

 seems ever to have been cleaned since it was first put into use ; all is disorder 

 and confusion. Ventilation is utterly impossible, and the whole family, fre- 

 quently consisting of twenty persons or more, sleep in the same dormitory, as 

 well as any strangers who may happen to drop in. On either side of this 

 apartment are bunks three or four feet in width, on which the sleepers range 

 themselves. 



Such are in general the dwellings of the farmers and clergy, for but very 

 few of the more wealthy inhabitants live in any way according to our notions of 

 comfort, while the cots of the poor fisherman are so wretched that one can 

 hardly believe them to be tenanted by human beings. 



