THE GREAT ALEUTIAN CHAIN. 167 



to stew and broil on a special fireplace constructed outside of the 

 living-room. A great many old-style " peechka " stoves of the Rus- 

 sians are still in use, but no new ones are being made any more, 

 since the introduction of our little iron stoves. This living-room 

 of the hut is usually curtained or partitioned into two sections, one 

 of which is the bedchamber, or "spalniah," They have a great 

 variety of beds and bedsteads, or bunks rather. They are proud 

 of a well-stuffed couch of feathers, and take more real, solid com- 

 fort in sleeping thereon than in anything else that transpires of an 

 enjoyable nature in their lives. The dealers sell a series of the 

 most gaudily printed spreads for these beds, and sometimes you 

 will be much surprised to see a white counterpane and fluted pillow- 

 shams sjDread over an Aleutian couch. Those beds are always 

 raised well up from the floor, and sometimes a curtain is specially 

 hung around them — a borrowed Russian idea, unquestionably. A 

 rude table, two or three empty cracker-boxes from the trader's 

 store for chairs, and a rough bench or two, is about all the furni- 

 ture ever seen in a barrabkie. The table-ware and household utensils 

 do not require a large cupboard for their reception. Cups and 

 saucers of white crockery, highly decorated in flaring blue and red 

 floral designs, plates to niatch, a few pewter teaspoons, will usually 

 be found in sufiicient quantity for the daily use of the family ; and 

 these are loaned out to a neighbor also, on occasions of festivity, 

 when an entire circle of chosen friends join under the roof of some 

 one barrabora in tea-drinking and " praznik " feasting. 



The traders say that recently a great desire has come upon the 

 natives to possess granite ware cooking utensils and drinking cups, 

 or those porcelain or silicon-plated iron vessels which we designate 

 by that name ; they do not require washing, and can be easily wiped 

 out and never rust. Tin-ware is at a great discount among them — 

 it rusts. The odor of coal-oil will be noticed among many others 

 in the barraboras of the Aleutians and Kadiaks in these days, for 

 the general use of this fluid has been established. The glass lamps 

 and the smell suggestive of that illuminant can be jDlainly detected 

 by any stranger who goes into a village up there now, in spite of the 

 fishy and other indigenous strong aromas, which are in themselves 

 equally odious and penetrating. However, an old Aleutian fogy 

 will occasionally insist upon using a primitive stone lamp, with 

 a wicking of moss or strips of cotton cloth. 



A marked fondness for pictures, old engravings, chromos, in 



