DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 
49 
to tell yon; they seemed to me like those of a good 
old-fashioned farm-house, the walls wainscoted with 
deal, and the doors and staircase of the same material. 
A few prints, a photograph, some book-shelves, one 
or two little pictures, decorated the parlour, and a 
neat iron stove, and massive chests of drawers, served 
to furnish it very completely. But you must not, 
I fear, take the drawing-room of Bessestad as an 
average specimen of the comfort of an Icelandic 
interieur. The greater proportion of the inhabitants 
of the island live much more rudely. The walls of 
only the more substantial farmsteads are wainscoted 
with deal, or even partially screened with drift-wood. 
In most houses the bare blocks of lava, pointed with 
moss, are left in all their natural ruggedness. Instead 
of wood, the rafters are made of the ribs of whales. 
The same room but too often serves as the dining, 
sitting, and sleeping place for the whole family; a hole in 
the roof is the only chimney, and a horse’s skull the 
most luxurious fauteuil into which it is possible for 
them to induct a stranger. The jparquet is that origi¬ 
nally laid down by Nature,—the beds are merely 
boxes filled with feathers or sea-weed,—and by all 
E 
