3i6 
A VOYAGE TO 
1778. boards; and the middle part of the houfe appeared com° 
mon t0 them all. 
Their furniture confifts chiefly of a great number of 
chefts and boxes of all flzes, which are generally piled upon, 
each other, clofe to the fldes or ends of the houfe; and 
contain their fpare garments, fkins, malks, and other 
things which they fet a value upon. Some of thefe are 
double, or one covers the other as a lid ; others have a lid 
fattened with thongs; and fome of the very large ones 
have a fquare hole, or fcuttle, cut in the upper part; by 
which the things are put in and taken out. They are often 
painted black, ftudded with the teeth of different animals, 
or carved with a kind of freeze-work, and figures of birds 
or animals, as decorations. Their other domeftic utenfils 
are moftly fquare and oblong pails or buckets to hold wa¬ 
ter and other things ; round wooden cups and bowls ; and 
fmall fhallow wooden troughs, about two feet long, out of 
which they eat their food; and balkets of twigs, hags of 
matting, &c. Their fifliing implements, and other things 
alfo, lie or hang up in different parts of the houfe, but 
without the leaft order; fo that the whole is a complete 
fcene of confufion; and the only places that do not partake 
of this confufion are the fleeping-benches, that have no¬ 
thing on them but the mats; which are alfo cleaner, or of a 
finer fort, than thofe they commonly have to fit on in their 
boats. 
The naftinefs and ttench of their houfes are, however, at 
leaft equal to the confufion. For, as they dry their fitti 
within doors, they alfo gut them there, which, with their 
bones and fragments thrown down at meals, and the addi¬ 
tion of other forts of filth, lie every where in heaps, and 
are, I believe, never carried away, till it becomes trouble- 
fome, 
