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752 KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORTH.
cagt; and as they are always of metal, either copper or filver, they ferve for ornament,
The fifhermen wear above it a coarfe {mooth wai{tcoat, and a large fkin jacket of leather
or fheep’s {kin ; they rub this over with the oil of fifh’s liver or greafe to keep out the
rain, and preferve it. The reft of the body they cover with a fort of pantaloons of
leather, which fupplies the place of breeches, ftockings, and fhoes. They have large
flapped hats, which keep them from the inclemency of the weather when they go a fifh-
ing. The women wear gowns, jackets, and aprons made of a cloth manufactured in
Iceland, called wadmel: over their jacket they wear a very wide robe, pretty much re-
fembling that worn by the Jefuits, but it does not reach down fo low as the petticoats,
which are expofed. This robe is of a different colour, moftly black, and is named
hempe; it is trimmed with a velvet binding, or fome other ornament. ‘The rich wear
down the front of their hempe feveral ornaments of filver. They trim the bottom of
their aprons and petticoats as well, and the feams of their jackets with filk ribbon, gal-
loon, or velvet, of a different colour. They wear a ftiff collar three or four fingers wide. _
This collar, or necklace, is always of a very fine ftuff, or velvet embroidered with gold
or filver. Their head-drefs refembles a cone, or a fugar-loaf, of two or three feet high;
it confifts of a kerchief of very coarfe cloth, which ftands ereét, and is covered over by
another finer kerchief, forming the figure | have mentioned. Both men and women
wear fhoes of ox’s or fheep’s fkin tanned, and fewed together by the women. Their
fhoes have no heels, but are faftened to the inftep by fmall ftraps.
Mefirs. Horrebow and Anderfon do not agree about the dwellings of the Icelanders.
The firft, who fees every thing in a brilliant point of view, defcribes the houfes of the
rich; the latter, who only wrote from the relation of fifhermen frequenting the coatts,
pictures the cabins of the poor. ‘The defcriptions of the former are too magnificent ;
the account of the other is not very wide of truth. Entering a houfe, fays M. Horre-
bow, you meet with a deep paflage, fix feet wide, at the top of which are crofs rafters
roofed over. In the paflage, from {pace to fpace, are round openings to admit the light;
they are clofed with {mall panes of glafs, or more commonly by {mall cafk hoops, over
which is {tretched a parchment made from the bladders of bulls and cows: this parchs
ment is called Ainne ; it is very tranfparent. At the end of this paflage is the common
entrance to the houfe. In the front of it isa room fourteen ells long by eight broad,
which the Icelanders call the ftove ; this apartment is generally the working room: the
women drefs the wool, make cloaths, and do other houfehold work in it. At the end
of this there is moftly a bed-room for the mafter and miftrefs of the houfe : above, the
women fervants fleep, and the children. ‘There is ufually befides two other apartments
on each fide the paflage; one a kitchen, another a pantry, the third a dairy, and the
fourth and laft, a bed-room near the entrance of the paflage for the men fervants: this
apartment is with them called Skaule. In the roof of every room are openings as in the
paflage, for the admiflion of light through frames of /inne; but the work room is ordi-
narily lighted through two glafs windows: befides thefe different apartments, the gene-
rality have befides, adjoining the fkaule, a parlour to receive ftrangers in. Near the
dwelling-houfe they have a {mall building, called forge, where all their works are carried
on. Every inhabitant, in addition to thefe, has his {table, his cow-houfe, and fheep-
pen. he Icelanders do not houfe their hay, but place it on a high fpot, furrounding
it with a dich, ftacked in heaps fix feet high and fix fquare. They place thefe {tacks
at {mall diftances from each other, which they cover with turf in a floping direction, fo
as to carry off the rain tothe ditch. ‘Tnis is the defcription Mr. Horrebow gives of the
common houfes of the Icelanders ; afterwards. he wainfcots the apartments, and orna-
ments them with glaffes and furniture. ‘The richefl people of the country, it is true,
have
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