Beautiful Carpets Lie Spread
Before The Sofas; Neat Curtains Shade The Windows; English Prints
Ornament The Whitewashed Walls; Porcelain, Plate, Cut-Glass, &C.,
Are Displayed On Chests And On Tables; And Flower-Pots With Roses,
Mignonnette, And Pinks Spread A Delicious Fragrance Around.
I even
found a grand pianoforte here.
If any person could suddenly, and
without having made the journey, be transported into one of these
houses, he would certainly fancy himself in some continental town,
rather than in the distant and barren island of Iceland. And as in
Havenfiord, so I found the houses of the more opulent classes in
Reikjavik, and in all the places I visited.
From these handsome houses I betook myself to the cottages of the
peasants, which have a more indigenous, Icelandic appearance. Small
and low, built of lava, with the interstices filled with earth, and
the whole covered with large pieces of turf, they would present
rather the appearance of natural mounds of earth than of human
dwellings, were it not that the projecting wooden chimneys, the low-
browed entrances, and the almost imperceptible windows, cause the
spectator to conclude that they are inhabited. A dark narrow
passage, about four feet high, leads on one side into the common
room, and on the other to a few compartments, some of which are used
as storehouses for provisions, and the rest as winter stables for
the cows and sheep. At the end of this passage, which is purposely
built so low, as an additional defence against the cold, the
fireplace is generally situated. The rooms of the poorer class have
neither wooden walls nor floors, and are just large enough to admit
of the inhabitants sleeping, and perhaps turning round in them. The
whole interior accommodation is comprised in bedsteads with very
little covering, a small table, and a few drawers. Beds and chests
of drawers answer the purpose of benches and chairs. Above the beds
are fixed rods, from which depend clothes, shoes, stockings, &c. A
small board, on which are arranged a few books, is generally to be
observed. Stoves are considered unnecessary; for as the space is
very confined, and the house densely populated, the atmosphere is
naturally warm.
Rods are also placed round the fireplace, and on these the wet
clothes and fishes are hung up in company to dry. The smoke
completely fills the room, and slowly finds its way through a few
breathing-holes into the open air.
Fire-wood there is none throughout the whole island. The rich
inhabitants have it brought from Norway or Denmark; the poor burn
turf, to which they frequently add bones and other offal of fish,
which naturally engender a most disagreeable smoke.
On entering one of these cottages, the visitor is at a loss to
determine which of the two is the more obnoxious - the suffocating
smoke in the passage or the poisoned air of the dwelling-room,
rendered almost insufferable by the crowding together of so many
persons. I could almost venture to assert, that the dreadful
eruption called Lepra, which is universal throughout Iceland, owes
its existence rather to the total want of cleanliness than to the
climate of the country or to the food.
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