at work, not upon benches, but in a kind of
concave trench, which is dug all round the inside of the house, and
covered with mats; so that this part is kept tolerably decent. But
the middle of the house, which is common to all the families, is
far otherwise. For, although it be covered with dry grass, it is a
receptacle for dirt of every kind, and the place for the urine trough;
the stench of which is not mended by raw hides, or leather being
almost continually steeped in it. Behind and over the trench, are
placed the few effects they are possessed of, such as their cloathing,
mats, and skins.

[Footnote 17: Mr Coxe's description of the habitations of the natives
of Oonalashka, and the other Fox Islands, in general, agrees with
Captain Cook's. See _Russian Discoveries_, p. 149. See also _Histoire
des differents Peuples soumis a la Domination des Russes_, par M.
Levesque, tom. i. p. 40, 41.--D.]

Their household furniture consists of bowls, spoons, buckets, piggins
or cans, matted-baskets, and perhaps a Russian kettle or pot. All
these utensils are very neatly made, and well formed; and yet we saw
no other tools among them but the knife and the hatchet, that is,
a small flat piece of iron, made like an adze, by fitting it into a
crooked wooden handle. These were the only instruments we met with
there made of iron. For although the Russians live amongst them, we
found much less of this metal in their possession, than we had met
with in the possession of other tribes on the American continent, who
had never seen, nor perhaps had any intercourse with, the Russians.
Probably a few beads, a little tobacco, and snuff, purchase all they
have to spare. There are few, if any of them, that do not both smoke
and chew tobacco, and take snuff; a luxury that bids fair to keep them
always poor.

They did not seem to wish for more iron, or to want any other
instruments, except sewing-needles, their own being made of bone. With
these they not only sew their canoes, and make their clothes, but
also very curious embroidery. Instead of thread they use the fibres
of sinews, which they split to the thickness which each sort of work
requires. All sewing is performed by the women. They are the tailors,
shoe-makers, and boat-builders, or boat-coverers; for the men, most
probably, construct the frame of wood over which the skins are sewed.
They make mats and baskets of grass, that are both beautiful and
strong. Indeed, there is a neatness and