nd custom and purity of morals has made it a law among them, that they
should first strip themselves quite naked at home, and they then go to the
bath at the distance of a bow-shot from the house. In their right hands
they carry a bundle of herbs to wipe the moisture from their backs, and
extend their left hands before them, as if to cover the parts of shame,
though they do not seem to take much pains about the matter. In the bath
they are seen promiscuously with the men[5]. They have no notion of
fornication or adultery; neither do they marry from sensual motives, but
merely to conform to the divine command. They also abstain from cursing and
swearing. At the death of relations, they shew the greatest resignation to
the will of God, and even give thanks in the churches for having spared
their friends so long, and in now calling them to be partakers of the
bounty of heaven. They shew so little extravagance of grief and lamentation
on these occasions, that it appeared as if the deceased had only fallen
into a sweet sleep. If the deceased was married, the widow prepares a
sumptuous banquet for the neighbours on the day of burial; when she and her
guests appear in their best attire, and she entreats her guests to eat
heartily, and to drink to the memory of the deceased, and to his eternal
repose and happiness. They went regularly to church, where they prayed very
devoutly on their knees, and they kept the fast days with great strictness.

Their houses are built of wood, in a round form, having a hole in the
middle of the roof for the admission of light; and which hole they cover
over in winter with a transparent fish skin, on account of the severity of
the cold. Their clothes are made of coarse cloth, manufactured at London,
and elsewhere. They wore furs but seldom; and in order to inure themselves
to the coldness of their climate, they expose their new born infants, the
fourth day after birth, naked under the sky-light, which they then open to
allow the snow to fall upon them; for it snowed almost continually during
the whole winter that Quirini and his people were there, from the 5th of
February to the 14th of May. In consequence of this treatment, the boys are
so inured to the cold, and become so hardy, that they do not mind it in the
least.

The isle of Rostoe is frequented by a great number of white sea-fowl called
_Muris_ [6] in the language of the country. These birds are fond of living
hear mankind, and are as tame