The common houses of the country are everywhere built of beams of
fir-trees; the lower beams do so receive the round hollowness of the
uppermost, that by the means of the building thereupon they resist
and expel all winds that blow, and where the timber is joined
together, there they stop the chinks with moss. The form and
fashion of their houses in all places is four-square, with straight
and narrow windows, whereby with a transparent easement made or
covered with skin like to parchment they receive the light. The
roofs of their houses are made of boards covered without with the
bark of trees: within their houses they have benches or grieves
hard by their walls, which commonly they sleep upon, for the common
people know not the use of beds: they have stoves wherein in the
morning they make a fire, and the same fire doth either moderately
warm or make very hot the whole house.

The apparel of the people for the most part is made of wool, their
caps are picked like unto a rike or diamond, broad beneath, and
sharp upward. In the manner of making whereof there is a sign and
representation of nobility; for the loftier or higher their caps
are, the greater is their birth supposed to be, and the greater
reverence is given them by the common people.


THE CONCLUSION TO QUEEN MARY.


These are the things, most excellent Queen, which your subjects
newly returned from Russia have brought home concerning the state of