Which in the Winter time, eache where full thicke doth lie:
Which makes them haue the more desire, to set their houses hie.
No stone work is in vse, their roofes of rafters bee,
One linked in another fast, their wals are all of tree.
Of masts both long, and large; with mosse put in betweene,
To keepe the force of weather out, I neuer earst haue seene
A grosse deuise so good, and on the roofe they lay
The burthen barke, to rid the raine, and sudden showres away.
In euery roome a stoue, to serue the Winter turne,
Of wood they haue sufficient store, as much as they can burne.
They haue no English glasse, of slices of a rocke.
Hight Sluda they their windows make, that English glasse doth mocke.
They cut it very thinne, and sow it with a thred
In pretie order like to panes, to serue their present need.
No other glasse, good faith doth giue a better light:
And sure the rocke is nothing rich, the cost is very slight.
The chiefest place is that, where hangs the god by it,
The owner of the house himselfe doth neuer sit,
Unlesse his better come, to whom he yealds the seat:
The stranger bending to the god, the ground with brow most beat
And in that very place which they most sacred deeme,
The stranger lies: a token that his guest he doth esteeme.
Where he is wont to haue a beares skinne for his bed,
And must, in stead of pillow, clap his saddle to his head.
In Russia other shift there is not to be had,
For where the bedding is not good, the boalsters are but bad
I mused very much, what made them so to lie,
Sith in their countrey Downe is rife, and feathers out of crie:
Vnlesse it be because the countrey is so hard,
They feare by nicenesse of a bed their bodies would be mard,