“In each room there are two or more windows, which reach from the ceiling to within two feet of the floor. They consist of light frames which may be taken out, put in, and slid behind each other, at pleasure, in two grooves made for this purpose in the beams above and below them. They are divided by slender rods into panes of a parallelogrammatic form, sometimes to the number of forty, and pasted over on the outside with fine white paper, which is seldom if ever oiled, and admits a great deal of light, but prevents any one from seeing through it. The roof always projects a great way beyond the house, and sometimes has an addition which covers a small projecting gallery that stands before each window. From this little roof go slanting inwards and downwards several quadrangular frames, within which hang blinds made of rushes, which may be drawn up and let down, and serve not only to hinder people that pass by from looking into the house, but chiefly when it rains to prevent the paper windows from being damaged. There are no glass windows here; nor have I observed mother-of-pearl or muscovy talc (mica, or isinglass) used for this purpose. “The houses have neither the elegant appearance nor the convenience and comfort of ours in Europe. The rooms are not so cheerful and pleasant, nor so warm in the winter, neither are they so safe in case of fire, nor so durable. Their semi-transparent paper windows, in particular, spoil the houses, as well in their inside as outside appearance. Neither chimneys nor stoves are known throughout the whole country, although the cold is very intense, and they are obliged to make fires in their apartments from October to March. The fires are made in copper kettles, of various sizes, with broad projecting edges. This mode of firing is liable, however, to this inconvenience, that the charcoal sometimes smokes, in consequence of which the apartment becomes dirty and black, and the eyes of the company suffer exceedingly. “The floors are always covered with mats made of a fine species of rush (_Juncus effusus_), cultivated in low spots for that purpose, and interwoven with rice straw. These mats are from three to four inches thick, and of the same size throughout the country, viz., two yards long and one broad. The insides of the houses, both ceiling and walls, are covered with a handsome, thick paper, ornamented with various flowers. These hangings are either green, yellow, or white; and sometimes embellished with silver and gold. As the paper is greatly damaged by the smoke in winter, it is renewed every third or fifth year.[47]