As apparently trees of sufficient length to form the beams of so wide an apartment could not be obtained, the floor above was supported by two rows of roughly squared posts extending down from end to end.

The walls were perfectly bare.

The beams and planks of the ceiling were stained black by the smoke of a fire which burned in one corner; the floor was of clay beaten hard.

A strip some ten feet wide, at the further end, was raised eighteen inches above the general level, forming a sort of dais.

Here, in a carved settle of black wood, sat the chief.