Furniture.--The luxuries and elegances practicable in tent-life, are only
limited by the means of transport. Julius Cæsar, who was a great
campaigner, carried parquets of wooden mosaic for his floors! The
articles that make the most show for their weight, are handsome rugs, and
skins, and pillows; canteens of dinner and coffee services; and candles,
with screens of glass, or other arrangements to prevent them from
flickering. The art of luxurious tenting is better understood in Persia
than in any other country, even than in India.
Bedsteads.--A portable bedstead, with mosquito-curtains, is a very great
luxury, raising the sleeper above the damp soil, and the attacks of most
creatures that creep on it; in tours where a few luxuries can be carried,
it is a very proper article of baggage. It is essential where white ants
are numerous. A very luxurious bed is made on the principle of a
tennis-player's raquet; being a framework of wood, with strips of raw
hide lashed across it from side to side and from end to end. It is the
"angareb" of Upper Egypt.
Hammocks and Cots.--I stated in previous editions of this book, that
hammocks and cots had few advocates, owing to the difficulty of
suspending them; but Captain M'Gwire's recent ingenious invention quite
alters the case. His method will be easily understood by the annexed
sketch. The apparatus is adapted for use on the wooden floors of houses,
or ships, by the employment of eyelet-bolts or screw rings instead of
pegs, and by putting wooden shoes below the staves to prevent their
slipping inwards: the shoes are tied to the eyelet-bolts by a cord.
The complete apparatus, in a very portable form, can be bought at Messrs.
Brown's, Piccadilly.
Mosquito Nets and their Substitutes.--A mosquito-curtain may be taken for
suspension over the bed, or place where you sit; but it is dangerous to
read in them by candle-light, for they catch fire very easily. (See
"Incombustible Stuffs.") It is very pleasant, in hot, mosquito-plagued
countries, to take the glass sash entirely out of the window-frame, and
replace it with one of gauze. Broad network, if of fluffy thread, keeps
wasps out. The darker a house is kept, the less willing are flies, etc.,
to flock in. If sheep and other cattle be hurdled-in near the house, the
nuisance of flies, etc., becomes almost intolerable.
Chairs.--It is advisable to take very low strong and roomy camp-stools,
with tables to correspond in height, as a chamber is much less choked up
when the seats are low, or when people sit, as in the East, on the
ground. The seats should not be more than 1 foot high, though as wide and
deep as an ordinary footstool. Habit very soon reconciles travellers to
this; but without a seat at all, a man can never write, draw, nor
calculate as well as if he had one. The stool represented in the figure
(above), is a good pattern: it has a full-sized seat made of canvas or
leather, or of strips of dressed hide. A milk-man's stool, supported by
only one peg, is quickly made in the bush, and is not very inconvenient.
The common rush-bottomed chair can be easily made, if proper materials
are accessible. The annexed diagram explains clearly the method of their
construction.
Table.--The table may consist of a couple of boards, not less than 2 feet
long, by 9 inches broad, hinged lengthwise, for the convenience of
carriage, and resting on a stand, which should be made on the same
principle as the framework of the chair described above. It is well to
have the table made of mahogany, for deal warps and cracks excessively.
There is no difficulty in carrying furniture like the above, on a
pack-horse.
Makeshift Chair and Table.--For want of a chair, it is convenient to dig
a hole or a trench in the ground, and to sit on one side of it, with the
feet resting on its bottom: the opposite side of the trench serves as a
table, on which things may be put, within easy reach.
"In a box 2 feet long and 1 foot square at the ends, the lid and its
bottom, of course, both measure 2 feet by 1 foot. Now, if the bottom
opens on hinges, just like the lid, and if the hinges of both lid and
bottom are fixed to the hindmost side of the box, then when the box is
laid face downwards, and both the lid and the bottom are opened out and
secured in the same horizontal plane with the side to which they are
hinged, a table of 3 feet by 2 feet is made. The lid and bottom form the
two leaves of the table, and what was the hindmost side, when the box
stood on its bottom, is now uppermost, and forms the middle of the table.
Such a box would hold, during travel, the things wanted when encamping."
--(Peal.)
Hooks.--I have spoken of the way of hanging articles in tents, under
"Tent Poles." In a permanent bivouac or in a hut, it is convenient to fix
hooked sticks or the horns of animals, against the walls, as pegs.