The dwellings of these people are sufficiently wretched: low, damp, and exposed to both the heat and cold by the rude manner in which they are constructed; a fire is kept in the centre of the principal room, from which small closets open: they sleep in general under two _feather beds_, in a close, unwholesome air, many in the same room.

Still their domestic arrangements seem a degree better than those of the Bretons, and their dirt does not appear so great, bad as it must necessarily be.
The dress of the men is a large, heavy, brown stuff cloak, or a long jacket of sheepskin, with the fur outwards; to which, when gaiters of the same are added, there is little difference between them and the animals they tend: a very small _berret_, the cap of the country, covers merely the top of their heads, and is but of little use in sheltering them in rainy weather.

The women wear large round hats with great wings, adorned with black ribbon, and sometimes with a herb, which they call Immortelle de Mer;[12] the young girls frequently, however, prefer a small linen cap, the wings of which are crossed over the top of the head.
[Footnote 12: See for these particulars, Athanasie Maritime .-- _Du Mege_.] Shepherds are almost always clothed in sheepskins, and in winter they wear over this a white woollen cloak with a very pointed hood.

These are the people who make their appearance on stilts, called _Xicanques_, and traverse the Landes with their flocks, crossing streams of several feet deep, and striding along like flying giants.

They have always a long pole, with a seat affixed, and a gun slung at their backs, to defend them from the attack of wolves.