INDIAN DWELLINGS WATERMAN 475 



It is a structure made of plank, but it is entered by a tunnel from 

 one side, and, as described by Nelson, has the interior arrangement 

 which is characteristic of the well-laiown Eskimo snow house, 

 which is also entered through a tunnel. The modern house, how- 

 ever, is very different from the ancient houses in this region. The 

 houses on the Aleutian Islands are at the present time somewhat 

 Europeanized, having hinged doors, glass windows, and other evi- 

 dences of contact with Yankees and Russians. The house is covered 

 with earth, however, and so preserves this much of its old char- 

 acter. I was much interested to discover that the houses which were 

 standing in this region something over a century ago, when white 

 explorers first came in, were, as is shown in the drawings repro- 

 duced herewith (pi. 9), neither more nor less than pit-dwellings, 

 entered from above through the smoke hole. 



The use of undergi-ound houses by the Alaskan Eskimo forms a 

 link between America and Asia. In northeastern Asia uiider- 

 groimd habitations are in constant use, for example, among the 

 Koryak, Chukchi, and Kamchadal. Such pit dwellings have also 

 been reported from Sakhalin Island, from Japan, and from farther 

 afield. It would seem possible that all the underground and semi- 

 undergi'ound houses which have been described have been derived 

 at some ancient time from Asia. 



The stone houses of the Hudson Bay and Greenland Eskimo, 

 which in all cases are built over pits, may have arisen as a modi- 

 fication of the same form of dwelling, built, however, in a region 

 where there is no timber at all. The snow house is another matter. 

 This seems to be an Eskimo invention, pure and simple. 



PUZZLING TYPES OF HOUSES ' 



The Pima of Arizona use a type of dwelling called the kee. It is 

 circular in form, made of wattel, and plastered with clay. It contains 

 no pit. Where they got the plan of this house is very much of a 

 puzzle. The Navajo build a conical type of house which they call the 

 hogan (pi. 10, fig. 1). The framework consists of three poles, 

 which strongly indicates relationship with the tipi of the plains. 

 The center of the house is excavated down into the ground, and 

 the whole is heaped over with a thick covering of earth; both of 

 which features suggest the earth lodge. I admit that I do not know 

 what to make of these structures. The crudest habitation in North 

 America is undoubtedly the wickiup of the Faiute, a brush shelter, 

 shown on Plate 11, Figure 2. Finally there is one tribe of NortJi 

 America, the Seri of Tiburon Island in the Gulf of California, 

 who do not know how to make houses at all. The best they can 

 achieve is a wind break. They live, to be sure, in an all-but-rainless 

 area. 



