1892-93.] NOTES ON THE WESTERN DENES. 187 



by a long beam to which their lower extremities are attached (see fig. 

 174). As a further guarantee of solidity, slender poles are finally inserted 

 between the bark roofing and the outside rafters. Of course an aperture 

 is left open in the top of the roof for the smoke to escape. 



There now remain the walls to construct. They consist of hewn slabs 

 of spruce which were formerly shaved on the outside as smooth as the 

 working tools then available permitted. The lower end of these rude 

 planks was introduced in a channelling prepared therefor in the large 

 beams, d, lying on the ground, while their upper end was engaged between 

 additional poles running under the eaves or along each side of the 

 gable. 



Large lodges had generally two entrances, one at each gable end of 

 the building. Their lintel was formed by the transversal, beams, /, and 

 they were shut by regular board doors as is practised to-day. However, 

 I have seen a ceremonial lodge whose doorways were simply cut in the 

 end walls some distance above the ground, and were elliptical, as marked 

 in outline in fig. 176. Such lodges were called horw3-ltaz-y3K, or "house 

 with cuts through." 



There never were any windows in the old style lodges. Full 

 ventilation was however established through the doors, the smoke hole- 

 and the numerous wall chinks consequent on the sinking in of the- 

 boards. 



The fire-place was in the centre of the building, and fire was made 

 immediately on the floorless ground. Only two or three stones served 

 as andirons for the wood to lie upon. The family meat or fish was, and 

 is still, commonly either roasted by means of a wooden spit passed 

 therein and stuck in the ground near the fire, or boiled in a kettle 

 supported over the flames through a long stick likewise driven in the 

 ground at a distance from the fire. 



No shutter was used in connection with the smoke-hole as is done 

 among the Haida, nor was the floor covered with any boards. 



The sleeping places only were strewn with spruce branches and. 

 undressed skins, over which everyone stretched himself in his blanket 

 with most of his clothes on. All had their feet next to the fireplace,, 

 instead of each married person having them at the head of his or her 

 partner, as is common among the Blackfeet,* and the Eskimo. -f- 



* Legal, Les Indiens dans les plaines de /' Amerique du Nord, Petites Annales O.M.I., Paris,. 

 1891. 



+ After Rod. MacFarlane, Esq., who has passed several years among those al)origines, 



