12 



BUILDING MATERIAI-, but before we have passed the Mackenzie R. 

 snowhuts are only found as serving for temporary use, especi- 

 ally on journeys for hunting. In the Central Regions they are 

 made regular habitations for a certain part of the year. On 

 account of their circular form they must of course be narrow, 

 and for this reason they are furnished with siderooms for differ- 

 ent uses. In spring and autumn temporary huts of an elongated 

 form are built as a transition to THE GREEi\LAx\D HOLSES. It 

 is said that the kagsit are — or according to tradition have been 

 — built likewise of snow. In Greenland, at least south of Mel- 

 ville Bay, dwellings of snow are not known to have existed, the 

 houses are REARED MERELY OF STO.NES Ai\D SOD or turf. The 

 fireenlanders quite well know the kagsit from their traditional tales, 

 but no doubt mainly, if not entirely as a reminiscence from 

 the earlier homesteads of their ancestors. In Disko Island 

 certainly a ruin which was recently still in existence was said 

 to have been such a public building. But as far as I know 

 there does not exist any authentic statement of such buildings 

 ever having been observed or known to have been made use of 

 in Greenland. Finally one very remarkable custom which the 

 Alaska Eskimo have in common with the Indians must be men- 

 tioned here in connection with the dv/ellings. It is the use of 

 sweating baths. The kagses generally serve for this purpose, but 

 how far the custom passes beyond the shores of Bering Strait 

 is not known; certainly, however, it is abandoned before the 

 regular use of snowhouses begins. 



Dress and ornaments. 



The ESKIMO CLOTHING, as well known, is almost the same 

 for women as for men, consisting of trousers or breeches and a 

 tunic or coat closed round the body and covering the head also 

 by means of THE PROLONGATION THAT FORMS THE HOOD. It varies 

 of course throughout the different tribes, but the hood especially 



