198 H. P. STEENSBY. 
ception of this type is quite different from that of THALBITZER and 
other authors. 
T do not lay main stress on the fact that it has preferably been 
erected by employing whales’ bones. Whales’ bones can also act as a sub- 
stitute for wood in forms of houses which have quite a different origin 
than the form mentioned. It cannot be the full explanation, as Mauss 
and BeucxaT think, that it is the exclusive employment of whales’ 
bones which results in the arrival of a new type of house which is “pe- 
tite, penchante, a forme circulaire ou elliptique. Le mur est recouvert 
de peaux, recouvertes, a leur tour, de gazon; ....”!. 
What however, in my opinion, is characteristic of this dome- 
shaped house is that it descends direct from the tent in its Central and 
Eastern-Eskimo primitive form, or more correctly, is nothing else but 
this tent furnished as a winter dwelling with a passage and a cover of 
earth, plant material, or snow on the top of the skin-covering. In the 
next place it is either dug into the ground somewhat, or has a mound 
of earth and stones. The framework is as with the tent mentioned from 
the Central and Eastern Eskimo; in front there is a supporting arch 
or frame which carries the remaining -framework of sloping bars. 
Similar examples of a form of tent having passed over into an earth- 
tent are known from North Asia (cf. SIRELIUS). The fact is not unique, 
but is a well known phenomenon. 
Houses of the type mentioned are described by Boas from the 
Central Eskimo, where they are called garmang. Houses of this type 
have a passage of stone, and the arrangement inside is the one also known 
from the rectangular houses with a broad platform at the back and 
side platforms for lamps and cooking utensils. The framework is carried 
by the rib of the whale which forms an arch. “The whole curve formed 
by the rib is covered with a window of seal intestines, while the poles 
are covered with sealskins, which are fastened in front to the whale-rib. 
.... The roof is covered with a thick layer of Andromeda, and another 
skin, .... is spread over both covers.” The houses before mentioned 
from the Melville Peninsula have, I think, originally been of the same 
kind. 
No doubt, houses of this type are no longer found with the Western 
Eskimo with the exception of the Eskimo on the Asiatic side of Bering 
Strait. From here NELSON mentions and illustrates houses with a some- 
what oval ground-plan, which apparently must be accounted to this 
district. That the tent as a winter dwelling has been able to hold its 
own on the Asiatic coast while it has disappeared on the Alaskan coast 
(it is not predominant in Asia however; as already mentioned, other 
forms of winter houses are now generally used) is quite interesting. 
Apparently this dome-shaped house has also existed in Greenland. 
1 Mauss and BEUCHAT, p. 73. 
