324 



seems very narrow and lo end in a point, must in reality be 

 comparatively broad, as a considerable part of the roofs weight 

 must rest on it, both over the floor-space and the main plat- 

 forms. 



The important thing about this house-lype is, that it shows 

 us in quite a convincing manner, how the long winter-house 

 has arisen, which was used in West Greenland before the 

 Danish colonisation and which G. Holm ^ in 1884 still found 

 in use at Angmagsalik. The long, common-house in Green- 

 land is in fact nothing else than this house-type, built with 

 beams of drift-wood to support the roof instead of stones or 

 whale ribs. The fixed dividing wall becomes of no use and 

 disappears, as soon as a more convenient mode of supporting 

 the roof, by means of beams resting on the side-walls, is found 

 (cf. fig. 16); but the small, middle platforms remain in the form 

 of a raised part or table, on which the lamps stand in front 

 of the main platform in the long house (o in fig. 16). 



A house-type such as shown on fig. 15, which is intended 

 for 2 families, each having a separate, main platform and con- 

 siderably more space than if Ihey shared a simple, single 

 house, has arisen as the expression of the Eskimo tendency 

 to crowd together, a tendency which is binding both in socio- 

 logical and psychological regards. As soon as the Eskimos 

 can obtain the drift-wood, they have been able to satisfy this 

 tendency and thus, on the basis of the known house-type, 

 build the long house with a single, long, main platform, on 

 which each family has its "berth" or division, separated at the 

 sides only by a hanging skin. 



In July — August 1909 there were 5 tents to the east of 

 the winter-houses at the settlement Umanark; these were oc- 

 cupied by 6 families of in all 29 members. The tents lay 

 scattered on the sides of a small valley-like depression and 



^ Gustav Holm: Etnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne. Meddelelser om 

 Grønland X. 



