MURDOCH.) VILLAGES. 79 



Arrangement in village*. The village, of Utkiavwlii occupies a narrow 

 strip of ground along the edge of the cliffs of ( ape Smyth, about 1 ,000 

 yards long, and extending some 150 yards inland. The houses are 

 scattered among the hillocks without any attempt at regularity and at 

 different distances from each other, sometimes alone, and sometimes in 

 groups of two contiguous houses, which often have a common cache 

 frame. Xuwiik, from Dr. Simpson s account 1 and what we saw in our 

 hurried visits, is scattered in the same way over the knolls of Point 

 Barrow, but has its greatest extension in an east and west direction. 

 From Simpson s account (ibid.) double houses appear more common at 

 Nuwuk than at TTtkiavwIfi, and he even speaks of a few threefold ones. 

 All the houses agree in facing south. This is undoubtedly to admit 

 the greatest amount of light in winter, and seems to be a tolerably 

 general custom, at least among the northern Eskimo. 2 



The custom of having the dwelling face south appears to be a deeply 

 rooted one, as even the tents in summer all face the same way. 3 



The tents on the saiulspit at Plover Bay all face west. The same was 

 observed by the Krause brothers at East Cape. 4 At Utkiavwln there 

 are twenty-six or twenty-seven inhabited houses. The uninhabited are 

 mostly ruins and are chiefly at the southwest end of the village, though 

 the breaking away of the cliffs at the other end has exposed the ruins 

 of a few other old houses. Near these are also the ruins of the buildings 

 destroyed by the ice catastrophe described above (p. 31). The mounds 

 at the site of the United States signal station are also the ruins of 

 old iglus. We were told that &quot;long ago,&quot; before they had any iron, 

 five families who &quot;talked like dogs&quot; inhabited this village. They 

 were called Isu tkwamiun. Similar mounds are to be seen at Pernyfi, 

 near the present summer camp. About these we only learned that 

 people lived there &quot;long ago.&quot; We also heard of ruined houses on the 

 banks of Kulugrua. 



Besides the dwellings there are in Utkiavwlfi three and in Xuwiik 

 two of the, larger buildings used for dancing, and as workrooms for the 

 men, so often spoken of among other Eskimo. 



Dr. Simpson states 5 that they are nominally the property of some of 

 the more wealthy men. We did not hear of this, nor did we ever hear 

 the different buildings distinguished as &quot;So-and-so s,&quot; as I am inclined 

 to think would have been the ease had the custom still prevailed. They 

 are called ku dylgi or ku drlgi (karrigi of Simpson), a word which cor 

 responds, mutatis mutandis, with the Greenlandic kagsse, which means, 

 first, a circle of hills round a small deep valley, and then a circle of 



1 Op. cit., p. 256. 



&quot;For example, I find it mentioned in Greenland by Kane, 1st (Irinnell Kxp., p. 40; at Iglulik by 

 Parry, 2d Voy., p. 499; and at tlm month of tbe Mackenzie by Franklin, 2&amp;lt;1 Exp., p. 121, as well as 

 by Dr. Simpson at Niiwiik, op. cit., p. 256. 



8 Frobishcr says tbe tents in Meta Incognita (in 1577) were &quot;so pitched up, that tbe entrance into 

 them, is alwaics South, or against tbe Sunuu.&quot; Hakluyt s Voyages, etc., (1589) p. 628. 



4 Geograpbische Blatter, vol. 5, p. 27. 



Op. cit., p. 259. 



