An Anthropogeographical Study of the Origin of the Eskimo Culture. 193 
here a still stronger impression of it being a rectangular gable-house, 
where the supports are formed of wooden beams. The réle which wooden 
planks generally play in the covering of floors, walls and platforms is 
a point of special interest, and shows that the house must originate from 
more southern parts of the globe. 
The house itself is dug somewhat down into the ground, and then 
covered with earth, so that one is not wrong in calling it “underground.” 
The entrance to the house which, on account of the covering of earth 
is from the outside not of the gable type but roundish, is through a low, 
underground passage which leads into the house in the middle of the 
one side (originally the long side) facing the main platform. The en- 
trance is frequently double, inasmuch as there is a high lying passage 
for use in summer and a low lying one for use in winter’. The same 
is found in Asia. The habit of using the top-hole of the house as an 
entrance, well known to the Paleasiatics, recurs in America, it was 
found, for example with the Aleuts. On the Asiatic side of Bering Strait, 
where whales’ bones must almost entirely replace drift-wood, and where, 
as before mentioned, the form of dwelling is influenced from the interior 
of Asia, the rectangular house occurs in a somewhat changed variant?, 
which, however, may easily have been related to the Aleutian house, 
such as Perrorr® describes it. 
There can be no doubt that the described house type originates 
from more southern latitudes. Form, material, and construction bear 
witness to this. Everything bears the impress of its having originated 
from regions with an abundance of wood, and from districts with such 
a mild climate that houses of wood have been used, at any rate posts 
of wood, the walls being of planks, mats, or perhaps wattle, and not 
covered with earth. 
As SarFERT points out, a rectangular earth-house is really a con- 
tradictio in adjecto, for which reason it must be assumed that “der vier- 
eckige Erdbau sich aus dem viereckigen Holzhaus entwickelte oder sich 
zum mindesten an ihn anlehnte.” 
The question is, then, from where can this rectangular house which 
was transformed into an earth-house originate. There are at once two 
places which are conspicuous viz., North-Western America (the North- 
West Indians) and North-Eastern Asia (the Pacific-Asiatic region). The 
North-West Indian house, however, has scarcely exercised any greater 
influence than has already been mentioned from South Alaska, where 
it becomes the summer dwelling at the fishing places. Nor does a glance 
at the construction and plan-work show that the one has been the direct 
model for the other. 
1 Attention is specially directed to Nexson’s description and illustrations of 
Eskimo houses from Alaska (Netson, I, pp. 241 sqq.). 
* Bocoraz, pp. 180 sqq. 
5 Petrorr, p. 128. 
Li. 13 
