neSon] 



KASHIMS 



247 



The village of Starikwikhpak above Andreivsky, is built on a high 

 bank of the Yukon in the midst of a thick growth' of tall alders and 

 cottonwoods, and contains about forty people. 



Next above is Kazbinsky, containing some twenty-five houses and 

 two kashims. It is the largest existing village of the Yukon Eskimo, 

 and the only one seen that was arranged with any degree of regu- 

 larity. There the winter and summer houses are built together, and 

 the rude alignment of the summer houses is evidenced in the illustra- 

 tion (plate Lxxxii). The summer houses front a small creek which 

 flows into the Yukon at that point. Back of them, in a more regular 

 arrangement, are most of the winter houses. ; Near one end of this 

 row are two kashims, and immediately back of them is the graveyard, 

 the latter forming a part of the village and becoming so offensive in 

 summer that it is impossible at times for the fur traders to camp in 

 the vicinity. 



The summer houses at this place and all along the Yukon up to 



Fig. 77 — Section of kashim at St Michael. 



Paimut, the upper Eskimo village on the river, are alike built of heavy 

 slabs and planks split and hewed from drift logs. 



Plate LXXXII, from a photograph, is a view taken at'Eazbinsky in 

 winter, showing the tops of some winter houses in the foreground and 

 a row of plank summer houses in the background. 



The summer houses throughout this part of Alaska vary so slightly 

 / in the details of their construction that a description of those seen at 

 Eazbinsky will serve as typical of all in that region. The front and' 

 rear ends are constructed of roughly hewed planks set upright; the 

 sides are of horizontal timbers hewed and loosely fitted. About five 

 feet from the ground a log extends from side to side of the structure, 

 resting upon two posts in the middle, with braces at either end, hav- 

 ing their ends set in the ground, and connected by similar logs which 

 extend from front to rear along the eaves. 



In some houses the braces at the front and rear are replaced by two 

 tall poles set in the ground midway between the corners, two or three 



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