ESKIMO HOUSES 



apart from their personal feelings they need a stove 

 to thaw the seals, otherwise their work would be at 

 a standstill. I was chatting to some of them about 

 the smallness of their houses. "Ah," they said, 

 "we need them small to keep warm. We cannot 

 manage to have more than one stove, for the woods 

 are so far away ; and we must have warmth to thaw 

 our seals." It is true: but some of the greater 

 hunters have solved the problem for themselves. I 

 suppose they got tired of seeing grease and blood 

 and remnants of seals slopping about on their hard- 

 earned linoleum, or perhaps they wanted more space 

 for the periodic feasts and palavers that are held in 

 the bigger houses ; but, whatever the why and the 

 wherefore, some of the men have built a lean-to 

 against their house, or have partitioned off an end 

 of their big room, and have backed the stove up 

 against a hole in the wall. So they have a special 

 little room for the seals, warmed by the back of the 

 dwelling-room stove ; and when I found an improve- 

 ment like that, springing from pure Eskimo in- 

 genuity, I knew that it would soon be popular with 

 the people, and down it went as part of my plan 

 for those model dwellings I have in my mind. 



" Yes," thought I, " warmth is a problem ; but the 

 stuffy, evil-smelling atmosphere is another." In some 

 of those iglos, in winter, with their long snow tunnels 

 to keep the cold and at the same time effectively 

 keeping the fresh air away from the door, I have 

 had to gasp for breath. How can folks be healthy 

 in this sort of air ? 



I am not writing of the characteristic Eskimo 

 smell: that cannot be abolished. Every house has 

 some degree of the same odour ; dirty houses and 



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