96 EEPOKT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF 



SOME OF THE HABITS AND CUSTOMS OF THE THE ESKIMO. 



The Eskimo in this portion of Arctic Alaska do not live, as many 

 suppose, in snow lionses. They live in villages, usually of eight or ten 

 families, in lints built underground; Usually more than one family 

 occupy one hut, and often 10 or 15 persons live for eight months in the 

 year in a single apartment that is barely large enough for 2 persons. 



Their huts are built by digging a hole in the ground about 6 feet 

 deep, and logs are stood up side by side all around the hole. On the 

 tops of these are laid logs that rest even with the top of the ground. 

 Stringers are then laid across them and other logs are laid on these, 

 when dirt is covered over, leaving an opening about 2 feet square, over 

 which is stretched a piece of walrus entrail that is so transparent that 

 light comes through, answering the purpose of a window in this 

 respect. 



An entrance into the hut is made through an apartment constructed 

 similar to the hut, in the top of which a hole is left large enough to 

 admit of a person getting through, and by means of a sort of step- 

 ladder he reaches the bottom. From this is a passageway, usually 

 about 2 feet square, through which he must crawl on his hands and 

 knees to reach the living room of the hut, perhaps 15 or 20 feet away. 



When completed, the evidence seen on the outside of anything that 

 looks like a human habitation is the cache, upon which is lashed a sled 

 and such articles as are not needed during the winter, and the dogs 

 belonging to the natives. The tops of the huts are so nearly on a level 

 with the ground that it is the common practice to walk over them in 

 passing about the village or from one hut to another. 



It is often the case that one entrance to the passageway from the 

 outside answers for three or four huts, passages diverging from the- 

 main entrance in as many directions. 



Usually a small apartment is cut off from one side of the passage- 

 way, which is used as a cook room. It is a small affair, with a hole in 

 the top intended for the smoke to escape through, and in this is built 

 a fire of driftwood for cooking purposes. They are miserably incon- 

 venient apartments, and even an Eskimo woman stays in one just long- 

 enough to see that the fire is kept going and the food does not burn, or 

 she would be suffocated by the smoke that completely fills it. 



Logs are split so as to preserve a smooth surface and laid down for 

 a floor. On one side of the hut is built a sort of platform, about mid- 

 way from the floor to the ceiling, wide enough for a man to lie cross* 



