DOMESTICATED REINDEER INTO ALASKA. 97 



wise, and the space above and below answers for an upper and lower 

 bunk for the occupants to sleep in at night. 



No tables or chairs are ever used by the Eskimo, and the only article 

 found in the way of furniture is their stove, or, more properly speak- 

 ing, lamp. They are all of one pattern, usually of wood, but some- 

 times of stone, and are shaped the same as a circular board would be 

 if cut in halves. The center of the lamp is hollowed out to the depth 

 of perhaps a half inch, thus leaving a ridge all around. Along the 

 inner circle of this ridge is spread a sort of cotton, gathered from a 

 wild shrub in summer. This answers for a lampwick, and when satu- 

 rated with seal oil will burn a long time before being consumed. 



The lamp is placed on two wooden pins driven into the logs on one 

 side of the hut, and above the lamp is driven another wooden pin, on 

 which is placed a piece of seal blubber, just far enough from the flame 

 to cause the oil to drip sufficiently to furnish fuel for the lamp. 



The Eskimo may be truly said to burn the midnight oil, for their 

 lamps are never suffered to go out from the time they are lighted in 

 the fall until they abandon their huts for the tent in summer. They 

 are their only stove, and for heating purposes answer an excellent use. 

 They are their only lamp, for, indeed, they need no other. Their huts 

 in dull weather would be almost dark without them. 



While the lamp (and sometimes there are three or four) of the hut is 

 a large one, and the occupants can catch enough seal to keep them sup- 

 plied, and furnish heat enough to keep them warm, yet there is so little 

 covering above and the ceiling is so closely exposed to the cold that 

 che huts are always more or less damp. 



As soon as the first thaw occurs in the spring the occupants and 

 everything in the huts are moved into tents outside, the natives all 

 abandoning them, even while the snow is yet deep on the ground and the 

 wind blows cold. When the warm season commences the huts leak 

 badly and no attempt is made to again occupy them until it freezes up 

 in the fall. They are then again taken possession of and the occupants, 

 old and young, go through a season of coughs and colds that is so 

 prevalent that it assumes somewhat the character of an epidemic. 



At the end of the passage leading into the hut is a skin which is 

 pushed aside when one enters or goes out. When this is closed over 

 the hole the apartment is practically airtight, and when occupied by a 

 dozen or more persons the air soon becomes so foul that one side of the 

 little skin window has to be pulled up to let it escape. Occasionally a 

 hut is found where the occupants appreciate the value of fresh air and 

 have inserted a wooden spout in the roof through which the impure air 

 is allowed to escape. 



As has been observed, the Eskimo have no chairs or stools, and know 

 nothing of the comfort to be derived from their use. The attitude 

 usually assumed by the men when in the hut is to sit with their legs 

 S. Ex, 70 7 



