14 UNIVERSITY MUSEUM ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUBLICATION VOL. VI 



After the timbers have been rough hewn with the adze 

 (ulimon) they are set upright in the trench to a height of seven 

 to eight feet and firmly bedded with rock. This is to prevent 

 the fierce Polar winds which prevail in midwinter from tearing 

 the houses to pieces. In the older buildings a protecting stone 

 wall was built on the sides. Most of the houses are set in a side 

 hill, or partly underground, for additional security, as well as 

 for warmth. The roof is laid on top of the uprights, the logs 

 being drawn in gradually in pyramid shape to a flat top. In the 

 middle of the top is the ralok or smoke hole, an opening about 

 two feet square. In a kasgi thirty feet square the ralok is 

 twenty feet above the floor. It is covered with a translucent 

 curtain of walrus gut. The dead are always taken out through 

 this opening, and never by the entrance. The most important 

 feature of the room is the inglak, a wide shelf supported by posts 

 at intervals. It stands about five feet high extending around the 

 room. This serves the double purpose of a seat and bed for 

 the inmates of the kasgi. The rear, the kaan, is the most 

 desirable position, being the warmest, and is given to headmen 

 and honored guests. 1 The side portions, kaaklim, are given to 

 the lesser lights and the women and children; and the front, 

 the oaklim, being nearest the entrance and therefore cold and 

 uncomfortable is left for the orphans and worthless men. 



The floor of the kasgi is made of rough planking, and the 

 boards in the center are left loose so that they may be easily 

 removed. These cover the kenethluk or fireplace, an excavation 



1 The order of the seating on the inglak of invited guests is a matter of great concern to the 

 Eskimo, as it is an indication of worth. 



Children purchase their right to a seat in the kasgi by making presents, through their parents, 

 to all the inmates, kdsgimiut. 



Until they do so they have no right to enter. For the same reason strangers on entering the 

 k.isgi offer a small present to the headman, who divides it among the people. 



