INNUIT LIFE AND LAND. 



385 



The disposition of these people is one of greater bonhomie than 

 that evidenced by the Aleutes or the Koloshians, who are rather 

 taciturn. The Innuit is very independent in his bearing, without 

 being at all vindictive or ugly. He is light-hearted, enjoys conversa- 

 tion with his fellows, tells jokes with great gusto, sings rude songs 

 with much animation, in excellent time but with no music, and 

 dances with exceeding exhilaration during the progress of those 

 savage festivals which he calls in to enliven a long dreary winter 

 solstice. 



Such a man is naturally quite sociable. Hence we find in every 

 Innuit settlement, big or little, a town hall, or " kashga." This is a 

 building put up after the pattern of all winter houses in the vil- 

 lage, but of very much larger dimensions ; some of the more popu- 

 lous hamlets boast of a kashga which will measure as much as sixty 



The Kashga. 



feet square, and be from twenty to thirty feet high under its smoky 

 rafters. A raised platform from the earth, of rough-hewn planks, 

 runs all around the walls of the interior, and in the largest council- 

 houses a series of three tiers of such staging is observed. The fire- 

 place in the centre is large, often three or four feet deep and eight 

 feet square ; on ordinary days in the spring, and during the sum- 

 mer and early fall, when no fire is wanted, it is covered with planks. 

 An underground tunnel-entrance to the kashga is made just as it is 

 into some of the family huts, only here it is divided at the end ; one 

 branch leads to a fireplace below the flooring, and the other rises 

 to the main apartment. The natives are obliged to crawl on all 

 fours when they enter that underground passage or leave the 

 kashga through its dark opening. 



This is the great and sole rendezvous of the men and older boys 

 of most settlements. The bachelors and widowers sleep here and 

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