ABORIGINAL LIFE OF THE SITKANS. 51 



through which the Indian must stoop to half his stature when he 

 enters. It is generally from four to six feet from the ground, and 

 is gained by a rude flight of stairs or a notched log leading up to 

 it on the outside, and in the same manner down to the floor on the 

 inside. As you enter, the whole interior seems dark — everything, 

 at first, indistinct, and the only light being directly above and 

 below the smoke-hole in the roof, for a blanket is dropped as a 

 portiere over the doorway the moment you pass within. In the 

 centre of this gloomy interior, directly beneath a hole in the roof, 

 is the fireplace, upon which logs are smouldering or fitfully blazing ; 

 kettles of stewing fish, and oil and berries simmering under the 

 care of some squatty, grimy squaws who surround it. If this house 

 be a large one you. will find within fifty or sixty Koloshes of both 

 sexes, all ages, and in all conceivable attitudes, as they stand, sit, 

 or lounge or sleep around the four sides of the deep terraced room, 

 some cleaning firearms, others repairing fishing-tackle, or carving 

 in wood or slate ; while others are idly staring into the fire, or, 

 wrapped in their blankets, ai'e sleeping with reiterated snoring. 

 Against the walls, pendent from the black, soot}' beams overhead, 

 hang an infinite variety of personal effects peculiar to this life, such 

 as fish-spears and hooks, canoe paddles, bundles of furs, cedar-bark 

 lines and ropes, immense wooden skewers of dried salmon and hali- 

 but, while the boxes which contain the real wealth of such people 

 —blankets,* tobacco, and cloths of cotton, and handkerchiefs of 

 silk, are stowed away in the corners. 



But odors that the civilized nose never before scented now rise 

 thick and fast as you contemplate this interior, and the essential oils 

 of rancid oolachan grease, decaying fish, and others, in rotation swift. 



* The blanket is now, however, the general recognized currency among 

 these people. It is the substitute among them of that unit of value, the 

 beaver skin, which has been for so long the currency of the great Hudson Bay 

 region. The blankets used in Alaskan trade are of all colors — green, blue, 

 yellow, red, and white — of the very best woollen texture, none others will do. 

 They are rated in value by the "points" or line-marks woven into the edge, 

 the best and largest being a " four-point," the smallest and poorest being " one- 

 point." The unit of value is a single " two and a half point" blanket, worth 

 a little over $1.50. Everything is referred to this unit, even a large four- 

 point blanket is said to be worth so many blankets. Traders not infrequently 

 buy in blankets, taking them, when in good order, from the Indians as 

 money, and selling them out again as trade demands. 



