de Lagima] ARCHEOLOGY, YAKUTAT BAY AREA, ALASKA 67 



because the houses they remembered varied not only in size and in 

 related featiu-es of construction, but because they also possessed 

 individual peculiarities, some of which were lineage prerogatives. 

 Fiu-thermore, some descriptions seem to reflect more recent styles 

 in construction. There were evidently large multifamily lineage 

 houses and somewhat smaller houses of the same kind, as well as small 

 dwellings for perhaps a single family. In addition, there were smoke- 

 houses for cm-ing fish, some of which also served as residences during 

 the fishing season, and there were flimsy huts erected at hunting 

 camps. 



The large lineage house was described as about 40 by 60 feet, or 

 as almost square. It was erected in a pit 3 to 4 feet deep. There 

 was usually a wooden bench about 4 feet wide that ran around the 

 four sides of the house at or near ground level. Behind the bench 

 and also on the same level were a series of small boxlike rooms, their 

 ceilings reaching the eaves of the house at the sides and forming a 

 high platform. The largest houses had such rooms on all four sides, 

 except in the middle of the front end where the door was located. 

 Other houses had three or four rooms across the back and an equal 

 number down each side, but none at the front. Still others had 

 rooms only across the back, and perhaps on each side of the door. 

 Similarly, the bench might run only across the back. The smallest 

 houses, perhaps less than 20 feet square, had only a single sleeping 

 room in a rear corner and lacked the bench. AU (?) houses are said 

 to have been erected in a pit. 



In the larger houses, the single room or pair of rooms in the center 

 of the rear were the sleeping quarters of the house chief and his wife 

 or wives, and perhaps of his brother and the latter's wife or wives. 

 The partition in front was often painted with the totemic crests of 

 the lineage. Less important families occupied rooms along the sides. 

 The front rooms on each side of the door were for clansmen who had 

 no other place to live, that is, poor relations who had to do menial 

 work. The corner rooms at the back were mentioned by some in- 

 formants as serving for storage. Sometimes a room by the door was 

 used for sweat baths, but this was apparently only in some of the 

 smaller houses, since the chiefly o^vners of the large houses also OAMied 

 separate sweat-bath houses. Boys and slaves slept on the benches 

 in front of the sleeping rooms, as did married men when magical taboos 

 required sexual abstinence. Some unmarried youths and girls might 

 occupy sleeping rooms, but the high-class girls, chiefs' daughters, are 

 said to have slept on the platform above the rear rooms. Access 

 was gained by a notched ladder, which was removed at night and 

 guarded by a slave to prevent any of the boys from climbing up. 

 Supplies not kept in a cache outside (see below) might be stored on 



