boas] DESCRIPTION OF THE TSIMSHIAH 395 



Sometimes an open area behind the town or near the town is men- 

 tioned, which serves as a playground for the children (N 94). The 

 rivers were sometimes bridged (N 234). Some of the large villages 

 consisted of four rows of houses, one over another (181). The three- 

 row town of Gits !Emga'l&n is mentioned (278); but ordinarily no 

 mention is made of the rows of the town, while the general description 

 gives evidence that the arrangement of the houses is side by .side, 

 fronting the water, on a street stretching in front of the houses, 

 parallel with the beach. 



The chief's house is located in the middle (194); in a town of sev- 

 eral rows, in the middle of the first row (181) . While it is often stated 

 that the town belongs to one particular clan, it is mentioned expressly 

 in one place (234) that the chief's wife's brothers had their houses on 

 each side of the chief's house. This of course would imply the pres- 

 ence of house owners of the wife's clan in, the village. In one case 

 the chief's house is described as located on a sandy beach (116). 



Houses. — There is no detailed description of the permanent houses. 

 The house is carved on the outside, and has carved timbers inside 

 (100-101). Carved houses of chiefs are mentioned several times 

 (seep. 430). Houses with many platforms and a pole in front of 

 them are not often referred to. One of these occurs in N 230 (see also 

 1 .189) . The doorway is covered by a skin flap, although other types of 

 doors must also have existed, since we hear of a chief barring the door, 

 which, I presume, implies a wooden door. In N 224 the doorway is 

 described as ornamented with skulls. The floors of many houses 

 must have been simply smooth and leveled ground, because the 

 cleaning of the house is described in such a maimer as to imply the 

 absence of wooden floors (61, N 230). In a few cases there is an 

 obvious reference to houses erected on piles on the beach. This is 

 particularly clear in 214, 1.99, and 1.113, where a privy-hole is 

 described between the door and the fireplace, like those that were 

 found in recent times in the houses of the Bellacoola and some of the 

 other northern tribes. Platforms were arranged in the framework of 

 the house, and some of these served as bedrooms for the children. 

 The bed of the parents was on the lower platform which runs around 

 the walls of the houses, while a ladder led up from these to a bedroom 

 under the roof (58). These beds were used for both boys and girls, 

 in order to enable the parents to keep watch over their children. 

 The beds of servants were placed at the foot of the ladder leading 

 to the upper bedroom. In the houses were kept stores of winter 

 provisions, such as salmon (78, 86) and halibut (87). These were 

 preserved in boxes, and the most valuable provisions were kept in 

 smaller boxes that were placed in the larger boxes (193). Slaves 

 (N 182) and poor people (1.167) lived in the corners of the chief's 

 house. 



