250 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT (ETH. ANN. 18 
wall of the structure. The roof is made by the usual arrangement 
of logs forming a rectangular pyramid with a flat top, in the middle of 
which is the smoke hole. The entrance passage is unusually high 
and roomy, opening directly into the kashim above ground by means 
of a round hole in the front of the wall. 
In winter the entrance is through a hole in the floor of the entrance 
passage, thence through the underground tunnel as usual to an exit 
hole, which has on each side a walrus tusk with the point and base 
sunk into the plank and the curve upward, affording convenient hand- 
rests when going in and out and preventing the necessity of placing 
the hands on the wet planks at the side of the hole. The plan of this 
kashim is shown in figure 78. 4 
In addition to the kashims, the village contained about twenty 
houses, accommodating about one hundred and twenty-five people. It 
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Fic, 783—Section of kashim at Kushunuk. 
is built in a straggling manner on a slightly rising piece of ground, 
with elevated storehouses and raised frameworks for the boats and 
sledges. The entire area covered is about a quarter of a mile in 
length. Nearer the sea is the site of an ancient village that was 
occupied by the ancestors of these people. 
To the southward of this place the next village was Kaialigamut, 
which contained about one hundred people and two kashims. The 
houses and kashims were like those of the last two villages described, 
except that the kashims were smaller and were provided with a second 
and narrower shelf above the first sleeping benches, on which the men 
placed their clothing and other belongings. 
The early Russian traders who visited this district say that the peo- 
ple in these large villages had underground passageways leading from 
the kashim to adjacent houses, for use in case of sudden attack by an 
enemy. A Russian told me that he once discovered a passage of this 
