548 THE CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



Those in good condition have a long stone entrance (ka'teng) (Fig. 

 498), sometimes from fifteen to twenty feet limg. This is made by 

 cutting an excavation into the slope of a hill. Its walls are covered 

 with large slabs of stone about two and a half feet high and three 

 feet wide, the space betw'een the stone and the sides of the excava- 



FiG. 498. Plan and sections of qarmaiig or stone house. 



tion being afterwards filled up witli earth. The floor of the passage 

 slopes upward toward the hut. The last four feet of the entrance 

 are covered with a very large slab and are a little higher than the 

 other parts of the roof of the passageway. The slab is at the same 

 height as the benches of the dwelling room, which is also dug out, 

 the walls being formed of stones and whale ribs. The plan of the 

 interior is the same as that of the snow house, the bed being in 

 the rear end of the room and the lamps on both sides of the en- 

 trance. The floor of the hut is about eight inches higher than that 

 of the passage. The roof and the window, however, differ from 

 those of the snow house. In the front part of the hut the rib of a 

 whale is put up, forming an arch. A great number of poles are 

 lashed to it and run toward the back of the house, where they rest 

 on the top of the wall, forming, as it were, the rafters. The whole 

 curve formed by the rib is covered with a window of seal intestines, 

 while the poles are covered with sealskins, which are fastened in 

 front to the whale rib. At the other end they are either fastened 



