80 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
people who sit close together (and then, curiously enough, a brothel). 
At Utkiavwit they are situated about the middle of the village, one 
lose to the bank and the others at the other edge of the village. They 
are built like the other houses, but are broader than long, with the 
ridgepole in the middle, so that the two slopes of the roof are equal, 
and are not covered with turf, like the dwellings, being only partially 
banked up with earth. 
The one visited by Lieut. Ray on the occasion of the “tree dance” 
was 16 by 20 feet and 7 feet high under the ridge, and held sixty people. 
In the fall and spring, when it is warm enough to sit in the ki/dyigi 
without fire and with the window open, it is used as a general lounging 
place or club room by the men. Those who have earpentering and sim- 
ilar work to do bring it there and others come simply to lounge and 
gossip and hear the latest news, as the hunters when they come in gen- 
erally repair to the kf/dyigi as soon as they have put away their 
equipments. 
They are so fond of this general resort that when nearly the whole 
village was encamped at Imékpiin in the spring of 1883, to be near the 
whaling ground, they extemporized a club house by arranging four 
timbers large enough for seats in a hollow square near the middle of 
the camp. The men take turns in catering for the club, each man’s 
wife furnishing and cooking the food for the assembled party when 
her husband’s turn comes. The club house, however, is not used as a 
sleeping place for the men of the village, as it is said to be in the terri- 
tory south of Bering Strait,’ nor as a hotel for visitors, as in the Nor- 
ton Sound region.2 Visitors are either entertained in some dwelling or 
build temporary snow huts for themselves. 
The kf/dyigi is not used in the winter, probably on account of the 
difficulty of warming it, except on the occasions of the dances, festivals, 
or conjuring ceremonies. Crevices in the walls are then covered with 
blocks of snow, a slab of transparent ice is fitted into the window, and 
the house is lighted and heated with lamps. Buildings of this sort 
and used for essentially the same purposes have been observed among 
nearly all known Eskimo, except the Greenlanders, who, however, 
still retain the tradition of such structures.’ Even the Siberian Eski- 
mo, who have abandoned the iglu, still retained the ka/dyigi until a 
recent date at least, as Hooper saw at Oong-wy-sac a performance in a 
“large tent, apparently erected for and devoted to public purposes 
(possibly as a council room as well as a theater, for in place of the 
' Petroff, Report, ete., p. 128. 
2Dall, Alaska, p. 16. 
3See Rink, Tales and Traditions, p. 8; also Geografisk Tidskrift, vol. 8, p. 141. Speaking of build- 
jngs of this sort, Dr. Rink says: ‘‘Men i Grenland kjendes de vel kun af Sagnet. Paa Ger Disko vil 
man have paavist Ruinen af en saadan Bygning, som besynderlig nok swrlig sagdes at have veret 
benyttet til Festligheder af erotisk Natur.” Boas, ‘The Central Eskimo,” passim; Lyon, Journal, p. 325 
(Iglulik); Richardson, in Franklin's 2d Exp., pp. 215-216 (Atkinson Island); Pet: tot, Monographie, 
ete., xxx; ‘Kéchim, ou maison des assemblées ;’ Beechey, Voyage, p, 268 (Point Hope) ; Dall, Alaska, p. 
16 and elsewhere; Petroft, Rep. p. 128 and elsewhere. 
