304 



The inner dimensions of the house were : 



Length of back wall 8"1 m 



— - front wall 6"5 - 



Breadth from back wall to passage-way. . . 36 - 



Along the whole length of the back wall extended the 

 wooden platform, divided into 7 compartments. On each side 

 wall there was a little platform, and outside the window 

 openings there were likewise platforms. 



The very appearance of the house struck us at once. 

 But when among the big heap of bones outside the house 

 amid the skulls of narwhals, bears and dogs we found also 

 human skulls, it dawned upon us that this settlement must 

 have been the scene of a terrible tragedy. All the inhabitants 

 must undoubtedly have fallen victims to some awful catastrophe 

 — famine or poisoning. When we entered the house our mis- 

 givings received only too true a confirmation (Fig. 2 — 3). 



On the platform along the backwall there lay skeletons or 

 parts of skeletons, and along the outer edge of it there were 

 remains of the long black hair of the Eskimo's heads. There 

 were still in several places so many remnants of skin that we 

 were able to picture to ourselves how the inhabitants had 

 once lain comfortably between two bearskins, the upper one 

 with the hair downwards; for the bones lay between these skins. 



On the five lamp platforms stood the lamps and the stone 

 pots. The drying -hatches above them had fallen down, but 

 remains of bear-skin clothes still lay on them. Under the 

 platform there were chip-boxes and square wooden cases, and 

 on the stone-paved floor large urine and water tubs. In front 

 of one of the small side platforms there was a blubber board, 

 and a large well carved meat trough, and scattered about the 

 floor there lay wooden dishes, blood-scoops, water-scoops, and 

 large and small wooden cases. And besides this, there were 

 specimens of practically all the bone and wooden utensils 

 wliich belong to an Eskimo house. 



