358 W. Thalbitzer 



one end to the other. In No. VI the height of a section (measured 

 on the inside) was 94 cm. at the outer entrance, but in at the wall 

 of the house only 78 cm. 



In No. XI there was exceptionally no step up from the bottom 

 of the passage into the house; the passage and floor lay at the same 

 level. 



The passage is an excellent ventilator. In spring, if there is 

 bright sunshine and the house is overheated, an opening is sometimes 

 made in the roof. In Nos. VII and VIII there was a permanent hole 

 for ventilation in the roof close inside the entrance (just as in 

 West-Greenland). — Any door to the opening is quite unknown 

 among these Eskimo. In West Greenland the outer end of the 

 passage is provided with a wooden door or shutter, attached by 

 hinges to a quare frame. It is only in a few of the Ammassalik 

 houses, that such a wooden frame (fig. 65) has replaced the large, 

 fine stones, which usually mark both the outer and inner openings. 



Outside the house we find the caches, pits or cellars in the 

 ground covered over with a heap of stones, which are intended for 

 keeping the blubber or dried meat. At house No. I there were 3 

 of these stone cellars; in No. V one man had 3, another only 1. 

 In addition, each hunter has one or several stone cellars further 

 away from the house, where the booty is kept for a time, until a 

 favourable opportunity presents itself for bringing it home (see p. 131). 



Immediately outside the outer entrance lies the refuse-heap, 

 which at many houses has the appearence of a broad mound. 



The ruin at Ingalaaqangitseq (the name means "windowless") in 

 the Ammasalik Fjord appeared to be very old. The tradition was, 

 that the house was built with no windows, because the inhabitants 

 were afraid of heavy thunder-storms (katterin), which sometimes 

 broke over the fjord. In the one corner at the back wall (away 

 from the coast) there was a hole in the wall, which might have 

 been a reserve exit, provided with a flat, thin covering stone. It 

 opened out on to a peculiar hollow or trench running along the 

 outside of the back wall. 



The Ammassalikers only use wood now as building material 

 (in addition to stone and turf), but in most of the districts which 

 have been inhabited by Eskimo old houses have been found, in 

 which whale-bone (ribs, vertebrae, jaw-bones and crow-bones) 

 have been used, as rafters in the roof or to cover over the passage 

 or even to completely replace all wood-work in the house 

 (in districts where drift-wood is scarce). In his "Historia gentium 

 septentrionalium" (1555) Hook 2, chap. 9, Olaus Magnus reported: 



