360 W. Thalbitzer 



Three types of Eskimo houses are contrasted with one another 

 and two of them, at any rate, are found represented both in the east 

 and west: (1) the roundish, dome-shaped type, with whale-bone as 

 material, (2) a rectangular type, in which the material consists of 

 wood, stones and turf; (3) and a pear-shaped house, mainly built 

 of stones and turf. The first type is found from the northernmost 

 coasts on the Bering Strait (the Siberian Eskimo on the Bering Strait 

 used to build an oval, low stone-wall, on which they raised a dome- 

 shaped framework of whale-ribs, covering these with hairless walrus 

 skin)^) to the regions of Hudson Bay, Davis Strait and East Green- 

 land; the use of whale-ribs in ancient Greenland houses is evidence of 

 an original connection with this type. The rectangular type of house 

 has been sketched from Alaska ^), in company with the usual Eskimo 

 features (long, underground passage; oil lamps along the platform; 

 roof built with a double slope and ridge), which leave one with the 

 impression, that it is not very different from the rectangular house we 

 find in South Greenland and Ammassalik; according to the results of 

 the Amdrup Expedition it occurs as high up on the east coast of 

 Greenland as at 67°48' N. lat.^). Lastly, there is the pear-shaped type, 

 described especially by Peary*), Kroeber^) and Steensby^) from among 

 the Smith Sound Eskimo. It is characterized by two small side- 

 extensions in the front part of the house, containing the side-plat- 

 forms. This type is also found in a number of houses in North- 

 East Greenland^). It is possible, that the houses in Scoresby Sound, 

 where Ryder observed a niche in the side-walls, belonged to the 

 same type^). It is not found at Ammassalik; but one of its char- 

 acteristic features, the fact that the depth of the house is greater 

 than its length across the front, is frequently noticed in the rect- 

 angular form of the Ammassalikers. The Greenland forms of house 

 are on the whole mostly rectangular, even the pear-shaped house 

 in the ground-plan. It seems, however, that the house of the Smith 

 Sound Eskimo forms a transitional type between the Greenland rect- 

 angle and the circle or approximately circular ground-plan of the 

 Central Eskimo (Southampton Island) as seen in the dome-shaped 

 form of house. The pear-shaped type in Greenland is without doubt a 

 relict of the Mackenzie Eskimo house, in which the side-wings are 



^) Nelson (1899) p. 257 (figs. 85 and 86) and p. 205. 



-) Nelson; Murdoch: Barnum (Grammatical Fundamentals 1907, p. 304). 



») See p. 353. 



*) Peary (1898) pp. 108 and 270. 



s) Kroeber (1899) pp. 270-271. 



6) Steenshy (1910i pp. 311—324, figs. 8, 11 and 14. 



">) Thostrup (1911J PI. II, nos. :ИЗ' 319, 392 401, 406 407 etc. 



«) Ryder (1895) pp. 294, 297. Cf. Tliostrup (1911) Fl. II, nos. 522-524. 



