Dwellings 



65 



CHAPTER VI 



DWELLINGS (Continued) 



Hitherto only the simplest form of house has been described ; but there are 

 many varieties, from the single isolated hut to the group of three or four that 

 open on a common dance-house. No rule governs the Eskimos in these matters; 

 they build their huts together or separate as fancy dictates. In view, however, 

 of certain theories that have been put forward on the subject, notably by M. 

 Mauss', it may be well to examine the different types of houses that we observed 

 among the Copper Eskimos, without attempting in this place to compare them 

 with the dwellings of Eskimos elsewhere. 



Fig. 13 is the plan of a house built by an Eskimo of Dolphin and Union strait 

 at the Liston and Sutton islands in the fall of 1914. It was 10 feet 10 inches 

 long and 9 feet 6 inches wide, with a maximum height of 6 feet 3 inches. The 

 platform was raised 2 feet above the level of the floor and had a maximum length 

 of 6 feet from front to back. The door was 1 foot 11 inches high by 1 foot 9 inches 

 wide, while the window, which was 2 feet 3 inches above it, was 2 feet 3 inches 

 high by 2 feet 1 inch broad. The passage was straight, 13 feet 3 inches long, 



Fig. 13. A tjrpical single-roomed snow hut 



with a slight variation in width at different places but averaging about 2 feet 

 6 inches. The inmates of the hut were Ayallik, a man of about fifty years, his wife 

 Kaumak, a motherly old dame of nearly the same age, their son Ivahluk, a boy 

 about eight years old, another son Taptuna, of about thirteen years, and 

 Anauyuk, a widower, Ayalhk's nephew, himself probably forty-five years old. 

 Their sleeping places on the platform, as well as my own during the few days 

 I lived with this family, are given in the figure, and the outlines of the lamp 



'L'Annfe Sociologique, 1906: Essai sur les variations saiaonniferes des soci^t^s eskimos. 9me Annfe, 

 1906. 



23335—5 



