424 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



cause they have so long been under Kussiau influences. In winter they 

 are accustomed to dress in skins, but whether they are able to provide 

 themselves with such warm clothing from the resources of Shikotan is 

 very doubtful. 



The character of the dwellings will be more clearly understood from 

 the illustrations than from any words of description. In a general way 

 it may be said that each dwelling is composed of two parts, a front, 

 thatched house, occupied in summer, and a winter earth house connected 

 with the former by a covered passage. 



The thatched house very much resembles the houses of the Ainos. 

 Plate lxxvii represents a view along the village street. There is the low 

 front part used for storage and as a hall or passage-way, and the main 

 portion which constitutes the living room. This room is usually nearly 

 square, with a low door in front and a small door at the back opening 

 into the passage which leads to the winter house. A good general view 

 of a well-made house, and of the passage behind, is shown in Plate 

 lxxviii. Entering from the front we find in the main room a rude and 

 very dirty floor of boards, raised six inches from the ground, leaving a 

 small inclosed space near the entrance from which one may step up on 

 to the floor. There is a large, rectangular fireplace sunk in the floor 

 about the middle, on which pieces of wood fitfully burn and fill the house 

 witli smoke. The rafters and crossbeams are covered with a shiny 

 coating of oily soot. There is a smoke-hole in the roof, but only the 

 excess of smoke escapes. There are usually two small windows, one on 

 each side, perhaps a foot square, and on one side a raised bunk with 

 high side boards. 



Above the fire hangs a Japanese iron pot containing a more or less 

 unsavory stew. The pot is coated with accumulated deposits within 

 and soot without, and is probably never washed, if it is ever quite emp- 

 tied . 



Around the walls haug articles of clothing, such as fur-lined gloves 

 and shoes of fish-skin, rude baskets, skins of small animals, strips of 

 hide for thongs, articles of dried fruit, etc. 



The winter house is of greater interest, because it probably represents 

 the early pit-dwellings of Yezo. One of my pictures (Plate lxxix) 

 shows two such houses standing alone. These are at the upper end of 

 the village, aud they are the only ones not connected with thatched 

 houses. As will be seen, they are dome-shaped mounds of earth, with 

 windows and a sort of chimney. Usually there is one such mound, 

 sometimes there are two, back of a thatched house, as will be under- 

 stood by a glance at the next plate, which represents a view of the 

 backs of the houses, showing the earth-dwellings attached. 



The mounds are built over shallow excavations or pits in the ground 

 about 12 to 18 inches deep. A plan of one of the dwellings (Fig. 65) 

 shows the approximate size and proportions of the different rooms. 

 The room of the earth-covered house on the left measured 2 metres wide? 



