HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



name from the particular species of tule predominating in its thatch, 

 as follows: bago'ga (E), guca'l ga (E), and ha' I ga (E). 



The door, called hwa (E) and ho'dau 1 (C), of such a house was 

 ordinarily placed in the middle of the long side opposite that from 

 which the prevailing winds came and was so low that it was necessary 

 to stoop far down or even to crawl on the hands and knees to enter. 

 It could, however, be placed anywhere, and in houses with several 

 doors one or more was usually on the windward side. During storms 

 such a door was closed most of the time; the closed door was called 

 hwa dula'm (E). The open door was called hwa duta'm (E), while the 

 door opening itself was called hwa mo'k (E) or hwa da'i (E). The door 

 was closed by means of an ordinary tule mat hung within, and a 

 heavy outer door made of bundles of tule. These bundles were from 

 two to three inches in diameter and served as the warp with ordinary 

 single strands of tule used as weft in a plain-twining. It was set with 

 these bundles standing vertically and effectually closed the opening 

 from the outside. This outer door, especially in the valley area, 

 was sometimes similarly woven of willow withes, or the stems of a 

 weed called muti'p (E) and mti'p (C). Either the inner or the outer 

 mat was called hwa dula'm kale (E) and hodau cku'n kale (C), both 

 of which signify literally "door shut kind or object". The inner mat 

 was called also bitsa'il (E). 



The house above described sheltered eight people. They slept at 

 the two ends, where the walks were lined with mats to protect them 

 from drafts. At the western end, for instance, there were six mats 

 forming a lining six feet high and about twenty feet long about the 

 wall. 



The earth floor, sema'gai (£), was usually strewn with loose tule 

 or grass and at least in part was covered with tule mats. The fire- 

 place, xo'gai (E), was directly upon the floor in the center of the house 

 and under the smoke slit. 



Both tule- and grass-thatched houses were quite insecure from 

 fire, especially on account of the fact that the soot from the open 

 fires sometimes hung in strings from the ceiling, though as a rule 

 these were kept brushed off with a special broom made of snowdrop 

 twigs tied to the end of a pole. Fire usually spread very rapidly from 

 one house to the next, so that ordinarily the whole village was 

 quickly consumed. So inflammable were these materials that no 

 attempt was made to save a house; all efforts were bent toward sav- 

 ing its contents, for a new house could be easily constructed. In the 

 lake region, if it were found necessary to construct a house during a 



1 Literally "fire door". 



[6] 



