THE INSIDE OF THE HEADMAN S HOUSE. 
351 
centre of a circle of some twenty feet diameter, which 
put me very much in mind of the ring of a circus, the 
circumference of said circle heing marked hy upright 
posts that reached to and supported the ceiling. These 
posts were planted about four feet apart, and between 
them and the earthen sides of the house there was a 
raised platform of whale-ribs, rough planks, flat pieces 
of drift-wood, &c., over which were spread any number 
of bear- and deer-skins, upon which we were more than 
once invited to recline; but, as there were strong in- 
dications of the existence of vermin within their hairy 
depths, wo confined ourselves to seats on the edge of 
the platform, which latter, being about a foot high, 
made a very comfortable seat aS long as we kept our 
' feet upon the earthen flooring of “the ring.” 
The posts to -which were nailed the inner ends of the 
scantling upon which the platform was laid were rough 
logs from the dwarfed arctic pine, with the bark peeled 
off and the knots smoothed away with a knife ; but they 
had been smoked for so long a time, and taken hold of 
by so many greasy hands, and rubbed against by so 
many greasy clothes, that they had become as black 
and polished as so many pieces of ebony. 
After we had been seated a few minutes in this 
singular and uninviting habitation, the smoke began 
to get so thick as to cause us to rub our eyes and finally 
to weep outright; which the headman perceiving, he 
spoke a few words to one of his sons, who went and 
opened the door at the outer end of the long passage, 
when in less than a minute our enemy vanished through 
the aperture. The door was again closed, the passing 
