WE MEET THE CHURCHES 
211 
what like a large snow igloo, though the Siberian 
Eskimo or Chukches, as these natives are called, 
know nothing of snow igloos or how to build them. 
Their house, as I was presently to learn, is called an 
aranga. There is a framework of heavy drift¬ 
wood, with a dome-shaped roof made of young 
saplings. Over all are stretched walrus skins, se¬ 
cured by ropes that pass over the roof and are 
fastened to heavy stones along the ground on op¬ 
posite sides. The inner inclosure, which is the liv¬ 
ing apartment, is about ten feet by seven; it is 
separated by a curtain from the outer inclosure 
where sledges and equipment are kept. In the 
living apartment the Chukches eat and sleep on a 
raised platform of turf and hay, covered with 
tanned walrus skin. They light and heat their 
houses and do their cooking with a lamp which con¬ 
sists of a dish of walrus or seal oil, with a wick of 
moss in it. This is superior to wood for such a 
dwelling-place, for it makes no smoke; the lamp is 
lighted by a regulation safety match, though to be 
sure it is seldom allowed to go out. The three 
lamps in this aranga made the room pretty hot; the 
temperature, I should guess, was about a hundred. 
Our hosts and hostesses, comprising three families 
who dwelt in three arangas at this place, were al¬ 
ways drinking tea. They used copper kettles to 
melt the ice in and Russian tea, put up in compressed 
