Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Eskimo tribes, their common origin, their dispersion and their diversities in general - Dwellings - Dress and ornaments
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BUILDING MATERIAL, but before we have passed the Mackenzie R.
snowhuts are only found as serving for temporary use,
especially on journeys for hunting. In the Central Regions they are
made regular habitations for a certain part of the year. On
account of their circular form they must of course be narrow,
and for this reason they are furnished with siderooms for
different uses. In spring and autumn temporary huts of an elongated
form are built as a transition to THE GREENLAND HOUSES. It
is said that the kagsit are — or according to tradition have been
— built likewise of snow. In Greenland, at least south of
Melville Bay, dwellings of snow are not known to have existed, the
houses are REARED MERELY OF STONES AND SOD or turf. The
Greenlanders quite well know the kagsit from their traditional tales,
but no doubt mainly, if not entirely as a reminiscence from
the earlier homesteads of their ancestors. In Disko Island
certainly a ruin which was recently still in existence was said
to have been such a public building. But as far as I know
there does not exist any authentic statement of such buildings
ever having been observed or known to have been made use of
in Greenland. Finally one very remarkable custom which the
Alaska Eskimo have in common with the Indians must be
mentioned here in connection with the dwellings. It is the use of
sweating baths. The kagses generally serve for this purpose, but
how far the custom passes beyond the shores of Bering Strait
is not known; certainly, however, it is abandoned before the
regular use of snowhouses begins.
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