Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory Part 7

There is great difference in the length of the garments worn by the eastern and the western Eskimo as well as in the manner of arranging the strips of which they are made. The one worn by the people of Hudson strait scarcely reaches to the hips of the wearer and is long enough only to tie around the hoop of the kaiak. The ones worn by the Eskimo of Northern sound, Alaska, falls to the knees, and those made by the Aleuts are so long that they interfere with the feet in walking. The material prepared by the eastern natives is not so good, as it is coa.r.s.er and stiffer than that of the sea lion (_Eumatopias stelleri_), used by the natives of Alaska.

The weight of one of these garments when dry scarcely exceeds 6 or 7 ounces.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 46. Snow goggles--front.]

To protect the eyes from the glare of the snow, which is especially trying when the sun is still low in early spring, snow goggles are worn made to admit the light only through a narrow slit. (Figs. 46, and 47.) Nos. 3186, 3187, 3188, 3189, 3190, 3191, 3192, 3193, 3197, 3198, 3199, 3200, and 3201 in the collection show such snow goggles made of wood.

A somewhat curved piece of wood is fas.h.i.+oned to fit the face over the eyes; a notch is fitted for the nose to rest in. The lower side is about half an inch thick, forming a flat surface. The front is perpendicular and blackened with soot or gunpowder mixed with oil and applied to darken the front surface to absorb the light of the sun's rays. Above this is a ledge of half an inch projecting over the narrow longitudinal slit through which the wearer may look. This projection is sometimes not blackened on the underside, and where wood is scarce it is left off altogether. Within, on the side next to the eyes, it is usually gouged out to allow the eyelashes free movement. A piece of sealskin is affixed at each end and either tied in a knot over the head to hold the wood in position, or else a wider strip of skin is slit and one portion worn on the top of the head while the other fits the back of the head to prevent the goggles from falling off when the wearer stoops down.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 47. Snow-goggles--rear.]

DWELLINGS.

The winter dwellings of the Eskimo of Hudson strait consist of the usual form of snow house. In this connection I may as well state that the popular impression that the snow house described by Arctic travelers is the only thing to be called an iglu is quite erroneous. The word "iglu"

is as fully generic in the Eskimo language as the word "house" is in the English language. The correct term, as applied by the Eskimo, to the snow house used as a dwelling is "ig lu ge ak" (Fig. 48.)

The first requisite for a snow house is snow. It must be of sufficient depth and possess certain well-defined qualities. The snow may fall, but until it has acquired sufficient depth for the size of blocks required and firmness enough for strength to withstand the superposed weight of the structure it is useless. An instrument termed snowknife (punuk), shaped like a short sword, is used for the purpose of cutting the blocks. The Eskimo seeks a place where the insertion of the knife into the bed of snow will prove that the snow is in the proper condition.

He must then cut out a block of a size convenient to be lifted. This is usually rejected as it may be irregular or broken. Additional blocks, in size from 8 to 10 inches thick, 2 feet wide, and slightly more in length are cut by a motion much resembling the act of sawing, cutting the depth of the blade. The knife then cuts the bottom off squarely and the block is lifted out, the builder standing where the first blocks were cut from. The blocks are arranged on the bank of snow around the pit in which the man stands. The first block usually is somewhat triangular in shape for a purpose hereafter mentioned. The second block is cut out and placed near the first, the end clipped with the knife to allow the first joint to be close together. A third block is cut and placed by the end of the second. It will now be seen that the line of blocks is not straight, but curved concavely within. Additional blocks are cut and placed end to end with each other until the first one laid is reached.

Here a longer block is cut to lay upon the inclined side of the triangular-shaped block first used and so placed as to "break" the joints, and thus render the structure more stable. Additional blocks are placed on the first row, and as the operation proceeds it will be seen that the blocks lie in a spiral form, gradually drawing in as the structure rises, forming a dome-shaped wall of snow. The key block at the top is carefully cut to fit the aperture and inserted from the outside by the a.s.sistance of another person. All the joints are carefully stopped up with spawls of snow or with snow crushed between the hands and forced within the crevices.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 48. Deserted Eskimo snow houses, near Fort Chimo.]

The floor of the snow house is the bed of snow from which the building material was taken. The door is cut by taking blocks of snow from under the bottom row of the foundation blocks. A trench is made, and along the side of it the blocks are placed. An arched covering of the material forms a sheltered pa.s.sageway to the door.

When the snow house is to be occupied for a considerable time the doorway may have walls of snow blocks piled as high as the shoulders, with the top left open. This s.h.i.+elds the entrance from wind and drifting snow. Various forms of entrance are constructed, often very tortuous; and when made a refuge by the numerous dogs they are not pleasant paths along which to creep on hands and knees, for a panic may seize some cowardly canine and all the dogs struggle to get suddenly out into the open air. Vicious animals often wait until a white man gets about half way through the entry and then make a sudden a.s.sault on him.

The interior of the house is arranged according to the number of persons inhabiting it.

A raised bed, on which to sit during the day and sleep during the night, is formed either by leaving a part of the snow-bank or else by bringing in blocks and arranging them as a solid ma.s.s. On this are spread bows of spruce, or dry gra.s.s, if obtainable, otherwise fine twigs of willow or alder, and over these heavy reindeer or bear skins are thrown. On these bed-skins are laid other softer skins of reindeer, with which to cover the person on retiring to sleep. A window is sometimes set in the side of the structure toward the sun. This is simply a piece of thick, clear ice, from a lake, set in the wall of the dome. It admits light, although it is generally light enough during the day within the snow-house unless the walls be built particularly thick, but great thickness in certain situations becomes necessary lest the winds and drifting snow wear away the sides of the structure, causing it to admit the cold or tumble down.

Around the outside of the hut is sometimes built a protecting wall of snow blocks, two or three feet high, to prevent the drifting snow from wearing away the side of the dwelling. A storm of a single night's duration is often sufficient to destroy a house.

The interior walls, in severe weather, become coated with frost films from the breath, etc., condensing and crystallizing on the inside of the dome and often presenting by the lamplight a brilliant show of myriads of reflecting surfaces scintillating with greater l.u.s.ter than skillfully set gems.

If the roof is not carefully shaped it is liable to cave in from the heat within softening the snow, especially in moderate weather, and then the entire structure falls.

Where the owner of the house has considerable possessions which must be protected from the dogs and the weather, a similar structure is prepared alongside of the dwelling and often connected with it by means of a communicating pa.s.sage-way. An exterior opening may be made and closed with a block of snow. The larger articles, such as bags of oil and bundles of skins, are put inside before the walls are up, if intended to be stored for some time.

As I have slept in these snow-houses I can a.s.sert that, while very uncomfortable, they afford a protection which can not be dispensed with.

When the doorway is open they soon become very cold, and when closed upon several persons the heat becomes intolerable. Odors from the food remain long after the remnants are disposed of, and where one has been occupied for a long period the acc.u.mulation of refuse becomes so great that a new structure is indispensable in order to get rid of it. All the work of the different members of the family is performed within the walls. The skins of animals are dressed and tanned there. The offal of game and the hair from dressed skins mingle in one ma.s.s, which soon putrefies and creates such a stench that only an Eskimo with most obtuse sense of smell could inhabit the place.

When spring comes the huts begin to melt and in the course of a few warm days fall down. If the weather is too inclement to permit a skin tent to be occupied, the first hole in the wall may be patched with a deerskin, but this will afford very limited protection from the cold of nights, for, however warm the days, the nights will, until late in May, be so cold that only the older individuals withstand the cold.

When the structure falls, melted by sun or rain, the miserable occupants must erect temporary shelter of deerskin or cloth on the bare rocky ridges. Those too poor to own a skin tent have often but a blanket of deerskin, stretched over three or four poles, set to shelter them from the chilly northerly winds usually prevailing at that season.

Here they must sojourn until the ice breaks from the sh.o.r.es of the coves and bays, enabling the hunters to procure seals from the sea. Along the sh.o.r.es one may often find camping sites of these poor wanderers searching through the day for food and at night camping under the lee of a wall of rock with little other covering than that worn during the day and this often soaked with spray or rain.

Improvidence and indolence result in the most cruel privations toward the end of winter. Many who are too weak and emaciated from lack of food to pursue the chase to gain a living starve before reaching the sea and are left to perish.

When the season is more advanced, and the weather warm enough, those who are industrious and provident enough to be the possessors of sealskin tents, move into them for the season.

The skin tent (Pl. x.x.xVII) is usually made of the skins of the largest square flipper seals, those too heavy for any other purpose or not necessary for other uses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. x.x.xVII

ESKIMO TENT.]

The number of skins necessary to form a tent varies with the size required. Generally as many as ten to fifteen are used, and such a tent will accommodate a good sized family.

The hair is seldom removed from the skin, which is simply stretched as it comes from the animal and freed from fat and fleshy particles. The edges are trimmed and a sufficient number of skins are sewed together to form a length for one side of the tent. The length of the individual skins makes the height of the tent. A similar width is prepared for the opposite side. The two pieces meet at the rear of the structure and are there tied to the poles. A separate piece forms the door and may be thrown one side when a person enters or goes out. The poles of the tent are arranged as follows: Two pairs of poles are joined near the ends with stout thongs and erected with the lower ends spread to the proper width, forming the ends of the tent, on which the ridgepole is laid.

A single pole is now placed near each end of the ridgepole, resting on the upright pairs, to prevent lateral motion. Two more such braces are placed on each side and spread so as to give a somewhat rounded end to the tent. Near the middle of the ridgepole is a pair of shorter poles leaning against it to prevent the weight of the sides from bending the ridgepole. It will be seen that eleven poles are necessary to support a long tent, as the skins are very heavy. The skins and poles can be transported when the umiak is able to carry them.

In case of continued rains the skins are placed so as nearly to meet over the ridge and additional skins cover the s.p.a.ce left between the edges. When the tent is to be taken down the two widths are folded over, each by itself, and then rolled into a compact bundle by beginning at each end and folding toward the center, leaving sufficient s.p.a.ce between the rolls for a person to get his head and shoulders in. Two persons, one for each roll, now a.s.sist the carrier, who kneels, bows his head, and places the load on his head and shoulders. The two a.s.sist him to rise and the heavy load is taken to the umiak and placed in the bottom for ballast. The shorter poles are first laid in on the ribs of the boat to keep the skins from the water should any seep through the seams.

The second bundle of tenting is laid on the first.

The tent of skins is the usual shelter during the season from the first rain until a sufficient fall of snow occurs in the early winter from which to construct an iglu gheak.

The interior of the skin tent is necessarily quite roomy on account of the number of occupants. The farther end often has a stick of timber laid across the floor, and behind this is the bedding for the owner, his wives, and children. A man who is able to own a tent of this character is also wealthy enough to have two or more wives. Along the remainder of the sides within lie the other occupants, either in groups or singly, depending on the degree of relations.h.i.+p existing between them. Guests and others temporarily abiding with the host are a.s.signed any portion of the tent that the host may choose to select, usually, if great honor is to be shown, the place lately occupied by himself. The central portion is reserved for a fireplace for cooking and heating purposes. In this structure is carried on all manner of work incidental to the season. The tent is taken from place to place by means of the umiak when the food supply of a locality is exhausted or another region promises greater abundance.

All these summer occupations require a number of persons to successfully prosecute them, hence the number dwelling in one tent is not often detrimental, as the adults walk along the sh.o.r.e to drag the boat or relieve it from their weight.

The owner of a tent is considered an important individual, and his favor is retained by every means. A period of illness may cause him to lose all his belongings and then on recovery he has to start life anew.

Several seasons may elapse before a sufficient number of skins will be procured for him to make a tent, and this is immovable without a boat to transport it, for when a sled might be used for that purpose there is always enough snow from which to erect a shelter.

During the winter the skins are stored away on posts erected for the purpose, or on piles of rocks where the various species of small animals will not destroy them by eating holes in the oily skin. Mice and ermines are very destructive to these skins, often causing sad havoc in a short time. By the spring the owner may be miles away from the scene of the previous autumnal hunt and be unable to go after the tent, which, with the summer rain and decay, becomes useless, imposing the severe task of collecting skins for a second tent.

In former times these people inhabited permanent winter houses like those used by the Eskimo elsewhere, as is shown by the ruins of sod and stone houses to be seen in various parts of the country. These appear to have had walls of stone built up to support the roof timbers, with the interstices filled up with turf or earth. From the depression remaining in the inside of these ruins, the floor seems to have been excavated to a greater or less depth.

The present inhabitants relate that their ancestors dwelt in these huts, but can not explain why they were deserted, or why such structures are not erected at the present day.

HOUSEHOLD ARTICLES.

There is very little in these dwellings that can be called furniture, besides the bed places already referred to. The other articles requisite for housekeeping consist of a lamp of soapstone, kettles to hang over it, a frame suspended above the lamp for drying various articles, and sundry wooden bowls, buckets, and cups, besides similar vessels made of sealskin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 49. Soapstone lamp, Koksoagmyut.]

The lamp (poqila), which is the only source of heat and light in the snow house, is, roughly speaking, a large shallow bowl of soapstone filled with oil, which is burned by means of a wick of moss, arranged round one edge of the bowl.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 50. Soapstone lamp, Koksoagmyut.]

The material from which these lamps are made occurs in isolated bowlders on the surface of the ground at various places in the region. These bowlders are often of great size.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 51. Soapstone lamp, Koksoagmyut.]

The general form of these lamps, which will be best understood from the figures (Figs. 49, 50, 51), is nearly always the same, the variations being apparently due to the lack of material. The cavity for holding the oil varies in capacity, according to the size of the lamp, from half a pint to nearly three quarts. It is, however, never filled to the brim, for fear it should run over. The consumption of oil depends upon the number of wicks lighted at once, and also on the character of the wick.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 52. Frame for drying mittens.]