Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/131

The two most important forms of dwelling of the Iglulik Eskimos are the snow house and the tent: in that period of autumn before the snow becomes good enough for house building, whereas it is so cold that living in a tent is unpleasant, various dwellings are used which may be grouped under the Eskimo name of qarmat; these are also used occasionally late in spring.

The Iglulik Eskimos do not know permanent winter houses. It is true that here and there in the country there are numerous ruins of such habitations; but they date, as shown elsewhere,^[1] from an earlier, now extinct Eskimo culture, the Thule culture; the Iglulik Eskimos themselves ascribe these ruins to another nation, the Tunit, who inhabited the country before them. On Southampton Island the Sadlermiut used such houses right up to the time when they died out in 1903.

The snow house (iglo) and the building of snow houses have been described very frequently in Arctic literature; there is hardly any traveller to the Central regions who has not given a description of this marvel of Eskimo technique which, in a snow storm at a temperature of –40° or –50° C. can, in the course of an hour, create a house in which one may live warmly and comfortably while storm and frost rage outside. Without the snow house, winter travelling in these regions would be practically impossible; that the earlier discoverers up there were so immobile in winter is principally due to the fact that they had not learned to build snow houses.

But if the main features of the construction and erection of snow houses are well enough known, there may be various details worthy of observation, just as there may be local variations among the different tribes. On account of the fundamental importance of the snow house I will therefore describe, from my own observations,