Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/145

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cold, windy days of autumn. European canvas tents are now used. more and more, as they are lighter, quicker to pitch and not so warm in summer; on the other hand they are too cold in the late autumn. The oldfashioned skin tent is still the most commonly used, however.

The tent sheet may either be of seal skin or caribou skin; seal skin tents are the most common. As a type of the seal skin tent I will describe one (Fig. 80) which I saw in May, 1922, at Ipiutaq, near

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Fig. 80.Sealskin-tent: Ipiutaq.

Amitsoq, belonging to an Iglulik family who were returning home from a trading journey to Repulse Bay. The skeleton is of wooden poles and consists of: two poles (paqtaujaq) forming a cross at the fore part of the tent, 1.6 m high, the distance between them at the base being 2.8 m; a centre pole (sugaq), vertical, 1.8 m high, almost in the middle of the tent, set upon a flat stone; across the top of this is a ridge-pole (sánerutaq), flat, 80 cm long, having in the middle of the under side a socket for the centre pole; at right angles to this ridge-pole lie two sticks (tukimugutit), 45 cm long, with a distance of 40 cm between them; they are not fastened but are held in position by the pressure of the tent-sheet. From the top end of the centre pole a massive seal-thong (noqarut), stretched tight, runs to the cross at the front of the tent and from there to a large stone lying in front of the tent; the distance from the cross to the vertical pole is 1.5 m. This line is supported outside the tent by a vertical rod, 4.6 cm from the tent door and 2.6 cm from the stone; the latter

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