Page:Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.djvu/155

move all unevenness from the platform. Sometimes, however, a layer of heather (Cassiope tetragona) is spread in order to give increased comfort, and along the fore edge of the platform a row of slightly bigger stones is laid as a kind of head guard. On this the skins are laid, most frequently caribou skins. the first layer usually with the hair towards the ground, the others with the hair upwards; sometimes seal skin is used for the lowest layer.

In the snow house a pole is often laid along the front edge of the platform to prevent it from being broken by use. The platform covering is mostly a thick layer of heather, Cassiope, which is more or less easily procurable in most places; other dwarf bushes may be used among the heather. In the Iglulik area, where these are often very scarce, small pieces of limestone are frequently used instead. Of more durable kind are the mats (atdliaq) which are occasionally plaited of willow twigs or Cassiope: Thin twigs are laid in bunches and these are tied together into mats; on moving these mats can be taken along and can be used on journeys, when otherwise seal skins or caribou skins, with the hair downwards, are used. A mat of this kind, from the Iglulingmiut at Repulse Bay, consists of 43 thin bunches of Cassiope, held together by four longitudinal cords of plaited sinew thread: the dimensions are 1.05 × 0.85 m. Another specimen is 1.25 × 0.65 m and consists of still thinner bunches of Cassiope, held together by five longitudinal cords of sinew thread; on this a number of the bunches are wound with sinew thread. A third mat, found in a tent ring at Chesterfield Inlet, measures 0.65 × 0.40 m and consists of thin willow twigs, held together by two thin longitudinal cords of seal theng, to which the various bunches are tied with sinew thread.

In earlier times platform coverings of plaited baleen have been used; an Eskimo at Ponds Inlet recognised the baleen mats I had found at the excavations at Qilalukan^[1] as such nuluavinik, plaitings for platform coverings. From Iglulik Parry^[2] says: "The beds are arranged by first covering the snow with a quantity of small stones, over which is laid their paddles, tent poles, and some blades. of whalebone: above these they place a number of little pieces of net-work, made of thin slips of whalebone, and lastly a quantity of twigs of birch and of the Andromeda tetragona." Fig. 85 shows a baleen mat from Parry's Expedition 1822, collected on Winter Island. and now in the British Museum; on the label it is stated to be "Net used by the Eskimaux for laying under their beds also supposed to be used for fishing". It is of exactly the same type as the mats ex-