The mat is entirely covered by platform skins, singular [adbᴀq]. They are nearly always of caribou, for instance the big, heavy skins. of the bull which cannot otherwise be used. In one case, in the house of a shaman at Hikoligjuaq, I have seen a wolf skin used. The platform skins are merely dried but not otherwise prepared. In order that they may be brushed clean if they should be soiled by snow or dirt, they are always laid with the head towards the wall, so that the hair lies towards the edge of the platform.
During the day the sleeping rugs are rolled up against the rear wall [kilo]. Older children and unmarried people have their own sleeping rugs, whereas married couples use one between them. In contrast to the platform skins, such a rug [qipik] is made of scraped and softened skin, sewn into a regular square and, along the edge, furnished with long fringes of hairy — preferably white — skin. When the sleeper rolls himself in the skin, these fringes hang down over the shoulders and prevent the cold air from creeping in there. Sleeping bags are not used, or at any rate not until after contact with the whites; but sometimes the lower part of the rug may be sewn up into a small bag for the feet. In reality an unsewn rug is better than a sleeping bag if this cannot be dried inside now and then, for some dampness always collects in the bag owing to perspiration. The Eskimos always sleep naked. It is much warmer to sleep with the hair of the skin against the naked body than to sleep clad in European underclothing.
For use at night the Eskimos have a chamber-pot [qɔrvik] which as a rule is now an empty meat can. It is emptied during the day, as old urine is never used in preparing skins as in other regions. For the event of one of the children wetting the platform or sleeping skin, they have an implement [kiliutᴀq] with which they half pour, half scrape the urine away. It is made of the proximal part of a caribou scapula, the ridges on the outer side being removed. It is exactly like a scraper for softening skins but has no carefully made edge and is frequently a little larger. A specimen from Eskimo Point (P 28: 186; fig. 92 k), which seems to have been a skin scraper originally, with the edge destroyed, is 13.3 cm long and 6.4 cm broad.
Among such a wandering people as the Eskimos the number of furnishings is naturally kept within certain limits. A few objects of more special use, for instance for serving food, will be described elsewhere. Skin bags are used for keeping things in, and some of these have been referred to; other trifles are kept in small and rough wooden boxes which are nailed together. These are often old tea or sugar boxes nowadays.
