sleeping in the open air, if only all tight bands are loosened, so that the blood may circulate freely. Then the Eskimo draws his arms inside the frock on to his bare body in order to better retain the heat. If he has skins and sleeping bag with him, he is considerably better off. Out on the sea ice I have slept in a sleeping bag under the open sky in 40–45 degrees of frost (C) without feeling any other discomfort than that of creeping out and dressing again in the morning.
There is no definite rule regarding the number of families living in the same dwelling. Sometimes two families live together in the same snow house, sometimes more; but as a rule they are all related to each other, for instance an elderly couple with their married children. One family may also live alone in the snow house. The same applies to the tents. I have even seen one family occupy two tents, the man with his younger wife and children occupying one, while his elder wife and a young girl, who was a sort of help in the household, slept in a small tent alongside. The dancing house [qaᶻge] or [qa·çe], of which more later (p. 269), plays a special part in their social life.
Snow huts. The one winter dwelling of the Caribou Eskimos is the snow hut [iglo]. It is true that at many places by the coast there are ruins of permanent houses, built of earth and stones, and presumably of wood and, perhaps, of whale bones too;[1] but these have, as we shall see later, belonged to another tribe. The name Iglorjualik, an island in the river between Schultz and Baker Lakes, means "the place of the big house", but is derived from the shape of the island, not from any house ruin on it. Among the Caribou Eskimos I have not seen huts, with walls of freshwater ice, such as the Aivilingmiut, Utkuhigjalingmiut and others use in the autunm, before the snow layer is thick; but it is possible that they do use them.
The first requirement in the building of a snow house is suitable snow, and therefore, if the autumn is a poor one for snow, the Eskimos are in a bad way, being compelled to live long in the cold tents. Not until the latter part of September — at any rate according to what I was informed at Baker Lake — can they start removing. The snow must neither be too soft nor too hard, and especially not formed in layers so that the blocks break. The Qaernermiut differentiate between three kinds of snow for house building:
- [ᴀʀil·oqᴀq] loose, newly-fallen snow.
- [pukajᴀ·q] firm snow.
- [sitijuc·uᴀq] drift snow, hard as stone.
- ↑ Waterman maintains (1910; 300) that South of Chesterfield Inlet wood has been used in the houses in stead of whale bones: but I do not know his authority for this statement. Is it Jérémie? (Cf. p. 25).
