Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1884 — Esquimaux Houses. [ARTICLE]

Esquimaux Houses.

As probably many people know, av. igloo is usually built of snow. The word however, means house, and as theii house consists of a single room it als> > means room. A long, low passage waj leads into each dwelling, so constructed as to exclude the wind from the interior, though ventilation is permitted by leaving open the door. A snow igloi is made of snow-bloeks about three feet by eighteen inches wide and five or six inches thick. The snow knife is simply a large thinbladed knife, like a cheese knife of the grocery store, with a handle made large enough to be conveniently grasped with both hands. Before iron and knives became so plentiful as at present, snow knives were made of bone and reindeer or musk ox-horn, but such knives are quite rare now. The Netchillik, Ookjoolik, and Ooquesiksillik tribes are still quite dqficient in iron weapons and implements; and many of their knives are marvels of ingenuity. I saw several made of a little tip of iron, perhaps an inch square, mounted on a handle two feet long, and so shaped that the iron would do much of the cutting and scratching, and the handle merely acted as a wedge to assist the operation. I also saw a man making a knife by cutting a thick piece of iron with a cold chisel, afterward to bo pounded out flat and ground down on stones. The entire operation would probably take about three or four weeks with the poor tools at their disposal. The builder selects snow of the proper consistency by sounding a drift with a cane, made for the purpose, of reindeer horn, straightened by steaming, and worked down until about half an inch in diameter, with a ferule of walrus tusk or the tooth of a bear on the bottom. By thrusting this into the snow lie can tell whether the layers deposited by successive winds are separated by bands of soft snow, wh ch would cause the blocks to break. When the snow is selected he digs a pit to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, and about the length of the snow block. He then steps into the pit and proceeds to cut out the blocks by first cutting down at the end of the pit and then the bottom afterward, cutting a little channel about an inch or two deep, marking the thickness of the proposed block. Now comes the part that requires practice to accomplish- successfully. The expert will, with a few thrusts of the knife in just the right places, split off the Bnow block and lift it carefully put to await removal to its position on the wall. The tyro will almost inevitably break the block into two or three pieces utterly unfit for the use of the builder. When two men are building an igloo one cuts the blocks and the other erects the wall. When sufficient blocks have been cut to commence work the builder marks with his eye, or perhaps draws a line with his knife, describing the circumference of the building, usually a circle about ten or twelve feet in diameter. The first row ol ,blocks is then arranged, tlieblocks resting ,so as to incline inward, and resting against each other at ends, thus affording mutual support. When this row is completed the builder cuts away the first ’and second blocks, slanting them from the ground upward, so that the second tier resting upon the edges of the first row can be continued on and around spirally, and by gradually increasing the inward slant a perfect dome is constructed of such strength that the builder can lie flat on the outside while chinking the interstices between the blocks. The chinking is, however, usually done by the women and children as the building progresses, and additional protection secured from the winds in very cold weather by banking up with a large woodon snow shovel, the snow at the base often being piled to the depth of three or four feet. This makes the igloo perfectly impervious to the wind in the most tempestuous weather. When the house is completed the builders are walled in.* Then a small hole about two feet square is cut in the wall on the side away from where the entranee is to be located, and is used to pass in the lamps and bedding. It is then walled up and the regular door cut about two feet high, and nicked at the top. It would bring bad luck to carry the bedding into the igloo by the same door it would be taken out. Before the door is opened the bed is constructed of snow blocks, and made from one to three or four feet high, and occupies three-fourths of the .entire space. The higher the bed and the lower the door the warmer the igloo will be.— Arctic.