The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft Part 2

[Sidenote: CUPIDITY AND ZEAL.]

We observe then three original incentives urging on civilized white men to overspread the domain of the Indian.

The first was that thirst for gold, which characterized the fiery hidalgos from Spain in their conquests, and to obtain which no cruelty was too severe nor any sacrifice of human life too great; as though of all the gifts vouchsafed to man, material or divine, one only was worth possessing.

The second, following closely in the footsteps of the first, and oftentimes const.i.tuting a part of it, was religious enthusiasm; a zealous interest in the souls of the natives and the form in which they wors.h.i.+ped. The third, which occupied the attention of other and more northern Europeans, grew out of a covetous desire for the wild man's clothing; to secure to themselves the peltries of the great hyperborean regions of America. From the south of Europe the Spaniards landed in tropical North America, and exterminated the natives. From the north of Europe the French, English, and Russians crossed over to the northern part of America; and, with a kinder and more refined cruelty, no less effectually succeeded in sweeping them from the face of the earth by the introduction of the poisonous elements of a debased cultivation.

Fortunately for the Indians of the north, it was contrary to the interests of white people to kill them in order to obtain the skins of their animals; for, with a few trinkets, they could procure what otherwise would require long and severe labor to obtain. The policy, therefore, of the great fur-trading companies has been to cherish the Indians as their best hunters, to live at peace with them, to heal their ancient feuds, and to withhold from them intoxicating liquors. The condition of their women, who were considered by the natives as little better than beasts, has been changed by their inter-social relations with the servants of the trading companies; and their more barbarous practices discontinued. It was the almost universal custom of the employes of the Hudson's Bay Company to unite to themselves native women; thus, by means of this relations.h.i.+p, the condition of the women has been raised, while the men manifest a kinder feeling towards the white race who thus in a measure become one with them.

The efforts of early missionaries to this region were not crowned with that success which attended the Spaniards in their spiritual warfare upon the southern nations, from the fact that no attention was paid to the temporal necessities of the natives. It has long since been demonstrated impossible to reach the heart of a savage through abstract ideas of morality and elevation of character. A religion, in order to find favor in his eyes, must first meet some of his material requirements. If it is good, it will clothe him better and feed him better, for this to him is the chiefest good in life. Intermixtures of civilized with savage peoples are sure to result in the total disappearance of refinement on the one side, or in the extinction of the barbaric race on the other. The downward path is always the easiest. Of all the millions of native Americans who have perished under the withering influences of European civilization, there is not a single instance on record, of a tribe or nation having been reclaimed, ecclesiastically or otherwise, by artifice and argument.

Individual savages have been educated with a fair degree of success. But, with a degree of certainty far greater, no sooner is the white man freed from the social restraint of civilized companions.h.i.+p, than he immediately tends towards barbarism; and not infrequently becomes so fascinated with his new life as to prefer it to any other. Social development is inherent: superinduced culture is a failure. Left alone, the nations of America might have unfolded into as bright a civilization as that of Europe.

They were already well advanced, and still rapidly advancing towards it, when they were so mercilessly stricken down. But for a stranger to re-create the heart or head of a red man, it were easier to change the color of his skin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NATIVE RACES OF THE PACIFIC STATES HYPERBOREAN GROUP]

CHAPTER II.

HYPERBOREANS.

GENERAL DIVISIONS--HYPERBOREAN NATIONS--ASPECTS OF NATURE--VEGETATION--CLIMATE--ANIMALS--THE ESKIMOS--THEIR COUNTRY--PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS--DRESS--DWELLINGS-- FOOD--WEAPONS--BOOTS--SLEDGES--SNOW-SHOES--GOVERNMENT--DOMESTIC AFFAIRS--AMUs.e.m.e.nTS--DISEASES--BURIAL--THE KONIAGAS, THEIR PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITION--THE ALEUTS--THE THLINKEETS--THE TINNEH.

I shall attempt to describe the physical and mental characteristics of the Native Races of the Pacific States under seven distinctive groups; namely, I. Hyperboreans, being those nations whose territory lies north of the fifty-fifth parallel; II. Columbians, who dwell between the fifty-fifth and forty-second parallels, and whose lands to some extent are drained by the Columbia River and its tributaries; III.

Californians, and the Inhabitants of the Great Basin; IV. New Mexicans, including the nations of the Colorado River and northern Mexico; V. Wild Tribes of Mexico; VI. Wild Tribes of Central America; VII. Civilized Nations of Mexico and Central America. It is my purpose, without any attempt at ethnological cla.s.sification, or further comment concerning races and stocks, plainly to portray such customs and characteristics as were peculiar to each people at the time of its first intercourse with European strangers; leaving scientists to make their own deductions, and draw specific lines between linguistic and physiological families, as they may deem proper. I shall endeavor to picture these nations in their aboriginal condition, as seen by the first invaders, as described by those who beheld them in their savage grandeur, and before they were startled from their lair by the treacherous voice of civilized friends.h.i.+p. Now they are gone,--those dusky denizens of a thousand forests,--melted like h.o.a.r-frost before the rising sun of a superior intelligence; and it is only from the earliest records, from the narratives of eye witnesses, many of them rude unlettered men, trappers, sailors, and soldiers, that we are able to know them as they were. Some division of the work into parts, however arbitrary it may be, is indispensable. In dealing with Mythology, and in tracing the tortuous course of Language, boundaries will be dropped and beliefs and tongues will be followed wherever they lead; but in describing Manners and Customs, to avoid confusion, territorial divisions are necessary.

[Sidenote: GROUPINGS AND SUBDIVISIONS.]

In the groupings which I have adopted, one cl.u.s.ter of nations follows another in geographical succession; the dividing line not being more distinct, perhaps, than that which distinguishes some national divisions, but sufficiently marked, in mental and physical peculiarities, to ent.i.tle each group to a separate consideration.

The only distinction of race made by naturalists, upon the continents of both North and South America, until a comparatively recent period, was by segregating the first of the above named groups from all other people of both continents, and calling one Mongolians and the other Americans.

A more intimate acquaintance with the nations of the North proves conclusively that one of the boldest types of the American Indian proper, the Tinneh, lies within the territory of this first group, conterminous with the Mongolian Eskimos, and crowding them down to a narrow line along the sh.o.r.e of the Arctic Sea. The nations of the second group, although exhibiting mult.i.tudinous variations in minor traits, are essentially one people. Between the California Diggers of the third division and the New Mexican Towns-people of the fourth, there is more diversity; and a still greater difference between the savage and civilized nations of the Mexican table-land. Any cla.s.sification or division of the subject which could be made would be open to criticism.

I therefore adopt the most simple practical plan, one which will present the subject most clearly to the general reader, and leave it in the best shape for purposes of theorizing and generalization.

In the first or HYPERBOREAN group, to which this chapter is devoted, are five subdivisions, as follows: The _Eskimos_, commonly called Western Eskimos, who skirt the sh.o.r.es of the Arctic Ocean from Mackenzie River to Kotzebue Sound; the _Koniagas_ or Southern Eskimos, who, commencing at Kotzebue Sound, cross the Kaviak Peninsula, border on Bering Sea from Norton Sound southward, and stretch over the Alaskan[1] Peninsula and Koniagan Islands to the mouth of the Atna or Copper River, extending back into the interior about one hundred and fifty miles; the _Aleuts_, or people of the Aleutian Archipelago; the _Thlinkeets_, who inhabit the coast and islands between the rivers Atna and Na.s.s; and the _Tinneh_, or Athabascas, occupying the territory between the above described boundaries and Hudson Bay. Each of these families is divided into nations or tribes, distinguished one from another by slight dialectic or other differences, which tribal divisions will be given in treating of the several nations respectively.

Let us first cast a glance over this broad domain, and mark those aspects of nature which exercise so powerful an influence upon the destinies of mankind. Midway between Mount St Elias and the Arctic seaboard rise three mountain chains. One, the Rocky Mountain range, crossing from the Yukon to the Mackenzie River, deflects southward, and taking up its mighty line of march, throws a barrier between the east and the west, which extends throughout the entire length of the continent. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, interposes another called in Oregon the Cascade Range, and in California the Sierra Nevada; while from the same starting-point, the Alaskan range stretches out to the southwest along the Alaskan Peninsula, and breaks into fragments in the Aleutian Archipelago. Three n.o.ble streams, the Mackenzie, the Yukon, and the Kuskoquim, float the boats of the inland Hyperboreans and supply them with food; while from the heated waters of j.a.pan comes a current of the sea, bathing the icy coasts with genial warmth, tempering the air, and imparting gladness to the oily watermen of the coast, to the northernmost limit of their lands. The northern border of this territory is treeless; the southern sh.o.r.e, absorbing more warmth and moisture from the j.a.pan current, is fringed with dense forests; while the interior, interspersed with hills, and lakes, and woods, and gra.s.sy plains, during the short summer is clothed in luxuriant vegetation.

Notwithstanding the frowning aspect of nature, animal life in the Arctic regions is most abundant. The ocean swarms with every species of fish and sea-mammal; the land abounds in reindeer, moose, musk-oxen; in black, grizzly, and Arctic bears; in wolves, foxes, beavers, mink, ermine, martin, otters, racc.o.o.ns, and water-fowl. Immense herds of buffalo roam over the bleak gra.s.sy plains of the eastern Tinneh, but seldom venture far to the west of the Rocky Mountains. Myriads of birds migrate to and fro between their breeding-places in the interior of Alaska, the open Arctic Sea, and the warmer lat.i.tudes of the south. From the Gulf of Mexico, from the islands of the Pacific, from the lakes of California, of Oregon, and of Was.h.i.+ngton they come, fluttering and feasting, to rear their young during the sparkling Arctic summer-day.

[Sidenote: MAN AND NATURE.]

The whole occupation of man throughout this region, is a struggle for life. So long as the organism is plentifully supplied with heat-producing food, all is well. Once let the internal fire go down, and all is ill. Unlike the inhabitants of equatorial lat.i.tudes, where, Eden-like, the sheltering tree drops food, and the little nourishment essential to life may be obtained by only stretching forth the hand and plucking it, the Hyperborean man must maintain a constant warfare with nature, or die. His daily food depends upon the success of his daily battle with beasts, birds, and fishes, which dispute with him possession of sea and land. Unfortunate in his search for game, or foiled in his attempt at capture, he must fast. The a.s.sociate of beasts, governed by the same emergencies, preying upon animals as animals prey upon each other, the victim supplying all the necessities of the victor, occupying territory in common, both alike drawing supplies directly from the storehouse of nature,--primitive man derives his very quality from the brute with which he struggles. The idiosyncrasies of the animal fasten upon him, and that upon which he feeds becomes a part of him.

Thus, in a nation of hunters inhabiting a rigorous climate, we may look for wiry, keen-scented men, who in their war upon wild beasts put forth strength and endurance in order to overtake and capture the strong; cunning is opposed by superior cunning; a stealthy watchfulness governs every movement, while the intelligence of the man contends with the instincts of the brute. Fishermen, on the other hand, who obtain their food with comparatively little effort, are more sluggish in their natures and less n.o.ble in their development. In the icy regions of the north, the animal creation supplies man with food, clothing, and caloric; with all the requisites of an existence under circ.u.mstances apparently the most adverse to comfort; and when he digs his dwelling beneath the ground, or walls out the piercing winds with snow, his ultimate is attained.

The chief differences in tribes occupying the interior and the seaboard,--the elevated, treeless, gra.s.sy plains east of the Rocky Mountains, and the humid islands and sh.o.r.es of the great Northwest,--grow out of necessities arising from their methods of procuring food. Even causes so slight as the sheltering bend of a coast-line; the guarding of a sh.o.r.e by islands; the breaking of a seaboard by inlets and covering of the strand with sea-weed and polyps, requiring only the labor of gathering; or the presence of a bluff coast or windy promontory, whose occupants are obliged to put forth more vigorous action for sustenance--all govern man in his development. Turn now to the most northern division of our most northern group.

[Sidenote: THE ESKIMOS.]

THE ESKIMOS, Esquimaux, or as they call themselves, _Innuit_, 'the people,' from _inuk_, 'man,'[2] occupy the Arctic seaboard from eastern Greenland along the entire continent of America, and across Bering[3]

Strait to the Asiatic sh.o.r.e. Formerly the inhabitants of our whole Hyperborean sea-coast, from the Mackenzie River to Queen Charlotte Island--the interior being entirely unknown--were denominated Eskimos, and were of supposed Asiatic origin.[4] The tribes of southern Alaska were then found to differ essentially from those of the northern coast.

Under the name Eskimos, therefore, I include only the Western Eskimos of certain writers, whose southern boundary terminates at Kotzebue Sound.[5]

[Sidenote: ESKIMO LAND.]

Eskimo-land is thinly peopled, and but little is known of tribal divisions. At the Coppermine River, the Eskimos are called _Naggeuktormutes_, or deer-horns; at the eastern outlet of the Mackenzie, their tribal name is _Kittegarute_; between the Mackenzie River and Barter Reef, they go by the name of _Kangmali Innuit_; at Point Barrow they call themselves _Nuwungmutes_; while on the Nunatok River, in the vicinity of Kotzebue Sound, they are known as _Nunatangmutes_. Their villages, consisting of five or six families each,[6] are scattered along the coast. A village site is usually selected upon some good landing-place, where there is sufficient depth of water to float a whale. Between tribes is left a spot of unoccupied or neutral ground, upon which small parties meet during the summer for purposes of trade.[7]

The Eskimos are essentially a peculiar people. Their character and their condition, the one of necessity growing out of the other, are peculiar.

First, it is claimed for them that they are the anomalous race of America--the only people of the new world clearly identical with any race of the old. Then they are the most littoral people in the world.

The linear extent of their occupancy, all of it a narrow seaboard averaging scarcely one hundred miles in width, is estimated at not less than five thousand miles. Before them is a vast, unknown, icy ocean, upon which they scarcely dare venture beyond sight of land; behind them, hostile mountaineers ever ready to dispute encroachment. Their very mother-earth, upon whose cold bosom they have been borne, age after age through countless generations,[8] is almost impenetrable, thawless ice.

Their days and nights, and seasons and years, are not like those of other men. Six months of day succeed six months of night. Three months of sunless winter; three months of nightless summer; six months of glimmering twilight.

About the middle of October[9] commences the long night of winter. The earth and sea put on an icy covering; beasts and birds depart for regions sheltered or more congenial; humanity huddles in subterraneous dens; all nature sinks into repose. The little heat left by the retreating sun soon radiates out into the deep blue realms of s.p.a.ce; the temperature sinks rapidly to forty or fifty degrees below freezing; the air is hushed, the ocean calm, the sky cloudless. An awful, painful stillness pervades the dreary solitude. Not a sound is heard; the distant din of busy man, and the noiseless hum of the wilderness alike are wanting. Whispers become audible at a considerable distance, and an insupportable sense of loneliness oppresses the inexperienced visitor.[10] Occasionally the aurora borealis flashes out in prismatic coruscations, throwing a brilliant arch from east to west--now in variegated oscillations, graduating through all the various tints of blue, and green, and violet, and crimson; darting, flas.h.i.+ng, or streaming in yellow columns, upwards, downwards; now blazing steadily, now in wavy undulations, sometimes up to the very zenith; momentarily lighting up in majestic grandeur the cheerless frozen scenery, but only to fall back with exhausted force, leaving a denser obscurity. Nature's electric lantern, suspended for a time in the frosty vault of heaven;--munificent nature's fire-works; with the polar owl, the polar bear, and the polar man, spectators.

In January, the brilliancy of the stars is dimmed perceptibly at noon; in February, a golden tint rests upon the horizon at the same hour; in March, the incipient dawn broadens; in April, the dozing Eskimo rubs his eyes and crawls forth; in May, the snow begins to melt, the impatient gra.s.s and flowers arrive as it departs.[11] In June, the summer has fairly come. Under the incessant rays of the never setting sun, the snow speedily disappears, the ice breaks up, the glacial earth softens for a depth of one, two, or three feet; circulation is restored to vegetation,[12] which, during winter, had been stopped,--if we may believe Sir John Richardson, even the largest trees freezing to the heart. Sea, and plain, and rolling steppe lay aside their seamless shroud of white, and a brilliant tint of emerald overspreads the landscape.[13] All Nature, with one resounding cry, leaps up and claps her hands for joy. Flocks of birds, lured from their winter homes, fill the air with their melody; myriads of wild fowls send forth their shrill cries; the moose and the reindeer flock down from the forests;[14] from the resonant sea comes the noise of spouting whales and barking seals; and this so lately dismal, cheerless region, blooms with an exhuberance of life equaled only by the shortness of its duration. And in token of a just appreciation of the Creator's goodness, this animated medley--man, and beasts, and birds, and fishes--rises up, divides, falls to, and ends in eating or in being eaten.

[Sidenote: PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.]

The physical characteristics of the Eskimos are: a fair complexion, the skin, when free from dirt and paint, being almost white;[15] a medium stature, well proportioned, thick-set, muscular, robust, active,[16]

with small and beautifully shaped hands and feet;[17] a pyramidal head;[18] a broad egg-shaped face; high rounded cheek-bones; flat nose; small oblique eyes; large mouth; teeth regular, but well worn;[19]

coa.r.s.e black hair, closely cut upon the crown, leaving a monk-like ring around the edge,[20] and a paucity of beard.[21] The men frequently leave the hair in a natural state. The women of Icy Reef introduce false hair among their own, wearing the whole in two immense bows at the back of the head. At Point Barrow, they separate the hair into two parts or braids, saturating it with train-oil, and binding it into stiff bunches with strips of skin. Their lower extremities are short, so that in a sitting posture they look taller than when standing.

[Sidenote: IMPROVEMENTS UPON NATURE.]

Were these people satisfied with what nature has done for them, they would be pa.s.sably good-looking. But with them as with all mankind, no matter how high the degree of intelligence and refinement attained, art must be applied to improve upon nature. The few finis.h.i.+ng touches neglected by the Creator, man is ever ready to supply.

Arrived at the age of p.u.b.erty, the great work of improvement begins. Up to this time the skin has been kept saturated in grease and filth, until the natural color is lost, and until the complexion is brought down to the Eskimo standard. Now pigments of various dye are applied, both painted outwardly and p.r.i.c.ked into the skin; holes are cut in the face, and plugs or labrets inserted. These operations, however, attended with no little solemnity, are supposed to possess some significance other than that of mere ornament. Upon the occasion of piercing the lip, for instance, a religious feast is given.

On the northern coast the women paint the eyebrows and tattoo the chin; while the men only pierce the lower lip under one or both corners of the mouth, and insert in each aperture a double-headed sleeve-b.u.t.ton or dumb-bell-shaped labret, of bone, ivory, sh.e.l.l, stone, gla.s.s, or wood.

The incision when first made is about the size of a quill, but as the aspirant for improved beauty grows older, the size of the orifice is enlarged until it reaches a width of half or three quarters of an inch.[22] In tattooing, the color is applied by drawing a thread under the skin, or p.r.i.c.king it in with a needle. Different tribes, and different ranks of the same tribe, have each their peculiar form of tattooing. The plebeian female of certain bands is permitted to adorn her chin with but one vertical line in the centre, and one parallel to it on either side, while the more fortunate n.o.blesse mark two vertical lines from each corner of the mouth.[23] A feminine cast of features, as is common with other branches of the Mongolian race, prevails in both s.e.xes. Some travelers discover in the faces of the men a characteristic expression of ferociousness, and in those of the women, an extraordinary display of wantonness. A thick coating of filth and a strong odor of train-oil are inseparable from an Eskimo, and the fas.h.i.+on of labrets adds in no wise to his comeliness.[24]

[Sidenote: ESKIMO DRESS.]

For covering to the body, the Eskimos employ the skin of all the beasts and birds that come within their reach. Skins are prepared in the fur,[25] and cut and sewed with neatness and skill. Even the intestines of seals and whales are used in the manufacture of water-proof overdresses.[26] The costume for both s.e.xes consists of long stockings or drawers, over which are breeches extending from the shoulders to below the knees; and a frock or jacket, somewhat shorter than the breeches with sleeves and hood. This garment is made whole, there being no openings except for the head and arms. The frock of the male is cut at the bottom nearly square, while that of the female reaches a little lower, and terminates before and behind in a point or scollop. The tail of some animal graces the hinder part of the male frock; the woman's has a large hood, in which she carries her infant. Otherwise both s.e.xes dress alike; and as, when stripped of their facial decorations, their physiognomies are alike, they are not unfrequently mistaken one for the other.[27] They have boots of walrus or seal skin, mittens or gloves of deer-skin, and intestine water-proofs covering the entire body. Several kinds of fur frequently enter into the composition of one garment. Thus the body of the frock, generally of reindeer-skin, may be of bird, bear, seal, mink, or squirrel skin; while the hood may be of fox-skin, the lining of hare-skin, the fringe of wolverine-skin, and the gloves of fawn-skin.[28] Two suits are worn during the coldest weather; the inner one with the fur next the skin, the outer suit with the fur outward.[29]

Thus, with their stomachs well filled with fat, and their backs covered with furs, they bid defiance to the severest Arctic winter.[30]

[Sidenote: DWELLINGS OF THE ESKIMOS.]

In architecture, the Eskimo is fully equal to the emergency; building, upon a soil which yields him little or no material, three cla.s.ses of dwellings. Penetrating the frozen earth, or casting around him a frozen wall, he compels the very elements from which he seeks protection to protect him. For his _yourt_ or winter residence he digs a hole of the required dimensions, to a depth of about six feet.[31] Within this excavation he erects a frame, either of wood or whalebone, las.h.i.+ng his timbers with thongs instead of nailing them. This frame is carried upward to a distance of two or three feet above the ground,[32] when it is covered by a dome-shaped roof of poles or whale-ribs turfed and earthed over.[33] In the centre of the roof is left a hole for the admission of light and the emission of smoke. In absence of fire, a translucent covering of whale-intestine confines the warmth of putrifying filth, and completes the Eskimo's sense of comfort. To gain admittance to this snug retreat, without exposing the inmates to the storms without, another and a smaller hole is dug to the same depth, a short distance from the first. From one to the other, an underground pa.s.sage-way is then opened, through which entrance is made on hands and knees. The occupants descend by means of a ladder, and over the entrance a shed is erected, to protect it from the snow.[34] Within the entrance is hung a deer-skin door, and anterooms are arranged in which to deposit frozen outer garments before entering the heated room. Around the sides of the dwelling, sleeping-places are marked out; for bedsteads, boards are placed upon logs one or two feet in diameter, and covered with willow branches and skins. A little heap of stones in the centre of the room, under the smoke-hole, forms the fireplace. In the corners of the room are stone lamps, which answer all domestic purposes in the absence of fire-wood.[35] In the better cla.s.s of buildings, the sides and floor are boarded. Supplies are kept in a store house at a little distance from the dwelling, perched upon four posts, away from the reach of the dogs, and a frame is always erected on which to hang furs and fish.

Several years are sometimes occupied in building a hut.[36]

Mark how nature supplies this treeless coast with wood. The breaking-up of winter in the mountains of Alaska is indeed a breaking-up. The acc.u.mulated ma.s.ses of ice and snow, when suddenly loosened by the incessant rays of the never-setting sun, bear away all before them. Down from the mountain-sides comes the avalanche, uprooting trees, swelling rivers, hurrying with its burden to the sea. There, casting itself into the warm ocean current, the ice soon disappears, and the driftwood which accompanied it is carried northward and thrown back upon the beach by the October winds. Thus huge forest-trees, taken up bodily, as it were, in the middle of a continent, and carried by the currents to the incredible distance, sometimes, of three thousand miles, are deposited all along the Arctic seaboard, laid at the very door of these people, a people whose store of this world's benefits is none of the most abundant.[37] True, wood is not an absolute necessity with them, as many of their houses in the coldest weather have no fire; only oil-lamps being used for cooking and heating. Whale-ribs supply the place of trees for house and boat timbers, and hides are commonly used for boards. Yet a bountiful supply of wood during their long, cold, dark winter comes in no wise amiss.[38] Their summer tents are made of seal or untanned deer skins with the hair outward, conical or bell-shaped, and without a smoke-hole as no fires are ever kindled within them. The wet or frozen earth is covered with a few coa.r.s.e skins for a floor.[39]

[Sidenote: SNOW HOUSES.]

But the most unique system of architecture in America is improvised by the Eskimos during their seal-hunting expeditions upon the ice, when they occupy a veritable crystal palace fit for an Arctic fairy. On the frozen river or sea, a spot is chosen free from irregularities, and a circle of ten or fifteen feet in diameter drawn on the snow. The snow within the circle is then cut into slabs from three to four inches in thickness, their length being the depth of the snow, and these slabs are formed into a wall enclosing the circle and carried up in courses similar to those of brick or stone, terminating in a dome-shaped roof. A wedge-like slab keys the arch; and this principle in architecture may have first been known to the a.s.syrians, Egyptians, Chinese or Eskimos.[40] Loose snow is then thrown into the crevices, which quickly congeals; an aperture is cut in the side for a door; and if the thin wall is not sufficiently translucent, a piece of ice is fitted into the side for a window. Seats, tables, couches, and even fireplaces are made with frozen snow, and covered with reindeer or seal skin. Out-houses connect with the main room, and frequently a number of dwellings are built contiguously, with a pa.s.sage from one to another. These houses are comfortable and durable, resisting alike the wind and the thaw until late in the season. Care must be taken that the walls are not so thick as to make them too warm, and so cause a dripping from the interior. A square block of snow serves as a stand for the stone lamp which is their only fire.[41]