The Yazoo sentinel. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1878-1916, 1891-05-07
ODD SOD HOUSES.
The Curious Homes Of the Eski
mos in South Greenland.

AASe AZ 6OAbh 0ANNhAAA0s
There is no home in America so
much like the Eskimo home Of Arsuk as
the sod-houso Of the Kansas plains.
Could an overground tunnel or burrow
be added TO the sod house, the two
would be well-nigh identical.
The material for building the Eskimo
houses lies right at hand. The walls
are made Of alternate layers Of granite
blocks, split from the mountain side by
the frost, laid up with messy sod placed
between instead OF mortar.
All the houses are built on one model,
and they are all about Of one size. They
all face the same way. The entrance 10
the burrow, which might perhaps be
dignitied by the name Of hall, is at the
west. The hallway is twenty or twenty.
four inches wide and about three feet
high. 1t is from fourteen to sixteen
feet long. Its walls are foot aud half
thick, but the walls Of the house proper
are, think, in 40 case less than two
feet.
Half way from the entrance to the
house proper is hole on the left that is
jus. large enough for an Eskimo 10 crawl
through. 1t leads to a dome shaped
room built, like the rest Of the house, Of
stone aud having hole in the top for
the smoke TO escape through. This Is
the kitchen where, In moderate weather,
the meals are prepared. saw but one
fire in kitchen, writes John r. Spears
in the Geographical Magazine. 1t was
built by q woman who used driftwood
and some small fagots OF the little
.gnarled willows that form the only tim
Der of the country willows that are
usually knee high 10 an ordinary man.
The fire was partly confined by four
rocks on which stood kettle with boil
ing water in ii. was told the woman
was making a stew of seal meat.
At the end Of the hallway is the door
to the main room, door made OF Nor
way pine boards and battcns purchaser
of the Danish governor. Within is a
room, perhaps twelve by fourteen feet
in size and four feet and a half high.
There is a plank floor and ceiling
above, composed Of timbers four or five
inches large, covered with plank.
Above this the roof is formed Of sods,
rled on until they round up mound
shaped.
south is glazed window. The windows
have from eight to twelve small panes
lin them, and, though slightly dusty,
serve their purpose well. A long
wooden bench is placed under the win
dow. Opposite the window, and run
ming the length Of the room, is the bed
stead, a sort Of platform a foot high,
that extends five or six feet out from
the wall. There is slight upgrade
toward the wall TO this platform.
No softer or warmer beds than those
Of the Arsuk Eskimos can be found.
Ordinary bcdticks are stuffed with
feathers some are filed with cider
DOWN, and piled on this platform. With
one such mound beneath and another on
top, the Eskimo can defy the cold.
Two or three families occupy some Of
the butts, but the women do not seem to
be very prolific, and a family does not
mean dozen children. The families
are commonly related.
In the daytime the beds are rolled
back against the wall, and the platform
serves as place to sit and dining
table. Every wall was more or less or
with advertising and other
from Denmark. ] saw sew
esal engravings of King Christian TX.
There were stoves-little vertical CYL
inders Of sheeeiron lined with fre-clay
lin two houses. l saw a few Yankee
amps that were filed with seal oil, and
wo English clocks that wouldn't run.
The family gun hung on pegs like a
quirrel rife in a Kentucky cabin. The
Eskimo lamp-stoye, a green stone hol-
owed out on top to hold seal oil, and
provided with moss wick, was found