The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-20
By VILHJALMUR STEFANssoN
THE Eskimo of the snow villages

VIE EshiII1O Oh tne snow villages
on the coast Of Victoria Island
told US that We had come
ashore Just in the right place for be-
ginning our overland Journey across
the mountains to tho foot. Of Prince
Albert Sound. for further 10 the west
the mountains are high and difficult
to cross, and further to the east We
would have had a longer distance to
go as well as more difficult road.
Right opposite where we now were,
they said, was the pass they used once
every few years when|they had occa-
sion TO so to trade for copper with
the Prince Albert Sound people.
The commodities which they carry
on these trading journeys. they told
us. were tent poles, sleds. ready made
bows and the materials for arrows.
as we'll as now and then q stone pot or
n stone lamp which they had secured
from the Ctkusiksaligmiut. inquired
also where they got tho wood to trade.
and they said that some of II they
either picked up themselves on jour
ntys, TO Cape BcNley on the North
American mainland or purchased from
tho Cape BeXley Eskimo, but that the
best OF 1t, and especially the tent poles
and the material for bows. they got
when now and then a family of their
tribe went on a summer hunt TO Great
Bear Lake In the American Continent
This confirmed what We knew already
that the Victoria islanders hunt ha-
hitually at Bear Lake. and that the
presence OF few families OF them
there the summer that We were with
them was no accident.
Mysterious stone Houses.
May :, when We started for our
crossing Of Victoria Island three OF
the men accompanied us In the nope
that We might meet caribou and shoot
some, In which case we should OF
course give them some OF the meat.
Sure enough, after travelling a mile
or two and before leaving the sea ice
for the land We saw a small band ana
Natkusiak went In pursuit or them.
While he was gone I looked around
carefully with my glasses, ana aoout
half n mile away ] saw what lookeu
10 me like a stone house. l asked the
men about Il, but they said no, IL was
marely a rock, and on my pressing tne
inquiry they said they were sure OF IT,
there were no houses in that neiSh-
horhood and they had often seen TINS
rock and knew that It was no WORK
Of man.
The direction in which the caribou
an when thew went inland made II
n.tural for US to pass right by the
N
q within something like twenty yards
when I became convinced that II Wa
no single rock, but pile MACS ny
man, / accordingly went up ana eA
amined II, The men then admitted
that IL was house, but they sa,o IL
had not been built by human beings
and Il would be bad thing 10 nave
anything to do with H.
] would have liked TO examine tne
house carefully, but this was scarcely
possible, for the many olizZaFuS VI
winter had covered II up so and eNl-
IDENTIFY filled It's interior so solidly tnat
Il would have been the work OF day
or two, even with good shovels, 70
clean IL out so as to get an idea OF
the interior. Unfortunately we had no
shovel with US and neither did the
Eskimo have one. felt sure, too. that
n they had had one they would not
have lent II 20 us for any such pur'
pose as that of prying into this house
All the information ] could get from
them about It was that II had been
built by the spirits before the human
race inhabited the land
Like Bamn Land Houses.
/ happened to be familiar with the
Fact that In Baffin Land and elsewhere
in the east there were stone dwellings
said to have been built by a race or
men who were named with a name
that differs but slightly from the name
for spirit. The name given me here
was Identical for that used locally for
tho familiar spirits OF the shamans'
and on specific inquiry they told me
that the spirits who built these houses
were identical In kind with those en-
ployed by the sbamans-
when 7 asked what the house was
like inside: they said first that no man
who has any sense ever goes inside {;
hut iatar on they told me that some
times foolish children In the absence
Of their parents would enter such
houses IN play; they, in fact. had done
40 themselves when they were chill
Gren. The door. they said, was la the
same position that an Eskin--7 house